Sunday, February 15, 2009

coming soon...

...The Smiths were here.

Sweet. Seriously.

The site, his idea.
The address, my idea. Thank you.

www.thesmithswerehere.com

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Josiah and the lottery

Today, I entered Josiah in the lottery, the school choice lottery. Who knew going to kindergarten could be so complicated?

In the Portland district, you can choose to move your child to any school you want. If you win the lottery, that is. Every child can have a spot at their neighborhood school. You can also enter the lottery for up to three other schools. It's kind of crazy, really. If you win the lottery, for one of those selections your child can transfer to that school.

We only entered for one school. We probably wouldn't have done it at all, but there is an "option program" called Odyssey, located in the same building as our neighborhood school. We're not completely sure it's the best fit for Josiah. We're not sure he shouldn't just go to the neighborhood school. But, we thought we'd enter him in and if he gets one of the coveted spots, try it out. If it doesn't work for him, we can always take him out. But it's a lot harder to get a spot later on in his education. While this year there are probably around 25 slots for kindergarten, there may only be 3 or 4 next year for the 1st grade.

I've also thought about different charter schools, I think I like Opal. But that is a different lottery, next month.

God opens doors and shuts them. I believe He can place Josiah where he should be. So we will just have to wait and see which doors open.

Monday, February 09, 2009

imagination...

Today Josiah, Adaya, and I took a ride on Josiah's imagination after lunch.

First, we went to the market. Adaya and I took a couple baskets from her room and went shopping at Josiah's market which is made of couch cushins. We found various scraps of paper to use as money. Josiah has a very interesting return policy, manditory. He usually gives you your money back too, but he's very interested in a quick return. So we played this game for a while. Adaya and I even inquired about the possibility of filling out an application so that Adaya could become a cashier.

After market was over, Josiah decided that we needed to trick or treat. This never actually happened.

Next, Josiah made up a "new word." Only it wasn't a new word. I asked him where he heard that word. "No where. I just made it up." I had to explain to him that it was not a new word and that he needed to not use that word, that it wasn't a nice word. "Really?"

Finally, we became mechanics. (I think this is when Adaya decided that it was her turn to be the market casher.) So the first car came in. Josiah told me he'd be working on it outside. Oh the sounds you hear when a five year old is fixing a car. He filled the tires, changed tires, did some pounding, and even gave it a wash before it headed out. The second car that came in had "a problem with its pipes." It had a burnt stick in its pipes. So Josiah pulled it out. "Oh! It's a marshmello stick. There's a big marshmello on it. (eating sounds) I ate the marshmello." After the tires were checked that car was ready to go. The last car of Rhino's (a stuffed animal) car. Rhino was complaining that his car was "pomphing" (Another Josiah made up word) him out. That it was pomphing him into attics and up onto the wings of planes. So Josiah decided that it was time to remove the car's canon. So Josiah removed the canon and "I threw the canon in our trash." Then he had to install a new floor board and check the tires. Then Rhino was off on his way (flying).

Thus concludes our daily venture into imagination land.