9 June 2019

Here's an updated photo of Abe's guitar.  He created the swirl design by dipping the guitar in a tub of water with oil based enamel floating on top.  Abe only has three days of school left, so he will probably have to finish up the guitar at home over the summer.  

Sofi pulled out a book of music from Disney movies this week and she, Helen and Gibson sightread some songs together.

Helen graduated from middle school on Thursday.  She attends CAMP, a magnet school that is part of Hanby, a small middle school.  Only 300 students attend Hanby, with about 75 of those students attending CAMP.

This is a photo of 10 of the 11 8th graders from the magnet school.  Helen began attending the magnet school in 4th grade, the first year it opened, and has had the same teacher and mostly the same classmates for 4 years. It's been a bit of an experiment as the magnet school has evolved, but the time spent together has created tight bonds and these kids are all strong friends.  From the left are Miss Hilary, Keleigh, Michael, Brady, Chayton, Helen, Paige, Clara, Sophie, Lucy, Roberta and Miss Jenny.

Miss Jenny is solid gold.  She emphasizes growth, kindness, accountability and hard work.  She built the magnet school from the ground up, expanding one classroom into three.

It took a couple of years for CAMP to find a permanent home, but Scott Dippel, the principal of Hanby, welcomed the small school onto his campus.  He standardized some procedures which meant CAMP lost some of its freedom and quirkiness, but in return it gained a strong advocate.

 A challenge of attending the magnet school was the drive back and forth. Our CAMP carpool has been a huge blessing.  For the past 4 years, Sophie and Clara's mom drove to school in the morning and Becky picked them up in the afternoon  The three girls are all attending the same high school so we may have more carpools together in the future.

We've seen Helen gain confidence and leadership skills, learn to speak up for herself, develop empathy for others and explore a wide variety of interests in her middle school years.  She is ready and eager for high school.

Gibson found a robin's nest in a tree across the street from our house and Abe took a photo of the beautiful eggs inside so we could all appreciate them without needing to climb the tree ourselves.

We froze Friday night at an outdoor performance of MacBeth.  Besides the temperature, we all enjoyed the play.

Johanna and Tyler's wedding reception was Saturday night.  The Thurmans asked several boys to help out at the reception.  Abe and Ashton got pool duty-- mainly their job was to keep an eye out for small children.  They looked like they were enjoying themselves and surprisingly enough, they stayed dry.