Star Students

Was it my dream that both of my sons were getting Star Students on the same month? It woke me up after I faced the reality at the assembly. It sure made me feel very proud that my hard work has paid off.

I received the first envelope from Ryan's teacher in his backpack. Seeing a white envelope did not across my mind that would brighten my day. When I first read the enveloped, I felt like I was a child jumping of a Christmas Present that I have always wanted. That was one of the destinations that I wanted him to achieve in his challenging class-mainstream class. His teacher chose him for Notable Improvement because he started out refusing to write a sentence a month ago. A month later, he wrote three to four sentences on his own. Not only improving his writing skills, he also was willing to complete the class task without needing to bring any extra assignments at home.

Frankly, I have to tell you. Ryan has come a LONG WAY. He used to have a REAL BAD temper tantrum such as throwing the shoes, helicopter or other sharp toys up in the air when he got frustrated. Several times in the past, he dashed off like he was a runner for the Olympic and won gold medal. But after he had learned to communicate from me and other people who also helped him changed for better. Instead of expressing his frustration, he also interacted and communicated well with his classmates, relatives and strangers from the playground.

Thus, I felt that it was right that he deserved to get a Notable Improvement for overall in academic and behavior as well. I MUST say that I very proud of him, so did all of the people who worked with him at his school site. At the award, Ryan was behaving WONDERFULLY without resisting to go up in a front of proud parents and teachers. He even participated lots of hand-on songs.

Ryan was NOT the only ones who got an award for this month. So when Dylan handed me a white envelope from his teacher in my classroom, it triggered to me that he must have done wrong. But I was so glad I was wrong because I was DELIGHTED to see that his teacher also noticed that he has improved incredibly in his combo class: 2nd/3rd grade class. It also meant that he received an award for "Notably Improvement" too.

His attitude has changed a WHOLE lot better after he came back from a Winter Break. He was more cooperated with us. Dylan has now accepted that he is now in a challenging class. The reason why the teacher noticed that he has improved a lot because he is able to do the Main Idea at 3rd grade level and had passed all of his multiplication table. I must admit that I did not learn to do the multiplication at the end of a third grade class, but Dylan is only second grade.

At the assembly, Dylan was SURPRISED that he was chosen by his teacher. (He did not know what was in the white envelope when he handed it to me) He had his chest stick out as he was showing his Pride. Who doesn't blame him? It made me chuckled and smiled to see that he was proud.

Again, I must say that I am incredibly PROUD of Dylan showing his best behavior and academic within a month. In my heart, he will continue to do from now on because he and I made an agreement that he would have a lunch with me if he shows his positive attitude all week.

The principal told me that it seldom to have a sibling getting Star Students on the SAME MONTH! She patted my shoulder for what I have done wonderfully to my wonderful sons: Dylan and Ryan. She even let my aide watched one of my students for an hour while I was able to witness my sons' proudest moment.

Stephan Speilberg II

Can you image having a child at age seven thinking about making a movie? It did not occur to my thoughts until one of the sign language interpreters told me what had happened during the recess. One of my sons, Dylan went up to his principal about wanting to making a "M.A.S.K" movie.

Then, she asked him what does "M.A.S.K" stands for? His instantaneous replied, " It stands for Maryland Avenue School for Kids." I have not thought about the meaning for each letter. He explained to her that he wanted to film about teaching students about the right and wrong things to do during school hours. That included recess. In the back of my mind, I inquired how often do I see the kids think beyond about the students' behaviors, including his own.

The principal did like his brilliant idea. She then told him that she will take into her consideration from his suggestion. That made me think about that he might be the next Stephan Spielberg II. For this reason of the possibilities, he loves to write, use his excessive imaginations, using his own camera including filming and teach others. Perhaps that explains the combination involved on my side of the family who were involved in stenographer, music composer, English professor that wrote five different languages and psychologist.

Native Indian Project

For the last two weeks, Dylan and I worked together on his project. We went over the information before he actually wrote on his project. Not only writing his report, he also make an Native Indian Project.

On the foam board, the dirt was made out of black coffee with glue underneath. Of course, I could smell the coffee though my husband and I don't drink coffee at all. We got the coffee from my mother in law before Dylan started his project.

Along on the board, Dylan put the dark and light blue, and silver to make a river. On the edge of the river, he put many tiny pebbles and the fish foam in the river. It looked GREAT, and even it looked real!

As for the tepee, David, Dylan's dad, helped to cut the shorter cone and put the sticks with hot glue. David put the brown felt to cover the tepee. Dylan did put the zig zag from my scrapbook borders (Am I generous to hand it to me?), and a Crow Symbols on his tepee. Near the tepee, there was a fire pit out of tiny pebbles and broken sticks with hot glue.

I also helped Dylan finding an image picture of buffalo skins from my printer. He cut the outside of the buffalo skin to put a display on his Native Indian Project. It was not an easy task for Dylan to put the display, so David ended up helping him a little bit by putting the hot glue so the stand would stay.

With the foams, Dylan painted the two rocks with white, light and dark brown. I must admit that he did a fabulous job making this rock looked real. While working on foams, we also put green mosses for the bush and berries. Dylan made a little attempt to put the hot glue on his foam with the mosses. He was braved enough not to get his fingers burned with my supervision. At the end, I had Dylan to think of ways to make berries looked real. He decided to cut in a half from RED Jelly Bean candies. Wasn't he cleaver to think about this?


Overall, I felt really good about doing well on his project. Not only making it look beautiful, I made sure he got all of the facts ready in case his classmates or his teacher ask him questions during the presentation.

Peace Building Assembly

Last Friday, Dylan's 2nd and 3rd grade classes did the Peace Building Performance in a front of the entire school and the parents who were invited to watch the performance. The entire class learn four songs in SIGNS! It was awesome to see all of the older hearing and deaf students signing together.

I had a little opportunity to video the show because I didn't realize the last song was short and sweet. It is called: This is My Song. While I was taking pictures and videoing my son, Dylan, a teacher who sat next to me telling me that she could hear Dylan's voice. I asked if he was loud. "YES!," said by his former 1st grader teacher.

By the time we got home from school, I asked Dylan a simple question what made him singing LOUD. His response was, "I wanted my voice to be heard!" It reminded me like Martin Luther King Jr. who also wanted his voice be heard, too.

Our New Toy

A night before Inauguration Day, we set up a tape recording because we thought we might not have any access to watch the live news of Barrack Omaha. We wanted to play it safe.

However when we came home from work, we discovered our 27" T.V. had died on us. We were not able to watch from the beginning of the live show from tape recording. We only had a little chance to see it from the re-run news.

Buying a brand new T.V. constrained us to spend our money for this one. It took us a while to decide which size we wanted to buy: 46" or 52". I did want to buy a smaller size because of the cost, but David was the opposite- 52." After we finalized to get us a 52", I must admit that I was glad we got this size. This T.V. is able to adjust different fonts, sizes (especially for us reading the captions from distance), colors, and the size of the screens such as standard, wide screen or full screen.

A Sweet Surprise B-Day Party

When I first opened my classroom's door, I was staggered to find a birthday balloon, small flowers, and cupcakes on a mini table before the school started. Then, I automatically knew it was my aide because she has an access to get in the classroom. She was able to sneak in and set up an early birthday message. As soon I got out of my classroom, I was about to meet my students at Peace building Circle. I forgot something. Know what happened to me? Believe it or not, I locked my classroom out on my birthday! It left me no choice for ending up being embarrassed when I had to asking my secretary to hand me a spare key. She laughed, but did not realize it was my birthday.

As soon some of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing discovered it was my birthday, a friend of mine asked me why didn't I open my mouth. I simply replied that I am not the kind of a person who bragged about my "upcoming" birthday. We teased each other that we both were officially "29 years old!" Wouldn't it be nice to rewind my age?

Just before the kids' recess, the four Deaf and Hard of Hearing classes from Pre-School to fifth graders came to celebrate my birthday. They all were grateful to get away from working and eating the vanilla cupcakes, popcorn, and a cup of Orange Juice. Drinking Orange Juice may sound strange to you, but knowing it was a perfect morning snack especially at this season. All of the deaf students and staff sang in a song in both signing and orally. I admitted it was a nice feeling seeing them signing a song for my special day. Not only eating a snack, I got two extra gifts: screw punch from Martha Stewart for my scrapbook and candles and handmade soap for my bath.

When all of the kids headed for their recess, I also headed for my break. Without realizing, both of my sons Dylan and Ryan also heard that there was a surprise birthday party. They were upset that they didn't get a chance to sing a song for me. Ryan told one of the interpreters, "I'm MAD, I'm MAD at my mom!" Boy, I felt so bad! I did make it up for later of the evening.

When we got home, there was a package waiting for me that I had an eye from my sister in law, Deby's basement. She had 20 multi-colored drawers for the scrapbook. I thought it was an ideal place to store all of my scrapbook items in one place. Thus, my sweet husband ended up buying me for my birthday gift. He also brought me a bonquet of red carnations for my birthday. I am pleased by getting what I wanted for my birthday, instead of getting 4 boxes of 50 Tupperware each. (Clue: It happened to me once on a Christmas night.)

The boys were thrilled that I chose to go out to Souplation for my birthday dinner. They loved it. While we were there, the cashier did not charge me because it was my birthday. It sure saved my husband a ten dollar buck for my meal. Not only getting a free meal, the manager decided to give me a bag of homemade chocolate chips cookies. (I'm not always fonds of eating cookies, but knowing that it made my boys happy.) They even had a chance to sing me a Birthday Song.

Overall, I would say that it was one of my nicest birthday gifts I have had. Getting a sweet surprise b-day party was a nice way to start off the day despite of locking myself out of a classroom.

Life with Romero

Both of my sons, Dylan and Ryan, received a Happy Meal from McDonald's for a lunch treat from me. Inside of Happy Meal, there was a toy dog from "Hotel for Dogs" movie. They were thrilled to get a toy, though they have not seen this movie.

At first, both stick to their dogs on their first night. But not Ryan. He was very attached to his new friend, Romero. He actually takes Romero with him EVERYWHERE he goes. Trust me, he does! The pictures of his new friend, Romero tell it all !

Romero was encouraged to try his new meal.

He was nurtured to learn to brush his teeth.

Ryan was teaching Romero to read, "The Racing Cars " book.

On a third night, Ryan was happy to sleep with Romero.

Ryan's Newest Books

"Kate DiCamillo and Chris VanDusen are truly an inspired duo. This book, like the others in the series, is chock full of odd and entertaining characters brought to life by VanDusen's brilliant artwork. It's always great to see what new character DiCamillo adds to each new book. This is a great read-aloud for kids of any age, but with a caveat: be prepared to have a strong craving for hot buttered toast with a great deal of butter on it after reading any Mercy the Pig book," said by one of the reviewers.

I could not disagree with the reviewers because my younger son Ryan LOVED this kind of books. In fact, he had asked me to get him more of Kate DiCamillo's books. This book made him laugh whenever he read for his reading log. We did take turn in reading because it involved lots of chapters and simple captions for the beginning of second grade reading, though he is only in first grader. His reading comprehension is at second grade reading level. Thus, he often asked me if I allowed him to keep reading for the next chapter... then more chapters before I had to stop him before he hit for bed.

As a result, I ordered two out of three books from Amazon because I could not find any of her books from Border. The books I ordered were: Mercy Watson to the Rescue and Mercy Watson Goes for a Ride. The third book I will be ordering the next month because this book Marcy Watson: Something Wonking This Way Comes will not arrive on July 14th. Knowing these books will anxious Ryan to read because he knows that I ordered two books that will arrive within a few days. Simplify, I enjoyed seeing him laughing throughout the books because her books are definitely worth to read.

Friday

Friday is the best day of the week days. It gives us to look forward to the playful weekend. This weekend is an exceptional because we have a three day off from school and work.

At 6:30 A.M., most of us started off with positive attitudes. Dylan was happy to have his hair coloring because it was a Crazy Hair Day at his school site. It also applied to me and Ryan. I had given Dylan an opportunity to pick his own hair coloring after he figured that his Pez Collections would not stick in his hair. He ended up picking four different colors on his hair: red, blue, pink, and purple after I put the Gels on his hair.

I then inquired Ryan whether he wanted to have his hair coloring a few minutes after I finished spraying the hair coloring on Dylan's. Frankly, Ryan did not want to have anything to do with his hair until I had him to look at Dylan's hair. He changed his mind. Thanks Goodness! I did give him the power to choose the color for his hair. Ryan only wanted ONE hair color: Blue all over his hair. Seeing his own hair coloring beamed himself up in a front of the mirror. He requested me to do the same, so I did coloring my hair: pink and red to match my red shirt for work.

Besides showing our Crazy Hair spirit at school/work, I went out to get McDonald's for Dylan and Ryan's lunch because they showed me with their BEST behavior. Dylan did not have any bad attitudes for the last three weeks after David and I grounded me for an entire month. (That counts for not allowing him to use any technology stuff: Wii, computer, DS Nintendo Game, or T.V. ) Since he lived without any technology, he showed a remarkable behavior in his class and at cub scout meeting. Ryan also worked so hard on his classwork. He turned 10 paperwork in one day! I must say I'm proud of my sons' behavior.

Once we all had gone home for a three day weekend, I have decided to treat them for an ice cream because it was 80 degrees at 3:30 P.M ! What a crazy weather especially for the month of January. Yet, they were happy to be spoiled for a nice afternoon treat: Chocolate Mint Ice Cream. They even tried to show their empathy for feeding their toy dog for an ice cream.

Oh, it feels so good to have our three day weekend! We are looking forward to spending quality of times together. That is the best day of the week days.

The Next Writer

Who ever think being a writer is an easy task? I always knew it is an extremely difficult job to make it perfect. I have tried my best in the past: sending an article to Chicken Soup for the Soul (it is my fifth year of waiting for an approval), writing annual Christmas Newsletters, and plan on sending the funniest comments in the Parent Magazine.

Being a writer runs in my side of the family. Mainly, it comes from my dad's side of the family.

1) My Great Grandpa, Paul Hugon wrote several books and spoke five different languages.
2) My father Robin Klein, who is now a police psychologist, wrote few books and articles related to the police experiences.
3) My Great- Aunt Majorie as Mag was a stenographer for the movie industry. She did edit "The Roots" scripts before the movie was released.
4) My Great Grandfather Manuel Klein was a musical composer. He has published several music books and songs early in 1900's.
5) My mother has written a book while she was an employee for Hewlett Packard. I'm sure she will write another book about Herbs in her new hometown in South Carolina.
6) My cousin Cheryl has published two books: The Commuters and Lilac Mines, and several articles for the magazines. Her third book is on the way.

Since it runs in my family, I would NOT be surprised if Dylan becomes the next writer. He loves to get a stack of paper, stables together and start writing a book. Right now, he is anxious to write his first book made for me: Book 1: Poor, Rich, and Dog Cycle. He is also an illustrator just like my cousin Cheryl is also good in art. In this book, there are 12 chapters.

Chapter 1: Hard Day
Chapter 2: Good News
Chapter 3: One Million Dollars
Chapter 4: Rich
Chapter 5: Poor
Chapter 6: A Nightmare
Chapter 7: Boo!
Chapter 8: New Dog
Chapter 9: Lost
Chapter 10: Found Dog
Chapter 11: Happy
Chapter 12: New Baby

Since he just started last night on his first chapter, he wrote, "It was a hard morning for Mr. and Mrs. Dinkleburg and they were exhausted! They were tired to death! They hoped Timmy Turner, the neighbor, would pull some weeds for them. But then they would be drinking lemonade right now. So they took a 5 minute....."

Actually, I was told not to peek his book until he completes his first entire book until March. I was too anxious to know what was in his mind. I also discovered that he plans on writing a second book. It is called, "Stress Baby." Personally, Dylan is an amazing young boy who is anxious to be the next writer.

Birthday Wishes

This evening, we all went out to celebrate my dearest husband' birthday at El Torito restaurant. At the end, we sang a birthday song with his favorite desert: Spanish Flan.

What do you think he wished for his birthday?

Kissing a Girl

On Friday morning, I was stopped by one of Ryan's classmates. One of the twin girls was telling me what was happening during the morning recess.

Girl: Ryan was trying to pretend to kiss me.

Ryan: (Smiling and showing fish kiss in a front of me and the girl)

Me: Ryan, what did Mrs. Lampshire (his teacher) tell you about the rules of kissing at school?

Ryan: (Giving me the guilt looks) We were not supposed do the kissing.

Me: That 's right. Don't do that again.

Ryan: But Mrs. Lamsphire is not here today. (She was absent on Friday.)

Oh boy, he has a sneaky mind of his own!

Kid's Camera

A couple of days ago, Dylan opened his belated Christmas gift from us. He wanted to do his own V-Tech Kids camera experiments. Then, we all got involved.

Blowing my kiss out to Dylan

One of the Marxx brothers

Thinking about being a first deaf man on a Space ship

Being in a Mischievous Mood

We were amazed how much the newest kids' V-Tech digital camera is so much alike with any digital camera. With this camera, the features have: video camera, props, flashes, and downloading into the camera! I thought these are wonderful ways to use the conversation with others about the pictures.

Going Home

(Note: It is a week after we came home from our two week trip.)

Can you image David and I took our turn driving for 12 to 14 hours straight South for two days? On the first day, David drove from Oak Harbor, Washington, the far Northwest of Washington to the bottom of Oregon. The reason why of having him driving all the way down because I was not sure if there was any icy road. In fact, there were lots of slushy roads except for the Highway Five. At nine p.m, we got into our hotel in Medford, Oregon. In Medord, it was frigid !

Again, we left bright and early morning for home. David started the gear because we knew there would be lots of snow at Mountain Shasta. While he was driving south Oregon to go over Mountain Shasta, the sun was facing toward. It bothered David's eyes. He had a brilliant idea by covering his cap over his right eyes while driving on a freeway in Oregon.

As soon we got into Mountain Shasta, we were awed seeing so many beautiful white mountains and trees. David took his time driving down on a Highway 5 to get into the state of California. When we finally entered in Redding, California, there was no snow on the way back home. Thus, it was my turn to drive longer hours.

While I was driving, David was doing his own camera experiments. He took several pictures of himself and the boys. Dylan and Ryan could see their father taking them pictures from his camera.
He also took pictures of me driving the last three and a half hours on the road before we finally hit the jackpot: Home. Sure, my mind kept telling me "Being patience, you are almost there!" How could I be patience when we were in Burbank, California at eight thirty P.M. ? That mean we finally got home at 11:30 A.M. after leaving at 9 A.M. from Medford, Oregon. It sure felt so good to be home safe and sound.

History of Whidbey Island

On New Year's Eve, we visited our friends, Gary and Joan who moved from San Diego to Whidbey Island and stayed for two nights before heading for South. It only took us nearly two hours to drive from the hotel nearby my friend, Nikki's place to another friends of ours. Thus, we let the boys sleep late before heading for Whidbey Island. Ryan especially indeed was glad to sleep longer than we usually let him over the last two weeks of Christmas Break.

On our way over to visit our friends, we decided to drive through Deception Pass Bridge instead of going on a Ferry. It was only thirty minutes longer, but it did not bother us for two reasons. One was wanting to see the beautiful sightseeing: driving through the Deception Pass not far from Puget Sound. Second, we did not want to pay extra expenses for the ferry. We were too cheap at that time. While we were there, we were curious how and where the largest Native Indians settled before the Spanish people took over the island in 1792. That included a mission had been started with a 2-acre (8,100 m²) fenced garden.

Fast forward, just a few months before during the World War II, the governors installed the bases and army's airplanes, helicopters and homes for the armies to sleep. It was hidden before the World War II actually effected. As of now, many men and women armies are living there. That included one of our friends, who used to work for the federals for decades.

While we were learning some basic historical facts about the Deception Pass Bridge, we wanted to see how deep the bridges, climates, and the environments. As we stepped outside of our van, we all felt chilly. The boys only stayed outside for a few minutes, even they didn't want to wear their jackets. Then, they hopped in a van laughing at me while I was standing outside a little bit longer. Truthfully, it was too beautiful to settle our possible future life when we retire. Peace of serenity was one of our aspect goals to look for the right location to settle down after we retire.

Museum of Flight

A day after we spend a night in a hotel nearby Seattle, we wanted to see so many things in a very little time. As for me, I wanted to see Space Needle, one of the famous landmarks. But the weather did not permit us to stand outside of a freezing temperature.

So, we altered the plan to visit Museum of Flight along with my friend, Nikki. David had thoughts about educating our sons, Dylan and Ryan to see many different kinds of airplanes instead of seeing only a commercial airplane. I could not disagree with his idea. In this museum offered from the artificial airplane that made by Wright Brothers to military airplanes from 1940's. Not only seeing the airplanes, the boys also saw the displaying from Apollo11. It was fun seeing the boys imaging flying on a moon. Who knows my friend, Nikki would be the first woman flying a moon?

While we were inside of the buildings, the boys opened their eyes and wanted to try sitting inside of the military airplanes. They felt like they had powered to drive. Good grief, the engineer had shut down for the public. The next room, we visited Flight's Zone for children. Dylan and Ryan had few hand-on activities such as pretending going on a Hot Air Balloons, riding on a Gliders, etc. It was not as much as another room where the kids could explore by using the pretending phone with a window where we could see the real airplanes flying nearby the tower.

As soon they finished exploring the Flight's Zone, we headed for Red Barn where there were lots of original Boeing airplanes. I instead stayed with my friend Nikki, who wore boot because she was aching from walking all over the museum. Not only sympathy her, I had more opportunity to chit chat with her while my big and little men explored further in a Red Barn.

Overall, I personally think this trip to Museum of Flight expanded my boys' visions of seeing many diversity of flights. Thus, this trip was one of the educational places we visited during our two week of Winter Break.

Heading for Seattle

Leaving from Portland to Seattle, Washington forced us to get up early because we had a plan to stop by a certain place that David always wanted to visit: Cabela's store, a few hours away from Seattle. It was raining cats and dogs in some areas. I let David do the driving all the way up Washington because I was not sure what to expect: snow. Frankly, I don't know how to drive through the snow; thus, I think of the safety. The road up to Seattle took us longer than we had anticipated.

When we got in a VAST Calbela's Store, I was awed to see so many different aspects of outdoor supplies. It ranged from Hunting, Fishing and Outdoor Gear. It is completely different from REI because of the fine qualities. The boys especially enjoyed seeing all of the displaying faux animals, sleeping on a camping cot, and doing a hunting game. I personally like to see how big a polar bear really stood up. It reminded me of teaching my students about Polar Bear a few weeks before I visited this store.

By the time, we were leaving for Seattle from Cabela's store, there were several small hails falling off from the sky. Like I said, I felt secure to have David driving our van instead of me especially at this time of weather. (See the tiny snowflakes falling on our van's front window.)

As soon as we settled few miles north of Seattle, I met one of my good friends, Nikki whom I have not seen her in person for twenty years. It was really sweet of her meeting us at a hotel despite of her broken ankle with a boot on her right leg. From there, we ate and chat over a dinner meal nearby our hotel. We indeed did spend each other the following day.