Welcome to harmony's Roundeo.

So, it seems life is always BUSY! I suppose I must like it this way, as much of it is self-inflicted! Anyway, just some things I wanted to blog but haven't. In the month of November we had the opportunity to be in our ward Talent Show (see videos http://roundeo.com/harmony/microblogs/view/4b79170b-50d0-48c0-badc-136ed861e4a8, http://roundeo.com/harmony/microblogs/view/4b7a5aa7-acc8-41ff-a959-4743d861e4a8 ). It was really fun! There was a lot of participation, and I think we have a great ward!

Of course December brought packing and moving, but we also got to meet with Cado's teacher for parent/teacher meeting and go to Cado's "spectacle de Noel" where they sang their songs and also had a "marche" where they sold Christmas decorations and cookies that they made. There were really cute things! We bought a couple. And the songs they sang were also really good. In fact one day Cado showed me one (before the spectacle) and he said "Jesus" in it, and I was like, what? is that from church and he said No it was from school! It made me so happy that they would sing songs about Jesus at their school, and sad that I was so surprised and that I'm pretty sure such a thing won't be happening in California when we return.

Meeting with Cado's teacher was also a great experience and I am so impressed with her and the school. I don't know if there is a per school curriculum here or per city or per canton? or what, so I guess I can't make a generalisation like, "geneva schools are" or "swiss schools are" but I will say that Cado's school is excellent in keeping in touch with parents, in having a lot of order and structure, in evauluating and helping students be their best, in teaching them all subjects and expecting them to do well, in valuing arts, dance, music just as much as reading and math. I have been very pleased.

Here are some things we talked about. She said Cado is great with all the other kids and that he is meeting or exceeding all educational goals. They evaluate their counting, or reading, etc with games or with activities. She shows us these in binders. There is a binder for evaluations, for projects and for all their worksheets. The only thing she said Cado needed to work on was....surprise: Attention! staying focused. We said, yeah, tell us about it! So we had a good talk about it. And she spent a lot of time with us. She said you'll see when you look at his worksheets that he's not completing them. Indeed! When I looked at them, many were half-finished or half-heartedly done, and some not at all, but when you turned them over there were magnificent and elaborate drawings on the other side!

I told her that Cado has some concerns about how he's treated by the other children. For awhile he was complaining a lot about another boy, Loic, and all the mean things he would do or say to Cado. When we talked to her about it, she said she didn't see that there was really a problem but it probably had to do with Cado being very sensitive and wanting to be liked and to please. he would also tell us that kids at school are always asking for things and threatening not to be someone's friend if they don't give it to them, or critiquing his work/drawings. Cado of course always gives them what they want because he wants them to be his friend. Her observations about Cado's personality are that he is "very sensitive. He loves to serve others and is very kind and thoughtful of them. He has a hard time focusing and it seems sometimes there is too much energy to contain. He sometimes ignores direction from adults. He is good at expressing himself, and is very capable of all the work and is not lacking in comprehension in any way." I think that about sums it up. And we were like, Yep! that's Cado! She especially noted how sensitive and giving he is. It's funny. He's a person of extremes. On one hand that is very true, he's thoughtful, he loves to give and make others happy and do what's right....and sometimes he's a little pill and a pesterer and pushes others buttons, or seems greedy and materialistic and selfish! He is definitely impulsive and doesn't think before he acts (hmmm...does that sound like me or what!) He'll do things that are the complete opposite of other things he does and then he himself is upset by it and wonders as he did the other day, "what's gotten into me?" It usually upsets him a lot when he realizes he's done something wrong.  He is very expressive and very sensitive to his environment and to others' words and actions and feelings. He is normally very observant of all of that and doesn't miss anything!

Anway, we had a good talk with her and it was nice that she took time to talk about our concerns. Well, I thought that was it, but she went even further. The following school day, she had started a program with Cado where they had a chart and a progress report for the end of the week and where she broke down his work periods into ten minutes of work, followed by a 5 or 10 minute break. She also had sat down with Cado and Loic and wanted to make sure everything was okay. I was once again very impressed and grateful and told her so. She said she's just doing her job, but I said, No, you don't have to do all of that. You're doing a GREAT job.

I don't know if it was before or after this, but his teacher told me this story: they were doing an advent calender and it was Cado's day to get the chocolate. He asked if he could have two, one for Loic (who has been, according to Cado, anything but nice to him), and she said yes. He gave it to him of course, and actually ended up giving the other one away too. And if you know Cado, he LOVES candy and chocolate and sugar! (perhaps that explains some of his teeth problems!) She says that Cado is well-liked despite his own worries about it, and is always one of the first to be picked and never lacks playmates.

This year in January Cado told me one day that he finished his work before anyone else, and even did such a good job that the teacher held it up for everyone as an example. I could see that this made him feel very good and I of course encouraged it and gave him kudos as well. It's important for Cado to recieve validation and accolades when he does well. We try always to be sure that we encourage and compliment his good behavior because with Cado it goes along way in producing more of the same! He eats it up and it makes him just BEAM! it's cute. It's also cool to see that he recognizes when he is feeling the Spirit when he does good things. He'll say, I feel really good right now and warm! I feel the Spirit!" he'll even sort of giggle and you can see that already at his young age he is really having experiences with the Spirit.

Yesterday he wasn't nice at school and when I picked him up, he told me right away, "no one likes me anymore...they say I'm "mechant" (bad/mean)" I said, "oh?...why?" Then he told me that he had come over to a friend and kicked down her blocks. We talked about it, I tried not to condemn him, but he felt so awful about it, it was like a cloud of gloom settled over him. It took him all day to sort of get over it and forgive himself. We were eventually able to point out how good actions make us feel so good and full of light and make others happy, and bad choices do the opposite they make ourselves and others unhappy. It's fun to watch him learning and growing and try to help his good traits expand and his bad ones diminish! It reminds me too how much work I am still doing and must do on my good and bad, and I readily admit that to my children, that it's okay, we are all working on things.

I guess I'll also wrap up before the states by saying that we did celebrate Escalade, by dressing up and going to a church party. It's a celebration of when Geneva held their own against the French Savoyards.

And the night before our flight Spencer took the kids to the church party where Cado was a shepherd and Paisley was a sheep; and I stayed home and finished packing! It always seems a bit miraculous when it all gets done in time!

Okay...up next, moving on to our Christmas trip...