What a Difference a Day Makes

This morning we got an early start on our school work. Before 9 a.m. we were at the table, diving into Musikgarten homework. First, the kids had to transcribe some notes, work on memorizing a song's lyrics and play a tune a couple of different ways on their glockenspiel.

We were on our third or fourth go through on the glock song when I hear the sound letting me know I had new email. I hopped over to the computer to find this:

Thank you for being one of the first families to attend the (Shoreline Home Education Exchange) Q & A yesterday. Because you have completed that prerequisite, I am happy to let you know we have unexpected openings for your students beginning next week. If you are still interested in the program, please let me know as soon as possible as I need to fill the spots before Friday.

Huh wha??? Srsly?!?!?!

I could hardly believe my eyes. When I first contacted and expressed interest in the program, I was told the wait list was around 100. Yesterday, the program director said there was a lengthy list but was more encouraging, saying that the list does have movement. But egad, we never expected this!!!

I immediately shot back a "What do we need to do to make this happen?" email, followed by a call about 5 minutes later since I hadn't heard back on the email.

So our morning's schedule changed - we wound up ripping up to Shoreline (it's a half hour away) and picking up enrollment forms. When the woman at the front desk handed me the Kisky family folder, I felt like we'd been awarded Golden Tickets from the middle of a Wonka bar!

As we left, a man in the lobby saw me clutching enrollment forms and asked, "Are you checking into the program?" I told him we were. "This is a great place!" he said with enthusiasm. Not that we needed any more sell on HEE, but it didn't hurt to hear that.

So we have a small stack of paperwork to return tomorrow, including a release from Seattle Public Schools, since that's where we live. This afternoon, Christian went in to the Seattle Public Schools main office in Sodo to get them to sign off. I figured that would go one of two ways - it would be quick and simple, no problem-o, or it would get complicated and ugly real quick. (Districts don't have to let you go, and if they were smart, they'd try to keep students within their boundaries, because where there are students, a money trail follows.)

Yeah, well, there was no "please stay" plea, or even a "why are you leaving?" In fact, Christian didn't even fill out the blank on the form where you're supposed to list your reason for asking for a get me out of here exception and didn't bother to ask. They just signed off on it, so long. Really, that just sums up one of the many, many things that's wrong with SPS. At least when it comes to the admin side of things, they just don't seem to give a rat's arse about keeping students and parents engaged.

Tomorrow afternoon I'll be dropping the papers off at their office and hopefully we'll be signed, sealed and delivered shortly thereafter. ...

So what does all this mean? Too early to tell. At the very least it should mean we will be able to be reimbursed for some of our education related expenses. It will also give us access to the great library there, and the free curriculum resources, and another community to connect with. Beyond that, time will tell. ...

When I was describing the facility to a friend today, I told her taking the tour of the place was like being on a game show. It felt like, "Behind this door is ...!" and there kept being more doors with even more fabulous "prizes."

CREEPY CITRUS: Part of our music homework this a.m. was listening to the British nursery rhyme "Oranges and Lemons" on our Musikgarten British Isles CD. Teacher Nancy says the song is as widely known as "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" across the pond.

We listened to the CD version several times and the kids first sang along and then played along on their glockenspiels. The lyrics (in the CD version) are:

Oranges and Lemons say the bells of St. Clement's
Brick bats and tiles say the bells of St. Gile's
Pancakes and fritters say the bells of St. Peter's
Kettles and pans say the bells of St. Anne's
Bull's eyes and targets say the bells of St. Margaret's
You owe me 5 farthings say the bells of St. Martin's
When will yu pay me? say the bells of old Bailey
When I grow rich say the bells of Shoreditch
Pray when will that be? say the bells of Stepney
I'm sure I don't know, say the great bell of Bow

We did a little research and found out that all of the lines end with the name of a famous church in London. I explained what brick bats, fritters and farthings are to the kids. I then went online and played a couple of other versions for the kids, including the one with the sinister ending not found on the Musikgarten CD. In this alternative version the song ends:

Here comes a candle to light you to bed
And here comes a chopper to chop off your head!

Well, um, YIKES! CJ, got a kick out of the murderous version. I think Annabelle was a little freaked out.

Come lesson time, the kids played a game to the tune of "Oranges and Lemons" ("It wasn't the creepy part, CJ assures me). They also got some new sheet music and a "cool paper pretend magnifying glass." Teacher Nancy asked the kids to use the glass to hone in on certain note patterns found in the song.

The kids played and sang "Mouse, Mousie" as a group with Nancy conducting. They sounded pretty good!

SPINNING WHEELS: From music it was off to the races to yoga.
What a bad trip that was. With ZERO notice, I was horrified to find our exit off the Viaduct to Sodo closed. That meant I had to drive southbound all the way to damn near Georgetown (an extra 5+ minutes at freeway speed) to try to head east. I finally made my way partially eastward and I hoped to hop up to the south end of Beacon Hill but guess what? Yup, THAT connection was closed too. So I had to take surface streets all the way back up to Sodo and head up Beacon Hill and then head a few miles southward again. Good times. Amazingly, we were only like 3 minutes late (probably because I always leave 15 minutes early).

We went tearing into yoga to find it was a substitute teacher (frankly, had I known that we probably would have stayed home!) and they were just spreading the mats out. So we didn't miss a thing.

On the way home, guess what? There was another road closure with no notice and our only options were to get on I5 northbound or southbound. During rush hour. So not awesome. It was a parking lot. I exited as soon as possible and we wound up taking the scenic route home. We drove under the Convention Center, which the kids thought was cool.