School (eye roll)

Huh. Where is the time going? It's December 11th and I haven't taken a Christmas card photo of the kids, much less had cards made and sent out. I'm a slacker! Wow. I just did the two weeks math :)

This week I got a notice in the mail that Kaylin has been selected to test to get into the gifted middle school next year. I suppose this should make me feel all smug and proud and I should be returning the enclosed form and scheduling her testing and maybe even paying some tutor to prepare her so she has a better shot of getting into the bestest school in the district. All I can say is THANK GOODNESS I have a friend who sent her child there and gave me some insight as to how they operate! They expect all of their students to fit the stereotypical mold of geeky bookworm, sitting in perfect concentration and self-driven to work hard and accomplish much. Non-conformist free thinkers are not appreciated. This school would be a horrible fit for Kaylin!

I don't even have a clue how she will keep up with the homework from "regular" middle school. She hates homework and is so easily distracted she can take hours to complete a 5 minute worksheet. If she has a sharp pencil and paper she needs to draw something, not solve math problems. She will spend hours writing and illustrating books, but will take hours to write a one paragraph essay about what she wants for Christmas. She reads all the time, but can't handle required reading from a textbook. I dread middle school and all of the horrible, closed-minded teachers Kaylin will likely encounter. Ugh. I hated junior high so much. I don't know how to prevent Kaylin from reliving my nightmare with idiot teachers and pointless work. Kaylin seems a lot more optimistic than I've ever been. Hopefully a few good teachers will be all she needs.

Changing subjects, I couldn't sleep the other night. I was bored with the computer and don't like the book I'm trying to read, so I spent some time watching the cats. They were playing hide-and-seek and play fighting on and around the pool table. The pool table is normally covered with toys and games, but Gene and the kids cleaned it off so they could actually play pool. Tiger jumped onto the table and accidentally knocked a ball into a pocket. He was shocked. That gave me the idea to teach the cats to play pool. I put all the balls on the table and started rolling them around, occasionally knocking a ball into a pocket. Tiger caught on quickly and in minutes went from batting balls around to intentionally moving the balls to the pockets. It was hilarious! Simon watched from the computer desk. Before I went back to bed I put all the balls on the table again. Only two were still out in the morning. I put them all out again and all were in pockets when I got home from work. Hee hee. Kitty enrichment. I bet Simon tried it out the second Tiger went away.