7th Grade (S1) School Highlights

This school year has been an adventure on so many levels!  It will certainly be one that won't be forgotten.  Brenna started St. George's all-in, being completely enamored with all the choices.  The course selections were incredible!  In total she was enrolled for 17 classes for her regular school day.  What we consider as core classes (Math, Science, History, and English) were broken down into Physic, Chemistry, Biology, Modern History, Religion and Philosophy, Geography, Double Math, Double English, and Library.  Then add in supportive classes like Food Technology, Drama, Art, Music, Physical Education, Product Design, Information and Communication Technologies, and finally a wide selection of Languages to chose from, of which two were required.  Brenna chose French and Spanish, although she's trying to convenience me to switch one to Mandarin for next year.  She also jumped right into extracurricular activities with things she already loved and picked-up lots of new activities that would only be available to us here in Britain.  She signed on for Choir, Debate, Judo and Self Defense, Field Hockey, and Lacrosse.  Needless to say her schedule was packed with both before and after school activities four out of the five days a week and the sports competitions spilling over into the weekends.  Normally, I would have pumped the breaks on all these activities, but the school made everything very accommodating.  School actually felt like an extension of home.  I contribute it to the boarding school environment.

Her broad range of activities connected her with lots of friends.  And since the school is very international, her friend group was a wide collection of nationalities, not just from Scotland, but also England, Switzerland, Spain, and France.  It's been a very enlightening cultural experience.  The school also did a great job of supplementing the all-girls experience with joint activities with our brother school, Merchiston Castle all-boys school.  There were sports days, ceilidhs (a traditional Scottish country dance), and dances.

Christmas 2018

As I mentioned on our Thanksgiving post, our time in Texas is coming to close much quicker than we expected.  Thanksgiving and Christmas proved to be challenging as our normal holidays routines competed with other immediate priorities.  We discovered that despite our short time in Texas, we were moving...again.  This is an unplanned change for us.  We had hoped to have a longer stay in Houston (or even just the USA) since it feels like we’ve barely just returned from Canada.  But God had other plans for us.

This time we're preparing for a move to Britain.  Jacob has been transferred to the United Kingdom.  Our new home will be Edinburgh, Scotland.  If fact, Jacob is already there, which is what caused the disruption to my usual holiday routines.  He moved across the pond in early December.  We’ve spent the better part of the holidays managing the mountains of paperwork that goes along with international moves, arranging temporary living for Jacob, applying to British preparatory schools for Brenna, and searching for a new place to call home.

Because of all this, we were just excited to have Jacob back home for Christmas.  We mostly spent our time close to home, enjoying the downtime.  We finished up school with some fun Christmas themed activities and hung out with friends in the neighborhood.  Brenna was excited to be pick for a solo in the schools Christmas Choir Concert and we were also proud to find out that she was selected by the WLMS staff as Student of the Month.

Grove Elementary Choir

Boy was it a year for choir!  At the beginning of school we joined the Groves Elementary Choir, which was an after school extracurricular activity sponsored by our school's music teacher Mr. Huertas.  Since Brenna loved choir at Sarnia Christian and always participated in the children's choir at church, she jumped on the opportunity to join the Choir Club.  This became one of her most beloved activities and she practiced constantly, singing all around the house.  

The choir practiced twice a week after school and had a number of weekend performances.  Mr. Huertas worked hard with kids and they were the best sounding choir we've ever been a part of.  Their first performance was the Christmas Program where the kids had an opportunity to audition for one of six short solos.  About 15 kids tried out and Brenna was thrilled to get chosen.  The next performance was at a fundraiser at our local Barnes and Nobel inside the Deerbrook Mall.  The choir picked up a new song, Best Day of My Life, and again the kids were allowed to audition for four solos that were much bigger parts.  And again, Brenna was chosen!  She loved performing this song and it is by far her favorite of all the choir pieces.  

The next performance was the Humble ISD Fine Arts Festival at Kingwood Park High School.  This was their first real-deal stage performance.  Mr. Huertas decided to add a new performance piece and rather than holding try-outs, he selected two students, one boy and one girl, to do a duet to A Million Dreams from The Greatest Showman.  Brenna was so excited when she found out she was chosen, however, she was also alittle heart broken because she had to give up her Best Day of My Life solo.  

The choir held what we thought would be their final performance the last week of May with an End of Year Concert.  However, the owner of a local performing arts studio was in attendance that night and was so impressed with our sound that she invited us to perform as the opening act of her studio's summer recital.  The kids had one final opportunity to shine on stage in a beautiful performance hall.  I was so proud to see her up there singing her heart out! 

Over the past three years, Brenna has sung songs with the choir in English, French, Spanish, and German.  Some of the other choir pieces from this year included a fun Disney melody, Somewhere Over the Rainbow, a Spanish Lullaby, and Remember Me from Coco.

Looking ahead, there was no question what electives she would pick for her first year of middle of school.  While other friends chose dance, orchestra, or band, it's choir all the way for this little song bird!

The Rest of Christmas

I'm ridiculously behind on blogging for a lot of different reasons, but mostly because life just keeps getting in the way and I don't take my big camera out as often as I used to.  Still, after nearly 10 years of blogging this journal, I'm determined not to let this digital memory album lapse.  So, in my attempt to catch back up, you get Christmas in July!

The rest of the Christmas holiday was slow paced and laid back.  My Mom and Dad came for a visit. Brenna got some fishing in with Pawpaw at our neighborhood's fish camp and she enjoyed the Christmas themed dress-up days at school. 

Christian Education Week and the Celebration of Learning

Each year we celebrate Christian Education Week with a list of fun activities for the kids through the week and wrap things up with Grandfriends Day on Friday.  This year the school did a Spring Festival for the community that was themed Celebration of Learning on Wednesday night with a repeat performance on Friday for Grandfriends Day.  Brenna loves being a part of the Junior Choir and had been practicing the songs for weeks singing in the shower, at dinner, and during homework sessions.    

Easter

Brenna's class lead the Easter Chapel with a dance routine to God's Not Dead.  Brenna is always excited to perform and I thought they did a great job.  Also, Brenna was chosen to give the closing prayer for the chapel.

Christmas 2016

At least the first post of 2017 is the Christmas post, even if it doesn't show up until the end of February.  Christmas was alittle different than we had planned for this year.  Jacob was away for work the first three weeks of December, so it was just me and Brenna leading up to Christmas.  The original plan was that once Jacob returned we would enjoy a quiet Christmas here and then afterward we would fly back home to Mississippi to visit with his family.  Unfortunately, the plant has some significant issues and it impacted our plans.  Our two-week holiday turned into weeks of work with no down-time and a lot of stress, for Jacob of course.  Brenna and I, while disappointed about the sudden change of plans, still enjoyed the break and the time off school.

We did all of our usual Christmas activities here in Sarnia.  Brenna kicked off the season with her Girls Alive Christmas Tea.  She enjoyed getting all dressed up for a fun and fancy tea party with her church friends and favorite stuffy.  We made a shopping trip to Detroit to check out the Christmas decorations and finish up our Christmas lists.  This year we even marched in the Santa Parade and collected canned goods and donations for the Inn of the Good Shepherd, our local soup kitchen.  It was Brenna's first parade to actually be a part of.

It's a Small World

Every year our school puts on at least one big production show musical.  Last year, it was "Candy Cane Lane" for Christmas.  This was Brenna's first stage debut.  She auditioned and was chosen to sing a short solo performance.  This seemed to be her stepping off point.  The school does a good job of encouraging the kids to take on the spot light and use their talents.  Couple this with hand-bell performances, junior choir, and leading school chapels, and it came as no surprise when Brenna came home this past Christmas and said she had volunteered to read the scriptures in front of the entire church congregation for the Children's Christmas Program.  Stage fright is definitely not an issue for her.

This year our school decided to do "It's A Small World" for a spring musical.  Brenna raked over the audition sheets and surprised me when she decided not to audition for a speaking role, but to try out for the dancing part of the Russian ballerina.  They spent weeks on auditions, rehearsals, set design, and costumes.  It was so much fun for the kids to act out their parts.  Each country was represented with great effort for attention to detail.  We had the Mexican hat dance, the Beatles, and Highland dancers.  There was no stereotyping either.  They let the dark haired Asian kid be a Russian ballerina, the blond haired Swedish kid got to be the China woman, a Canadian kid played Uncle Sam, and our Australian kid didn't even get the Australian part!  They all did a fantastic job and we were so proud of Brenna's fearlessness.  She was beautiful on-stage doing her ballet set!

Christmas 2015

The Christmas season begins especially early here.  Since Canadian Thanksgiving is in October, Christmas celebrations begin immediately following Remembrance Day (Canadian version of Veterans Day) which is mid-November.  Our holiday celebration started at the Imperial Theater with Mary Poppins.  One of the mom's planned a Mom and Daughter day for Brenna, Jenna, and Sofi.  It turned out to be an all day event since it happened on a Sunday.  The girls had Christmas Choir practice together that morning, followed by church, then lunch, and next we were off to see Mary Poppins.  The girls had a great time.  They enjoyed a taste of Perfect Punch, a Spoon Full of Sugar, and we all learned to spell Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!  That same weekend was the Winter Wonderland Festival at Degroots.  Brenna made lots of crafts, got her face painted, took a horse-drawn carriage ride, saw a magic show, and got to pet real reindeer.  Christmas was already off to a strong start!

Grand Friend's Day

Each year our school celebrates Christian Education Week with a full list of special activities for each day of the week.  There are fun competitions, dress-up days, and special lunch treats.  The week ends with Grand Friend's Day.  This year Brenna was very excited because Mawmaw and Pawpaw were able to come for the event.  Grandparents are invited into the classroom to visit and tour the school.  Brenna was able to show them all her art work and creations displaced throughout the school.  The grandparents usually come bearing gifts of candy and chocolate for the kids, so Brenna was delighted to see a bag full of M&Ms, Crunches, and Ring Pops.  Next everyone moved to the gym for an hour and a half presentation from each grade level.  Maw maw and Pawpaw won the award for longest distance traveled and were thanked by the principle for bringing the warm weather up with them.  Brenna's class gave a comedy performance and told grandparent related jokes.  She also sang in the Junior Choir.  After the presentation, lunch was served by the kids.  It's a wonderful event and we were thankful that Mawmaw and Pawpaw were able to share it with us this year.

Queen Esther for Bible Character Day

The Really Big Christmas Post

I got behind on blogging during the holidays, which happens every year.  So I decided to roll everything into one big monster Christmas post.

Unfortunately, this year we caught "The Christmas Crud."  We obviously have no immunity for the kind of yucky stuff that is circulating here.  Over the month of Decemeber, Brenna caught a stomach bug, a cough, and then a cold.  We did have a couple of uncomfortable days that were filled with kitty snuggles and lots of movies and computer games.  Luck for us she always bounces back quickly.