Mikaela's Page
Updated12/30/02
December 2002
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Mikaela is on the Move!
Mikaela, the Middle child, is trying to be top of her world! Mikaela will be 7 on January 1, 2003. Our New Year girl is in 1st grade and her teacher is Mrs. Frech. Mrs. Frech is a great teacher. The class has 1st and 2nd graders and is run as a true continuum class meaning Mikaela will have Mrs. Frech next year also. This year she is called a “Younger” and next year she will be a “Grey Haired Kid”. Students who are in 3rd and are no longer in Mrs. Frech class are called “Bald Headed Kids.” She is thrilled to be with many of her friends including Sam Kay who is more like a cousin than a friend. Every morning the class has “Pooh Time” which is a time for each student to have the chance to share something about what they have done or are going to do. Amazingly Mrs. Frech patiently listens, as does her entire class to every student’s time of sharing. Mrs. Frech loves Disney stuff — a love Mikaela can totally relate with! Mrs. Frech teaches the kids sign language and what is very fun is that they even learn special words that only Tigger or Pooh could understand!
Mikaela loves this class and is challenged by the Grey Haired Kids. She is doing math packets very quickly and very well. She loves reading chapter books. (Mikaela recommendations for books: Wolf Story because she has listened to the book on tape and her cousin Ryan has the book also. She also recommends Runaway Puppy – a book belonging to Jennifer’s Aunt Margie who read it as a child.) She also is proud because she gets A’s on most of her work, which means advanced, for her level.
Pandas are still very important to Mikaela. She is amazing with all animals, but her favorite animal is still the Panda! Her collection is growing and growing and growing. As of today she has 4 sleeping on her bed and her 1st Panda is loved to the point that it could never be replaced! She has asked Santa for additional Pandas to add to her current Panda family. We will see what happens come December 25th! As for her love of animals, if you need a pet sitter, with her parent’s help, she loves taking care of animals.
Outside of School Interests: This summer was her 1st season on the Valley Swim Team. At the beginning of the season, she could swim a lap without much trouble, but when asked to swim a 50 she was overwhelmed with thinking she had to swim 50 laps (For non-swimmers a 50 = 2 lengths of the pool not 50 laps). She really loved the challenge of this sport, plus she got to go to daily practice with her friend Haley. By the end of season, Mikaela could last the entire hour practice swimming laps, according to Coach Andy she was the only 8 and under swimmer girl that could do the butterfly most of the time without getting disqualified and she swam in the 9-10 year old relay team at the State Swim Meet because the 9-10 year olds didn’t have enough kids to make a team. At the end of the season swim team banquet, Mikaela was awarded the most improved swimmer trophy for her age level. This is a huge accomplishment and shows amazing commitment for this young swimmer.
Swimming stops when school starts so once we got adjusted to the demands of 1st grade, Mikaela decided it would be fun to do gymnastics with her friend Kristen. Mikaela loves gymnastics because Kristen does it with her and this is where they trade Quackers their pet stuffed duck they bought together at their class store with their earned class chips. Every week Quackers goes with the girls to gymnastics and then goes home with the other girl. Mikaela likes to do flips on the trampoline it has improved the tricks she can do on our home trampoline.
Recently Mikaela has begun Brownies. She has watched her sister do brownies for several years so when she got to the age where she could be a brownie; she was ready to sign up. The problem was there wasn’t a leader for her troop and her mom wasn’t willing to be the leader… yet! Mikaela’s friend Kristen also wanted to be a brownie and before long the two mom’s got talking about their girls desires and as of November the girls are in troop??? Led by Mrs. Martinez and Mrs. LaRoy!
Mikaela had the most trouble moving to our new house because her closest friend, Erik, was our next-door neighbor at the old house. These two kids were together from the time they were both babies and separating just a few miles away from each other was very difficult. This turned out to be a warm up exersize because this year Erik’s family moved to Castle Rock. This was very hard for Mikaela, but she is learning how to turn this sad reality into a positive be making him her favorite pen pal. Castle Rock is far enough away that getting together is a challenge, but both families are committed to making the friendship continue when ever possible!
At home, Mikaela loves playing games, jumping on the tramp, playing with toys in her bedroom with her sisters or doing homework that she assigns to herself. Overall Mikaela is having a way beyond “Tiggeriffic” year!