Amiya's teacher this year is fantastic. Really and truly fantastic. She is demanding, but also encouraging. She is strict, but also warm. She gets Amiya and she lets Amiya be who she is - equal parts goofball and mini-scholar, with a lot of curiousity thrown into the mix. She allows Amiya the freedom to read what she wants and doesn't hold her to the grade level, but she also guides her to texts that are not only fun, but also enriching.
Pretty much I'd like Vinay and I to become polygamous so we could marry her and have her teach our kids forever. I would do dishes and laundry, floors and bathrooms. She could just teach.
Maybe that's a stretch, but she really is great. Case in point: the Presidency project. Each child in class submitted their top three choices of US Presidents to research and report to the class on. This is NOT a small project. This is a big project - the list of topics that each child must cover is longer than I anticipated, the format fairly complex. Sources must be cited and said sources must be varied. For a third grade project, I think this is big.
But that's the thing. This is what
our third grader can do - and maybe it's what is missing today for a lot of kids who are capable of doing more than the curriculums demand. I fully understand that this is perhaps asking more than some children are capable of and that it seems daunting to them - to the point of shutting down. But for our child,
this child, I love it. She needs to be pushed or she will just stagnate.
On to this project - Amiya submitted FDR, JFK and Ronald Reagan. (Are you scratching your head at those three? Hmm, which one doesn't fit? I was confused, too.)
Happily,
for we already had a great biography, she was assigned FDR. It doesn't hurt that Grandma and Grandpa had spent a good deal of time touring FDR and Eleanor Roosevelt sites this past summer/fall on their way down here. Or that Eleanor was a pretty awesome woman whose quotes are uttered at least weekly around these parts. Or that they had a super, super
cute dog and our little chicky is dog crazy.
We spent some time at the Roosevelt Memorial this Thanksgiving while in DC.
It is a beautiful memorial and I think we went at the right time of year. The fall leaves, both in the trees and on the ground somehow fit perfectly with what I know of Roosevelt and his terms in office. Serious, serious times for our country. It wouldn't have felt right to be summery and have people in shorts and flip flops.
Wasn't Eleanor just the coolest woman? I think so. She knew she didn't have looks, she didn't have grace, but she had brains. Not a bad role model for a seven-year-old, you know?
Anyway, I've digressed. Back to the report. It's big and it's daunting. But she's got it covered. Stay tuned for Amiya, the Author (Part 2). I'll put her text in here so you can see what she wrote. The rough draft is pretty nice - I can't wait to see where she ends up!
The dynamic duo, prior to our outing. Cute, hey? 
On our way, we passed a restaurant called Pierogi Grill. I always say that Amiya should know more about her Polish heritage, so in we went. The pierogies were good, the galumpki just so-so. (Nothing can compare to Grandma's.) But the highlight? Seeing these two goofballs play with each other. I won't show all the pictures because I want my Mom to continue to speak to me. Let's just say she better stay on my good side. 
This is a good one. Isn't it cute? 
Uh-huh. I was pretty much the chaffeur. I'm lucky they let me sit at the same table as them. When Grandma's around I'm superfluous. Chopped liver. The fifth wheel. 
And ditto at the movie theatre. There was singing, there was joking, there was discussing the finer points of dancing red-headed lumberjacks with the poor ladies two rows back. I was just there to fetch the popcorn. But that's alright. I like fetching popcorn for these two. I like it a lot. Even if it's uphill both ways to the concession stand.
Mom, Dad, Vinay and I went out to dinner a few Saturdays ago. It was so, so nice to go out as grown-ups. Except for the part where I smacked my Mom in the nose with the corner of the car door. Sorry Mom! 
Amiya's goodie bags. I completely lucked into these science kits at the dollar store for $1 each. The pop rocks are just sort of science-y fun and the test tube is filled with a Nerds Rope but I told the girls it was really a strand of DNA.
The cakes. These were the most craptastic cakes I have ever, ever done. The fondant work was terrible (don't look too closely, Kelly!) but I had an hour to ice, cover and decorate, so it is what it is. Amiya wanted beakers and flasks, instead she got a petri dish with a big ol' germ (Léna made the germ and she did a great job - all the girls wanted the germ!), a cylinder that was bubbling over with some potion and a balloon beaker that was giving off lots of (dry ice) smoke at the time of the birthday singing. Amiya was happy with them, so I guess that's all that matters.
These were the supplies at each spot. They got a t-shirt (to become their lab coats in experiment #1), safety goggles and their very own lab notebooks. All the experiment information was inside. This was so like teaching - the prep work, the lists, the procedures. LOVED IT!
The table set up - I am lucky to have lots of friends who loaned me tables, so we had outside tables for experiments and tables in the lanai for eating. I am also lucky to have a hubby who has real lab equipment at his disposal - so we filled beakers with colored water and Vinay put dry ice in them for a bubbly and smoky effect.
Is this not the cutest group of scientists you've ever seen? Love them! Amiya wanted a taco bar for her birthday party, so these girls were sitting and waiting patiently to be called up to make their tacos.
Once they got going on their petri dish Jell-o, it was all fine. The looks on their faces beforehand were priceless!
The scientist of the hour getting ready for experiment #1: Tie-Dye T-shirts using Sharpies and rubbing alcohol.
The banner was the bane of my existence this day - it read "Happy Hatchday Kevasaurus" but it wouldn't stay flipped the right way. Ugh.
Cupcakes and cookies. Léna and I made the cupcake toppers and had a lot of fun with it. Maybe I like fondant and gumpaste so much since it's like play-doh and it's so therapeutic? The cookies were a heart-shaped cutter (obviously) and I liked how it kept the dinosaurs a bit cartoon-y and a bit younger.
If you leave a dinosaur alone with a cake, you'll regret it. It was fun to see the kids walk by and do a double take when they saw the big piece missing.
This is my favorite picture - it's Kev and his best buddy, Brody. Kev loves this little guy so much and they rarely have a chance to play together, so his day was extra special because Brody was there!
Nevermind that he's got his own twin bed inches away.
She told me what to google and then we sorted through pictures together to find the images she wanted. Remember that thing I said above about loving computers? I don't love them so much when I type in a simple string of words that are directly related to a subject that is completely non-adult in nature and the results are nothing (literally) short of porn.
On one of the tiered serving trays we had fresh pineapple, fresh strawberries and 
For drinks we had coffee, freshly squeezed orange juice and a 
