Inventions

There are other things going on in our lives besides Anna's new school. Some are worthy of a blog post--like Justin playing on a basketball team this year (first practice was last night). Others not so much.  For example, my battle this week against the tartar build-up in our toilet and the replacement of the toilet seat (it looks so much better already) are a part of my daily life and could lead to sharing of anti-tartar build-up suggestions  and other helpful house cleaning tips.

But for today, the post once again is about the new school. 

Here's what happened last Thursday.

Anna had briefly met the French teacher and seen the school last June, but I wanted her to meet her English teacher and have time to look around. 

Scott called to set it up since I was sure they would say no since teachers are busy and of course don't have time for this kind of thing two days before school. 

It was a yes, come anytime.

So, we headed down to the school Thursday morning. As she road her bike beside me, Anna started asking about inventions. She loves science. In fact, she loves it so much that she burst into tears last night when she saw Justin's lab coat that he needed for chemistry. We'll be making one for her. 

Her birthday party this year had a science theme. The kids created their own robots out of boxes, buttons, bottle tops and lots of aluminum foil. We mixed up cornstarch and water and made a huge, lovely mess on the outside table. The kids formed it into to balls, dropped them on the table, and watched the ball turn to liquid. It was a very cool birthday party.

Anyway, back to Thursday, she said she wanted to invent something and happily prattled on about it. She wanted to know if inventing something is hard and decided that she wants to make her own invention.

We arrived at the school and went up to the classroom with Miss Helen, who started to tell us about what they'll be studying this year--grammar, the human body, etc. Then she enthusiastically said that the big project that the class will be working on throughout the year will be--inventions. 

Within the context of what Anna went through with school last year and both of our jitters about the beginning of school this year, this felt like way more than a happy coincidence. It felt like a large, beautifully wrapped, hand-delivered gift from God to Anna.

The class has started already by working together on an invention this week. As Anna tells it, it's a robot that is supposed take ones' glasses off. They are hoping to be able to make it talk. It was missing two large nails that someone is bringing in today.

Justin, who is definitely a product of the French school system, doesn't quite believe her. He can imagine no scenario in which this kind of activity could occur in the first week of school. Then again, sailing is a part of his physical education curriculum this year.  And he gets to wear a cool lab coat on Fridays.