(Update 02-10-2024) Just went there to drop her off for the Saturday event, afterwards I went to Chick Fil A to get some food for the rest of family. I got Starbucks for the 13 year old. We were the 1st to arrive – the teacher said 7 am, and I think we arrived at 6:45 am or so. Saw lots of familiar faces.
(Original) Our 13 year old (soon to be 14) is going to participating the Science Olympiads at Lindenwood University over the weekend. This is something we didn’t expect at the beginning of the school year. For my wife, this is probably a big deal.
One fun fact, Serenity likes to say Science Olympiads in short form: it sounds like Sci-o-ly (it seems this is actual a real word, notice this organization website is here). And finally I was able to grasp it, but my wife could not. For that matter, because Serenity usually speaks very fast, my wife usually could not get what she was talking at the 1st pass. I think there is some mindset (or expectation) going on here too: for me understand 70% of a native speaker’s talking is good enough, for my wife, I assume she usually strives for 100%, which is unrealistic in many cases.
Anyway, Serenity beat our expectations on Science Olympiads this year. We hoped she would do this in last 2 school years, but she was busy in St. Louis Children’s Choir – the 7th grade was especially challenging for her as she was in the concert choir, which has more rehearsals (twice a week, lasts 2 hours each, also there is a 30 min music reading class before one rehearsal) and performances. This year we asked her to pull back from choirs, and focus a bit more on 8th grade sports as well as extracurricular activities in the school (such as Sci-o-li). She followed our advice. She did the Ecology subject for Sci-o-li. And now she is going to attending the event as a training team member. She asked if she could hang out at Lindenwood U after her event, and we said sure.
Also, our younger one recently competed in her elementary school spelling bee contest. Last year she was runner-up. So we were hoping she can move up this year. It didn’t work out, she got stuck at the word hitherto. Later she told us she actually knows the word, but she just spelt it wrong during the contest (she was probably both nervious, as well as not extremely familiar with this particular word). I was on the Zoom watching her and felt bad for her. But it’s okay. She won another contest instead: the yearbook cover drawing contest, which is somewhat unexpected for us. I think my wife was very happy to say the least 🙂
