Zev News – July and August 2007

July started and so did Benjamin's CSUN program.  This program was four 50 minute classes.  Benjamin took Drama, Soccer/Frisbee Golf, Puzzles, and Advanced Computers.  This program occupied his mornings for five weeks.

As an incoming ninth grader, Jonathan was required to attend Granada's two week Summer Transition Academy.  Unfortunately, the first week overlapped with the summer camp Jonathan had been attending since June.  Fortunately, Jonathan's friend Daniel (who talked him into it attending Hilltop) was in the same boat.  So we arranged for Daniel's parents to pick up both boys from camp each morning, and Marc dropped them off at Camp each day after lunch.  Unfortunately, this still involved a 2½ –3 hour round trip.  Fortunately, the boys could miss two days of the Summer Transition Academy.  So Marc only had to make the drive three of the five days.  We were pleased to find that Jonathan had a great time at camp and is interested in going back next year.

In addition to talking him into going to Hilltop, Jonathan’s friend Daniel had told him about a robotics class at Granada and got him interested in participating.  When Jonathan was accepted into Granada, we asked about it and were told Jonathan would get information during the Summer Transition Academy.  When Jonathan got back from camp, we asked if he had heard anything yet.  And when he said no, we had him send an e-mail to the teacher asking about it.  Jonathan got an e-mail back saying the application period had ended the Friday that had just passed.  So Jonathan composed a very nice e-mail pointing out that he hadn't contacted the teacher earlier because he'd been told he would get information in the Summer Transition Academy, but he never did.  The teacher apparently inquired and verified that, in fact, no information had been distributed in the Summer Transition Academy, and extended the deadline a week.  Jonathan applied and was accepted.

What else happened in July?.  We went to see "Wicked" which we enjoyed very much.  In August, we also saw a "Forever Plaid" as part of our season tickets to Canyon Theatre Guild.  We had seen “Forever Plaid” years before and were unimpressed, but this time we enjoyed it very much.  Canyon Theatre Guild also put on a very nice performance of "Beauty and the Beast." Benjamin's CSUN summer camp ended with a small play where Benjamin played the hero (a turtle), which was very cute.

After Benjamin's CSUN program ended, he did a second week at EATM, which he enjoyed as much as the week earlier in the summer.  When EATM ended, Benjamin had 3 free weeks before school started

Jonathan also had three free weeks after his summer programs before school started.  But Jonathan’s three weeks and Benjamin's three weeks did not overlap.  In fact, Jonathan started school the same week that Benjamin's free weeks started.  This meant that throughout the summer we always had a child enrolled in some program or another.  So we never did take a vacation this year.  Not even the little three-day trip to Leo Carrillo State Beach that we took last year

The end of August was very quiet.  Both boys were home and there was no after school activities, making us crazy except piano lessons.

Jonathan is taking Algebra 2/Trig, Honors English, Health, PE, Honors Biology, and Robotics. Robotics has an interesting schedule: Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday it is a two hour class and Tuesday and Friday, it doesn't meet at all.

High school seems to be good to Jonathan.  Homework has not been onerous and he has had no trouble maintaining A's in all his classes.  He likes all his teachers except his Health teacher.  At back-to-school night, two of his teachers commented on what a nice bunch of kids comprise this year's class.  That was good to hear.