Some December Highlights

New Student-Parent Reception 

On December 5, Maryfield College held a reception with music for parents of new students.   Grace played the flute with the school orchestra that plays for special events, and she also sang with her music class and choir group.

    In fact the choir recorded a CD of holiday songs for the first time.

   We attended a few art shows and Christmas festivals.

Emmie, Scott and I spent a few hours at the Merrion Square pop-up Christmas market in the beautiful Architectural Archive building. Along with the Irish made art, jewelry and finery were a few food vendors.

Sampled divine chocolates and kombucha tea.

Accomplished a bit of our holiday shopping which yes, included some of those chocolates.

We enjoyed poking around this market sipping mulled wine.

And later while Emmie created Christmas decorations at the Botanic Gardens with her friends, Roisin and Sophie, Scott stopped in to the Graphic Studio Dublin for the Sketch Book sale. Artists who donated pages of their sketchbooks to raise money for charity. Two sketches caught Scott’s eye; as Scott reached for the sketches’ identifying number, a gallery employee told Scott they were by Mary Lohan a well regarded Irish painter.  Hmm, where will they reside back home- at first. ( I say, at first, because of the interesting conversation we had with the owner of another gallery here Dublin regarding the idea of moving art around to different spots in your home…)

On another weekend we found ourselves at the National Crafts & Deign Fair. Wow…it is said to be Ireland’s biggest Fair for the crafts & design industry, and it is obvious why.  More browsing, oohing and awwing at artists’ creativity and ability, finding special items for Christmas, a new hat for myself, oh, yes and more delicious food. Grace and I attended one day,  and then Scott, Emmie and I returned the following day.

Grace did not have school, so she and I had a fun day out at the National Crafts & Design Fair.

I loved this artist’s  knitting.

Monday, December 10 Dance Performance at the Helix 

Grace & Emmie danced at the Helix, the large auditorium at DCU. Grace was in a few parts of Cinderella as was Emmie, and Grace also danced in the Diablo Rojo (the Spanish dance). She’s been taking dance with her two good friends, Laura and  Ashling and enjoying it.

Sharon, Lisa, Beckey and Katie drove up from Arklow which was incredibly kind and supportive.  It was a wonderful performance including a variety of dancers ranging in age and ability. The adult company, though, was superb- the large dance numbers, we’re talking 50+ dancers on the stage at the same time, were well choreographed and precise. The Bollywood and One from a Chorus Line numbers were particularly fantastic. Sara and Emma, directors of the Irish Ballet School, choreographed the show to include every class and multiple dances; this is the reason for the incredible length. 3 hours. So proud of our dancers!

friends & sisters; Emma, Emmie, Laura & Grace

Corpus Christi students told the story of the Nativity and sang Christmas carols at the Corpus Christi church. Emmie’s class as well as the 5th and 6th class sang several songs including Joy to the World, Christmas isn’t Christmas, So this is Christmas, Jingle Bells, An Chead Nollaig (The First Christmas). What a lovely annual event!

Emmie with her teacher, Ms. Bourke, after the Christmas Carol Service.

Grace and her class told the story of the Grinch for the winter talent show.  She played a citizen of Whoville. All the stores seemed to be out of Christmas jumpers- due to last minute nature of the request. Hmm… Thanks Robert McCormack for the loan of yours. A touch of garland in the hair was the finishing touch; their prefects are quite organized and creative. Each class created and shared a short skit or song: the Nativity, Snow White, Disney Remix….

Home after a fun day—Grace as a citizen of Whoville in Maryfield’s annual talent show.

The Hobbit and L. Mulligan Grocer

“Where there’s life there’s hope.” ― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit

“Saruman believes it is only great power that can hold evil in check, but that is not what I have found. I found it is the small everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keep the darkness at bay. Small acts of kindness and love. Gandalf” ― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit

We read The Hobbit as a family a few summers ago; thus, we were truly looking forward to our first trip to the movie theater to see the film. Entertaining! Grace is a big fan of the handsome dwarves Thorin and Keli, Emmie loved it all- the wise Galadriel and Gandalf, the funny dwarf Bombur and especially the scene with the mountain trolls trying to eat the dwarves; though, she is disappointed she has to wait quite while for the next installment to be released!

Dinner at L. Mulligan Grocer, an gastropub.  Amazing black pudding, fun take on fish n chips- Jenga chips, brownie…. oh, the most amazing brownie EVER. And of course, delicious beer and cider!

Enjoying our drinks and anticipating a great meal.

The wise ones

Happenings with Grace and Emmie

The Latest…

Happenings with Emmie and Grace

Today Emmie performed on the M-Factor! Just in case you are not up with the latest… the M-Factor is short for Monster -Factor. More information needed, I’ll continue. I know one might think it has to do with the upcoming Halloween Holiday, but actually it’s based on the Monster High cartoon and dolls. Still not clear. Monster High is a U-Tube cartoon show as with many children’s tv shows, merchandizing is part of the package, thus the dolls. During break time at school many of the girls, more than half of he class according to Emmie act as contestants and mentors for the dolls providing the singing voice. Naturally some students don’t have one of these Monster High dolls, like Emmie, where then girls can borrow from a friend or use another stuffed animal.  Today Emmie sang ET by Katy Perry representing Rochelle, a gargoyle character from Monster High (Just a a few days ago she was a mentor for the character Draculaura., another character)  The winner today, however,  was a stuffed Cow named Daisy represented by a a girl Rochine who sang, All the Single Cows.  

Grace’s school, Maryfield College will hold their annual Witches Walk next week in culmination for the girls’ efforts in raising money for The Hope Foundation.  All the students are encouraged to raise money for at-risk  children all around the world, focusing primarily on India.  Maryfield’s project centers on Calcutta.  On Monday all the students dress up as bats, pumpkins and other Halloween themed costumes and walk around the school grounds and surrounding area. I’m sure there will be more to add on this topic next week.

The Hope Foundation

School updates

Emmie finished her first project for school and handed it in today. It centered on on Autumn and the parameters seemed student-driven. When I asked about it , Emmie continued to assure me, “ I can do anything.” The student choice excited me, though- I craved a little more guidance: a direction sheet, list of expectations- something- more details. Perhaps, Emmie was simply not taking notes on what the project’s requirements were. I encouraged Emmie to ask her teacher for details and to share some of her project ideas in order to receive some feedback. I know it can be a blessing and a curse to have educators as parent-even former ones, I speak of myself at the moment, since Scott is the one teaching at DCU, as parents. Once she was confident about her ideas and plan she, diligently and mostly independently worked over the course of 2+ weeks.  I especially love her two original poems, one is titled the Life of a Leaf and the other Autumn.  As she began her project research, she read several poems about autumn and chose one by Edward Hirsch to also include. Last night as she prepared what she might say for her informal project  in-class sharing of her project, she briefly researched Edward Hirsch. She read another one of his poems and listened to an interview the poet gave; this was a natural part of her learning that was such a joy to watch- discovering that this poet is alive, and what inspires him to write poetry. Her interest in science also connected nicely as she included a section on the seasons and why leaves change colors.

On another note, Emmie had her first field-trip to the Botanic Gardens today!

No rest for first years at Grace’s school, Maryfield College. Grace has been studying like mad-getting quite a robust amount of homework each night. Unlike Emmie, she has homework on the weekends too.  It’s been a challenge to accomplish it all since it really is a large amount. But she is…. completing what she needs to even waking up early if needed.  Some of the work seems interesting and challenging while other assignments are less so.

German quiz yesterday, history one tomorrow…. One of her religion assignments, Facts about Me, reminded us all of the Me Bag assignment she and Emmie have had back home. (Go PDS!)  Irish is certainly a challenge as the level of her class is advanced; all of her classmates have been taking some Irish since the beginning of primary school. She’s spending quite a bit of time on it . When you’re 12 years of age you can opt out of taking it and since we are only here a year and she’s already taking German and as lovely as it is there is little long-term benefit in learning Irish.  Needless to say, she’s working hard!

Grace at work!

Em with her completed project!

School

Emmie and Grace’s first days of school have gone well- quite well.

Grace seems to settling in, making friends and enjoying most of her classes. She arrived home the other day commenting, “I love my history, religion and German teachers.”

As Emmie and I walked down Griffith Avenue towards her school, we noticed another girl in a Corpus Christi uniform with her mom and dog. Emmie was nervous I would embarrass her by starting a conversation with them. It happened actually, quite naturally at the traffic light; they noticed Em’s uniform and said hello.  Turns out the girl is both in the same grade and class as Emmie- 🙂 Adele and her mom, Ann Maria seem lovely. All the new students gathered with their parents separately and waited for Ms. Galvin, the principal, to escort them individually to their assigned room. When it was Emmie’s turn, she introduced Emmie to her teacher, Ms. Burke, and then Ms. Burke to me. I felt a bit silly in my running gear, but adjusted and accepted the fact quickly. Once initial introductions were finished, I heard from the doorway the teacher introduce Emmie to the class and ask where there was a free spot for her to sit.  From my angle, I spied several hands shoot up to volunteer seats; one of them was Adele the girl we met on the way to school.

Her day was grand!  She met me with smiles. Lots of books to cover and more supplies to purchase. That is definitely a significant difference between the States and Ireland.  Here, students are required to purchase not only supplies but all the books. We are certainly hoping we can sell the majority of them back before we leave.

I wish we had ordered the books on-line because then the company covers them for you. Darn! That certainly would have saved some time and effort. Though it really was Scott and the girls who covered the books, can I repeat SCOTT and the girls who covered the majority.

Now we’re into week two.  Grace has been walking to school quite independently meeting friends on the way since the start. She had 3 shorter Induction Days and then full days ever since.  (She and Alicia McCormack met by Grace Park Road and walked together for a few of the days and now they see each other at school. What a wonderful coincidence that Grace would end up attending the same school as Sharon’s niece.

Emmie is also comfortable to walk part of the way on her own both before and after school. She’d like to walk both ways on her own; it’s more me that wants to walk with her to see her cross Drumcondra Avenue, a busy road safely. The cross walks, though are easily navigable.

Homework too, is underway.  Grace and Emmie have had homework almost every night besides Friday.  In fact, Grace is still up working on some history HW as I write.

Both Grace and Emmie are taking Irish along with the typical other subjects as well as religion. Grace also takes CPHE and CSPE, which I believe are health and civics  as well her chosen bands/courses are German, science, Music and Art.

The girls together- smiling!