Symbols, Drums, and Ivories

We had a visit from Lauren's Nanni and Pop-Pop Paul two weekends ago, in town for a belated celebration of her birthday and to attend Norm's graduation from USC's Executive MBA program.  It was a jam-packed few days around here, business as usual.

The Friday morning after their arrival, they accompanied Lauren and me to school, first for Kabbalat Shabbat.



After an hour of singing and clapping, it was time to attend a very special first grade event.  Known as Integrated Project Based Learning, the students chose symbols of their history and culture to study.  On their own, they then came up with ways to showcase the information they learned. The entire project was student-driven.

Lauren was paired up with a boy in her class, Eitan.  Their chosen symbol?  Mt. Rushmore.  To showcase the wealth of knowledge they had amassed on the subject, they engaged in a mock interview, where Lauren was a journalist interviewing Eitan about the mountain.


[All questions and answers on the notecards were developed and written by the kids]

We were then challenged to put together a puzzle they had created by themselves.  With less than 10 minutes to spare before moving on to the next classroom, we barely made it but what a treat to see the finished product.

Front:


Back:


Then it was on to the Hebrew classroom, where a museum of symbols was presented for our perusal.


[With current crush Ryan]

Morah Ifat, her lead Hebrew teacher, is incredibly warm and enthusiastic and ensures that our girl loves  learning about her heritage every single day.





So much, in fact, that Lauren spontaneously broke into Hebrew song (a regular occurrence at home and in the car, I might add).



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This year, losing my hearing once at Farrell's wasn't enough.  Oh no.  Age 7 is so momentous we needed to return for an encore on Saturday night.

With less than 8 people this time around, we couldn't sit in the relative obscurity of the back room.  Nothing but the decibel-busting best location in the main dining area for this party of 5.


So what did we do with the nonstop cacophony of banging drums, wailing sirens and totally off key singing going on around us?

The only thing we could do.

Go with it and have a little fun.










Of course when the ice cream sundaes arrived, they barely had to twist the birthday girl's arm to get her up and dancing for her treat.



Especially when a round of applause awaited her at the end.



Not to mention a candle with 3 cherries on top.





So is she going to grow out of her adoration for this place by the time she turns 8?  Highly unlikely, but that's ok.  I wouldn't want to miss her bliss.  Next year they can pound away all they want on those drums.  I'll be packing ear plugs.

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Sunday afternoon brought us together again for Lauren's Yamaha piano recital.  With a new dress, shoes with little heels, and styled hair to boot, she was feeling the music.







Pre-performance, she sat with her classmate Mia.



When it was time for her group to play, she belted out those two songs with gusto, and sang the notes louder than anyone else.



The medal awarded afterwards perfectly matched her outfit (but of course!)





The final bow:


[just a tad out of sync]

Post-performance, she was loaded up with flowers.  



Not to mention surrounded by plenty of love.







Another season of piano lessons has come and gone.  At this point I honestly don't know whether there will be a spring recital post at this time next year.  I hope so, but she's growing and changing and certainly developing her own opinions about what she does and does not want to do.  Only time will tell whether tickling those ivories will remain in her repertoire.