Preston earns some recognition!

Congratulations to Preston! At today's 7th grade awards assembly, he was recognized for making honor roll all 4 quarters and earning a "I" rating for his snare drum solo at the February solo & ensemble contest. We were expecting those recognitions, but we were pleasantly surprised and mega-proud when he was presented with an award for being the most outstanding 7th grade jazz band musician. He was asked to switch from drum set to bells this year and he tackled it well. I am so pleased to see him rewarded for his efforts. We are also blessed to have an amazing Fine Arts staff at Rochester that works very hard to get all they can from the students.

ShenZhen Population Boom: 30,000 to 12,000,000 -- in 30 years

I've got some fabulous pictures to share, thanks to another adoptive parent, who shared the following article: Here's What Shenzhen, China Looked Like Just Before Becoming One Of The Most Important Cities In The World. I've written about ShenZhen before (Shenzhen: Fishing Village to Major Port), but I never ceased to be amazed by it's growth. According to this, the population around 1980 was roughly 30,000. However, about that time, China designated it a Special Economic Zone, freeing it from much of the Communist rules that the rest of the country has to follow in terms of private business growth. The city has taken off ever since, and the most recent figures provide a population estimate of 12,000,000.

Here are 5 random pictures from the article I linked above (all taken in 1980):

 

 

 

 

And now, compare those to the following (also taken from that article):

And this (taken from my own blog):

Or, better yet, watch this 48 second video that shows a better look at the gridlock we found ourselves stuck in for two-plus hours:

Gridlock from Amy Reynolds on Vimeo.

I read that the population density in ShenZhen is at 6,620 people (per square mile).  Can you imagine just how strange it must have been for Shaling to arrive here and see such wide expanses of single-family homes?!?

Finally, just a bit off topic, but while searching for the gridlock video to share, I stumbled across this one as well. Shaling and Natalie (who was adopted to a family in Florida the same day we got Shaling) are chattering away in Chinese. While I wouldn't trade being able to converse with Shaling, I am nostalgic for those days of hearing her rattle off in Chinese like this. Shaling is the one in the green jacket (on the right):

More Gridlock from Brock Reynolds on Vimeo.

English Progress Update

When Shaling first started school at Rochester, she was given an English proficiency exam to determine her need for E.L.L. (English Language Learner) services. That was in January 2011. Each January since, she has been given the test again to gauge her progress. Even though she takes the test in January, we (and the school) don't receive the scores until May (the test is sent off to be scored somewhere else).

This year, the day of the test was not a good day for Shaling. For deeply personal reasons, she was intensely distracted. The teacher (Mrs. Bivens) warned me at the time that this probably affected Shaling's scores. Based on Shaling's results (which you can see below), I believe that her Listening score was definitely affected, but I'm not concerned at all, because I find her other scores to be outstanding.

All scores are out of 6.0.

Her score jumps are mighty impressive to me. In order to "graduate" from E.L.L. services, she will need at least a 4.2 for Literacy (which she has already reached) and a Composite score of 4.8 (she is at 3.9). Not bad for only two years into learning the language. Way to go, girl!

Shaling's Growth - Put in Numbers

When describing Shaling's growth to people, I have been telling them that in just over two years, she's grown roughly 10 inches or more. I've often showed them the following two pictures (which I keep on my phone) for comparison. The first one was taken on Gotcha Day (the day we got her), December 27, 2010. The second one was taken in February of this year -- just over two years later. Check out how Preston towers over her in the first one and how much that has changed by the second one.

Well, now I have some numbers to back my estimate up. In this blog post from New Year's Day 2011, Shaling went to the doctor in China for a physical before we could bring her to America. I included this picture, which shows her standing on a scale:

She weighed 25.5 kilograms, which converts to roughly 56 pounds, and stood 127.5 centimeters tall, which converts to roughly 50 inches. Yesterday, I had the kids stand in front of a measuring strip by the door at Steak & Shake. Shaling is now WELL over 5 feet tall (60.5 inches), so my 10-inch to  a foot taller estimate was pretty accurate. Shaling neglected to smile, so the picture isn't very good, and she made me promise not to post it, so I won't. At home, I had her stand on the scale before bedtime and according to that scale, she now weighs 91 pounds. The girl knows how to eat!

Good News for Shaling

Yesterday, Shaling was one of five girls who tried out for two open spots on a traveling competitive basketball team. She did a fabulous job at the tryout and was aptly rewarded. We got the good news today and I let Preston be the one to tell her.

As you can tell, she is excited. So far, we know she has tournaments May 25/26 and the first 3 weekends in June. The first and last ones are in Springfield. The first weekend of June is in Bloomington and the second weekend is in Decatur.

Shhh! We're Writing the Constitution

As parents, Brock & I have rule that we don't make the kids participate in any specific activity. They just have to be involved in something other than just regular school schoolwork. What that something is, is up to them.

Rules are made to be broken by me, right?

Shaling is in 5th grade this year. In Rochester, 5th grade is the first time that the students have the option of participating in chorus. For one reason, and one reason only, I told Shaling she had to be in chorus for just one year. That reason? The annual production, "Shhh! We're Writing the Constitution."

Oh, my. This is one amazing show. I thoroughly enjoyed it when Preston was in it and couldn't wait for Shaling to do the same. The performance centers around the Constitutional Convention of 1787, but draws upon that to link in other parts of American History as well. The kids wear costumes from the colonial period and sing songs centering around the United States of America.

The intermediate school music teacher, Dave McCafferty, has tweaked the show a bit with his own personal touch, and if I remember correctly, our now retired principal, Laurie Lundin, helped him a bit with that. The entire Fine Arts staff, as well as other staff members, all pitch in to help make this a spectacular production.

Last night was this year's performance (although there will also be a repeat performance at the Fine Arts Festival later this month) and it was tremendous. I'll share with you below two videos from it.

This one is "Fifty, Nifty, United States". It has personal meaning to me, because I remember singing it well over 30 years ago in grade school with Mr. Ben Strode. That grade school (South Elementary) is now an apartment and office building.

Fifty Nifty United States from Amy Reynolds on Vimeo.

This one is a fun medley of several well known tunes, including "God Bless the U.S.A." by Lee Greenwood and "America" by Neil Diamond.

Medley Finale from Amy Reynolds on Vimeo.

My Kids Might Be In an Ad Campaign

Over night, I received a message from a visual research company based in Los Angeles, Nickerson Research. They are currently working on an advertising project for a client and stumbled across one of my videos on Vimeo. They would like to forward my video to their creative team for possible use (footage only, not the audio), so they had some licensing and logistics questions for me. I'm very intrigued about their client, but realize privacy issues probably prevent them from telling me who it is. I have told them I am the author/copyright holder of the video and I'm willing to let them use it, but am awaiting further information from them at this point as to how to do that.

This is the video that the company wishes to use (I suspect the last roughly 20 seconds are what they want):

Preston & Shaling Share Ramen Noodles from Amy Reynolds on Vimeo.
My caption at the time: "Ramen noodles are the one thing Preston knows how to cook. No, we don't usually make the kids share bowls. They did that all on their own."
They are both able to prepare several items in the kitchen now.