Amy knows herself so well

I feel pretty certain that when I was 10, I didn't have the kind of self-awareness that Amy does. A couple of weeks ago, we had to work together to complete a self-assessment for the Futura (aka "gifted") program that Amy goes to once a week. She had an informed and thoughtful opinion on her preferred learning style - she likes to hear something once, then apply it...she doesn't like hearing things more than once, and she definitely doesn't like repeatedly practicing things. She says she always "gets it" on the first explanation.

Amy also has pretty good awareness about her emotions and what's behind them. She still gets really angry at us from time to time, but eventually she comes around to realize that though she was yelling at us, she was really upset with herself. I'm proud that she can recognize that and even more proud that she feels comfortable voicing it, and doesn't just dig in and stick with the anger.

She's a pretty great kid.

I read an interview recently with someone who's an expert on giftedness. She talked about some gifted kids being very spiritually sensitive, specifically mentioning someone she'd worked with who asked "What if I'm living in someone else's dream?" That reminded me that a couple of times, Amy has called me into her room at night, teary-eyed and sad, and when I asked why, she said "What if the world isn't real?" Try answering that!

Baker, baker, cookie maker

That book was one of Reed's favorites.

Cookie Monster
Cookie eater
Mixes batter
With his beater

Now we have two very interested bakers on our hands. Both kids are only interested in baking or making desserts of any kind. Reed most frequently wants to make cookies, usually chocolate chip. One recent weekend, Amy and her pal Morgan had made cupcakes and used up all my baking butter for the frosting. But Reed wanted to make chocolate chip cookies. So he searched online for a recipe that didn't use butter, and went for it. He was successful, but having cookies that used a cup of oil in the recipe only reconfirmed why the Nestle Tollhouse (read: recipe with butter) is the best.

Amy loves to make cupcakes, often finding recipes online. Yesterday she found a recipe for baked donuts and she made those for us this morning - they turned out great! Her fifth grade science project is even baking related - she's going to test the differences in how cookies come out if they're baked with softened butter vs. melted butter.

Reed is taking what used to be called "Home Economics" this semester...it's now called "Family and Consumer Science." He brought home a recipe for cookie dough dip which we tried out at the river last weekend - it was dee-lish! That one will go in the next family cookbook, for sure.

With any luck, perhaps one day soon they'll both be interested in cooking too, and I can hand off some of my duties to them! Fingers crossed!

It's like her brain went in high gear again

Amy did some reading over the summer, but not heavy duty like she sometimes gets. But this week with school starting....I think she's read at least 5 books this week. Brain is back in gear, ready to learn!