"What a sweep of vanity comes this way"

"[Painted Maypole]'s performance as the older, married woman with whom Guy once had an affair is the highlight of the production."

That's a quote from our review in today's Times-Picayune. It makes me smile. The rest of the review is so-so, it basically says the cast is good, but the play is standard fare for this playwright and the theme is starting to be "monotonous." (Which won't be true for people who aren't familiar with the playwright's body of work) The review is, I think, kinder than it needs to be in many regards, even though it's not a glowing review. But I'll take my kudos, thank you very much.

Last Saturday I was awarded a "Best Actress" Award for my role this past May. The theatre has its own awards, so it's not some big city-wide thing or anything, but again, I'll take my kudos, thank you very much. I wasn't there to accept the award because the banquet was on a Saturday night and I was busy. ACTING. My co-star from that show is coming to see me on stage Saturday night and will be bringing the (apparently quite heavy) trophy to me then.

I don't need the kudos, of course. But it is nice to have people recognize my hard work every now and then.

Following in my footsteps

Every night before bedtime we have story time. For years we've read 2 stories to The May Queen, but over the summer we added a third story, one that SHE reads to us. I went through her shelves (and shelves) of books and pulled out books I thought she could read and placed them in a basket for her to choose from (I'm awfully glad I kept a lot of those "baby" board books!). I also hit up the library for new books for her to read. She now often pulls other books off of her shelves and surprises us by reading many of them.

My heart fills with pride as she reads a story to me. But tonight, my heart nearly burst. As she read a book I didn't think she could read she surprised me even more by doing voices for all the characters. The same voices I use. When the frog had a deep southern accent, I nearly had to bite my tongue to keep from laughing, it was so adorable.

The May Queen does not appear to have been bitten by the acting bug, and I am totally OK with that. But I am beyond thrilled that she'll be a dynamic reader (there are few things worse than listening to someone read in a monotone!)

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Don't forget Monday's Mission: write a post in the form of notes taken in class

and if you have any ideas for upcoming missions, please share them! I'll post the list for October on Monday

My child is "superior"

Part of the admissions process when we applied for The May Queen's new school was an IQ test. I have my misgivings about standardized testing, having tutored for the SATs (one of the most miserable jobs I've had!). I wonder about how someone (even a professional someone) can make a judgement on intelligence in the course an hour, and I worry about what labeling students might do to how they are treated in the classroom. All that being said...

(warning: bragging commencing...)
The May Queen was ranked as "superior" (the second highest ranking out of 7. They did not give us a firm number, although we can call the psychologist to get it. We do know she was between 120 and 129). The admissions director told us they see a few "superiors" at their school, but most kids are average or "high average." The written assessments are very in line with what we, her parents, have noted. She "demonstrated significantly advanced skills in vocabulary, in verbal abstract reasoning, in non-verbal abstract reasoning, and in spatial reasoning." She has always had an astounding vocabulary, speaking early, and always far beyond the number of words she was supposed to be speaking at a young age. She has always loved patterns, sequences, sorting and counting, which of course are pre-math skills. She tested highest in the math areas. The area she wasn't as strong in (not WEAK, just not superior strength) was reading, and she did struggle with reading at the beginning of this school year, although her skills are rapidly catching up now that they are reading stories and not lists of words.

We are obviously pleased to hear the professional opinion that our child is as bright as we, her proud parents, think she is. It also confirms that we made the right choice in putting her in kindergarten this year and advancing her into first grade next year. She clearly would have been bored if she had to repeat kindergarten. We feel confident that her new school will work with her and continue to challenge her.

I don't remember ever taking an IQ test, but my husband says his three tests as a child ranged from 123-131. I decided to take one online. While I can't vouch for its authenticity, I feel it must be pretty on target since it has my score as 142. Clearly, I am a genius. (and that score was WITH my husband coming in, discovering what I was doing, and openly mocking me)

How about you? Have you been tested? Have your children? What do you think about the validity and usefulness of an IQ score?