September 27, 2007

Camping School...

My middle granddaughter, Ava Marin Analise Valerio, is 5 yrs old, she is extremely precocious, she just started Kindergarten at the Ventura Charter School (formerly SAGE), she takes ballet at the Ventura Ballet School, she takes acting lessons at Actors Space school, she sings in her church choir, she has appeared in about 5 performances, she reads at a 3 rd or 4 th grade level, she has mastered the art of sending e-mails to her cousin Arden Elise Smith in Virginia who is my oldest grandchild, she is 9 yrs old and is getting all A+ in her classes, she is studying singing and piano. The youngest granddaughter is Paloma Bella Valerio, she is going to be 2 yrs old in January, this is the stubborn one, she does things her way or not at all.

The other day my wife took Ava Marin to get some ice cream and she told my wife that her momma was being mean to her. When my wife asked why, she said because her momma tells her what to do. My wife said well that's alright because her momma was her boss. She looked very indignant and said "no she's not, I'm my boss." My wife proceeded to tell her, "OK then you better go get a job so you can pay for your own Ice Cream", that was the first time my granddaughter was at a loss for words.

The Ventura Charter School (formerly Sage) is a very forward thinking school, they tend to do things that aren't done at regular public schools. For example this week they are holding all their classes at the Tres Coronado's (Three Crowns) girl scout camp behind the Arnez Apple farm. There are probably around 200 kids there for Wednesday, Thursday, and part of Friday. By all appearances the kids are loving it, they have their classes during the day and then have games and campfires at night.

It's too bad that all kids can't attend schools like this, most public schools are so overcrowded that it's a boring task for the kids to even go to school, never mind learn anything.

Rellis Smith

res@venturastuff.com