From the category archives:
Jack and Owen have qualified for the MAWA Regional Tournament every year they’ve entered. That’s four years for Jack and three for Owen. Jack’s first qualification was in 2006 and his most recent was last weekend (we took 2009 off). Every time, they’ve either qualified in first place or second.
Here’s a little overview of Jack and Owen wrestling in the MAWA tournaments through the years: PHOTOS HERE.
“Good Dancing Restores The Community To Wholeness”
(African proverb)
The third grade at Germantown Academy has been studying Africa since they returned from Christmas vacation. Among the topics they’ve studied are masks, stories, food, culture, geography, music; but, mostly importantly, they studied DANCE.
The students have been working each week this year with Jeannie Osayande, director of the Dunya Performing Arts Company, and drummers from company.
Yesterday, just before early dismissal for yet another (!) snow storm, the third grade presented their dance performance to a full house of parents, friends and all the Lower School students in the arts center. It was a fabulous show.
There was even a surprise appearance yesterday by a Chakaba, a masked stilt dancer. The Chakaba brings blessings to festivities. There was also a demonstration of the Afro-Brazilian martial art of Capoeira. And the show ended with a rousing dance by the entire Lower School faculty!!
Owen’s class did a dance from the West African countries of Mali, Guinea and Senegal called the “Mandiani.” It is performed traditionally in the celebration of ‘Coming of Age’ ceremonies. Mandiani is also performed at weddings and other social events and is also one of the fastest, most energetic and exciting dances of West Africa.
Then it was back to the Lower School and the third graders read aloud their original African fables. Owen’s was titled “How the Leopard Got Its Spots,” and was a beautifully illustrated and bound book that he had made. (He hasn’t brought his book home yet, but I’ll scan the pages and post when he does.)
Owen placed third in his first “real” (electric, not dry) foil tournament. He was amazing and the best thing was that he got exponentially better as the day went on.
The tournament was supposed to have two groups, 10 and under (Owen is nine) and 12 and under. But, there weren’t enough 10 and unders, so they combined the groups. Ten and under was supposed to be dry, but once they combined the groups, they decided to lend Owen electric gear so everyone could fence the same way. He was VERY excited about this because he’s only used practice gear.
Unfortunately, they didn’t have anything really small enough for him (the other kids were all experienced at tournaments and had their own gear.) Owen had to compete all day with a weapon that had a completely different grip from his (pistol, not French) and was two sizes bigger — and heavier. He said his arm, wrist and hand were really aching by the end of the day.
Owen had a rough start, losing his first pool match in overtime and struggled in the pool matches, finishing 1-3. However, once the elimination portion of the tournament started, he took off. He knocked off two MUCH bigger, older fencers (one who had beat him in a pool match) to finish third.
Let me say again, Owen was amazing. Because of school and other activities, fencing was put on hold for about six months. He’s only had three training sessions since his layoff. While he gained a lot of strength in his off time, he lost technique and fencing savvy (if he every really had any!! 
) However, what he might not have in official technique, he made up in agression, athleticism and speed.
A lot of what he does never scores, and he was frustrated by that. If his bouts had been true battles, I’m pretty sure all his opponents would be dead. Once he puts his natural physical skills with more fencing education, he’s going to be unstoppable.
Photos of Owen fencing are here.
(If you can’t tell which one he is in the photos, he’s always the
shorter fencer and he has neon green on his shoes.)
Since I’m never going to have time to blog about any of these events individually, I put them all together. I put captions under most of the photos to explain them. There’s even a bizarr-o photo in the collection!
Selection of photos from December.
Owen and Fiona are touching and smiling and NOT fighting. (Photo taken in Philly before the Nutcracker ballet. More to follow later.)
For some reason, the quick time movie didn’t work for everyone, so try clicking here to see a video of Owen the woodworker in action.
It takes a minute to load, and you can’t really hear him at the beginning, but the audio gets better about halfway through.
A slideshow of some photos are here.
Jack and Owen are playing some game upstairs that involves lots of yelling and thumping. A few minutes ago, they came down to the kitchen, rooted around in a drawer and ran some water.
Jack said something I couldn’t really hear. Then, I heard Owen say, “I think we should wait to start playing again until I staunch the flow of blood.”
******
Update about 10 minutes later: I hear them come clomping down the stairs. Jack is breathing heavily, kind of gasping. Then Owen says, “Jack, you’re not screaming in agony, so I don’t think anything is broken.”
(Owen is #53 in the gold, putting his shoulder
into that really really really big kid.)
I’m running around trying to get ready for Halloween. Owen’s team played well, but lost to Lenape Valley this morning.
A couple of people have said they can’t find the links to the photos, so below are links to the photos from all the Mitey Mite games I’ve attended this year.
The big-deal Halloween parade at Germantown Academy was today. Everyone looked wonderful. The whole school, from pre-K to seniors comes out to the quad and parades around.
The PK teachers were famous GA athletes from the past, the 3rd grade teachers were Phillies “fans,” and the 5th grade teachers were bats in the belfry.
More photos are here.
Owen had to give his first book report this week. He read an abridged version of The Man in the Iron Mask by Dumas.
Over the past two weeks or so, once he’d read the book, Owen wrote an outline with setting, characters, plot summary and high point all detailed. The assignment was to deliver the book report to the class, using props.
Owen, being Owen, of course, had to take things a step further and BECOME the main character, Philippe. So he delivered his report in the first person, wearing the iron mask.
Our goals for the project diverged a bit. I thought he should [click to continue…]
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