Seventh grade has been a time of profound flowering for Sean. You may not know that Sean has had hearing aids since the third grade--we knew he had a mild hearing loss when he was born, but the doctors didn't become insistent about hearing aids until the time he got them, because he had had no problems with language or speech.
 
He has been dabbling with an acoustic guitar off and on for a couple of years, and then exactly one year ago today he became acquainted with the electric bass, a Fender that his dad gave him for his birthday. He has been in a garage band since then with a friend from school plus a couple of others. In February his band (Beyond Karen) participated in a battle of bands contest hosted by Hillsdale Middle School--the prize was a chance to play at the House of Blues. Beyond Karen was chosen and they played at the HOB on March 5th. What a rush of emotion to watch and listen! The band played again at the Hot Monkey Love Cafe on March 28th.
 
In February Sean's school, San Diego Cooperative Charter School, held an impromptu spelling bee, and Sean won. This qualified him to participate in the countywide spelling bee on March 11th. As if March hadn't been already chock full of success. With virtually no preparation, of 77 contestants, Sean made it to the fourth round and was number 18 when he tried to spell integument.
 
And then there was the invention science project--the Spoon-O-Matic 2400--which yielded him a spot to display it as a school representative at the county science fair on May 15th at the Scottish Rite Center. It's a spoon with two rotating scoops, so you save time getting twice as much food for the effort, for those busy people who need to eat quickly and get going with their day :) The project included a paper and a display board.
 
Academically, Sean has been doing quite well--almost all A's the first quarter. The teenage attitude has started to creep in, and he garnered two more B's in the last progress report, but we're not complaining! We're planning on the International Baccalaureate program at San Diego High when the time comes.
 
This was also his second year in club wrestling, a very tough sport, physically and mentally. He is challenged by it and he does try to rise to the challenge most of the time. Next year we expect at least a small improvement because he's very interested in going to the gym with us, me and Jonathan, his stepdad, these days. Wrestling came after years of  baseball and exposure to soccer, basketball, and tennis.