School Spirit and Lunches on the Deck

So in an attempt to blog the big stuff, and the small, I had to just post a few pictures. 

First off, last week was "Red Ribbon Week," at school for M&J.  It is like Spirit Week (different theme for each day, crazy hair, assemblies, etc.), except the week is devoted to keeping kids off drugs.  LOVE this, by the way.  One of the days was Crazy Hair Day.  My kids look forward to this each year.  This year was mowhawks and blue hair spray.  So without further adue...here they are - CRAZY-HAIRED out!

Here is the whole crew!  Minus Luke, Jake's best bud.  He was still doing his hair at the time the picture was taken.  These kids walk/bike/scooter to and from, school together each day.  Then they usually play together for the rest of it.  We are blessed to be surrounded by such great friends for my kids.  Love these kids and their families.

 
Crazy hair also needs a crazy face to go with it apparently. :)

Speaking of school, since I didn't get around to blogging about the kids' first day this year, I thought I would add it now. :)

The only problem is that the morning Jake started, my camera wouldn't focus.  My fault.  Switch the setting to "manual focus" instead of "auto focus."  Didn't figure it out until much later...so I am sad to report that I don't have Jake's picture on his first day of school. :(  But here is Morgan's.  Sorry buddy.

Now this picture just might be the real reason I wanted to blog about this day.  I think a new tradition may have begun in our home.  Trev decided he wanted to take M&J out to breakfast on their first day, and then drop them off at school afterwards.  This year the kids started on different days, so it was the perfect time for each of them to get some fun one-on-one time with Dad.  It was really neat to see how excited they were.  They felt grown up to be going to Kneaders for breakfast.  They felt loved to be with their dad, and get his undivided attention for just a little while.  He loved the time with them, and getting to drop them off into all the excitement of the first day of school.  Finally, I LOVED IT...because it was really cute, and also because they brought me home a hot breakfast too! :)  I think this tradition is here to stay. :)  I love these moments.

I also wanted to add in another moment that I have been enjoying a lot lately.  Every day when Jake gets home, he, the girls, and I, have lunch together.  Since it has been so nice outside (and also because I want to keep the kitchen as clean as possible), we have been eating lunch outside on the deck.  I truly love this.  Is there any question as to why?  Seriously.  So nice.

While I am on the topic of school.  I have been really impressed with the "little smarties" in our house.  Please don't take this the wrong way, I don't mean to brag.  I just want to take a moment and recognize M&J for a couple things they have been working hard on, and areas I have seen VAST improvements in lately.

Morgan - The year has just begun, and already you are doing incredibly well.  You are in the top of your class, and your reading has just SOARED.  I love to see you getting excited about books and the world of words.  This is something I have learned to love in my life.  I love that you have books outside of school that you WANT to read.  I love that you are reading "The Boxcar Children" right now...a series of books that your father loved as a child.  I find so much joy in good books, and I wish that spark had been ignited in me so much earlier in my life.  I see it starting with you.  I hope it continues to burn.  There is so much to be learned from good books.

You also just learned how to stack the numbers when you add and subtract.  I think math was a bit frustrating for you before, because it would take you so long to figure out the answers; but this little trick has seemed to help a lot!  Now you breeze through story problems!  I also love that I taught you this.  Your teacher didn't, your mom did. :)

Last, I want to express to you how proud I am of the efforts you have made to be better at staying on task.  This has been a struggle for you, mostly at home where things aren't as structured as they are at school.  It used to be that in the mornings you would get up...dawdle about...and then about 10 minutes before you needed to leave for school...go into SUPER-SPEED mode!  Many times you were on time, but things were not done as well, and there were times that you couldn't get it all done.  I would harp on you to "stay focused."  Sometimes nicer than others.  My heart would break when I would take it to far and you would leave for school with a sad look on your face...or even sometimes tears in your eyes.  I would question my methods, over and over, and over again.  Was I expecting too much??  Should I back off???  Should I help more??? 

Or should I let you grow.  That was always what came back to me.  Let you grow.

Well, I am SO PLEASED to say that I have noticed IMMENSE improvements in this area for you over the last couple of weeks!  Hooray!!  You are becoming a Super Self-Starter!   You get up, you get going, you keep going, and often you are ready to leave even before you need to be!  You are not stressed, I am not stressed.  Our mornings together have become so much more enjoyable.  You leave with a smile on your face, and I just know that these habits will help you throughout your life.  And most importantly, I have seen you grow.  I love you Morgan-pie...you are wonderful.  Great job!

Jake - My son.  This is your first year at the "big school."  You are now in Kindergarten!  I can scarcely believe it.  It is so neat for me to see you head off to school each morning, and getting to see your beaming face when you get home.  I love that you love to tell me all about your day!  I love that you come home and we have lunch with the girls.  I love the time we get to work on your homework.  I love still having you around for at least half the day. :)  Next year I will miss that.

So when the school year started I had some concerns for you.  In January of this year, as I was starting to practice your sight words with you, I was astounded to find that after 2 years of Preschool, you did not know your LETTERS or the SOUNDS they make! 

Ever since then, we have worked on them together.  Even over the summer to try and help you get ready for Kindergarten.  I knew that you would be expected to be reading by the end of Kindergarten (as witnessed from Morgan) and I was concerned that you would be behind because you didn't seem to be retaining this vital information.  But I know what a hard worker you are, and that if we worked on it hard enough you would get it.  So we worked, and worked on them.

Then the school year began.  I did not discuss these concerns with your teacher, Mrs. Parsons, because I wanted to see if you had progressed and would perhaps respond differently to a different learning style than what I was using to teach you at home.

Well, about a month ago we had our first Parent-Teacher Conference.  I was a little sad, but not suprised to have your teacher express to me the same concerns that I had.  It was kind of sad, she told me that she had asked you to write down what you thought the sentence, "The dog can run" would look like.  You did not even attempt.  You did however, draw a great picture of what that would look like. :) 

At that time, Mrs. Parsons, shared with me that she would be working with you at school.  She also gave me somethings to practice at home.  However, she informed me that if she didn't see improvement within the next month, we would need to bring in a specialist to determine why you were not retaining this information.  It made me worried for you, but I also felt motivated to help you even more.  I knew that if you could not get the letters, that reading and writing would be frustrating for you and it may become something you didn't want to do.  Something that you wouldn't like doing.  So we got back to work.

Well, it has been a month.  We have worked on your letters and sounds just about every day.  Dad and I have both made this an effort to assist you in this area.  You have grown tremendously!  At your parent-teacher conference, you only knew 4 letters...today you can recognize and give us the coordinating sounds of 17 of them!  You have improved greatly, and you are even starting to recognize some sight words!  I don't think I can adequately express how seeing this makes me feel.  I feel...Proud.  Relieved.  Happy.  Excited. 

I also love to see that you are progressing because of another talent you possess...the ability and desire to work hard.  You are going to be just fine kiddo...because you know how to accomplish hard things.  Hard work.  And Dad and I will always be here to help you.  I  could not be more proud.  Love you son.

~Mom