End of the School Year Recap

The kids finished the school year in May.  Aurora completed the first grade and finished strong!  Her report was really good.  She brought up a few subjects that we were concerned about and kept her her good grades in all of the others. 

She reads really well and has an amazing talent for art and drawing. 

My friend Alida is a graphics designer and she is a good mentor for her.  She drew this picture of Aurora and Freddie!

Aurora is spending the summer at the city's community center summer program where she plays games, swims, and goes on various field trips before moving on to second grade!

Alex is still in preschool but he's been doing a great job too.  He can identify and write his letters and he can write and spell his full name.  He can also count to ten in Spanish.  He also draws really well and loves to sing and dance. 

He's spending the summer in the same school doing fun summer stuff like water play, pajama days, and trips to the park.  Since he doesn't turn five until October, he'll be continue there for another year.

Both kids have had some behavior problems though.  Aurora just can't stop talking and intterupting.  Alex has temper tantrums when he doesn't get his way at school.  The marble jars were not working well to curb these school behaviors so we implemented a sticker chart.  Every day that they don't get in trouble at school they get a sticker.  We tend to do a lot of fun things on the weekends, so they now have to get at least 4 stickers out of the 5 days, or we don't get to do anything that weekend.  It's been working really well!  We only had a week or two each that they haven't gotten enough stickets.  They definitely don't want to miss out on any plans we have!

Swimming Lessons!

The kids started swimming lessons yesterday!  It was Aurora's second time and Alex's first time doing a class by himself, as last year I wasn't able to get them into classes and the year before we did the Parent/Tot class.

We go every Saturday morning for 8 sessions.  Alex is in the tadpole class and Aurora is a sea horse.  Both kids did great!  They listened to the instructors and had lots of fun.  Alex even put his face under the water!



Listening to the pool rules



Practicing kicking

Learning to use kickboards

For the last five minutes of class the kids were allowed to take turns on the frog slide.  They had a blast!

Aurora's Musical

On the 19th, Aurora participated in her first school musical!  It was mandatory and part of her music grade for this year.  They've been practicing for months!  The musical was 'Dr. Suessical the Musical'.   Each first grade class had a part and then they all sang together during the certain parts.  Aurora's class wore all green and sang "Green Eggs and Ham."  The grandparents, Uncle Joe, and Megan and Sean all came to support her.

She sang and performed and did a great job!  I have video but my camcorder is not cooperating right now.  Here are some photos:

Waiting to surprise Grandpa K before the performance

Alex was completely into the performance and clapped for her when she was done!

The Marble Jar System

Last week I retired the Star Chart. I didn't feel like it was working the way I wanted it to. Sure, the kids were doing what they were supposed to, but it wasn't curbing the unwanted behaviors (like fighting, whining, not listening) and Aurora would count how many stars she could still lose before the week was out.

Enter the Marble Jar System! I read about this in Parenting or Family Fun or one of those magazines.

To prepare, Aurora and I went to Hobby Lobby and got 2 small glass vases, 1 medium glass vase, some decorative pebbles for the marbles, ribbon, letter stickers, and decorative stickers. When we got home the kids decorate their jars and I made a print out of responsibilities and their marble designation.



On the print out, I used graphics instead of numbers for the marbles so that Alex would be able to count them and know how many. My judgment for the number of marbles was basically:

-Stuff that they just needed to do everyday and was part of life - 1 marble
-Stuff that still needed to be done everyday but required a little more effort - 2 marbles
-Stuff that required a lot of effort and/or wasn't done everyday - 3 marbles



I discussed the plan with the kids. Each time they did something on the list, they would get the designated number of marbles. Each time they had bad behavior or did something unacceptable, they would lose marbles, and Mom and Dad determined how many at the time. And sometimes Mom and Dad may give extra marbles if we see behavior that we think should be rewarded, like sharing nicely or doing something that wasn't asked of them. When their marble jar was filled up to the ribbon, they got a trip to the dollar store (a favorite place) to pick out a toy and a piece of candy.

The kids were super excited about it. They made sure that they received their marbles when they did things on the list. Occasionally when I asked Aurora to do something she would say, "Do I get a marble?" and we'd have to discuss how we help each other and do things around the house even when there is no "reward." That ended pretty quickly.

So far it's been working great. They are doing their chores. Aurora has no idea how many marbles she still needs to reach the top, so she continues to do what she needs to do. Adding and removing marbles is quick and easy and is easy to reward extra good behavior. Fighting can be curbed with a simple, 'Do I need to take some marbles away?"

It's been a week and their jars are about 1/3 full, so I'm guessing it'll take 3-4 weeks to fill it. My only concern is if that is too long for them to wait to be rewarded since they are still both so young. If it is, I may get smaller jars or move the ribbon down. But for now, it's working for us!

Braggin' on Aurora

I'm so proud of Aurora!  She is doing so well in school.  We recently got her 3rd quarter report card and she is exceeding in everything!  Her teacher said she is doing a great job and is a very quick learner.  She learns her sight word lists overnight.  Her teacher's comments (the handwritten comment was by the principal):

Aurora has also advanced to first grade level reading!  She brought this book home last night from a first grade class and read it to me with no problem!

That's my girl!