August

Let's see...in August I left off with Aurora starting Second Grade.  I'm pleased to report that her teacher is AWESOME and she's been loving it.  We've had no issues at all and she's the top reader and top math wiz in her class!

Alex is still in preschool since his five year birthday was past the cutoff.  We've had some behavior issues with him...mostly because I think he's bored out of his mind since he's been going to the same place for 4 years now!  Academically though, he is doing great learning his numbers and letters and is the resident 'computer expert.'

I also mentioned that we got this little guy...Ratchet.  He's a ball of fun and is so laid back, the kids carry him around, dress him up, or do whatever they want and he just goes along with it!

We also traded in Daddy's car and got him this beautiful new "grown-up" car.  We all love it and it's much safer for the kids!

That about sums up August!

Second Grade!

We've had a pretty busy two weeks here...getting ready for school!  Aurora started the second grade on Monday!  Alex does not turn 5 until October so he still has another year of preschool. 

The week before school, we met with Aurora's teacher, Mrs. M.  I was very impressed by her.  She was very organized and upbeat and was great with Aurora.  She did a reading assessment on Aurora and she is reading at a third grade level, which is great!  She also told us about a few things that Aurora is excited about.  The kids all get hot air balloons that they get to raise every 100 minutes of reading they do.  When they reach 1000 minutes they get prizes!  They also have a chance to earn 'behavior bucks' for making good choices.  If they don't make a good choice, they have to give one back.  They can spend their 'bucks' in the classroom store at the end of the week for candy or small toys.  It sounds like a lot of good incentive!

The Friday before school, my mom and I took Aurora to lunch and clothes shopping.  We found a lot of great outfits for her to wear, and discovered that Aurora looks great in hats!

On Monday Aurora was excited to get all dressed up for the first day of school and had a great day!  She discovered she had a few friends in her class that she already knew, and she even earned a few behavior bucks.  Hopefully it will be a great year!

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!

Letters to Aurora's Dad

After learning that Josh was a prominent amateur astronomer at the same time the first graders were studying space, Aurora's teacher was excited to have Josh come and talk to the class.   In fact, she arranged for him to present to ALL of the first grade classes!  Aurora was so proud to have her Dad come and talk to her friends!

Josh put together a simple presentation to tell the kids some basic space facts and also to explain the difference between an Astronomer and an Astronaut, since Aurora said that all her friends thought he was an astronaut!  He also brought both telescopes with him (his and Aurora's), and some old pieces for the kids to handle.  At the end, he asked a pop quiz and gave out some of his old issues of Astronomy magazine.  It was a big hit with the kids, teachers, and especially Aurora. 

Two weeks later, Josh was given a couple of books with thank-you letters and drawings from the kids!  They are the cutest things I have ever seen!  I thought I would share some of my favorite ones.

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 Christmas Program That Wasn't

Well I wish I could say that Alex has become more like his sister, and, unlike last year, actually sang and performed for his Christmas program, but I can't. 

I really thought he was going to do it.  He'd been singing his Christmas songs since November, and was excited for the Christmas program.   He was going to sing and do his motions, he told me!  So we decided to go ahead and go to it.  We got all dressed up and headed out.

He was happy when we got there and took some pictures.  (Pay close attention to that tree behind them for the ending of this story).

Finally it came time for his class to come out....and he came out crying. 

I went up there and knelt next to him hoping it would make him better...no it only made him worse.

So I decided to lead him out of there so he didn't have to stand there and cry, and to keep him from interfering with the other kids who were performing. 

And as I did so, I slipped and knocked half of the ornaments off of the big tree behind them. 

I then beelined straight for the exit.  I don't think we'll be going next year.

And when I went to tuck him into bed that night, do you know what he was doing while laying in his bed? 

Singing his Christmas songs.

Good thing that boy is so cute!

Teacher Communication

 As I mentioned in my First Grade post, I've already had a few challenges with Aurora's new teacher.  We'll call her Mrs. P.  A week before school started, Aurora's school has an "Ice Cream Social" where they find out who their teacher is going to be and we sign up for a time slot to meet the teacher and have assessments done.  Each grade has a table with all of the teachers for that grade with their class lists and schedules and everyone lines up in front of the table.  It was supposed to start at 6:00 and we got there at 5:45 and were second in line.

6:00 rolls around and there is only one teacher at the first grade table.  A couple of minutes later another teacher shows up.  At 6:10, Mrs. P shows up.  I have no patience for tardiness but at this point I'm thinking that things happen and I just won't worry about it.  I introduced Aurora to her and she engaged her right away and asked her questions and seemed good with her.  We set up an assessment time for Friday afternoon at 4:00 and left.

Friday afternoon my husband and I bring Aurora in for her assessment and to do paperwork and speak with Mrs.  P.  There is no sign of her at 4:00.  At 4:10 I'm thinking I'm going to give her 5 more minutes and then we are leaving.  She finally shows up at 4:15 - with her own three kids in tow.  We enter the room and wait while she gets her kids situated with drinks and activities.  We talk for a few minutes....while her youngest, probably about three, is continually interrupting us.   Then Josh and I move to another table to do paperwork while she assesses Aurora.  While doing the assessment, she keeps stopping to speak to or correct her youngest.  Then she allows her to sit across the table from Aurora and pound on blocks and cups while Aurora is trying to read and answer questions.  I was pretty irritated.  Despite that, Aurora still did a great job.  We talk to Mrs. P again and go over Aurora's schedule and her before and after school transportation (she attends the onsite before and after school program) and other school business and then leave - with me ticked about her lack of professionalism with her children there.

Fast forward to the first day of school.  Josh gets a call from the school 30 minutes after school got out.  "We have Aurora here in the office and you did not come to pick her up and we need to know what to do with her."   What the heck!?!  Josh went to go pick her up and I called Mrs. P and left a message with her asking her to call me.  She does not return my call.  That night I write her a letter and told her that during Aurora's assessment we specifically told her that Aurora was in the school program before and after school every day.  And that she may have been too distracted by her own kids to remember what we discussed so I wanted to be sure were were on the same page.

No response to the letter.

The next day I get a questionaire from Mrs. P asking about Aurora's strengths, weakness, interests, etc.  The last question says, "Do you have any questions or concerns?"  I wrote, "What is the best way to communicate with you?"

No response.

Two days later I send a box of tissues and a container of Clorox wipes with Aurora to school since I know the classrooms always need that stuff.

No response or thank you.

Despite all of that, Aurora seems fine with her and is happy in school right now so hopefully she is better with the kids than she is with the parents.  But for me?  I think it's going to be a long year.  And our first parent/teacher conference is definitely going to be interesting!

And now I present Aurora's first writing assignment for the year:

First Grade!

I'm behind on posts again - life is so busy right now!  Last weekend we finished our preparations for the start of school.  Saturday we took the kids to get new shoes and haircuts!  Here they are post haircut:

Sunday Aurora and I had our traditional lunch and back-to-school shopping spree with Grandma S!  Aurora picked Chili's for lunch and we shopped at Target and the mall.  Aurora has very long legs and a tiny waist!  She's also not big on shopping so had to make sure she had some fun in the middle, like riding the quarter rides at the mall.  She did pick out some outfits for herself.  My mom and I were not very impressed with the selection this year.  Aurora's school has a lot of rules - must have sleeves, no graphics or pictures except for insignia's smaller than 3in., must be a certain length, etc. and we had a hard time finding cute clothes that met the criteria.  Regardless we did a pretty good job!

Finally the first day arrived - here's the first grader!

I'm afraid she had a pretty rough first day.  They are doing construction all over the school for a gas leak (that is apparently not a danger to the kids?) and there are lots of construction sites and dirt everywhere.  They can't cook hot meals until it is fixed.  They had a fire drill and a lockdown drill.  In the lockdown drill they told the kids if a bear comes in the school or a person with a weapon, they should hide and be very quiet.  I'm all for preparing kids for these situations, but on the first day of school when the kids are already nervous!?!?  Aurora said all they did all day was go over rules and "she didn't do anything fun."  On top of  that, there was some confusion with her after school arrangements (that's a WHOLE other post) and instead of going to the after school program she had to sit in the office until Josh picked her up.  She was not a happy camper.  :-(   

Luckily, the rest of the week went pretty smoothly and she's enjoying it a lot more!  She's even proud to have the special job every morning of taking the attendance sheet to the office.  Hopefully it will be a good year!

School Preparations

In just nine short days I will have a first grader!  I can't believe it!  

We spent the majority of the weekend going through the kids' bedrooms - cleaning, sorting toys, and going through clothes.  Alex's room, even though it has the majority of the toys, was relatively easy.  We sorted through toys and Alex was good at pointing out the toys he no longer plays with so we could donate them to kids who aren't so lucky.  He helped me sort them into bins and has actually been putting them back in the right bins when he cleans up.  We went through his clothes and it looks like he's in a size 3 for pants and shirts.  Ever since he lost two pounds when his leg was broken at two, he has been a little bit smaller for his age.

Aurora's room on the other hand, was a lot of work!  My daughter is a hoarder for sure!  She had SO much stuff - including food under her desk (ick) which is strange since we don't allow eating in the bedrooms.  She and I spent several hours cleaning and sorting.  We also had a few battles and tears about stuff to give away and toss.  She wanted to keep everything!  Clothes-wise she definitely needs some stuff for the new school year.  Looks like she's a size 6 for all.  She has long legs and a tiny waist (I'm hopeful she has Josh's metabolism) so all of her pants have to be adjustable.  Luckily we already have plans next weekend to have lunch and go school clothes shopping with Grandma S!

We did manage to take a break and go see Despicable Me and go out for pizza.  It was a great movie and we all loved it!  Alex is so good at the movie theater.  When Aurora was this age she couldn't sit still and always wanted to leave halfway through.  Alex doesn't move for the entire movie.  It was a fun evening!

Preschool Graduation!

On Friday evening Aurora graduated from preschool!! I can't believe it!

We had a reception at the house before her ceremony with family only. Aurora was happy to get "tons" of money ($30). She also received two chapter books from us to start reading in the evenings (one is the Wizard of Oz) and a Minnie Mouse collectors watch from Grandma and Grandpa S (I still have a similar Micky Mouse one they got me when I was her age).

The graduation theme was 'college', so she was supposed to wear a college t-shirt. We found her a shirt from UNM that was perfect!

At the ceremony, they sang several songs about Kindergarten and then they got their diplomas! Aurora was SO proud of herself. Alex was cheering for her too!

Aurora had a great night, until the end when she said good-bye to her teacher, Ms. Jennifer. She has been her teacher for 3 years, and Aurora was pretty heartbroken. Ms. Jennifer was crying too. Poor Aurora cried all the way home and until bedtime. My sweet girl!

We are so proud of you, Aurora!

Minnie Mouse Watch from G&G S
The reception
The college shirt
Money from G&G K!
Money from Mom and Dad!
New books

Alex cheering for Sister
Singing
Getting her diploma

I did it!


Saying good-bye to Ms. Jennifer