The Last Few Days....

Jonathan and I are a little lost still without school to occupy us, but we're adjusting... slowly. Playdates have helped! :)  Aunt Krystyna and Alek invited us over to swim this past Friday and swim we did... in their awesome and beautiful pool!

That night, Tom and I took the boys over to our pool club for a whole evening of swimming, where we ran into our usual summer pool friends and some other friends we were surprised, but so excited to see there! The boys had a blast and wore themselves out. We stayed until almost 8p.m.!

Saturday morning, after swim lessons, we loaded up the car and headed west to Cumberland for Tom's cousin's graduation party. We stayed the night at a hotel and the boys swam some more at the hotel's indoor pool, which we had all to ourselves! I don't have any pictures, because I was too busy swimming too! Ben even raced me all the way across the pool! He was proud of himself and SUPER fast! Swim team starts this week, so I hope he stays confident!

The next morning, Jonathan and Ben (okay, mostly Jonathan) had a hotel room dance party while Simon and Tom loaded the van up to head home.

We relaxed, unpacked and caught up yesterday afternoon while Jonathan napped and then went to drop  some dinner off to Uncle Taylor and Aunt Sarah at their new house. We didn't stay, as our brood tends to descend upon places and Taylor and Sarah were crazy busy unpacking and getting organized, so the timing was NOT good... but we did get a quick tour and the boys put their stamp of approval on the playroom and amazingly awesome backyard! We are so excited for them!

Last night at bedtime, I noticed the constant allergy post-nasal drip cough Ben has been sporting for something like a month now had suddenly gotten much worse and he started saying his ear hurt. GRR... even with diligently keeping up with the Zyrtec and Nasonex for two months, his allergies have been beyond BEYOND ridiculous this year. He has been making this godawful, disgusting snorting sound constantly and keeps sniffing all the goop back into his head... anyway,  so he had managed to acquire what I was pretty was a sinus infection and an ear infection. A quick run to the pediatrician this morning confirmed my suspicions... actually, we technically caught it before it turned into a full-blown ear infection, but taking Ben's history into account, he went ahead and gave him antibiotics anyway.

WHEW... after that I got him back to school in time to keep his perfect attendance streak alive. It's a total fluke that he even HAS perfect attendance... not something we set out to do this year... just an unusually healthy year for him.... but now, with 9 days left to go, we're both determined to see it through to the end!

So that catches us up? I think? Onward to another busy week. We have our first-ever real, paid babysitter coming tomorrow night to watch the kids so Tom and I can go see John Williams conduct the BSO. It's going to a late night and it will be a total miracle if I can even stay away.  But... we'll see. The kids are super excited about Miss Tara coming over to play and so am I! :)

My brother's wedding is Sunday, so we're getting ready for that too...

After that? SUMMER can officially begin... well, next Friday when school ends. ;) Almost there!!

It Has Been Awhile!

The week got away from me, and not a whole lot has happened.  But here are some fun nuggets...

It was like summer for awhile there, so we had been outside a lot doing summery things,which was oh so nice. Today it feels like we're back to very early spring. Argh.

The big news of the week is that Ben learned how to tie his shoes! I know, I know, he's nine and all... but he really just could never get it before now. I'm so excited for him and he was SO proud of himself.  :)

And this? I give you.... Simon's last ever kindergarten homework!! He has come SUCH a long way and I am so proud of him too! :) :)

He also brought home his highest level "Little Book" ever yesterday. They range from A-M and he had been hanging solidly in the C/D combo ones. He brought home a D yesterday and when I made a big deal about it (because sometimes he brings home "A" or "B" ones just because he doesn't feel like putting the work into reading) he said, "I picked that one because I thought it would impress you!" LOL! And indeed it did... as did his reading of it which was fantastic and he only he needed some help on a couple words!!! 

And lastly, there is this. I wandered into Ben's room this morning to find Jonathan on the floor with Ben's iPod Touch. He had put the earbuds in, had managed to find Girls Just Wanna Have Fun on Youtube and was singing his little heart out. LOL!

So that has been our week. This weekend is our last quiet one for a couple weeks... so hopefully lots of fun will be had! :)

Ben's Biography Project, Simon's Kindergarten Conference and Other Things....

The third graders at our school all write a biography as one of their big projects for the year. I think Ben has been working on it since January or so! They are supposed to choose their mom or dad (although a couple kids did grandparents, so I will keep that in mind for when Simon goes through!) and they came home with a list of questions to ask their subject.

I knew what this project entailed, thanks to parents who have gone before me,  so I encouraged him to write about Tom, not me. (although he was leaning that way anyway.)  You see, once the book is published (they send them off and they are hardbound and everything!!), they have a biography party and the subjects are invited in to hear the kids read their biographies.

You have to sit in the front of the room and pictures of you as a baby, teenager, now and with your child are shown while they read.  Very, VERY sweet, actually... and if Ben had really REALLY wanted to write about me, I would have gone along with it, but I would have been beet red the entire time and wanting the floor to open up and swallow me whole.

Here's a picture of Ben reading his biography to Tom that one of the other moms sent me.  :)

I want to post the actual book (I posted it on FB) but I am having photo rotation and placement issues with Blogger, so maybe later.

He did SUCH a great job... Tom said Ben's a really great presenter. So funny. I kind of thought he'd end up having my public speaking issues since we had such a hard time with him being nervous about his economics project earlier in the year. (although he ended up doing a FANTASTIC job!!) I guess he's over his stage fright, because Tom said he wasn't nervous at all!

Since Tom was at school for the party at dismissal time, I seized the opportunity to schedule Simon's belated Kindergarten conference kid-free while daddy watched all the boys play on the playground.  Whew.

It went well. He's where he needs to be and she doesn't have concerns about him being ready for first grade, although we definitely need to keep up our work over the summer to make sure he doesn't lose ground. His handwriting has improved by leaps and bounds and he is doing a great job with stretch spelling. They are just starting to write sentences, which he seems to be doing well with!  I got a laugh out of one example from his journal that she showed me that said, "On the weekends, I like to upgrade my Lego sets." LOL! He cracks me up.

He's not where Ben with his reading and writing at the same point in his kindergarten year, and I was kind worried about that for awhile...(Not because I'm comparing them... but what else did I have to base my expectations on?) I was concerned more because he didn't seem to be making any steady forward movement than anything else. But now he's making a lot of progress, so I feel better. I know they are unique and different in their strengths and abilities. Simon's also a little younger than Ben was (both chronologically and in just in overall maturity) and just a different kind of kid all around.

The teacher said he does well with math and is really quick with picking up patterns. I think that's so interesting... and it really fits with what I know about how his brain works. :) Definitely my builder/creator/doer.

There are some concerns with his attention and focus, (daydreaming, zoning out) which we're just watching. It's kind of perplexing because I've never really seen that in him, except with homework... but SO much is going on in our house during homework time... so I've noticed it, but never thought much of it. Actually, as I type this, he's sitting, where he has been for an hour, intently concentrating on building a Star Wars Lego set.

I do think he's a super sensitive kid to anything like not getting enough sleep, not feeling 100% for whatever reason. He also gets a little overwhelmed sometimes by all the hustle and bustle at school and I have to wonder if the days there are focus issues aren't days when something like that is at play. But, time will tell...  it's most definitely a possibility, just given the fact that he's in our family.... so we'll just watch and wait.

Anyway, so that went well. I asked about his teacher for next year because, why not? I knew there wouldn't be an answer, but I had to try.  ;)  But yeah, no answer on that.

Moving on... that same day, Jonathan had his very last Two and You class.

Early on, I told him I wanted to take a picture of him with Miss Sally... he had other ideas.  Miss Sally had brought in a new cd player. He posed with it. LOL!

He danced up a storm that day... this is him during Bear Hunt.

And with buddy Lillian.... 

Finally, I got my Miss Sally picture. ;)

Whew. Crazy Friday!

Future Hallmark Employee...

I was playing around on the computer last night while texting back and forth with a friend when an email popped up from Ben's reading teacher. 

All it said was was:

"Your son is quite the poet! :-)"

My immediate thought (and reply) was:

"Uh oh."

The friend I was texting knows the teacher AND Ben, so I jokingly mentioned I was a little concerned as to what this "poem" might be about. She replied with "There once was lady from Nantucket..."

I shot off another reply to the teacher saying she could NOT leave me hanging like that and that I was waiting for the punchline and PLEASE tell me his poem didn't have anything to do with anyone from Nantucket or anyone's momma being so fat. (remind me to write a post about that last one... just btw...)

She wrote back with this:

"About Family...

Hugs and kisses, loving arms to reach

Kindness and patience always ready to teach

A family is so safe and secure

For any sickness they are the perfect cure



I wouldn’t leave them, even for a bribe

because we are too much like a tribe

Fun-filled games of hide and seek

With crazy aunts and uncles, our family is unique



Quiet time and snuggling up to read a book

On the couch, at the table or in our nook



and there is more, this is what I used in the Biography poem that the kiddos are sharing...

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

All I could say was, "Wow!"  

It's so cute! And great! And sentimental! I honestly didn't know Ben had this in him anywhere! 

I also may have teared up. Maybe. Just a little....

He's such an awesome kid. :o)  (and she's an awesome teacher... gah! One of my absolute favorites ever!)

Awesome. :)

I got an email from Ben's reading teacher while I was sitting in the pickup line waiting for him this afternoon. It said:

"Check out Ben's writing activity that I sent home today! 10 out of 10!!!"

I replied that the suspense was killing me. She wrote back:

"Let me know if it gets lost on the way home, I made a copy of it!"

Of course, we got to the car and he had left his folder in his desk. So I shooed him back inside to get it. He was NOT happy with me, but he went anyway. And when he returned, I pulled out the assignment, which he had done twice. The second one had a giant shiny sticker and an 10/10 with a nice note from Mrs. K. on it.

In the meantime, she sent me another email:

"I was happy he redid it correctly and with enthusiasm! He even said that he knew he didn't follow directions!"

The topic had to do with the book they are reading in class. But the important part was that he had followed all the directions and done the assignment completely and really, really well.

I am so proud. Fourth quarter, but better late than never, right?

Later, she emailed to tell me that his work has been really consistently complete and well-done basically since they came back from spring break.  That timing is no coincidence and maybe I'll get into the "why" part of that someday on here... but for now, I'll say it validates some things we've been working on on our end.

Anyway, so yeah... the only Bs on his report card this past quarter were in reading and written language. So maybe he can make straight As for the fourth quarter! That would be so awesome and such a great end to a really fantastic year all-around.

I also love that this teacher took the time to email me. I sometimes get down because I feel like these teachers are SO busy and have so many kids to worry about that Ben's troubles are a little trivial in comparison to a lot of what they deal with.  So it means a lot that she took a minute to rave about something he did and that she really really seemed proud of him too.

Realllllllly rooting for her to maybe switch grades and be his teacher next year too. Maybe? I hope? I like to latch onto the good ones and keep them around! ;)

Playdate...

So Ben's playdate yesterday went SO well. I really,  really like his little friend, though I will admit I had my doubts that I would for a few reasons. (even though the couple times I had met him at school and at Ben's birthday, he seemed like a good kid)

He is really a NICE kid, at least that's what I saw...  and, probably best of all, he was kind and patient with Simon. He has two younger brothers, one in 2nd grade and one in Kindergarten, so I guess he's used to annoying little brothers butting in.  It really made an impression on me. And because HE was nice to SImon, Ben was also nice to Simon and all went really, really well. 

I listened in on some of their conversations when they would pass through the living room and it wasn't just Ben talking AT the other kid, which happens a lot. There was back and forth and the other little boy seemed genuinely interested in the conversation.  Whew. (Ben's a tough playmate sometimes, honestly)

They played in Ben's room and the playroom for awhile, played a little Minecraft with Simon and then played baseball outside for an hour with Tom after dinner. Then Tom and Ben took him home. 

This little friendship could work, I think... :o)

Face. Palm.

Actual phone call last night:

Me: Hello?

Caller: Hi! It's Blah BlahBlah, from Mrs. Ben's Teachers' class?

Me: Oh hi, Blah Blah. How are you?

Caller: Um.... so like, I can't actually remember your name.

Me: It's Erin.

Caller: Oh right! Erin! I keep thinking you are a Becky.

-------Let's pause for a moment here. So this woman HAD to have looked up my number in the school directory in order to call... the number that my NAME is right next to.
But okay, whatever.-------


Caller: Anyway, so okay, so I wanted to call because we are having a birthday party at our house for Little Blah and I wanted to make sure Ben was available to come. He was at the top of Little Blah's list. Does Ben play sports or anything on Saturdays?

Me: Aww... that's so sweet. Yeah, Ben and Little Blah have really hit it off this year. He talks about Little Blah all the time. Anyway, yeah, all Ben does on Saturdays is swimming and we're home by noon.

Caller: Blah blah blah... party... blah blah... sooooo anyway, you can either drop off or stay. You're welcome to stay because, well, I mean, like I guess I should probably, like, try to get to know you, like, since Ben and Little Blah are, like, such good friends now.

(She sounds simply THRILLED about the prospect of getting to know me... this will be AWESOME. )

Me: That would be nice. Thanks. I'll see what we have going on that day. Ben can definitely make it to the party though.

Caller: Great! Okay, so like, send me your email address so I can send the evite thingie. You can just reply to the email I just sent out to the class!

(wait for it....)

Caller: Oh wait! DUH! That means I already HAVE your email address. Okay so like, we're good then. AWESOME!!!! 

(also to be noted, not only did she just send me an email THAT DAY, it's also in the directory... you know, next to my name...)

OMG. Why does Ben have to become BFFs with the one mom whose stupidity may actually cause my head to explode? (and trust me, this woman SO does not want to "get to know me", I promise...) 

Monday....

I have come to really and truly LOVE Mondays. Crazy. I know. The older I get, the more difficult deviating from the daily routine becomes. And Monday means we are back on track from the wacky craziness of the weekends... ahhh.... well, at least during the school year. Summers drive me nuts with the lack of structure. It's nice for a week or so then I get all antsy and lost and unproductive. I know, I have issues...

In my defense, everything is easier when we are in our routine. The kids are easier... the house upkeep is easier... everything.

Anyway...   so it's Monday. A new quarter at school! Ben has vowed to not miss his reading goal again, and to start right away. So YAY for life lessons. I emailed his teacher just to make sure he wouldn't be the ONLY kid not invited to the ice cream party. I'm good with him not being allowed to go (happy about it, actually), but I would have felt bad if he was the only kid from his class eating lunch in the cafeteria Friday. Yikes. (would have gone to pick him up for an hour or something if that had been the case). She replied that no, there were about four others in the same boat, which surprised her because she thought they would all work extra hard to get to go to the party... but yeah... apparently my slacker, procrastinating child is in good company.

Simon seems to have turned a corner in his bad mood and happily skipped into school this morning. Hope it stays that way. He has been a beast lately.

Jonathan is still pleasant and wonderful lately. (So maybe, just maybe, I have a respite for a bit before one of the three goes psycho on me again. they rotate the crazy, which I think is actually pretty considerate of them...) I bought him a little watering can from the dollar bin at Target today and he watered all of my outside flowers "by myself!!! I do it by myself! YOU do not help me!!!" He cracks me up. We had good intentions of planting sunflower seeds down by the woods on the vacant lot in our neighborhood, but we got chased off by a mutant monster bee. Maybe tomorrow.

Nothing much else to report. Ben has a well-visit at the pediatrician's this afternoon, so I have to pick both big boys up from school. I sort of feel bad about that, because Simon will miss center time in his class, but Simon, on the other handwas pretty excited about cutting out at 2:50. LOL! So I guess it's all good.

Life Lesson...

Ben learned a hard life lesson today. 

So all the kids at his school do this thing called AR. They set a goal every quarter and then read books, and take these quizzes on the books to earn points toward whatever their goal is. 

He did NOT end up meeting his AR goal for this quarter in reading, despite an attempt at a hail mary by taking a quiz today on Twelfth Night, which Tom read them at bedtime last month and is wayyyy above his AR reading level.  He put off ALL his quizzes and a ton of the reading until this past weekend. He ended up not doing well enough on two of the quizzes to earn all the points he needed. 

The kids who met their goals get to go to an ice cream party next week. 

"Well, what will I get?" he asked?

"Probably nothing." I replied.

"Seriously?"

(silently cursing all the "particpation trophy" crap that has my kid thinking he gets something just for playing in every instance)

"Well what can I do?" he asked.

"Try harder next quarter and don't procrastinate until the week it's due."

"That's it?"

"That's it."

Update

Been so busy this week... gah.

Anyway so:

Our handyman has been here at the house working on a list of things I've been compiling for a year. At the top was getting rid of the massive entertainment wall unit that the previous owners left here claiming it was a "built-in" (it wasn't) It was functional, but massive, and didn't really fit with our decor. Needless to say, I was thrilled to see it leave yesterday and now our tv is hanging on the wall. The room looks weirdly empty though because we need some other things on the wall and also because we don't have the console for under the tv yet. I've also lost all my toy storage and am at a loss for what to do with pile of puzzles and toys that got emptied out of the cabinets that were part of the wall unit. So... there are pros and cons to it being gone, but mostly i'm just glad it's gone.

Ben has had a good week after a rough start. They started division with remainders in math class and he didn't grasp it well the first go-round. Monday was a rough homework night that involved pencil throwing and paper crumpling. He's got it now though and is super fast. :)  So yay for that!

Simon has just had a rough week period. He's going through a bit of a moody phase... not sure why. But he's awfully surly and cranky. Today was the worst. He flipped out about going to school right before we left and I had to walk him in crying, break all the rules and walk him to the classroom, dump him with the teacher and flee. She emailed to say it took awhile, but he eventually got it together. Why was he like this today? Well, his complaints range from "There are too many people at school and I don't want to be around so many people"(?) to "We didn't get extra minutes at recess yesterday" and also, "I'm nervous about first grade." They've been talking up first grade a LOT lately in his class and I actually sort of think this may be the majority of the issue... at least the part where he doesn't want to go to school. Not sure about the general bad mood...

Jonathan is having a good week. He's the danciest, singiest, happiest little thing ever. He's also all into "helping" with everything all of a sudden. And I mean EVERYTHING. He even helps me flush the toilet. Nothing is sacred. Anyway ... he is SO much fun and I am really enjoying our days together. He is definitely going through that nap transition period where he doesn't want to go down every day but then crashes at some later and completely inconvenient time. Today he fell asleep at 2:15 in the car and then I had to wake him up at 3:15 to go get the boys at school. Not fun.

So that has been our week. I'm completely exhausted and ready for it to be the weekend! :) Loving the gorgeous summery weather though!! :)

Day of Kindness...

I'm all about random acts of kindness and I try to go through life doing them whenever and wherever I can. It's just FUN and it makes others so happy and me too! (win win!) ;)

So when Ben's teacher (we're just going to say former teacher, from now on since, sadly, she is definitely out for the rest of the year) told me what she was doing for her 40th birthday, I was SO ridiculously excited.

Her plan was to rent a limo with a bunch of friends and family and go around town doing nice things for people. They had a plan to stop at one of the hospital cancer centers and put gifts on the chemo chairs, they had gifts to drop off for a home for underprivileged girls and boys, gifts for the animal shelter, gifts for an assisted living home and a bunch of random fun things to just give out to random people on the street.

She sent out an email about this plan to everyone at school and challenged everyone to do their own act of kindness that day too.

From there, things exploded. Two local tv stations caught wind of it and decided to follow her around and do a story on it; and there was FB page that went nuts with likes and contributions from everyone saying what they had done that day.

The day just was FUN and the spirit of it all was infectious. It was a blast getting caught up in it with everyone and hearing what everyone else was doing.

As for me? Well, I did something I had meant to do at Christmas time, which was to give a giftcard and card to Kelly, our favorite Safeway cashier. There are certain people you encounter during your days who just always bring a smile to your face. I always say that there are certain people who just always let their light shine brightly and she is one of them. So I took the opportunity to tell her. :) I also bought a grocery store gift card and put it into another card and gave it to her to give to the next person who came through her line and seemed like they could use it.

She was SO excited and touched. It's amazing what such a small thing can do to brighten someone's day. And she was even more excited about the grocery card to give to someone... she said she sees people every day who could use it and has contributed to peoples' grocery bills out of her own pocket. (she said that she had never told anyone that before) :)

The other thing I did was something else I had been wanting to do for a few weeks. I gave a giftcard and card to the teacher who took over Ben's class. I kept thinking about how she had missed out on all the CAH-razy giving that happens at our school at Christmas-time, but is very much doing all the work required of a regular teacher, not just a sub. She has been SO kind and helpful to Ben.

The thing is that I really and truly depend on B's teachers to help me from their end in order for him to be successful and I was, admittedly, a little worried when the other teacher had to leave... but the transition has been seamless and she is SO great with him and doesn't seem to mind my emails (which says a lot... I email um... frequently...)  I am beyond thankful.

Anyway, so she was pretty surprised... she gave me a hug and said that Ben is actually one of her favorite students and isn't a problem at all (I had written in the card that I felt bad she missed out on Christmas treats but still had to "deal with my kiddo all day".)  I replied, "Yeah... but I know he's still work!" (and trust me, he is)   The whole interaction made ME smile too and was a great way to end the day of kindness. :)

The news stories about B's teacher aired later that afternoon and evening and we all got a kick out of watching.
http://www.abc2news.com/dpp/news/region/baltimore_county/2-good-to-be-true
http://foxbaltimore.com/news/features/top-stories/stories/baltimore-county-teacher-battling-breast-cancer-pays-forward-birthday-18664.shtml#.UVTT20KyY-J

It was just a really great day all around. :o) I wish the world were like that every day! I, for one, plan on keeping it up. If you are looking for an easy and fun pick me up, do a random act of kindness! Let someone ahead of you in line, tell someone you appreciate them, smile at someone who looks like they are having a bad day, buy a friend coffee. It can be anything! :)  I promise you won't be sorry!

Driving Me Up a Wall...

Ben's party was SO much fun. The people at EarthTreks are amazing with the kids and did a fantastic job. Easiest birthday party I've ever thrown. (and SO much quieter than the bouncy places... OMG)

The kids had a blast. We ended up having eleven guests plus Ben and Simon... we lost a couple to a stomach virus that morning, sadly. It was nice that this year, Ben chose his favorite friends instead of just "the entire class". It was clear the kids who came wanted to be there and really liked him. :) That was nice to see.

The group ate 36 bags of Gushers in 30 minutes. I paid for that later when we went out to dinner and Ben and Simon literally were out of their minds with sugar. I've never seen anything quite like it. I'm sure it didn't help that they got into the goodie bags on the way back and ate rock candy and pop rocks without me realizing it. So yeah... sugar high to the max.  Yikes.

The employees at ET were so good with the kids. They made them feel safe (we didn't have a single kid not try to climb). They were really fun and energetic and they played awesome games with them.

Good thing we liked it because Simon has an identical party booked for HIS birthday. LOL.

Anyway, here are few pics. Videos coming soon after I extract them from my phone. :)

Grasshopper Logic...

(credit to my friend Helen for pointing out the similarities between my story and this one...)
One bright and sunny day, Grasshopper came home from school, dropped his backpack, and was just about to run outside to meet his friends. "Where are you going?" asked his mom. "Out to meet some friends," said Grasshopper. "Do you have any homework due tomorrow?" asked his mom. "Just one small thing of History. I did the rest in class." "Okay," said Mom Grasshopper. "Be back at six for dinner." Grasshopper hung out with his friends, came home promptly at six, ate his dinner, then took out his History homwork. His mom read the assignment and freaked out. "Rewrite twelve Greek myths as Broadway musicals. Write music for songs. Design and build all sets. Sew original costumes for each produciton." "How long have you known about this assignment?" asked Mom Grasshopper, trying not to scream. " I don't know," said Grasshopper. 

MORAL: there are plenty of things to say to clam up a hopping mad Grasshopper mom. "I don't know" is not one of them.  -Squids Will Be Squids "Grasshopper Logic"


It's Ben's birthday weekend... party on Saturday... general birthday'ing type stuff on Sunday. In short, we are BUSY.

So last night, he says, "Oh! By the way... I have a math project due on Monday."

"Wait. A what now?"

"Yeah, I brought the paper home yesterday."

I quickly went and flipped through the stuff I had pulled out of his folder and filed the day before.
Oops. For once it was not his fault that I didn't know about a project.  Glad he said something...

So yeah, he has to create a board game, you know, just a fun little somethin' somethin'' with spinners and a board and questions.... over the weekend... in all of the spare time we're going to have. LOL. 

Sigh.

Pawning this one off on Tom. But I know I'll end up having to get involved because neither Tom NOR Ben can follow directions to save their lives.  (this brings to mind the cultures project for reading class that Tom "helped" with back in February that I ended up having to make Ben redo because daddy failed to follow the checklist the teacher sent home... ) 

Already had to rein him in once because he was throwing out college-level probability questions as ideas for the game and I was all like, "Hey! John Nash! (Btw, you're welcome for the awesome "Beautiful Mind" reference there) This is third grade. Back it up about a dozen and a half levels... we're talking coin flipping here..." 

So yeah, there's that. 

But, it gets better. 

So THIS also came home...

Okay, so I think the project is great and all... but he is supposed to gather supplies by next Thursday. Only, see, this is my first time around the third-grade block, so to speak, so I have absolutely NO idea what I should be sending in.

And this paper is no help because please note the bit up there about not wanting to give the parents too much info so the kids do the actual designing. I'm all for that because... well...  see above mention of my husband "helping" and also because, knowing some of the parents at our school, if they are given too much information about this project, some of their kids are going to miraculously have perfectly engineered cars that look like they were created by someone who works in the design department at Porsche instead of a group of 9-year-olds.

But, c'mon... I need SOME guidance! Examples of what to send in! Are we talking duct tape? Milk cartons? Wood? Recycled orange juice containers? What?  I really don't even know where to begin with helping him gather supplies.

GAH!!!

Third grade is kicking my butt.

Love This!

I've said it before and I'll say it again, my kids have the most wonderfully communicative teachers this year! I really don't know how parents (and teachers?) managed elementary school without email communication.

First off, it's quick and easy.

Secondly, I know I can be a giant pain in the butt to teachers via email (and I am... I SO really, really am...),  but my maximum  pain in the butt potential via email HAS to be way lower than my maximum pain in the butt potential if I could only talk to them in person.  Right? Sure.

So, anyway, I mentioned in my earlier post that I emailed Ben's reading teacher yesterday because I thought she'd get a laugh out of that novel of a story he wrote (and then hid and then I found it and took a cell phone picture of it to pass around because I am an awesome mom like that....) since in his classes, he never writes more than a sentence or two for anything. EVER.

I received the following reply:

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He is a trip! I wish he would give me his writing!!! I know it is in him, always have...just trying to get it out of him! :-) ----------------------------------------------------------------------- To which I shot off: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Btw, don't know when he wrote that, but I think it was in your class. Goodness only knows what he was SUPPOSED to be doing. Lol.  ---------------------------------------------------------------------- I kind of figured that was the end of our correspondence seeing as how we'd had our laugh at Ben's expense and all..  ;) But then I got THIS back: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- I know when he wrote that story…during journal time! I looked in his journal and it was blank for yesterday AND I found another sheet of paper with a story like the Borrowers on it stuffed in his journal. It was cute..he was pretending he was a Borrower and what he would take… FYI..he left his agenda and all of his journals in 2 different desks in my homeroom. I returned them to him this morning.

Just love him! 

He is working super hard today..like he is on turbo speed or something! 

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Seriously, how fantastic is that?  I just love this little update from her! 

It really has been such a great school year for him all around.  

I would be lying if I said I weren't just a little concerned about next year. He has the potential to have two male teachers for the first time EVER.  (Now, I'll admit I'm saying this without knowing ANYTHING about them at all, except that they are really popular teachers, very well-liked by the students, as far as I can tell)

I'm just wondering if I'm going to get this kind of awesome communication next year from men... you know, because they're MEN... not so much as in NOT women... but as in not MOMS.  I wonder if instead of funny banter, cute updates, and helpful observations, am I going to get one-word replies like I get from Tom when I email him at work? LOL.

Leave it to me to worry about something five-months ahead of time! (guess that's where Ben gets it). 

Speaking of Writing...

I picked Ben up for a doctor's appointment this morning and he came down the hall with everything he owns in his arms and an empty backpack hanging from his back. LOL. What a mess. Anyway, so he ended up dropping the whole armload on the floor of the 3rd grade hallway before he made it to me.  I was helping him pick it all up when I came across a piece of paper folded in half. I had been trying to sort out which folders to put everything in, so I held it up and said, "What's this one?"

He immediately snatched it from my hand and shoved it into his backpack. "Oh, that's just a drawing I was working on."

Of course, because I am mother of the year, no sooner did he disappear into the doctor's office, then I dug through the backpack and pulled it out.

This is what I found... from the child who claims he can't write stories or long answers on his homework... or anything more than a sentence on any school assignment ever.

Busted. SO busted. I emailed it to his reading teacher and told her to show him my email if he ever tried to say that in her class again. LOL!

You can try to read the story if you want. It appears to be an unfinished work of Star Wars fan fiction. But I'm mostly posting it because I was astonished at the sheer number of words on the page. OMG!

Threefer Update -- school stuff

Ben:
Two days of MSA down, two to go.  "It's way better than I thought it would be, mom." he says. Still liking the extra recess, snack, and no homework aspect, of course. (I think I'm loving the no homework even more than he is!!)  He was annoyed yesterday that they gave out the teddy grahams snack to the class instead of the one we sent in, which apparently got saved for today. (We sent kids Clif Bars with assorted baked chips ... I think he really just wanted the Cheetos more than anything)

They are reading The Borrowers in reading class right now. I LOVE that book. LOVE LOVE LOVE! I need to find time to sit down and reread it along with him. Have I mentioned I love third grade? It ranks up there with first grade for my favorite elementary school year with him so far. They just do so many interesting things and things I remember from when I was in school.

He seems to me like he has gotten a little more social lately and I like that. Wish I could be a fly on the wall of his classroom sometimes...

Still no sign of the winter coat. I think it's gone for good. (sigh)

Simon:
I've started paying him off in Minecraft minutes for every sight word he can rattle off without help. Wish I'd done it months ago. He knows 57 out of 60 all of a sudden. He also brought home his first "Little Book" from kindergarten yesterday. It was called "Look" and he read it all the way through without help and without even stopping to sound words out.  YAY! Where has THIS been?! I had been a little concerned about his reading progress lately, but maybe it was all for naught.

He has been doing a little better with handwriting too -- mostly his issue is not wanting to put forth ANY effort whatsoever... but when you stand over him and make him do and redo, his writing is actually pretty age appropriate. His teacher has been tightening the reigns lately too and some papers are coming home with "second attempts" stapled to them. Hopefully we can get him whipped into shape for first grade.

The idea of Simon and first grade right now is a little bit ... um... daunting to me. I'm saying a little prayer that he gets a teacher next year who a) gets him and thinks he's funny and b) has a little boy or two of her own and c) is patient, but also has high expectations and isn't going let him get away with being lazy. I know, it sounds like a Mary Poppins request list... but  that will be the best combination for his success next year, I think. We've had good luck so far with teacher fits... so hopefully that continues.  As a mom, I live in constant fear of my kids getting the teachers who don't like/get little boys... and they are definitely out there!!

Jonathan:
I hesitate to write this, but he hasn't had a meltdown in two weeks. He has been pleasant and adorable and relatively easy. Yikes! We're coming up on one full year of our time with Infants and Toddlers and it's amazing to look back and see how far he's come in that time.

When he started with Ms. Cindy last March, he had basically NO language.  Crazy! We are opting to stay with them because why mess with what's working? He has his one-year evaluation coming up Monday and then something about Child Find coming to talk about the options when he turns three in August. We can either go to the elementary school for speech, if he still needs it. Or we can stick with services in our house. Probably going to go with the latter.

And now I need to end this because Jonathan is climbing into my lap to steal my computer. I really miss having my computer to myself... now they ALL play on it. GRRR....

Poetic...

I got an email from Ben's teacher today (the one out on sick leave) --- apparently the class keeps a notebook where they write to her and she writes back. She wanted to share the poem Ben wrote to her.

*ahem*

I wish you were back.

It makes me want to hack.

And without you,

my world is black.

How funny is that? 

Every single time I have thought about it today, I've laughed out loud. When I asked him about it, he said, "Yeah, I worked really hard on it to make sure it all sounded like it went together." so I'm actually not sure he meant it be funny... oops. ;)

All That Angst Over Nothing...

Ben, I kid you not, was worried about taking the MSA (state tests) this year starting... well, basically the day school ended LAST year. He brought it up at least once a week for nine solid months, even more frequently as it drew closer. There were tears... there were full-on freakouts. "I hate third grade because of the MSA!!" was uttered more than once.  Plus, he was ultra annoyed because he was afraid it was going to happen during his birthday week.

Well, they finally had the first day of the test on Thursday, so when I picked him up, my first question, of course, was --

"Hey Ben! How was the MSA today?"

"So easy! And we got DOUBLE recess!"

(Duh. I had been telling him about the double recess for months)

"Were you bored?" (one of his biggest worries was that he'd finish and then not have anything to do...  I swear, he fears boredom the way some people fear heights or clowns... we're talking phobic territory!)

"No! I finished the test early but then I went back and checked my work."

I felt his head for a fever.

Now? He's actually looking forward to the last three days of it next week! Crazy kid.

But, of course, he has moved on to worrying about other things now. The worry du jour is swim team this summer, followed closely by "fourth grade and all the extra work I'll have to do!"

Neverending... never. ending.

Still MIA...

Ben's winter coat is still missing. I really thought it would have turned up by now. How on earth do you lose your gigantic winter coat? Plus, it's a small school with a central lost and found. Where did it GO? It has his name in it and EVERYTHING.

Guess I should be thankful we're heading into spring and that he had almost outgrown that coat...

Sigh.

HA!

I emailed Ben's teacher yesterday morning to let her know he was coming in with the class snack for the MSA test and that she may want to intercept it, lest he forget he has it and it ended up crushed out by the lockers.

She wrote back that he had actually been doing really well with remembering things lately but that she would go grab it from him so no one sat on it in the hallway.

I wrote back (because I can never resist replying to a reply... I really can't.... ) to thank her and also thanked her again for all her help with making sure he came home with everything he needed every day. (can't tell you how many times I have seen her chase him down the hall with his coat in the last month or so)

Amusingly enough, I arrived at school for pickup and who came wandering down the hall? Ben... with the teacher following close behind. They headed for the office....poked around in there for a little bit, came back out... I looked at her quizzically and she came over to tell me that he had lost his coat and they were looking for it.  They checked lost and found... not there. He couldn't even remember where he had put it down.

LOL.

I assured her it was fine. It has his name in it and always turns up eventually. Plus, it's supposed to be warming up.

TOO funny though.