First Week of Kindergarten... Second Week of Third Grade...Middle School orientation....

Well, it's Friday.

It took Jonathan until Thursday to try to escape kindergarten. Thankfully, it was a half-hearted attempt, he turned around on the way through the doors and tried to run for me. I blocked though and a kindergarten assistant who was standing there ran interference and he walked with her to class. The rest of the day went well, I guess, because I never heard otherwise.

He has had all of his specials at this point, since Monday is just his extra Phys. Ed day. He has liked them all so far. (I'll hear about music when he gets home) ;)

Here he is with his first ever library checkout!  Mrs. Terry said he was good in library on Wednesday, a little silly here and there because he is really comfortable with her, but good. He even helped a non-English speaking classmate walk to the bathroom!

He says the day is long (and it is), but it must be filled with enough to keep him occupied because his complaints aren't constant.

I got roped into room mom duty for the first time ever in my entire kids-in-school history. A preschool mom friend asked if I would do it with her. I told her I would if no one else stepped up.... apparently no one did. So, this will be new and interesting! LOL.

Simon had a good second week. They launched headlong into multiplication in math and he seems to be doing ok with that. Handwriting has regressed a ton and all of his work is a mess again/still...  so I guess we'll be working on that at home a lot. School in general, is still not his favorite (especially since they are not currently doing a science unit and he loves science), but he goes without complaint for the most part and seems to enjoy having so many friends in his class this year. 

I really like the whole third grade team, even the teacher I wasn't thrilled he got seems ok for now. 

I guess we'll see how things progress and how conferences go... but for now, all is well in school land.

Ben had his middle school orientation yesterday and is already overwhelmed by all the class changing and things to remember. THIS will for sure be an interesting transition. He got his schedule and he is taking pre-algebra... which means I am officially out of the math homework helping game with him. Gah.  Pre-algebra, which I'm pretty sure I did not take until 7th grade, was when things really went south for me, math-wise. He must have a better math head on his shoulders than I did though because I got an email that his standardized test scores from spring were high enough to qualify him for the math competition club. He is considering it... I hope he does it! :)

Anyway... so things seem to be off to a good start! I hope it's a great year for all three!

First (1/2) Day of Kindergarten!

The first day of Kindergarten was yesterday! And..... it went well! Jonathan actually loved it! I hope he feels the same when it's a full day and he goes the entire week. LOL.

He came home and was already recreating things they did in class, which was hilarious. (he was creating imaginary groups -- "People who like candy, come sit over here....and people who DON'T like candy, go sit over there..." I think that's a true sign he's into it!

Before school with his preschool friend, Lillian. They started in 2s together, so I'm thrilled they are in the same class! 

Dismissal! Please notice Ben off to the side.... doesn't start until NEXT MONDAY. Sigh. He is so bored....

Big thumbs up for the first day!

Peek at Your Seat 2015!

Took Simon and Jonathan to peek at their seats today and meet their teachers. I'm excited for an amazing year for both of them as I know I love both of their teachers. Simon does have a different teacher for social studies/science that I'm not as thrilled with, but glad it's just that one class and that it's not reading or math.

Simon was first. His seat is right next to the horseshoe crab aquarium. LOL. He was enamored with it!

Moving on to kindergarten.... Jonathan was totally into Mrs. B's globe....

We found his cubby!

Colored a picture and wrote his name....

... and posed for a picture with his teacher. :)

I still think he has NO idea what he's in for... but he will soon! LOL!

Kindergarten Roundup -- Round 3….

Today was Jonathan's kindergarten registration appointment. They assigned him 1:20, and I was a little concerned about getting out in time for Ben's pickup. (if they were running behind, I would have been in trouble). The administrative receptionist had helped me out by getting all the paperwork done on Friday so all that needed to be done today was his academic screening.

Normally, they keep the parents busy with the paperwork and the nurse, so you have a hard time hearing what your kid is doing with the K teachers. But, seeing as how they had no paperwork to keep me occupied, I got to watch the whole thing.

OMG.

I haven't laughed that hard in a long time.

He sat right down with the teacher and immediately launched into a diatribe about how he has  "two brothers, Ben and Simon. One is 11 and one is 7. One goes to St. James, one goes here." The teacher didn't get a word in edgewise for a good solid minute and a half.

Then the screening started and he answered all her questions and then expounded upon those answers. He called a triangle a trapezoid, but then corrected himself and explained that a trapezoid "actually has four sides… oops!" She had to stop him during the counting test because he accidentally skipped 44. He had backtracked and fixed it, but the rule is they have to stop them when they mess up. He didn't care. He just kept counting. I thought the two teachers doing the screenings were going to pee their pants laughing. She finally managed to get him to stop and moved on to letters, letter sounds, shapes, colors, and sight words. Then he wrote his name, which he explained he wrote in "all capital letters because that's what I know how to do."

Suffice to say, he did um… quite well on the screening. Whether that will translate to a successful year in kindergarten, who knows? All my kids have done well on the screening with mixed results their kindergarten year. Ben soared, Simon floundered. So many things factor into success in school, not just prior knowledge coming in.  I just hope and pray more than anything that he is well-behaved.  I also hope he doesn't struggle with writing the way SImon has. That has been so hard for him. :( We shall see.

Anyway… it was a fun, entertaining experience! ;)

Wacky Wednesday...

When last we left our intrepid baby humans family…..

Let's see….

Much to everyone's surprise, Ben's basketball team won their first playoff game last night! They play again on Saturday and if they win, then they have to play again on Wednesday. As cool as that would be for them, I partly hope they don't win because he's signed up for this Wednesday night dodgeball league thing at SkyZone and he has already missed the first two games for basketball. :\

It was Wacky Wednesday at preschool yesterday. Always super cute! The kids follow handprints on the floor to go in a different entrance and crawl through tunnels to get to their classroom where things are all kinds of wacky. I, however, neglected to consider how averse my youngest child is to "wacky" and changes in routine. LOL. We got through the first part of the wacky entrance (a back stairwell) and he stopped dead in his tracks at the first tunnel, looked up at me and said, "I do NOT want to go to to school today!" Thankfully, I was abel to distract him and hustle him through to his classroom and bypass the rest of the wacky before he started to freak out. I think the rest of the day went ok… WHEW. Close call. ;)

In other Jonathan news, Simon came home from school with J's kindergarten packet two days ago! Weird to be filling all this stuff out for a third time.  (insert requisite "Wasn't he just born?!"  "Time goes too quickly!" statements here)

Our kindergarten roundup appointment is on March 30th! Still not 100% sure on the kindergarten thing for J, and likely won't be until August…. but still registering him and we'll see how it goes.  Roundup day will actually be very telling and helpful as far as seeing how good of an idea this is… will he go with the teachers to the stations? Will he be compliant for the screening? Stay tuned.

Not much new in Simon-land. We have discovered a new chapter book he likes and wants to read on his own. Its title will come as a surprise to no one. LOL.  And by "discovered" I mean it had been on his shelf for months? Maybe since his LAST birthday. A friend of mine was talking about it last week and how much her son liked it and I said, "Wait! I think we actually HAVE that!"  I had put it on the shelf and forgotten about it because it's a TOUGH book… no pictures and tons of words per page.  I didn't consider its read aloud possibilities though… so that's what we're doing….

I read a chapter to him very night and then he usually tries to read some on his own, which is AWESOME!  He even took it to school this week as his "drop everything and read" book. I love that!

He has gotten really into his Rubik's Cube lately and was excited yesterday because he "solved the blue side". I didn't have the heart to tell him that he'd have to UNSOLVE the blue side to solve the other colors…. LOL.  He has asked for a triangle shaped Rubik's Cube for his birthday…. for anyone needing a birthday idea for him! ;)

More snow today. Thankfully, I made it to the library yesterday while Jonathan was at school. Came home with a pile of books.  I also have ingredients to make an awesome cake, broccoli cheddar soup, and homemade bread today. Can you tell I have high hopes for this snow day? ;)  Also, miraculously, Tom hasn't tried to leave for work! Not sure if he will…. hoping he just works from home today. 

Still enjoying my Facebook hiatus, but I'm worried I'll end up cheating today since we're stuck here with the snow and all. LOL!