Walking to School

I started walking Clara to school a few weeks ago. We're all loving it (most of the time). We have to leave the house by 7:00 which is a feat sometimes, but we're pretty good about getting out the door in time. She sometimes rides her scooter and I've ridden my bike with Robert in the bike trailer too. It's a bit of a pain because there are no sidewalks once you're out of our subdivision and no shoulder, as you can see. We take a short detour to stay off the main road in the bottom picture since it's a rough ride for Robert through people's yards and over curbs and driveways.

People amaze me. It's crazy how fast they'll drive past a woman with a stroller and a young child. The best one was yesterday. As a car barreled toward us, (not slowing down or moving over a bit of course), I see the driver using both hands to put her hair in a ponytail.

We walk Clara to the crossing guard where I take her scooter and helmet, and then she walks the rest of the way on her own. The house on the corner here is right next to the school, so she gets a little independence (even if it is just a small taste).

Grade 1 Day 1

It was back to school time on Monday. Clara was ready for school to start, but when the moment arrived, she was a bit apprehensive. I was a little worried about how she would react because of how she reacted to promoting to the 1st grade class for Sunday school the day before. She held back, held on to me and didn't want to go into class, almost in tears. I don't know what was up with that.

Anyway, she did fine once we got inside on Monday. I was a bad mom and waited until the last minute to buy school supplies so I couldn't bring them up when we met her teacher last week. I had to go into school with her the first morning to help her carry it all in. Her school is not equipped to have that many cars up there at once. Traffic and parking were a nightmare! After school, I overheard other parents talking about all the idiot parents who went into the school that morning and didn't they get the memo about Meet the Teacher night? Oops. I guess some parents were parking in the drop off line and getting out of their cars to walk their kids to their classrooms. Ok, I agree; that wasn't cool.

Her teacher is Mr. B and he seems really nice. She was hoping to get him and so far she really likes him. Here's hoping for a great 1st grade experience!

Robert's First Day of School

Robert's first day of preschool was Friday. He did great! When he first woke, he seemed a little apprehensive and said he didn't want to go, but as you can see, he was all smiles when the time came to leave for school. I told Clara to stay inside until I took his picture so she wouldn't distract him. You can see her peeking out the window.

On the way to school, he kept saying "I not cry." I thought for sure he would have a hard time when it came time for me to leave. But nope. He went straight to the cars but did allow me to take a couple of pictures. I showed him where the potty was in the classroom and said goodbye. He said "I not cry" again and I was out the door. Easy peasy.

I didn't really have a chance to miss him because Chris had taken the day off to help me get ready to go camping this weekend, so my day was full. It was absolute bliss to get things done without him underfoot. I love the boy to pieces, but I've been feeling very overwhelmed with the most basic of tasks for some time now. He just takes so much of my mental energy; I feel like I'm running all day, but getting absolutely nothing done. I think this is going to be just the thing to help me get back on track and get things in order around here.

And the best part? He loved school. I was a little worried he wouldn't like it, but he had a fantastic first day. He ate a good lunch, took a nap and was dry when I picked him up. His teacher said he tossed and turned for a little while when naptime first started and mentioned me, but all she had to do was remind him I would be there after he woke up from his nap and he said okay and went to sleep. When I got there, he met me with a smile and a hug and said, "Mommy! I did miss you!"

So we got home, moved his carseat to the Jeep and were on our way to Huntsville for the weekend.

School's Out For Summer!

We were all soooo ready for summer around here.

 Especially this girl.

I'm not sure if I've mentioned it on here, but I started receiving phone calls from her teacher in January I think. Her problems all revolved around not listening and talking too much. I was sure the first incident was just because her ears were plugged completely and we had been experiencing the same behavior at home. I assumed she would be fine after we had them cleaned out, but nope. I probably got 5-6 calls the last few months of school.

To be fair, her teacher did say that her behavior issues were minor but thought we would want to know since it was out of character for her. The class social butterfly got moved right next to her at some point, so I'm sure that didn't help matters. Near the end of school I got a call that she had been disrespectful to the teacher so at that point I was counting down the days 'til summer vacation right along with her. One year down, twelve to go!

Let's Backtrack, Shall We?

Clara's class learned about oceans the last few weeks of school. They were tasked with choosing a sea creature and creating a shoebox biome telling all about their animal. Initially, Clara chose dolphins but when I reminded her about the sea turtle documentary she had just watched, her eyes lit up with excitement.

She had so much fun making this with me. We brainstormed ideas and she was very unhappy every time we put it away to work on later. If you can't see, there is a crab and sea gull that are trying to get two baby sea turtles on the beach, a momma sea turtle laying eggs, a raft of seaweed with babies floating on it and another sea turtle eating sea weed.

Now you may be looking at this and thinking I did it all myself, but that is not true. I got her to recall some things that were on the documentary and helped her brainstorm how she could illustrate them in her biome and then helped with the hard parts (the beach, hanging stuff and cutting out her drawings). She did the drawing, painting, making sea anemones, play doh, and gluing with minimal assistance. I thought about being almost completely hands off, but I'm not sure how she'll learn to do some really creative stuff unless I help her at this early age. It's not like a teacher can assign a project of this magnitude to a kindergartener and expect them to do it all by themselves. Right? Please tell me if I'm delusional and whether you would have made your kindergartener do the whole thing themselves. I really do want to know because I don't want to be one of those parents who does all their kids' projects for them. Now when she's in 3rd grade? Yeah, she's on her own for the most part.

Clara's Wisdom Literature

This is a special week for Clara. Every morning before school, the entire school meets for "Rise and Shine" and this week Clara's class is leading it. Clara is doing the "wisdom literature"; she had to memorize a poem. When she first brought it home, I actually thought it was asking a little much of a kindergartner to be expected to not only memorize something so long, but say it in front of the whole school.

Well, she showed me. I went up to watch her yesterday and was choking up a little when she started reciting it. I'm so proud of her! She spoke slowly and clearly and didn't need any help. When I picked her up from school, I asked her if she was nervous at all. She said, "Nope", and I said, "not even a little?" "Nope." Several teachers that recognized me from the car pick up line have stopped me to tell me what a great job she's doing. Proud mom moment for sure.

She told me, "I love to be on stage in front of people. I also love to be on stage when I'm not in front of people." So apparently we don't need to work on confidence. There was something very reassuring about watching her up on stage. Something tells me that if she can do this well in front of this many people at this age and not have a bit of nervousness, she'll be just fine :)

I was fumbling with my camera when she started and didn't get the first line, but here is the poem if you can't hear her:

Today I.....

Today I smiled, and all at once things didn't look so bad.

Today I shared with someone else, a bit of hope I had.

Today I sang a little song, and felt my heart grow light, 

And walked a happy little mile, with not a cloud in sight.

Today I worked with what I had and longed for nothing more, 

And what had seemed like only weeds, were flowers at my door.

Today I loved a little more and complained a little less,

And in the giving of myself, I forgot my weariness.

-Poet Unknown

During the assembly, the principal got up to make announcements and was standing right next to Clara. (She announced Spirit Night at Chick-fil-a, where a portion of sales go to the school. They have one every month or so but we never go because Chris is allergic to chicken. Clara always asks though.) So while the principal is making the announcement, Clara is looking at me, doing the hands-together-like-she's-praying-bobbing-up-and-down-furrowing-her-brow-while-mouthing-PLEASE-PLEASE-PLEASE.

How could I say no? Daddy was a good sport and did dinner on his own tonight so that the rest of us could go up with people from Clara's school. And the cow. And she had a blast.

Dr. Seuss Had One Too

A birthday, that is. We share our big day, actually. Us and Sam Houston. And Texas.

Anyway, Clara got to dress up as a Dr. Seuss character at school. I put together a Max costume (the Grinch's dog) and she loved it. I just attached a cardboard antler and felt ears to a headband. To my surprise, it actually made it to the end of the school day and she was wearing it when I picked her up in the car line.

Clara's Class Party

Clara's last day of school before the Christmas holiday was on Friday the 16th and her class had a little party at the end of the day. I wasn't able to find someone to watch Robert, so I brought him with me having no idea how he would do since it was right in the middle of naptime. I was hesitant because he was a tornado of destruction at her birthday party the week before and that was with a short nap.

Well, I needn't worry because he acted pretty good. He got to sit next to Clara and got all the same treats she did. Oh my goodness, they just kept pumping all of the kids full of sweets. When I got there, they were just finishing M&M cookies. Then they each got a sugar cookie with some icing and sprinkles to decorate themselves. Then came another cookie/icing/sprinkles combo. And then a cupcake. Not to mention two capri suns each and a treat bag with several sweets. Oh well, they were all so excited and I guess a little holiday sugar overload never hurt anyone.

Just as an aside, I feel the need to explain Clara's bangs. She's decided to grow them back out. Sigh. They're not long enough to really hold back with barrettes and no matter what I do with her hair in the morning, by the time I pick her up from school it's usually falling in her face. This is after two months of growth so we've got a long road ahead of us.

Lunch Date

I finally got myself up to Clara's school to have lunch with her today for the first time. She's been asking me to come up for awhile now. It's not that I haven't wanted to have lunch with her, but kindergarten eats at 10:00, so I'm typically not thinking about lunch around 9:30 or so when I would need to be getting ready to go up there.

So I went and got me a breakfast sandwich at Panera Bread and a pumpkin shaped cookie to surprise Clara with and we headed up to the school. If you go up to eat with your child, you have to sit at a special table. I kinda wanted to get to know her classmates and put names to faces. Is that how it works at other schools? I'm assuming the reasoning behind it is you're not allowed to have any contact with kids if you haven't had a background check. I'm not sure why kids would want to eat with their parents if it means they can't talk to their friends.

The whole time I was there, I kept hearing, "Clara! Clara! Clara!". So she spent the entire meal turned around trying to yell to her friends. She loved having lunch with us and Robert enjoyed himself immensely as well. I couldn't get him to even look at me for a picture; there was waaay to much to take in.

I thought this bulletin board was pretty neat. It's self-portraits of all of the students. Clara's been talking about the colors in the rainbow a lot lately, so I guess the whole school's been learning the same thing.

Speaking of Books

Clara started reading her first chapter book today. She's reading the first book in the Magic Tree House series and is so excited!

Not only is she reading books, she's also just written a book for school. She decided to title her book "How Babys Grow" and I found page two especially interesting.

In case you can't tell what's going on, "the mom is in a bathtub with people helping her and the baby's head is coming out but the body is still inside." Hahahahaha. Love it!

Clara's Big Day

Last night, I surprised Clara with a couple of new books at bedtime. She was super excited when I started reading The Night Before Kindergarten and then was beside herself when I went and pulled out The Berenstain Bears Go to School. This was after reading a chapter in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader like we do every night. (I fully realize it won't always be this easy to be viewed as a rockstar mom so I have to enjoy it while it lasts.)

As I put her to bed with her customary songs (that she still insists are necessary for a good night's sleep) she couldn't wipe the smile from her face. I went over some of the things that she needed to remember for her first day of school and then I talked about letting her light shine and that now she has to remember all of the things she's learned from us and from Sunday school since we won't be there to remind her. I also prepared her for being around kids who come from families that don't have the same rules as us and that there may be kids who are mean or who say bad words and that while she still needs to be nice to them, that behavior isn't acceptable for our family. She didn't know what bad words were :) My poor sheltered child. She said, "Like counting in Spanish. Uno is one, dos is 2....... ". I said, "Yeaaaaah, something like that." Not sure where that came from. I guess we'll just cross that bridge when we get there. So after our conversation, I started tearing up just a bit, we said an extra special prayer for her first day and then it was time for lights out.

Morning came and she was up and at 'em as soon as I woke her up. No complaining and no dilly-dallying so that made me very happy. We even had time to leisurely take pictures instead of snapping as we ran to the car.

I took Clara to school on the first day, but Daddy will be her regular driver. School starts at 7:30, so it's not a big deal for him to drop her on his way to work. He wanted to just take her on the first day, but there was no way I was going to miss my eldest's first day of school. I relented with Robert's first haircut, but I had to put my foot down on this one :) Daddy's just don't quite understand. Chris stayed home with Robert so I wouldn't be distracted by his shenanigans.

The drop off line was chaotic even with a policeman directing traffic. Parking was terrible, with everyone parking in fire lanes. We eventually made it inside and I let Clara lead the way to her classroom. She went straight to her desk and started stringing froot loops on a string. There was zero hesitation, even though she was sitting next to a boy who was very distraught. She told me that if he was still upset in a few minutes that she would hold his hand and tell him it was ok. I told her that was sweet but he may not like holding hands. Turns out he lives at the back of our subdivision. His parents recognized us and knew which house we lived in. They actually toured our house before we moved in and decided to build the same model. Small world. Clara's teacher is Mrs. S and seems really sweet. Clara really likes her.

She didn't need me anymore so I got a quick kiss from her and was out of there. No tears for either of us.

I left the house to go pick her up about 15 minutes before school let out since I had no idea what to expect when picking her up. Of course, the line was backed up about a quarter of a mile, with more backed up in a turning lane to turn into the school from the other direction and another line backed up coming out of a gated subdivision. Seems to me there should be one line and those other lines should go do a u-turn and get in line with everyone else instead of trying to merge three different lines, but maybe that's just me.

I was surprised there weren't more kids walking to the subdivision that's right next to the school. There's a sidewalk straight into the subdivision, but I only saw 2-3 parents walk to get their kids and no kids walk by themselves. Hopefully more will after sitting in yesterday's awful fiasco. Cars would block the entrance in and out of that subdivision at times and I saw several people cutting in line and several near misses. It was insane. Robert kept quiet for about the first 10 minutes and then fussed the rest of the time. I finally made it to the front of the line a mere 35-40 minutes after school let out, so about an hour for the pick up.

I looked at the school district's facebook page and people were up in arms about the chaos at all of the schools. It sounds like our school had it good. I get that they needed to make cuts, but you'd think they would've had some kind of plan in place to get these kids who used to be bused in but are now car riders into and out of school in an organized manner. You used to have to be a minimum of .25 miles from school to be eligible for busing; now it's 2 miles. That's a huge number of kids! I looked at the transportation map for our school and there are 2 tiny areas of 2-3 short streets each that meet the new criteria. I would guess they're able to get all of those kids on two buses and not even fill them up.

Ok, enough griping. So Clara loves school. No surprise there. Her favorite part of the first day was the froot loops. She made some friends and can't wait to go back tomorrow.

We met Daddy at Pei Wei for dinner and then Tutti Frutti for dessert to celebrate Clara's big day. Then home and to bed so we can do it all over again tomorrow! And the next day. And the next............

Ready for Kindergarten!

Clara's preschool graduation was yesterday. They were all so cute up there on stage. Each of the classes wore different colored caps and each sang a song. Clara's class sang "If I were a Butterfly". Then all of the classes sang a song together about being ready for kindergarten.

They walked up on stage when their names were called to receive their diploma and their picture was put up on the screen. They also played a slideshow of pictures throughout the school year. The kids were so funny and would oooh and ahhh loudly each time a picture came up. It was cute for about the first 30 seconds. They did it through the entire thing.

There was a little reception in the gym after the graduation. We got to take home Clara's journal that she did throughout the year. I'll have to post some of the entries. A couple of them left us scratching our heads. She also got a chocolate bar with a picture of the girls in her class on it. That was of course a hit.

Chris headed back to work and I took the kids out to lunch to celebrate. Clara got to choose, so Chinese it was. Clara wore her cap in to show Jenny, the owner. She came and gave her a hug and gave Clara her meal for free and of course an armload of fortune cookies on the way out. She's such a sweet lady.

Here's my grown up little kindergartener all ready for the fall. She can't wait! I was surprised that she wasn't sad at all about school being over and not seeing her classmates anymore. She's just soooooo ready to go to kindergarten. I really hope her enthusiasm lasts.

She had a really great preschool experience. I'm so glad that I decided to put her in. If I had any doubts about sending her to school as opposed to homeschooling, they were definitely put to rest after this past year. And especially after graduation. She was so proud. It brought back memories of how special the first and last days of school were, each eagerly anticipated. There were class parties and end of year field days, programs, talent shows, science fairs, awards assemblies, spelling bees, movies, recess, new teachers, band concerts, and the list goes on and on. I can't deprive her of all of those and countless other special moments.

As we've neared kindergarten, I've really been kind of beating myself up about what the best route is for her schooling. Although Chris is adamantly opposed to homeschooling, I do see the pros and there is that part of me that wants to hold on to her longer. I have to be realistic though and I know there is no way homeschooling would work for our family. Clara needs to be with other people and have lots of friends; she's just like her daddy. School was about friends for him, plain and simple. And Clara loves to learn (except when it's me teaching her). If she tells me that 4+5=8 and I correct her, she will go to her grave telling me I'm wrong. But she's perfectly happy to accept it when her teacher tells her that 4+5=9. Homeschooling would only result in lots of tears (hers and mine).

And then there's private school and when it comes down to it, we're just not the private school type. The smaller class size and no standardized testing is great, but I just can't bring myself to send her to a place where everyone is wealthy. I want her to have experiences with different kinds of people (good and bad, rich and poor, christian and not) and learn empathy and compassion, not shelter her in what I've deemed to be a safe little bubble.

That said, I'm not just in love with public school either. There are a host of problems there as well. I'm not going to write it off though until we've actually experienced it firsthand. It's entirely possible for her to have wonderful teachers, make great friends and not be forever scarred by the system. The wonderful thing is we can change our minds next year if things are horrible. Or the year after. One thing's for certain, public school will challenge her and she will undoubtedly have daily opportunities to let her little light shine. I have a feeling she's going to rise to the challenge and bless many people in the process.

I hope no one thinks that I'm anti-home or private school. We've got friends in all three camps. I've gone around and around trying to decide what's best for us and what I've realized is that it's not a one-size-fits-all question. Each child and each family is different and like I said, I'm open to the possibility of either in the future if that's what fits. Just kinda getting my thoughts down on paper as we've reached this milestone :)

Hats Off to the Graduate

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Easter

I thought for sure Clara would finally have a holiday celebration on one of her school days. Since there was no school on Friday I assumed Thursday would be the Easter egg hunt. Of course not. It was on Wednesday. Her teacher said they would be having a special snack at 9:30 and then hunt eggs at 10:00. When we got there about 9:25, I noticed a few cookie crumbs and sprinkles on the table but I decided not to ask about whether or not we missed the snack, hoping against hope that she would have forgotten about that part.

I had to leave because they were practicing something for graduation and I wasn't supposed to see it. So I went to Walgreen's and picked up a little basket, eggs and jelly beans for Robert because it hadn't occurred to me that he might go ballistic at not having eggs and a basket.

When I got back to the school, it was time for the hunt. The kids lined up with their baskets and then hopped down the hall to the door. They were like locusts and the hunt was quickly over. As soon as all of them had passed by, I threw a few little eggs out for Robert. That kept him busy and happy.

As soon as all of the eggs had been located by the big kids, I heard one boy yell, "I see some more eggs!", and I looked over just in time to see four or five little boys barreling towards Robert and the two tiny eggs at his feet. I was able to convince them they didn't really want them because there was only one little jelly bean in them. The kids got to stand around and compare eggs for a few minutes before heading back inside.

Then it was back to the room and to the part that I always dread. Time to be the only one in the class that has to leave the fun. Woohoo! I told Clara it was time to go. She completely ignored me. After several "it's time to go's" she finally stood up and started crying. Oy. As we were walking out, she remembered she was also supposed to stay for a special treat, so I told her that I thought they had their treat before she got there. So then I was a bad mom for being late. She was quite unhappy with the situation.

But then, as we were walking down the hall to leave, we ran into this guy!

And all was once again right in her world. Thank you Mr. Easter Bunny for being in the right spot at the right time.

More Holiday Festivities

Like most families I'm sure, this past week was our busy holiday week. We were supposed to go with our life group to listen to Christmas music on Sunday but it was very cold and windy and I just didn't want the kids out in it after just getting over their ear infections. So we skipped out on that one. On Tuesday evening, we had Big Robert and his family over to build gingerbread houses. Daddy made Clara her very own graham cracker house to decorate all by herself, which she loved.

That way, she didn't mess up our gingerbread house :) I do a good enough job of that myself.

Then on Thursday night we had two activities scheduled for the same time, so Clara had to choose which to attend. She had her school Christmas program and her dance recital and she chose to dance. Her class danced to Jingle Bell Rock and they all did very well. She was the girl furthest from us though, so we didn't get good pictures of the actual dance. I love her dance studio. The Christmas show includes only 6 songs and is done in about 30 minutes. That is much appreciated when you're wrangling a one year old the entire time.

Friday was her Christmas party at school. Since she doesn't attend on Fridays, I had to take her up there. Her teacher decided to do their book gift exchange earlier in the morning because it's so crazy during their lunchtime party, so I took Clara up at 10:30 to do the exchange. She got a Tangled book with a read along cd. It only took about 15 minutes and then we had to leave and come back up at 12:00 for the party since she's not supposed to be up there on her non-school days. Oy. I didn't want to drive all the way home just to have to turn right back around, so we hung out at a nearby Wal-Mart for an hour.

I have a major dislike of Wal-Mart in general, but Wal-Mart the week before Christmas is just plain awful. It really brings out the worst in me. I was ready to hit someone just dealing with drivers in the parking lot. Can you really not be bothered to park two spots further down from the obviously perfect spot which you are wasting my time along with the 5 cars behind me to get? I guess I shouldn't complain since I got a really great spot only two spots down from the perfect spot.

Her class dined on Chick-fil-a chicken nuggets, grapes and cheese and then had cupcakes and cookies for dessert. Clara received a stocking from her teacher which included this cute ornament with her handprint.