First Grade and Fifth Grade

It's back to school time again! We're starting later than last year, but it still feels like the summer just whizzed by. Kate is in Intermediate School this year (5-7 grade... I know, weird system!). She starts about half an hour later than Andy, but we managed to get them both ready so we could get a picture together.



Andy was so excited. When he saw the bus he started running, grinning and making happy noises. He's in the Spectrum Support program, so he has the same teacher and same classroom as last year. They love him.



We put some new panels on Kate's lunch box--kind of a last-minute thing the night before, but they turned out cute. I cut up a spare gelli print and she drew on top of them.



Kate at her desk. She's been in the Challenge Program for the past two years, but it was just not a good fit (lots of stress and anxiety, not helped by her tendency toward flights of fancy and woolgathering during math class), so we got her out of it. But she's had the same classmates and teacher for two years, so this is a big change. New school and new people. I hope she can make some friends.



Have a great year, kids!

Kindergarten and Fourth Grade

Can you believe we now have two school kids? How did that happen?

Getting both of them ready at the same time is going to be a bit crazy. We managed to grab a minute for a First Day of School picture before it was time to go!



Andy looks absolutely thrilled.



There's a smile... almost!



Andy at his desk and ready to go.



Kate was excited to see her friends again!



School is starting a week early this year.   This is so they can get out a week early because of the U.S. Open (golf tournament) being held at Chambers Bay next June.  (It's going to be a madhouse!)

We've been wondering how Andy would take the whole school thing. It's all-day Kindergarten, which is a big adjustment. He's in the spectrum support class. He's managed to charm his teachers and impress everyone with his beautiful handwriting, but we'll see how it goes once the novelty wears off.  So far so good!

"About Me" Bag

Kate had an assignment to bring in a paper bag with 5-8 items representing her. She came up with the idea to have this sock puppet coming out of the bag. She had me cut the hole in the bottom of the bag and attach the sock (duct tape), and then she made the eyes.



I can't think of a better way to represent Kate. She's always finding ways to turn things into funny little creatures. (I don't think she came up a name for this one ahead of time, but her class started calling it Bob.)



We also included her swim goggles, a pencil, a drawing of a dragon, a family picture, a picture of Wrecking Ball (Skylander figure), and Lego Kate.

I remember doing the same thing for a Relief Society activity at church.  It's a fun way to find out about people!

Third Grade, New School!

Moving is a big deal.  We haven't even begun the actual move yet, but Kate gets to move school districts.  She started her first day of third grade at her new school on Tuesday.  It was a rainy morning, so we couldn't do our traditional pictures out on the sidewalk steps. 




I digi-scrapped Kate's lunchbox!



University Place schools started the day before Tacoma. They also start forty-five minutes earlier, and until we get moved into the new house we've got a commute of 15-20 minutes, so we've had to adjust our schedule. We will miss walking to school, and chatting with the crossing guards. Kate has some good friends that she will miss also, but hopefully we can still get together.  (I also had to buy "real" clothes this year, since this school does not have the uniform-like dress code.  Lots of adjustments!)



At her desk and ready to go!

I wasn't sure how Kate was going to take switching schools, but it's going well so far.  She's already made a couple of friends in her class. They play something they call Pink Ninjas at recess. Sounds like Kate's kind of crowd.

Spelling Words (Illustrated)

I found this in Kate's papers. Love it! (She says "die" is a flower drooping in a vase.)

Second Grade!

Our little girl is a great big second grader!  Here she is, all excited and ready to go on her first day.



She's been wearing this jacket for three years now. It's not as big as it used to be!



Kate has been somewhat less than enthusiastic about going back to school, but we went to the open house the night before to meet her teacher and see the classroom, and then the excitement kicked in big time. In fact she was so excited that she couldn't get to sleep, and I eventually had to put on a boring audio book for her. (Well, boring to Kate, anyway!)

Kate got to start out her year with P.E. on her first day.  That's probably her favorite part of school. We got her some new shoes for the year (not purple this time), but they're still very stiff and they were rubbing on her heels, so when we found out she had P.E. I went home and got her other shoes. We'll have to work on getting the new ones broken in.

Here's to a good year!

The End of First Grade!

It's the last day of school! (Yes, our district got out pretty late. I think they added a week on because of the strike.)



Last year I got a picture of Kate coming out of school on the last day of Kindergarten, with her dragon costume on. I think she remembered this, as she has been wearing her dragon costume all week. I didn't try to replicate the picture this time, because it was raining, but I did get a shot of Kate coming into the house after Doug picked her up.



I also got a photo of Kate with her teacher, earlier this week. Awww! Kate has had a couple of great teachers in her school career thus far.  It takes a special kind of person, I think!

It's been a good year. We had a bit of a rocky time early on, but once she settled in it was great. She's done really well with her reading and math, and enjoyed some fun science lessons. When I asked her, "What was your favorite thing at school this year?" she said, "Oh, just about everything!"

and extra socks

That last one says "A map of space."

amphibian dragon facts

Kate modifies her homework.

Groundhog Day

Kate made this cute little guy at school. I remember Mr. Seewer, my high school World Lit teacher, saying that he would like to receive Groundhog Day cards. I guess the idea didn't really catch on, but thanks to the wonders of modern technology there are now a few e-card versions available.

Kate tells me that Pikachu saw his shadow too.

The End of the Strike

The teachers and school board finally reached an agreement and went back to work on Friday. We ended up missing eight days of school all together--four last week and four this week. I'm afraid we weren't very consistent with our homeschooling program (or lack of program), but we did fill up Kate's book log--ten books that she read all by herself. We did some addition practice and some language arts (online Mad Libs!) and talked a little about counting money but didn't get very far into that. A lot of it was just feeding her random information--not like real school where you have a plan and things building logically on each other. We are not that organized.

Kate was enjoying staying home, so I wasn't sure how she going to take the news that school was back in session. I didn't have any trouble getting her ready in the morning, but she did seem kind of subdued going into the building. When I picked her up she was happy and smiling, and excitedly asked me, "Mom, did you know that everything in our world is made of matter?" (Science is fun!)

Doug went back to work this week (after a three-month break--they didn't give him any classes for summer. We are glad that he's going to be getting paid again!). This means that now when I take Kate to school in the mornings, Andy gets to come along in the stroller. He enjoys the walk but always cries when Kate goes into the building. I'm not sure if it's because he wants to go to school too, or if he's just sad that she's leaving. He likes to be with his family.

Home School

When we got home from the fair on Monday night, we had a message that the teachers had met for another vote and decided to strike after all, so school the next day was canceled.

We got Kate up at her regular time and had her put on her school clothes, and we had our own school at home. She did have some homework, so she did that, and then we came up with some other things.  (We tried some  apostrophe exercises, but I'm not sure if she was really ready for that, despite having read The Girl's Like Spaghetti numerous times.)

Kate thought having school at home was pretty cool, and she kept talking about the different things that we would do.  We had Math Time and Reading Time and Lunch Time, and Kate said that when it was P.E. Time she would be the teacher and tell us what to do.  (We ended up not doing that, since she just went out to play with her friends and had P. E. Time that way.)

We've had a little trouble lately with Kate not wanting to go to school--weeping and wailing "NOOOOO!  I never want to go to school again!  It's boring!" and then we'd have to physically stuff her into her clothes and get her out the door.  Twice I ended up actually carrying her to school, sobbing.  We put it down to general anxiety (and stubbornness), but now I wonder if maybe she was picking up on some vibes that things were not quite right at school.  I hope that they can get everything resolved quickly and be a happy school again!

The First Day of First Grade

... for our first first grader, on September first!

There's nothing like that first day of Kindergarten. I'd say the excitement level wasn't quite as high this time.  Perhaps Kate considers herself an old hand at this school thing by now.  (Compare last year's picture--she looks so big!)



She made cards the night before for her new teacher and for the gym teacher (she loves P.E.).  She does have a lot of friends in her class from last year.  Her teacher seems nice.  (I've barely been able to talk to her, since the meet-the-teacher night was canceled.)  So far so good.  I asked Kate "How does it seem different from Kindergarten?" and she said, "Just the room."  (Okay,  it's only been two days so far!)

We had a little mix-up at the end of the day when Kate came out one door and we were waiting for her at a different door, but we got that sorted out. And then we had a storm of tearful theatrics that night (and the next night) about her wanting to spend every waking minute with her friend Riley.  A bit overtired and overstimulated, perhaps.  We'll get the hang of things soon.

School's out!

We're all done with Kindergarten! Here's Kate coming out of school on her last day, dragon costume flapping. (She's been wearing her dragon costume to school quite a lot lately.) They had a half day today, with a special assembly in the morning. I went for the end-of-the-year slide show. (They used a few of the photos that I took.) It was funny to hear the kids' reactions throughout the show, as each photo got some kind of response--a murmur of recognition or a roar of laughter. And at the one photo that was sideways, everyone in the auditorium tipped their heads simultaneously.

Kate has loved school. She seemed to have mixed feelings about her last day--excited for summer but sad that her Kindergarten year was over. She really loved her teacher and made some good friends in her class. We got a few phone numbers so hopefully we'll be able to arrange some play dates. (Kate is already planning a "Summer Party" at our house. She'll have to clean her room first.)

The Kindergarten classes had a day at the park on Monday, where I got a nice picture of Kate with her teacher.



I ran into her teacher the next day at Fred Meyer, and she told me how much she's going to miss Kate and her imagination. It's been a fun year.

100 Butterflies

It's the one hundredth day of school! I know when I was in school we never even knew when the hundredth day was, but this seems to be a fairly common thing now.  There's even a song about it on Starfall.

Kate's teacher gave each of the students a big sheet of paper to put one hundred things on.  Grandma Mary sent Kate some cute butterfly stickers for Valentine's Day, so we decided to do one hundred butterflies.



Kate put the stickers together and then made these cute little fingerprint butterflies with my stamping ink.




Here's the final result! Stickers, drawings, stamps, fingerprints (the large fingerprints are mine), and lots and lots of punchies. The funny-looking one at the bottom is a Shark Butterfly.

We also sent along one hundred raisins for the "100 day trail mix."  (Actually the paper that Kate brought home said "trial mix," but I'm assuming that was a typo.)

What an exciting week it's been at school!  And it's only Tuesday!

Making Valentines

Being a parent with a child in school is a new experience. There are all these things that I never had to think about before. It didn't dawn on me until the afternoon of the 13th that Kate would need some valentines for her class.I asked her if she would like to make some and she thought that was a great idea.



My budding crafter. It was so fun to see her really getting into it. She said, "I'm going to do it my own way!" and she did. She made valentines for all the kids in her class, her teacher, her reading group teacher, and the librarian (they have library on Monday), and one for her friend Trinity who's in a different class.



They had a big party in their classroom. Kate came home all excited and bearing treats.




Taking inventory of the Valentine party haul. (Candy! Exciting!)



Doug brought me some daffodils. Awww.

Happy Valentine's day!

Kate is thankful for...

Kate brought this home from school. We are amused.

(And yes, rather horrified by that apostrophe.)

Readin', Writin' and Rainin'

Kate's been in school for two months now! I'm experiencing that odd duality, where it feels like she just started but also feels like she's been going forever.

When we went to our parent-teacher conference, Kate's teacher told us that they tested the kids to see how much they knew already before dividing them up into reading groups. Kate went through all the kindergarten material, and then they pulled out the first grade word list. This is 200 sight words that the kids are supposed to know by the end of first grade. Kate only missed 13 of them. So they tried putting her with a first grade reading group, but it just wasn't a good fit. She's five years old, after all. So she's back with her kindergarten group.

She doesn't seem to be bored by the material, which is good. She gets excited when they learn a new cheer for a letter ("Monkey on a mountain! M M M!")

We're getting used to being school parents. It certainly is an adjustment for the whole family. Mornings are hard sometimes, getting Kate up and ready, but I'm developing some strategies. Kate really likes her teacher and has made some friends in her class. She loves P.E., too. I hear the teacher is really good.

We walk to school together, with Andy in the stroller. (Andy cries when Kate goes into the school and he doesn't get to go. I tell him he has to wait four more years. Waaah!) Kate sometimes complains about walking and says she wants to drive, but I tell her it's good exercise. It's only a couple of blocks and takes less than ten minutes. I've been enjoying the walks and the autumn weather. We had some nice misty mornings that burned off to sunny afternoons, and then we got hit by some hard rain and had to drive.

Everyone knows that it rains a lot in the Pacific Northwest. But it's not so much a quantity thing as duration. We have a lot of gray, drippy days with a steady drizzle or a light sprinkle. It doesn't often rain hard. So we just put up our hoods and walk to school in the rain, and Kate gets to use this cute little umbrella that Aunt Barb gave her. (Or maybe it was Aunt Betsey? I will have to check on that.)




This week we had so much rain that I ended up dropping Kate off and picking her up one day, and dropping her off the next morning as well. The dropping off was a lot easier than the picking up. There aren't enough places to park. We'll keep walking as much as we can!