Our Kindergarten Graduate

It's been a busy month for us since school let out.  Big Sis was only out of school for about a week until she and the littles loaded up to go stay a week at Grammy's house.  I realized that I didn't even post all of the photos from her graduation celebration.

They started out with a little program for the kids to sing to us. It was in the morning, so Lee wasn't able to go because of work. I took Girl Twin, who was missing daycare due to the "24 hour rule," and we had a great time.  Big Sis has really come a long way from that first day of school when I don't think she spoke a word to anyone.  I've said it here before, but we are so thankful for her wonderful teacher who was so kind, patient and special to her.  The sad thing is that Big Sis will be losing her two friends from her class because they are moving to different schools next year.  

She got a great final report card and scored above average on reading...you know that makes this mama happy!  She is writing and reading simple books.  We are going to work on math over the summer and get ready to have a great first grade year.

She's just left of center--can you see her little head poking up?

With her teacher, Mrs. Cloud

Look at that sweet, toothless smile!

My girls with Big Sis's BFF from school. Her first sleepover buddy!

Am I raising juvenile delinquents?

It's been an interesting couple of weeks at our house. It seems that two-thirds of my children have been causing some trouble at school. There's nothing like getting a note from the teacher to make you feel like you are an incompetent parent.

Offender Number One:  Boy Twin. He is two years old.  He is a BOY.  In taking these two things into consideration, I know that his behavior is probably very normal.  Here's the DL. I got a phone call at work after Lee picked up the littles from daycare. Him: "Boy Twin got a police report sent home today."  Me:  "What?!"  Him:  "Well, it says incident report, but it looks like a police report."  Apparently, our angel-faced boy hit another kid with a SHOVEL....yes, a shovel.  I didn't ask, but I assumed that it was a plastic playground shovel, and tried not to think about the vision of Tony Soprano in my head.

So, how do you talk to a two-year-old about hitting? We sat him down and tried. He nodded and replied, "OK" in all the appropriate places. For punishment, I took away his new fire truck that he'd been playing with.  That certainly  made a point; he was so mad that he tried to hit me with a shovel. (kidding!)

Fast forward a couple of weeks.

Offender Number Two:  Big Sis.  She's five, and has been in a daycare/school setting since she was a toddler. I got an email from her kindergarten teacher.  Big Sis has always had a tendency to latch on to one kid and be "a follower," for lack of a better word.  She has a new friend in class, but now she's trying to keep the other kids from playing with them. Apparently, she's said some mean things to make her point to the other kids. Again, the vision in my head is not good---Lindsey Lohan in Mean Girls, anyone?  Her teacher assured me that she's a sweet girl, she just needs to watch her mouth.  As you know, we've been having this problem at home, too. The mouth! I didn't expect this kind of attitude for at least five more years! Oops.  So, we've talked to her this week. The teacher also talked to her.  I don't want my baby to be a Mean Girl!! We didn't punish her or tell her about the teacher's note.  I gave her a good talking to and a lesson on The Golden Rule....we will see how this turns out. She's a sweet and smart girl;  I don't want her blacklisted from the first grade. Good grief, the drama!


Note:  I am not looking for parenting advice or for anyone to tell me what a crappy parent I am. We are all learning as we go and doing the best we can.

Show and Tell: The 'F' Word

We are about a month into school now. After much fretting from both of us, I'm happy to report that Big Sis is loving kindergarten!  Her class has been very productive, right from the start.  What I'm most proud of is how quickly she learned to use lowercase letters in her name, which is something I didn't even try to teach her at home.  I was just happy she could write her name at all, in giant block letters, before the first day.  Surely that meant she was way smarter than the other kids, right?

They have been practicing the days of the week, learned some new songs, done lots of art projects and had some really good Show and Tell, apparently.

Here's a good little nugget from the second week of school--

Me:       How was school today?

Big Sis:   I farted at rest time.  Everybody laughed.

Me:  What did your teacher say?

Big Sis:  She laughed.


Oh. So. Proud.


Can't wait to see if this comes up at our first parent/teacher conference next week.