Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Sunday, October 23, 2011
Friday, October 21, 2011
Kindergarten
It's hard to believe that Ava has been in kindergarten for over a month...but in other ways it seems like we've been in this routine now for quite some time. Ava absolutely loves school. After being in preschool for 2 years and in the daycare center this summer, I don't think she found the transition to kindergarten all that daunting.
We had our first parent-teacher conference this week with her teacher, Mrs. Lloyd. Mrs. Lloyd has been teaching kindergarten for over 20 years, so she really is on top of everything. She started by showing us Ava's assessment results from the beginning of September. She scored high on it all - recognizing letters, numbers, etc. and she will repeat the same tests twice more over the course of the school year. She showed us other examples of Ava's work - and pointed out the folder cover that Ava made, as she was impressed that she used a scissors to create such detail in her picture.
One of my favorite things she showed us was Ava's Writing Workshop folder - each day they practice writing by thinking about something they did recently, drawing a sketch of it, counting the words in the sentence to describe it, and then writing it by drawing a line for each word and writing the words. The skills among the students vary widely but it's something they can all participate in, regardless of their level.
Here are some of Ava's writings/drawings. I'm especially proud that she has begun to spell words on her own and get pretty close to the actual spelling a lot of the time. She wasn't doing much independent writing before school started, so she's come a long way very quickly.
Me and my sister were watching Sponge Bob this morning.
We are getting our pics today.
Mommy pulled my tooth out.
A long time ago my family went to the apartment. (Atlanta!)
Like writing, her reading level has come a long way quickly too. She just started reading this summer and has become much more confident since school started. She is one of the top readers in the class and so Mrs. Lloyd is going to have Ava leave the classroom two days a week to go down to the Special Ed classroom and read to those kids. I feel like a broken record, but I'm so proud of her! Scot and I think it's great that she can practice her reading even more and essentially "volunteer" her time as well. It's awesome all-around and she is so excited about getting to do this.
Of course, not everything is good. Ava has issues with self-control in the classroom and sometimes needs reminders about the rules. Not surprisingly, she wants things her way. Mrs. Lloyd asked if we see those behaviors at home. Yes, we said,ever since birth.
I like so many of the things Mrs. Lloyd does. She sends a "book tote" home every Friday with a book and special activities that we can do together to work on comprehension. She also just started sending beginner reading books home every Thursday so the kids can practice those and then rate them easy/ok/hard. This week we got a special math pack that came home with all sorts of math-related games to play. We took this opportunity to also finally teach Ava how to play "War"! She had a lot of fun playing that with Scot and it reminded me of all the times I used to go over to my neighbor Essie's to play when I was her age. :-) Tonight when we got home, the first thing she did was sit down and play one of the math games by herself - drawing 2 cards out of a bag and then either adding them or subtracting them. I had to take a picture of Ava doing math homework first thing on a Friday night - I know that won't last long!
I also signed up to volunteer in the classroom one Thursday a month, so I had my first session last week. I helped during "center time", where the classroom is set up in about 8 or 9 centers with various activities. It was fun to check out Ava's classmates and see who she's been talking about so far. I give lots of credit to anyone who can spend all day with 20 5 and 6 year olds!
So things are going well with school. She started off the school year by only taking cold lunch (and even started packing it herself!) but since then she has diversified and gotten hot lunch about half the time. We check the menu every night and I let her decide what she wants. She also really loves to ride the school bus, though she also likes it when I drop her off at school, which I've done a few times. I get to work at about the same time either way.
Ok, so that's probably enough annoying mom chatter - it's just we've had so many challenges with Ava over the years, it's nice to see her settle down a little and really start to mature. I have a teacher friend who always said she never stopped being amazed at the things her own kids learned and it's so true - they really are such little sponges. It's awesome to watch.
We had our first parent-teacher conference this week with her teacher, Mrs. Lloyd. Mrs. Lloyd has been teaching kindergarten for over 20 years, so she really is on top of everything. She started by showing us Ava's assessment results from the beginning of September. She scored high on it all - recognizing letters, numbers, etc. and she will repeat the same tests twice more over the course of the school year. She showed us other examples of Ava's work - and pointed out the folder cover that Ava made, as she was impressed that she used a scissors to create such detail in her picture.
One of my favorite things she showed us was Ava's Writing Workshop folder - each day they practice writing by thinking about something they did recently, drawing a sketch of it, counting the words in the sentence to describe it, and then writing it by drawing a line for each word and writing the words. The skills among the students vary widely but it's something they can all participate in, regardless of their level.
Here are some of Ava's writings/drawings. I'm especially proud that she has begun to spell words on her own and get pretty close to the actual spelling a lot of the time. She wasn't doing much independent writing before school started, so she's come a long way very quickly.
Me and my sister were watching Sponge Bob this morning.
We are getting our pics today.
Mommy pulled my tooth out.
A long time ago my family went to the apartment. (Atlanta!)
Like writing, her reading level has come a long way quickly too. She just started reading this summer and has become much more confident since school started. She is one of the top readers in the class and so Mrs. Lloyd is going to have Ava leave the classroom two days a week to go down to the Special Ed classroom and read to those kids. I feel like a broken record, but I'm so proud of her! Scot and I think it's great that she can practice her reading even more and essentially "volunteer" her time as well. It's awesome all-around and she is so excited about getting to do this.
Of course, not everything is good. Ava has issues with self-control in the classroom and sometimes needs reminders about the rules. Not surprisingly, she wants things her way. Mrs. Lloyd asked if we see those behaviors at home. Yes, we said,ever since birth.
I like so many of the things Mrs. Lloyd does. She sends a "book tote" home every Friday with a book and special activities that we can do together to work on comprehension. She also just started sending beginner reading books home every Thursday so the kids can practice those and then rate them easy/ok/hard. This week we got a special math pack that came home with all sorts of math-related games to play. We took this opportunity to also finally teach Ava how to play "War"! She had a lot of fun playing that with Scot and it reminded me of all the times I used to go over to my neighbor Essie's to play when I was her age. :-) Tonight when we got home, the first thing she did was sit down and play one of the math games by herself - drawing 2 cards out of a bag and then either adding them or subtracting them. I had to take a picture of Ava doing math homework first thing on a Friday night - I know that won't last long!
I also signed up to volunteer in the classroom one Thursday a month, so I had my first session last week. I helped during "center time", where the classroom is set up in about 8 or 9 centers with various activities. It was fun to check out Ava's classmates and see who she's been talking about so far. I give lots of credit to anyone who can spend all day with 20 5 and 6 year olds!
So things are going well with school. She started off the school year by only taking cold lunch (and even started packing it herself!) but since then she has diversified and gotten hot lunch about half the time. We check the menu every night and I let her decide what she wants. She also really loves to ride the school bus, though she also likes it when I drop her off at school, which I've done a few times. I get to work at about the same time either way.
Ok, so that's probably enough annoying mom chatter - it's just we've had so many challenges with Ava over the years, it's nice to see her settle down a little and really start to mature. I have a teacher friend who always said she never stopped being amazed at the things her own kids learned and it's so true - they really are such little sponges. It's awesome to watch.
Monday, October 17, 2011
Charleston
So, Trip #2 was to Charleston, SC for a friend's wedding. We met Bob in Mississippi when both he and Scot were going through pilot training. Imagine a 22 year old fresh from Texas A&M, sporting a high and tight haircut, driving a brand new cherry red Corvette, and bringing little personality to the table. Despite all of that, he was an endearing character and we took him under our married couple wing for that year. He's gone on to have a very successful active duty Air Force pilot career and was lucky to find himself a Jillian Michaels look-a-like for a bride. We couldn't miss the wedding.
Bob and his bride are currently living in Charleston where he is stationed with a C-17 unit, though they are moving to Virginia very soon. We flew down there from Friday to Monday. Since Scot was in the wedding, he had some pre-wedding obligations throughout the weekend, but we were still able to spend some time exploring the area on our own. Unfortunately, the weather was unseasonably cold that weekend, so we didn't get to enjoy our hotel on the beach as much as we would have liked! We still managed to get out for some walks on the beach (albeit in sweatshirts and pants) and got to see a good part of the city. In Charleston proper, we took a horse and carriage tour, which was really beautiful and fascinating. And had several meals just the two of us...which really is all we need to be happy these days!
Bob & Scot
Lindsey & her bridesmaids
The venue - I'm not sure I've ever seen a more breathtaking wedding site! To top it off, Lindsey arrived with her dad by horse and carriage.
Fun in the photo booth :-)
Congrats to Bob and Lindsey!
Bob and his bride are currently living in Charleston where he is stationed with a C-17 unit, though they are moving to Virginia very soon. We flew down there from Friday to Monday. Since Scot was in the wedding, he had some pre-wedding obligations throughout the weekend, but we were still able to spend some time exploring the area on our own. Unfortunately, the weather was unseasonably cold that weekend, so we didn't get to enjoy our hotel on the beach as much as we would have liked! We still managed to get out for some walks on the beach (albeit in sweatshirts and pants) and got to see a good part of the city. In Charleston proper, we took a horse and carriage tour, which was really beautiful and fascinating. And had several meals just the two of us...which really is all we need to be happy these days!
Bob & Scot
Lindsey & her bridesmaids
The venue - I'm not sure I've ever seen a more breathtaking wedding site! To top it off, Lindsey arrived with her dad by horse and carriage.
Fun in the photo booth :-)
Congrats to Bob and Lindsey!
Sunday, October 16, 2011
More Reese-isms
Skirt = sirk
Sweater = Fetter
Switch = Fitch
Bandaid = bandan
Parts of speech = Uses "her" instead of "she", i.e.: "Her is going to get dressed."
This picture really captures Reese's personality...
And we've also hit the phase where Reese can dress herself (good!), but which means she changes outfits 4-18 times a day (sigh).
Sweater = Fetter
Switch = Fitch
Bandaid = bandan
Parts of speech = Uses "her" instead of "she", i.e.: "Her is going to get dressed."
This picture really captures Reese's personality...
And we've also hit the phase where Reese can dress herself (good!), but which means she changes outfits 4-18 times a day (sigh).
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Busy August & September
There's been a real reason for my blog delinquency for the past couple months - we have been busier than normal! We have had 3 long weekends in various states...the first was our family of four at Cragun's Resort on Gull Lake (near Brainerd, MN), the second was just Scot and me attending a wedding in Charleston, SC, and finally the last one was just me attending a girls' weekend in Las Vegas. Phew!
Cragun's was a great time, though next year we'll probably shoot for a weeklong stint. Four days was still nice (and all that we could make work for this busy summer between my hectic work projects and Scot's new job)...but it took us awhile to get in our groove, just in time to pack up and head home again. Cragun's is very family friendly - we had 3 free buffet meals included in the price and there was plenty of things for the kids to do (like a dj dance party - holla!). The weather was perfect, it was late August but still warm enough to be out by the lake and play in the sand. They had a giant indoor pool and hot tub which everyone loved too. We tried renting a speedboat one afternoon, but that was a bust (naptime + wind = unhappy little people). Live and learn. We had a condo with an extra bedroom for the kids that had bunkbeds, so they thought that was really cool. On the way up to Brainerd, we stopped in St. Cloud to walk around the beautiful gardens on the opposite side of the river from campus and then dropped by campus itself (boy did we feel old!). While we were up in Brainerd, we got together with old college friends who we hadn't seen in over 10 years. All in all it was a good time.
I'll have to write more about the other trips later...it's bedtime for this girl!
Cragun's was a great time, though next year we'll probably shoot for a weeklong stint. Four days was still nice (and all that we could make work for this busy summer between my hectic work projects and Scot's new job)...but it took us awhile to get in our groove, just in time to pack up and head home again. Cragun's is very family friendly - we had 3 free buffet meals included in the price and there was plenty of things for the kids to do (like a dj dance party - holla!). The weather was perfect, it was late August but still warm enough to be out by the lake and play in the sand. They had a giant indoor pool and hot tub which everyone loved too. We tried renting a speedboat one afternoon, but that was a bust (naptime + wind = unhappy little people). Live and learn. We had a condo with an extra bedroom for the kids that had bunkbeds, so they thought that was really cool. On the way up to Brainerd, we stopped in St. Cloud to walk around the beautiful gardens on the opposite side of the river from campus and then dropped by campus itself (boy did we feel old!). While we were up in Brainerd, we got together with old college friends who we hadn't seen in over 10 years. All in all it was a good time.
I'll have to write more about the other trips later...it's bedtime for this girl!
Monday, October 10, 2011
Reese - 33 months on 10/10/11
Our "easy" girl hasn't been so easy lately...she has really embraced her independent 2 year old-ness in the past several months. Decisions are painful. What to drink, what jammies to wear, what pull-up to wear, ponytail or not, the list goes on and on of topics that require multiple changings of the mind. I can't imagine how stressful life must be for our little Reese ;-) She'll committ to one (yes, the monkey jammies would be great, Mom) only to furiously object as soon as you help out with the original choice. She likes to go back and forth at least 2 or 3 or 17 times, only to finally settle on the choice decided upon 3 minutes earlier.
She has become even more verbal over the past few months, and I think going to the daycare center has helped a lot with that. The girl can rival Ava with her talking (who would have imagined this was possible?) and she really enunciates quite well. In fact, we've noticed that she already pronounces her "R"s, whereas Ava was still talking like she was from Boston up until about 5.
Reese has come home with a lot of songs from daycare - she really enjoys singing. And just the other day she sang the alphabet song all the way through for the first time. She just loves L a little more than the other letters, her version goes like this...H - I - J - K - L - L - L - O - P. She can also count to 13.
She is still our little comedian - she loves to make us laugh with her expressions and funny voices, she's always hamming it up. Even though dinners at our house can be stressful, we can generally count on her to break things up a little with some humor.
Potty training has not gone anywhere unfortunately. Ava even made Reese a "Princess Potty" sticker chart...but she has only gone 3 times over the past few months. Ava was potty trained by now, so it is frustrating. Reese just doesn't seem to have any interest whatsoever. The daycare has told us that when we are ready, we can just send her in underwear and that will usually do the trick in about a week...but I am still skeptical at this point. If she was making any sort of effort at home, I'd be all for it, but she just doesn't seem to have made any connections yet nor does she seem to have the desire.
What else? She is still at that cute age where she misprounces a lot of her words.
January = "Jean-a-ware!" (She loves to announce when her birthday is)
Museum = "Moozoom"
Computer = "Puder"
Anything that starts with L is pronounced as Y (i.e.: Like = "Yike", Look = "Yook")
I'm going to have to start writing these down when I hear her say them - I know there's a ton more but I'm having trouble remembering them now.
To piggyback on the last one, though, here is a conversation that was repeated occassionally over the summer. It made me laugh everytime...
Ava: Reese, I don't like you.
Reese: Ava, I yike you!
Ava: REESE! I don't like you!
Reese: Ava, I yike you...
Ava: REESE! I DON'T LIKE YOU!
Reese: I yike you, Ava.
She has become even more verbal over the past few months, and I think going to the daycare center has helped a lot with that. The girl can rival Ava with her talking (who would have imagined this was possible?) and she really enunciates quite well. In fact, we've noticed that she already pronounces her "R"s, whereas Ava was still talking like she was from Boston up until about 5.
Reese has come home with a lot of songs from daycare - she really enjoys singing. And just the other day she sang the alphabet song all the way through for the first time. She just loves L a little more than the other letters, her version goes like this...H - I - J - K - L - L - L - O - P. She can also count to 13.
She is still our little comedian - she loves to make us laugh with her expressions and funny voices, she's always hamming it up. Even though dinners at our house can be stressful, we can generally count on her to break things up a little with some humor.
Potty training has not gone anywhere unfortunately. Ava even made Reese a "Princess Potty" sticker chart...but she has only gone 3 times over the past few months. Ava was potty trained by now, so it is frustrating. Reese just doesn't seem to have any interest whatsoever. The daycare has told us that when we are ready, we can just send her in underwear and that will usually do the trick in about a week...but I am still skeptical at this point. If she was making any sort of effort at home, I'd be all for it, but she just doesn't seem to have made any connections yet nor does she seem to have the desire.
What else? She is still at that cute age where she misprounces a lot of her words.
January = "Jean-a-ware!" (She loves to announce when her birthday is)
Museum = "Moozoom"
Computer = "Puder"
Anything that starts with L is pronounced as Y (i.e.: Like = "Yike", Look = "Yook")
I'm going to have to start writing these down when I hear her say them - I know there's a ton more but I'm having trouble remembering them now.
To piggyback on the last one, though, here is a conversation that was repeated occassionally over the summer. It made me laugh everytime...
Ava: Reese, I don't like you.
Reese: Ava, I yike you!
Ava: REESE! I don't like you!
Reese: Ava, I yike you...
Ava: REESE! I DON'T LIKE YOU!
Reese: I yike you, Ava.
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