Good morning! It's been over a week since I blogged and I figured you might like to hear how school and the new job are going. :) First off, I've taken Quarantine off my subject line on my blogs because we're not really quarantining anymore. We're back at school, we go out, we might not be seeing some more vulnerable people as much at the moment, but as for my family, you could hardly consider the way we're living to be quarantine. However, COVID is still very real and impacting our day to day lives. This season isn't over yet, and though some restrictions have been lifted, we are still being effected daily by the virus. This season will be much longer than people anticipated. I am hopeful that things begin turning around by the Spring, and am hopeful that next school year, a year from now, will look "normal" again. We shall see. But enough about that...
The kids are loving school so much!! They missed it a lot! Even Connor started showing a little excitement, which is saying something for my little internal processor. Avery says every day that her day was great! She loves her teacher and her classmates. She's enjoying being one of the older kids in the school. She's still in the younger half, of course, but she sees herself as much older now. ;) She was looking through books here at home the other day and was saying she was ready to sell some at the garage sale because they were too easy, more like Kindergarten books, and she's a 2nd grader now. I was particularly pleased about her choosing books as a point to notice she's getting older, more mature, and becoming a better reader. I'm sure most of you are aware, but I was a little concerned about Avery and reading when she started school. She didn't know all of her letters when she started Kindergarten. We fought over sight words and I just felt like learning to read was more of a struggle for her. However, she did well in Kindergarten. Eager to please, she picked things up quickly and worked hard to impress her wonderful teacher, Mrs. Baker. She quickly climbed to the top of the class where she helped others. In 1st grade I told her teacher at conferences about some of my concerns from Kindergarten and she assured me that Avery was doing very well. By the middle of the year she had joined the reading pull-out group for 1st graders who were reading above grade level and needed an extra challenge. Then the Rona hit and we all went home. I made sue the kids were reading at home the last quarter, as well as through the summer. Our school does a program over the summer called Read 800. The idea is that students are off about 8 weeks over the summer and should read about 100 minutes/wee to keep the "summer slide" at bay. That's 20 minute/day, 5 days a week. I had different expectations for them. Over the summer I asked them to read 30 minutes a day all 7 days a week. I also started them on their summer reading program the day school finished, instead of waiting until June. And when school got pushed back an extra 3 weeks, I kept them reading all through August and into September, right until school started. As a result, instead of completing 800 minutes of reading over the summer, Avery completed over 3200 minutes, and Connor, over 3000 minutes. No summer slide or Rona repeats on my watch! All that to say, I am extremely proud of my girl and the reader she's become. Working in the library has helped me cultivate a love for reading in her. As I wasn't much of a reader as a child, I'm hoping for more, for better, for her. It's taken a while to find just the right kinds of books for her that she truly loves, but I have the entire library at my disposal, and Karla has allowed me to check extra books out for the kiddos, so we're making sure to get lots of reading done these days. In other news, Avery is already standing out as a reliable student and someone her teacher can count on. I've seen her in the hallway helping friends get to places around the school several times already. So many times, that I finally had to stop and ask her. Avery, do you have a job this week where you take kids and notes around the school, or does Mrs. Hoy just know she can count on you? She just knows she can count on me, she replied. I'm so proud of her! She's a great student, a kind friend, and always full of ideas. I'm really glad school is going well for her.
Connor is a little harder nut to crack. I know he's enjoying school and glad to be back. He's already mentioned playing with Isaiah at recess and I'm glad he has that good friend with him and at his side this year, since it will be a little bit tough. He seems to have gotten over his concern about me being in his school and his class. The first day I walked into his class, I expected him to be embarrassed when the other kids noticed his mom walking in, but he spoke right up and said, "Hi, Mom!" It was so sweet! Only took 2 years of school to get him used to the idea. ;) He's making some new friends in his class and likes hanging out with the other boys, but even yesterday, he didn't want to tell me who he sat next to at lunch because it was a girl. LOL! Oh, sweet, silly boy! He's excited to check out books again, although he checks out books after school as well. He's enjoying being part of his class. His teacher, Mrs. Grisier is very kind and I know that she'll love on him a lot this year. I'm excited to see how he's challenged this year. At conferences last year his teacher, Mrs. Ybarra, mentioned gifted and getting him tested down the road. I wonder what Mrs. Grisier will say this year. We shall see...
The kids had a big day this last weekend! TJ has accepted a new job in Topeka and is going to be leaving Wichita in October. We've loved having him here in town so much! He's at our house weekly, and sometimes 2 or 3 times a week. We haven't told the kids he's leaving yet, but I think he's trying to get in as much time with all of us as he can before he leaves. So Saturday he took them all day to spoil them, have fun, and do the uncle thing. ;) I got them tickets to the zoo since we have a membership. They went there and spent several hours. The kids got to ride the boat for the first time ever! He also spoiled them with popcorn and dippin dots! He took them to Bionic Burger for lunch, and to a Mexican bakery to pick out treats. They also went to the mall to look at video games, which Connor thought about getting, but I think GameStop was just a tad overwhelming, and he's not real good at quick decisions. The night before this, TJ, Michael, the kids and I all went to CSB and had drinks and dinner from the food truck The Flying Stove. While we were sitting out on the patio, TJ told the kids that maybe they could go to Build-a-Bear the next day when they went out together. So I got my phone out and went to the Build-a-Bear website so they could look at the stuffed animals. I think this prep the night before is what made Connor decide to get a stuffed animal instead of a video game. He loves video games, but he also loves animals, particularly dogs, and stuffed animals that are or look like dogs. He's had Timber, his Husky puppy from Build-a-Bear since we was about 8 months old. In the last several months he's gotten Floppy, a coyote puppy from Mammoth Caves National Park, Rocky, a grey wolf from the zoo, and with TJ he also got a German Shepherd puppy from Build-a-Bear that he named ______. (I can't remember! I'll fill that in in a sec, or later...) So now he's up to 4 different dogs or dog-like stuffed animals. Avery got a new unicorn at BAB. Her name is Rainbow. TJ, being the uncle who doesn't say no, also let them add smells and sounds to their new stuffies. But the fun didn't end there! They also got special boxes, and Connor got a dish with food and water for his puppy. I can only imagine how much he spent there... 0_o But they all had a great day!
Well, I was going to tell you how my job is going, but it's after 7 now and the kids need to get up and eat and choose what they want for lunch, so I have to run! Tomorrow is my first day off while the kids go to school. It's going to be so strange! I'm getting my hair cut, and having lunch with Sis and TJ, so that should be fun. I might blog some more then. Chat with ya later!!
No comments:
Post a Comment