Shameless Mama Bragging

(Please note that I am bragging about my daughter here. I gotta write this stuff down or I'm afraid I'll forget and I am so proud of Maggie)

Today, I was in Maggie's class grading papers and cutting out laminated words. Maggie's teacher asked me if I heard about Maggie's big news.

She hadn't told me, yet, so her teacher made this announcement to the class while I was there.

Maggie's teacher said that she tested Maggie's reading fluency. Fluency is tested by how fast a child can read without making a mistake. She had to read 85 words in a minute to pass. Maggie read 165 words in a minute!

I am so proud of her. She was proud, too. She is so sensitive and has had kind of a hard time lately. I was glad to hear this news. Her teacher made me promise to get Maggie a surprise to celebrate her accomplishment.

I think I can handle that!

Christmas break

Maggie had a different break from school than the usual get out of school the week before Christmas and have the week after Christmas off this year. She got out of school on the Thursday before Christmas and doesn't go back until tomorrow.

I have really loved it. I had a week off of work before she got out of school so I could finish up lose ends and wrap presents and that was great. Then, during the week after Christmas, we were all at home. But, I didn't have to work and I just got to hang out with the kids without the looming feeling of "oh crap, I should be working right now". We all slept late and played and went to the Machado's house to jump on the trampoline.

This past week was Nikki and Jerry's wedding, which was one of the most fun receptions that I've been to. Patrick was a dancing machine and Maggie was beautiful. Then, Patrick started going back to Miss Sandee's house and I started back to work. Maggie has been joining me at Starbucks during these mornings. She plays on her phone and draws pictures.

She has today off from school and goes back tomorrow. It's been one of the best school breaks that we've had so far. Just enough time together. I got a break from work. Steven's been working from home some and we've just enjoyed being together and playing with Copper and watching tv.

I guess I'm ready to go back to the real world tomorrow of getting up on time and getting everyone dressed, but it's been nice to be in this bubble for the past few weeks.

Picture winner

Good morning.

The resounding winner was smile #1 with teeth showing.

However, we went with Miss Beth Townsend's advice this morning. Do whatever feels natural when the photographer says "cheese".

We practiced some more this morning and she was totally at ease about it all.

She hopped up this morning so I could fix her nails that got messed up after we painted them last night. She put on her clothes and shoes and we fixed her hair. I love picture day. Everyday should be picture day!

We went out to the car to go to school and lots of kids were walking to school already. Maggie said, "everyone looks so nice today". We both smiled as we commented on the new clothes and combed hair. Everyone was kinda putting forth their best efforts today. It was sweet.

So, as soon as the pictures come back, I will be sure to post them. I love rituals like this.

What was your favorite school picture? Yours or your kids?

Homework Center

A couple of weeks ago, I saw this idea on Family Fun. I immediately pinned it to my pinterest board (cause I'm obsessed) and thought that I would do it "someday".

http://familyfun.go.com/magazine/familyfun-magazine-archive/familyfun-september-2009/homework-central-787551/2/

Doesn't this make homework look fun?

The more I thought about it, I decided that I needed to go ahead and make it. And by that I meant, my mom needed to help me tackle this project.

I bought a trifold board from Wal*Mart for about 8 dollars.


I found some sticky dry erase posters there too. I think they were about 4 dollars. They weren't necessary for this project, but it added some color and who doesn't love a dry erase marker? Especially if you are 7?

We used sticky double tape to put down cardstock pages. Then on some of those pages, we hotglued clothes pins. Then she could clip important papers onto the board.

My mom printed out a number line. I wrote down the alphabet to help with pesky alphabetizing homework sheets.

We hot glued some post it notes onto the board.

We also hot glued another dry erase board. Just for fun.

The last thing on the front side was clothes pins with a pencil holder. We put crayons, pencils, a pencil sharpener, tape, glue sticks and a pair of scissors. This was to eliminate the mad search for pencils when she started her homework.

On the back, we glued down a folder. This holds a world map that is laminated and her homework folder from school. She keeps it with her during the week and returns it on Friday.

From Drop Box

From Drop Box

She loved it. She plays school with it a lot.

I can't say that it has revolutionized the way that homework is tackled at our house. But, it was a fun project. It keeps all of her stuff together, too.

I would say overall this project was around $15-$20. I used a lot of stuff that we already had at home to complete this.

The end of first grade

This has been a great year for Maggie. She has had to deal with transitioning to a full day. She also got a new teacher in the middle of the year. She has learned so much and has really grown up. I'm so proud of her!

I tried to get a picture of just Maggie to really show the comparison, but the best one was with her little brother. He yelled "CHEESE" as soon as I got out the camera and she started giggling.

Field trip

Today, Maggie's class went to the farm. The last field trip to the farm that she went on in preschool didn't go so well. Who knew a kid could hold her nose for 2.5 hours?
http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
This one was much, much better! We went to a small farm in Stockton. I heard they have an excellent website.

Maggie's in a first/second grade combo class, so only the 1st graders went today. There were 15 of them. She has been with most of them for 2 years now and they are such a sweet, smart class of kids. It was really a lot of fun to hang out with them today.




The sun was so bright that Maggie "couldn't look up". Oh, the drama.


They loaded up on the bus, which was very exciting. Most of them had never ridden a bus before. They were very cute and nervous. Kirsten commented that you couldn't see them from the side because they were so short. It looked like an empty bus.



They went on a hay ride to see the orchard.



They picked strawberries. They got to pick out 5 strawberries. Maggie and Katelyn kept talking about how "fresh" they tasted.



They talked about what it takes to make a plant grow and they planted their own watermelon plants to take home with them.

It was such a fun day. I'm so glad that I get to go on these trips with Maggie!

Math questions

I just want to remember this random conversation between Maggie and Steven that took place tonight.



Steven: What did you learn in school today?
Maggie: I learned a new math problem. I learned what 6 plus 7 is.
Steven: Oh yea, what is 6 plus 7?
Maggie: Um, I forgot.
Steven: Well, let's figure it out.
So, he starts going through easier problems to work up to 6 plus 7. She starts getting sillier and sillier with her answers.
Steven: So, Maggie. What is 6 plus 7?
Maggie: Um...a negative number?

(insert rim shot here)

An encounter with a grandma

This morning, Maggie asked me to get to school early so she could have extra time on the playground.

We got to school about 15 minutes early and I let Patrick hold my hand and walk with us after we crossed the street. Maggie held Patrick's hands for a few minutes, but couldn't contain her excitement and Patrick was toddling along, so she kissed us goodbye and ran towards the school.

We continued toddling towards the gate to make sure she got to the playground and several little boys stopped to talk to Patrick. He liked the attention and waved to them.

We turned around to go back to the car (cause I'm the slacker mom who drives to school even though we live a block away) and Patrick was watching the kids bounce a basketball and run towards the playground.

I was thinking about how different he is going to be to transition to school. He loves being around kids and I can see wanting to go to school next year when we drop off Maggie. Of course, he's too little and he won't like this. He is not a clingy child at all and loves new adventures and anything that he can climb!

I'm having this inner dialogue when a grandma stops me to tell me how cute Patrick is and how he will be ready to go to school soon. She is dropping off a child and says that it seems like just yesterday that she was dropping off her little boy. Her little boy is 41 years old now. She's telling me to cherish this time with Patrick and how fast it will go by.

I'm guessing she is about 65 years old. She is a sweet looking grandma with sensible tennis shoes on and I look down at her feet as she walks past me.

She has a tatoo on her ankle.

It shocked me. A grandma with a tatoo?

Is this what our generation is gonna look like in 20 years when we are dropping off our grandkids at school? Am I gonna be uncool since I am the only person in their 30s without a tatoo? Will all the other grandmas laugh at me?

She's a first grader

Friday was Maggie's last day of Kindergarten. Didn't I just drop her off at school for her first day of Kindergarten?

She was very excited but very sad about leaving her favorite teacher. There's a chance that she will have her teacher again next year since her teacher was moved to a Kindergarten/1st grade combination class.

I couldn't have asked for a better year or a better teacher. I prayed for her teacher and her class most of last summer. I just knew how important it was for her to have a good first impression of school.

It was beyond what I asked for. I hope that her teacher knows how much what she does for Maggie and her classmates means to them.

Drop off at school time

I am shocked to say that I enjoy dropping off Maggie at school. Not because I am so ready for her to go to school. I like having her at home, so I miss her while she's at school, but she loves school so much that it makes drop off time really easy. I didn't expect her to like school so much. She is a clingy girl who is a homebody, so I expected a fight every morning. This is the girl who cried every morning that I dropped her off at preschool. Every morning for an entire year when she was 3. That made me feel awesome.

But, I love her school. She has a wonderful principal who sets the tone for the school. She has a wonderful teacher who genuinely likes 5 year olds. She sets them up to succeed and she never raises her voice at them. It's an amazing thing to watch her lead them.

Drop off time comes after the mad rush of finding matching socks that don't itch or bump. Drop off time comes after putting on her shoes in a way that don't bunch up the socks that we just put on. It comes after we find jackets and snacks for snack time and her weekly homework and getting Patrick ready to go. p.s. Patrick is infinitely easier to get ready in the morning than his big sister.

Then, it's the mad dash to the door. Maggie has elaborate good bye rituals for each of this that take several minutes. It involves lots of hugs and kisses.

As we get to school, I try to remember to pray with her and tell her to remember that she is God's child and to pray for her friends in her class.

We get to school and say hi to the sweet crossing guard. This crossing guard is protective of the kids crossing the street and reminds each of them to have a great day.

After we get to the gate to let her in the playground, we kiss one more time and have a tight hug goodbye. She skips off to class and to see her friends. I watch her get in the 2nd gate to the Kindergarten playground and sometimes stand there til her teacher comes to get the whole class. I watch other parents say goodbye. I'm surprised by how many dads are there and how sweet they are to their kids as they leave them at school.

I was watching one dad hug and kiss his little girl goodbye. He was wearing a mechanics' uniform and was tatooed and pierced. He was so sweet to her. And I just teared up watching them say goodbye. It was just such a sweet outpouring of love between this tough guy and his little girl.

I think that we are extremely blessed by Maggie's school. I prayed and prayed for her teacher and for Maggie's first experience at school. It's been a great experience. It's been great to be connected to our community. I have learned so much about our town and the area just by her school. I'm happy to drop her off every day at school even though I really miss her while she is gone.