Letter to Connor

For the last week of school, Connor's class was given an assignment to write a letter to a classmate.  I thought this was a thoughtful gesture and this kid's letter is a very accurate description of Connor.

Translation:  "I know that you like Star Wars a lot.  I think you like to pretend a lot.  You do like to play.  I think you are a great kid."

I couldn't agree more with all of that....

School Yard Rhymes

School yard rhymes have changed since I was in school...

School Play - Roboteacher 3000

For the third year, the boys have participated in their annual school musical/play that the entire school, all 150 children, participates in. They practiced the song and the dance moves for a couple months, had a formal dress rehearsal, and then performed to a packed house at the Centre. This year's selection was "Roboteacher 3000". Connor was a Raven singing a song about reading and Brady was a Globe singing a song about geography. This was perfect for Brady since his favorite subject is geography!

I was able to attend the dress rehearsal the night before the actual performance to get a nice little preview and some video footage (in the event they didn't perform the next night). The night of the actual performance, the boys did an awesome job and their performance was witnessed by the three of us, all three sets of grandparents, and their Aunt Julie and Uncle Marx. Connor was so cute with his Raven outfit trying to act nonchalant to overcome the nervousness (so he claims). Brady was a bouncing globe with no arms, so really put the expression in his dancing and bouncing.

am so impressed at how well all the kids do with memorizing their lines, the songs, and the actual performance! Great job boys...we are really proud of you!

Connor is in love!!

At Connor's annual eye visit, I was sitting with Connor and Brady in the consultation room waiting for the eye doctor to come in. We talked about their day, school, friends, and more. During the conversation, Connor announced "I'm in love! I know who I am going to marry when I am older!".

We proceeded to discuss who this person was, how she is an older girl at 6 1/2, and how she is so much fun! About a month ago, Connor had announced that he was trying to decide which girl of three was going to be his girlfriend. One of the girls was not making the cut since she left for India for 3 months (and Connor must have moved on). He had then narrowed it down to two remaining choices. We now know who won based on his announcement today!

Later that night, I asked him to tell daddy about her and he proceeded to describe her hair color, hair length, eye color, height, and how they play together at school. Young love....so sweet!!

Fall School Pictures

I love the kids' school pictures....they look so great! They are growing up so fast!

First Day of School

Connor and Brady returned for a new school year in mid-August after spending the summer in the summer school program and the daycare program. Not a whole lot changes for them since they are at the same school and have the same teacher. However, they are in a classroom of ages 3-6, so each year a group of kindergartners graduate and new kids come on board. This year, Connor is one of those kindergartners. He will be the big kid in the class that is there to show the younger kids what to do. He will also be working on activities that are specifically for the Kindergartners like reading, writing, and math activities. Connor and Brady will each welcome 11 new students to their classroom, so they have some new friends to make this year. I look forward to hearing about their days and their new friends.

Doesn't Connor looked thrilled for the first day of school - he sure was pulling out the drama for my pictures?!?

 

 

Crazy Day!

For the final week of daycare at Montessori, before the official school year starts up next week, the school has some fun days planned. Today was crazy day....and the boys actually participated this time. In the past, they haven't quite understood why you would want to dress crazy. Today, they took it to the max!

They went to school crazy looking and returned as crazy Jaquar and Spiderman.

Swim Lessons for the Boys

Every Thursday during summer school the boys head to the YMCA for swim lessons. They take the school bus with their classmates to the YMCA for the swim lesson and some splash time. The boys have done very well, seemed to really look forward to and enjoy Thursdays, and I have enjoyed seeing the pictures from their teachers.

In mid-July, we decided to sign them up for Saturday swim lessons to continue the lessons (even though there was some overlap). Our goal is to allow them to advance through all the levels offered and if they have an interest, possibly join the swim team for competitions. Chris and Papa Tommy both did this as kids and loved it, so I would love to see our boys do that. Today, the boys were tested for endurance and accomplishments on specific areas and we received the report that they are ready for the next level. They have a couple more weeks of "Eel" lessons and then in mid-September they will be "Rays".

You will notice in the pictures that they have been taking their goggles, since that is what all the other kids do. Funny story about the black goggles. Those goggles were Chris's and Brady asked if he could borrow them. Chris figured the worse that could happen was a broken strap, but unlikely since it was pretty strong. Brady came home - "Sorry daddy, your goggles are broken and I didn't do it". The Speedo goggles were completely destroyed...the part around the eye area completely disintegrated I guess from the chlorine in the pool.

End of the School Year - Teacher Reports

To mark the end of the school year, we met with the boys' teachers for parent-teacher conferences and then we receive a written report. In the fall, we went in with expectations that the boys act like they do at home and were surprised when we received opposite reports. This time, we were very surprised to learn that the boys have different interests at school (some of which may be the age difference).

Connor's teacher continues to rave about Connor's new found maturity this past school year and how serious he takes his school work. He has picked up more challenging works in the areas of math and language and fully expects him to be reading by the end of the summer. She said he is very mathematically minded. For the next school year, he will officially be a kindergartner and will have the opportunity to "mentor" the younger kids on all the areas he has mastered the last two years (which involves learning patience). She said there is the occasional times when he picks out "busy-work" so that he can look busy while socializing with his best buds, but she lets it slide since he is usually focused. We love to receive these excellent reports...I look forward to what Kindergarten holds for Connor.

We then met with Brady's teacher. Quote from his report - "Brady is a sweet boy who is eager to please, happy, well liked by his friends, and full of energy". We couldn't agree more! She said Brady is very independent and continues to be interested in geography which explains all the various maps that are brought home daily. He has also learned to write his name which was an important achievement and has picked up a few challenging works that he has already mastered. He is not as interested in math or language, so that will be his goal for summer school into the new school year.

They will spend the next couple months in the school's summer school program, which is really just an extension of what they have been doing all year with some added flexibility for field trips and swim lessons. In August, they will kick off the new school year with their current teachers, friends from school that will return, and some new students.

Happy Birthday Zeus!

The boys' school has an annual musical/play that the entire school participates in. They practice the song and the dance moves for a couple months, have a formal dress rehearsal, and then they perform to a packed house at the Victory. For a couple months, the only CD playing in my car is for the school play. The boys had all the songs memorized - not just their own.

This year's selection was "Happy Birthday Zeus" (all the Greek Gods were preparing for his birthday). Connor was Poseidon and the song was "Respect Your Elders". Brady was Hephaestus and the song was "I'm a Big Boy Now".

Chris was able to attend the dress rehearsal where he was able to get some video footage (in the event they didn't perform the next night). It was a little questionable on how the actual performance was going to go, but they delivered. Chris attended the performance along with Mimi, Papa, Aunt Julie, Gma Darla, and Papa Tommy. Claire and I stayed home for obvious reasons, but were able to enjoy the video later. Connor was so cute with his old man cane and performing all the cane links with his partner. Brady was one of the smallest kids in his group which made it that much cuter when you saw him shuffling across the stage from one spot to the other for a dance move.

Great job boys...we are really proud of you!

Birthday Parties

Tis the age for classmate birthday parties....

Two weekends in a row, the boys were invited to at least 6 different birthday parties. We chose two for the boys to attend based on the relationship they had with the child and whether they were both invited. The first weekend, we attended a birthday party for Connor's classmate at Bouncing off the Walls. This was the first time we had been there and it was a lot of fun! Very similar to Pump it Up, but with a little more variety. The following weekend we attended a party for Brady's classmate (which used to be Connor's classmate) at Acros. Brady had never been to Acros and was a little hesitant to jump in the pits at first. After a friend's mom offered him a $1, he was all for it and was hoping to collect a $1 per jump. Even though that deal was off, he still had a lot of fun after that first jump. He did collect on that dollar also about 3 weeks later - he doesn't forget!

Written words...based on how they sound to a 5 year old!

I love how much Connor is learning and how he is learning...he is now writing words based on how they sound to him and I get asked to read them. Did you know that Lhcr spells Locker, Rcq spells Rock, and hs spells house. I do now! I love how he removes all vowels. He will also spell a word out loud that he heard in conversation based on how he thinks it should be spelled and ask for confirmation.

Unfortunately, he hasn't been as interested in reading books lately. I think his feelings were hurt when the books started getting harder and required more than one day of learning the words. I guess it is a lot for a little guy to learn all at once. Regardless, I have to say that we are really proud of the progress he has made!

Connor's New Milestone

Connor has entered a new milestone in his life...he is starting to read and he is also writing more words!

He is given a worksheet with key words from a book and then the corresponding book. He first has to write the words that are on the worksheet to gain familiarity with them. The first week he brought home a series of "home-made" books that he would bring home to read to us. It was so amazing to watch him sound out the word one letter at a time. Sometimes he would use the worksheet as a cheat sheet of some sort - I guess a memory jogger. After the first week, he then graduated to the phonic series of books for short vowels. This part has been a slower progress for him mainly due to interest level. He is supposed to practice reading the book until he can read it with ease before returning the book back to school and for some reason that has been a de-motivator for him. He enjoyed the quick read and take it back for the next book.

We won't push it as I know this is really early for him to be reading, but I am very excited about the "new world" that awaits him once he is reading regularly. I remember getting really excited about the ability to read billboards, signs, and notes home.

Maps of the World

Connor prepared a map of the world as a school project to show that he knew all the continents and their placement. He was also required to write out all the names and sign and date his project. He did a great job!

As many of you may know, Brady is obsessed with the maps of the world. He comes home daily with a completed map of the world, continent, United States, or something geography related. When he saw Connor's project, he INSISTED that he prepare one also. He did a great job also and then his took a different form when the boys started adding the train in outer space!

School Day Pictures 2009

Following are the boys pictures from school...they always turn out so well! What a difference a year makes when you go back and look at last year's pictures...growing up way too fast!

Connor's Field Trip to Mayse Farm

Connor's school takes an annual trip to Mayse Farm's Pumpkin Patch...here are a few pictures from the field trip. I love the one where it looks like he is directing or something. After they returned, they decorated their pumpkin as an afternoon craft project.

School Activities

I love the fact that we get weekly emails and pictures from the boys teachers letting us know what is going on for the week. They usually let us know what new activities have been introduced, what the letter of the week is, and anything else we may find interesting. This month, both of the boys classes are focusing on all the bones in the skeletal structure (which is appropriate to introduce at Halloween). Here's a quote from each of the boys teachers - do you know what half these bones are (I know I don't)?? Apparently, Connor and Brady will be able to tell us if they are paying attention.

Connor's Teacher: "The bones we are learning from head to toe (and the order of the skeleton song) are Skull, mandible, vertebrae, clavicle, clavicle, scapula, scapula, humerus, humerus, radius, radius, ulna, ulna, carpals, phalanges. Sternum, ribcage, pelvis, coccis, femur, femur, patella, patella. Tibia, tibia, fibula, fibula, metatarsals, metatarsals, phalanges, and that's our skeleton."

Brady's Teacher: "Before the end of the month, the children will have been presented the names of every bone in the body. We will even learn the names of our teeth and the malleus, incus and stapes. (Those small bones in the inner ear.)"

Here are a few pictures of how they spend their day...

Here's a reality dose...

The boys were asking if the baby would go to Montessori, which then made us realize that they will both be gone from Montessori before the baby is old enough to go there at age 3. That then made us think about where the kids will be at different stages of their education. Connor and Brady are only one year apart in school, so they will be closely following each other. The baby will be 5 years behind Connor.

The result....

All three kids will be in school until 2031 (assuming 4-yr college) and we will be in our mid-50s.

We will have 3 schools to deal with in 2019 - one in HS, one in MS, and one still in Elementary.

The baby will still be in elementary for one more year when the boys are both in high school.

The good news is that Connor and Brady will both presumably be done with college before Baby #3 needs the college fund! BTW, the college fund is intended for the end of the schooling to prevent them from starting their post-college years with a huge college debt. Chris and I strongly believe that there is a strong value and focus placed on the education if you have to help pay for it and work while going to school as we did.

Montessori, Light a Candle for Peace

Today at school the boys participated in the United Nation's International Day of Peace by singing and signing "Light a Candle for Peace". The song went all the way around the world. From New Zealand to Hawaii, with over 80,000 children in 35 countries singing. Brady is pictured several times in the video, but it does not look like he participated in the actual singing. The news stations were there also, so there may be more footage on the news tonight.

To see the complete video of the kids singing, click here.

For the Courier and Press Article and a short video, click here.

Can't fool Connor....

The other night Connor was telling me a story about something that happened at school. I added to the story based on my knowledge of what he was talking about and he first asked me how I knew that. When I claimed my knowledge was due to Mommy Super Powers, he quickly responded with "Did Ms. Beth (his teacher) email you?". Busted....

Remember when we were kids and our parents had "super powers". They always were one step ahead of us and knew everything (until we got into high school and we knew everything and kept everything a secret from them). Kids of this generation are going to have knowledge at their fingertips with technology...and parents aren't going to be able to claim super powers and all knowing knowledge.

On a side note, this works well also for getting things out of Connor. I can ask him if something happened at school today (just randomly or because I know something) and more times than not he will admit to something because he thinks Ms. Beth emailed me. He he!