The First Tears of First Grade

Today was traumatic-for Cavett and for me.  It was the first day of first grade tears. 

When I picked Cavett up from school today, I was on the phone with my sister (who I haven't talked to in a while) and wasn't able to talk immediately, but he was very quiet and respectful.  As soon as we got home, he burst into tears saying that several kids were making fun of his shirt, saying that he had "dirt on his shirt."  It broke my heart to see him cry and talk about how hurt he was.  Why do kids have to be mean and where do they learn it?

We made these family shirts during our last week of summer as a fun family activity.  We took black (or hot pink in my case) T-shirts, and ironed on an "h" for Hill with freezer paper.  Then we took them outside and used a spray bottle of bleach to make a negative print and some pretty cool designs.  The kids shirts turned out really awesome as did mine.  Stephen's "h" bled a little and there is only a hint of and "h" but it's still cool. 

So, the boys wore the shirts today and Cavett was very proud of his.  Too bad he "will never wear it to school again."

We spoke through the tears and I consoled as best as I could telling him that he didn't ever have to wear it to school again and that this was called being "bullied."  We talked about different ways to address the situation-telling the teacher, saying "so." and leaving it at that, and also turning it back on the kid and showering him with kindness saying things like, "your shirt is really cool, I like it!"

"Do not judge others, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn others, or it will all come back against you. Forgive others, and you will be forgiven."  Luke 6:37

After Karate when we had more time to discuss we pulled out the Bible.  It was important that he knew God's take on the matter of forgiveness even if the other person doesn't know they did wrong or hurt someone.  God is pretty clear on the matter.  I have been in too many friendships where I have been hurt for me to not hammer this one home. 

"Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others."  Colossions 3:13

"But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins."  Matthew 6:15

"Instead be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you."  Ephesians 4:32

"But when you are praying, first forgive anyone you are holding a grudge against, so that your Father in heaven will forgive your sins too."  Mark 11:25

We talked out the big words and he understood that he makes mistakes too and that God forgives him, and in return he must forgive others.  It's a hard thing to do, forgiveness.  It's a humbling thing, but a character trait absolutely worth working toward. 

Tomorrow is a new day with a forgiving heart, loving others.  Hopefully, no tears. 

"Most important of all, continue to show deep love for each other, for love covers a multitude of sins."  I Peter 4:8
 

First Day of First Grade

Today marks a new school year.  Cavett began first grade this morning.  He woke up extremely excited and just a bit nervous.  Had two blueberry muffins, wrote a sweet note to his teacher, snapped a couple of pics and out the door we went. 

After prayer in the car, he scooted out of the car and didn't look back.  Kinda sad, but it is to be expected.  I have raised a very independent man on purpose. 

I am proud of you Cavett and can't wait to hear about your first day of first grade!

Playing School

One of my favorite things to do as a kid was to "play school."  I, of course, was the teacher and my younger sisters were always the students.  We had desks and chairs.  Everyone had to raise their hands and I made up work sheets typically having "fill in the blanks" or "circle the correct word" for verb tenses.  The settings varied--sometimes our rooms, sometimes the porch, or maybe the tree house. 

Today, I got to re-visit this role and we "played school."  Kendrick had his time with me going through some pages in his pre-school "Math" book, which he LOVES.  I can't seem to get him to crack the "Reading" book though.  Afterwards, he colored and cut up strips of paper while Cavett and I worked on writing a screenplay. 

We went to see Kung Fu Panda 2 again today because someone is now pooping on the potty again after a short regression.  At the end of the movie, it shows an older panda in a remote village that says, "My son is among us...."  I thought it was a great lead in to Kung Fu Panda 3, of course. 

Cavett and I talked about what the problem could be in the sequel while we did our chores and we discussed what he thought might happen.  So, for "school time" we pulled out his school draft book and I gave him a few questions to guide his screenplay:  who are the characters, what is the setting, what is the problem, how will the problem be solved?

He did a great job, but after 30 minutes, I took over writing down what he said.  So, if you are curious or if the writers need help in  wrapping up the next sequel, here is Cavett's story.  Spelling is his own.

Po wants to find his rel family.  The fereus 5 and the other good masters were with the Panda, Po.  Po told them to serch all of China.  They all end up in the midle of China in the panda vileg.  When Po sees the vileg, he asks one of the pandas, "Does my Dad live here?"

The Panda tells Po where his Dad is.  He goes to find his Dad.  Po said, "Is that you, Dad?"  His father said, "Yes.  My son is among us!"  Po and his Dad hug each other and one of the  pandas in the village says, "Are you the dragon warrior?"  Po replies, "Yes!"  and shows off his Kung Fu.  Everyone cheers. 

The End.

I guess I need to get my act together and have something planned to do like this everyday.  I mean, this is what I always wanted to do when I was little...

Cavett's Final Kindergarten Field Trip

 

Today we headed to the Dallas Zoo.  We actually hadn't ever been there so it was an adventure for all!  I was a chaperone for Cavett's class and had him in a group with 3 other boys.  We met the bus at the zoo about 10:00 and off we went.

To my surprise and delight the kids were so well behaved and obeyed so well!  It was great fun for all of us and even more fun that Stephen and Kendrick got to go as well. 

Highlights of the day include, but are not limited to....

a snake eating a large mouse,

the gorillas chasing one another and then randomly surprising us with a loud high-five on the plate glass window where the kids faces were glued,

viewing the giraffe's up-close and personal,

the new African Savannah Exhibit,

 and the chipanzee mother cuddling her baby.

We are looking forward to going back so that we can enjoy more with the addition of riding the monorail next time. 

Poo-Poo

I bet you think this is another potty-training post.....Wrong!

Kendrick has been talking about pets at school this week.  They read our favorite story, Harry the Dirty Dog and did a matching craft.  We sent in a picture of our own pet, Puccini.  But, today when I picked him up, he was coming home with a new pet--a hamster.  He was the cutest little brown puff ball with googily eyes and a tiny pink nose.  When I asked Kendrick what his hamster's name was, without hesitation, he replied, "Poo-Poo!"  So, we went with it.

Poo-Poo went to Costco with us this evening and we had great fun while saying, "Kendrick, can I hold your poo-poo?"  "Where is Poo-Poo?"  "Is Poo-Poo in your pocket?"  "Who has Poo-Poo?"  "Pick Poo-Poo up off the floor!"  "Can I pet your Poo-Poo?"  Really, I don't think anyone took any notice, but we laughed and it made the trip a bit more managable. 

Gotta love this kid's sense of humor!  Boys.....

This Week's Accomplishments

Both Cavett and Kendrick hit milestones this week.

Kendrick has begun his first sport.  He has shown his patience and practice and has been allowed to start Karate early.  Typically they don't allow them to start until they are 4, and he is 4 months shy of that.  But, he has been watching all of Cavett's practices and doing the moves on the sidelines with the  kids.  He has a great grasp on the strength and even has better form than some of the kids already.  With Kendrick, I think he does better in a group setting rather that one-on-one, so he has been doing very well and will receive his gee this at this afternoon's practice.

For Cavett it was his first major school project.  Every child chose an animal for their research project.  Cavett came home last week telling me that his was a blue jay.  Really?  They are headed to the Dallas zoo for their final field trip and I thought no way is it really a blue jay as a zoo animal.  Come to find out it was... well, let's just see if you can guess.

For the beginning of his presentation, here is what he is showing.  Can you guess his animal? 

We spent one afternoon researching the rubric--Diet, Habitat, Characteristics, Predators, Interesting Facts. We learned many new vocabulary words including "Neotropics", "Frugivorous", and "Diurnal."  We spent one afternoon searching through Uncle Jonny's old National Geographic Kids, Ranger Rick and My Big Backyard magazines for pictures.  We spent one afternoon planning the board and gluing pictures and yesterday he wrote all the text on the board and together we made a model of clay.  Nana even gave him the idea of having big kitchen tongs, a serving spoon and tweezers to describe the different types of bird bills and why the toucan must have a 7 1/2" long bill made of bone and keratin.  The project will be turned in on Friday.  Whew!  Glad to have the first one of many behind us!

Of course, the icing on the cake was that he got to eat a box of sugary cereal for the project, because we had to show the mascot of Froot Loops!

Home Schooling

I might just could do this.....maybe....when Kendrick is older. 

School was cancelled today due to "severe and treacherous road and sidewalk conditions" and it's closed tomorrow as well.  We haven't left the house and have been in our pj's all day.  However, that doesn't mean that Cavett hasn't learned anything. 

Writing:  Cavett finished writing all his thank-you notes from his birthday.
Geography:  He chewed on his apple until it was the shape of the United States and we talked about where certain states were.
Reading:  He spent almost 1 hour reading his new Toy Story 3 story book with chapters.  Ok, and he watched one "Between the Lions."

Math:  We took a square piece of paper and folded it into halves over and over, talking about fractions and finding the pattern established when folding into halves. 

Art:  Made snowflakes out of the squares.

Religion:  I taught him my BSF lesson for tomorrow.

Music:  We played and sang "Sally Go Round the Sun"

Science:  With Dad, the boys made a ballon rocket ship on a string between two chairs and made hypotheses about different shaped balloons and how if they attached differently it effects the speed and distance. 

Instruction Following and Spatial Relations: Put together a 370 piece Toy Stoy 3 Lego set

Spelling: Played Bananagrams while waiting for dinner.

I think that is a full day's work and I didn't even plan it this way.  It just happened.  Hopefully, tomorrow will be more of the same and we won't have too much "stir craziness!"

School Thanksgiving Activities

Kendrick was first to have his school's Thanksgiving celebration on Thursday. I went up to the school that day and volunteered cutting and peeling apples for almost 2 hours. But, it was worth it to be able to see him all dressed up in his Indian outfit giving thanks on the floor for lunch with 60 other kiddos. It wasn't really a "parent come and oogle over your kid" thing. It was just a feast.



Walking to the fest with a bubble in his mouth, and holding a little baby turkey.



There was also a pretty cool pilgrim village where they saw the Mayflower and signed the ship's log book, learned about planting and growing corn, how they built houses then and the first Thanksgiving meal.

On Friday, we enjoyed Cavett's school Thanksgiving Play.  He was dressed as a pilgrim, others were turkeys or indians.  (Of which I volunteered on Tuesday about 3 hours helping them make the Indian pillowcase vests.)  There was a story read and each time one of the characters were addressed, lines were spoken as a group.  For example the Pilgrim women said, "Mercy me!" in the sweetest voices.  Pilgrim men:  Bang! Bang!  Indian Men: Big and brave.  Turkeys: Gobble, gobble. 

Just as we were getting into the story, Cavett leaves his place on stage and goes with another little girl to the microphone on the side.  He had a SOLO that he had kept from us until this morning on the way to school when Stephen heard a hint of what might be to come, but didn't quite get the story straight before Cavett left the car.

It was awesome and I was so proud! 

Now, the chicken dance on the other hand was just plain hilarious!  If this doesn't make you laugh out loud, there is something wrong, especially the last 45 seconds or so.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Sentences

I volunteered at Cavett's school today and afterwards in talking with another parent, I am the only one that has been allowed to stay in the room.  I'm not sure what this says about me and I'm not sure that it is because she likes me....  anyway.  I was able to observe Cavett's behavior and a little bit of teaching.  One of the things they did was "Writing Around the Room."  This is where they are given a word or a set of words and then they are to write down words from around the room that start with each letter of the word given.  For example, today's word was "Community Helper," since they have been talking about this in their social studies lessons and has had speakers from the community all week.

C-computer
O-Owen
M-Mom
Etc...

In the 5 minutes they were given, he got 5 written, but I also observed some talking with his best friend, Owen.  Other kids got 11!  The work sheet was sent home so we completed it at home.  It took him under 5 minutes to come up with all the rest of words, granted he didn't have to walk around the room and find stuff.  Afterward, we decided to try a "spelling test" of his sight words so far this year:  I, like, to, the, a, an, can, am, you, my, are. 

He did pretty well, except for knowing when to use a capital letter.  Next, I asked him to use each word in a sentence.  We didn't write them down, but I started to after a while, because they just kept getting better and better. 

I love you.

I like to play with this.  (knocked out two in one!)

The alligator is big.  (at this point we started talking about where the period goes.)

A pencil is writing on paper. (at first he gave the next sentence, but then I reminded him of the a/an rule.)

An astronaut went into space.

Can I borrow this?  (totally threw me off guard.  I was expecting a statement, not a question.  Then I asked him to use in like a statement.) 

I can open this can.  (uh, hello.  He used it in two different ways!)

Am I doing something wrong?  (yet another question.)

I am a superhero!  (now he wanted to use exclaimation marks)

You are the best mom ever!
My mom is awesome!
Are you my friend?

Gosh, I love this kid.  I don't care what grade there is on the report card or what his teacher says or whether or not he gets into the GT program.  He's awesome!

Art Lessons

I'm happy to report that in the past 10 days Cavett has only had one yellow day instead of green at school.  I think we are getting the behavior figured out and what is expected of him during the day.

On another note, I didn't quite realize how much drawing and coloring was required of the Kindergartener.  We aren't doing as well in that category as in the reading area.  So, today when he brought home this  paper, I decided we needed to have a little art lesson.  Not that I am the artist at all, that is my brother, Jonny.  But, Cavett needed to know how to draw clothes on his stick/big belly person.

The object was to place the necessary items on your person as the weather indicated.  If he could have just written--scarf, hat, umbrella, boots--he would have been fine.  But, no.  Drawing was required.

Here is his final masterpiece.  Hopefully, some of these little tips here and there will help him bridge the gap until just writing is required. 

4 Trips



After running 1 1/2 miles


It's been a while since I have written about the kids.  BSF has started up, Stephen is trying to hire 2 girls at the office and keep them all happy and the kids have just been going with the flow, but I thought it was time for an update, especially since I made 4 trips to Cavett's elementary school today. 

Trip #1- Easy and predictable, dropped him off at shool with Kendrick in his pj's.

Trip #2- Surprised Cavett at lunch and he got to eat on the stage with me.  Afterwards, made a shopping trip at the school book fair. 

Trip #3-  Took Kendrick with me for Run Club after school.  The gym teachers marked out a half a mile track around the school grounds.  There were about 150 kids and each time they passed "go" got a mark on their card.  There are prizes when you get up to 5 miles.  To my surprise both kids totally ran a mile by themselves with short bursts of walking.  What was difficult was that Kendrick wanted to hold my hand as we ran.  We ended up doing a 1 1/2 in about 30 minutes.  Not bad.  They will now be signed up for the 1 mile Fun Run in Allen in a few weeks!

Trip #4-  Headed back for "Milk and Cookies" Night at the school.  The kids got to dress in their pj's and listened to stories being read by teachers in the library.  Afterward was a PTA meeting with the milk and cookies.  Of course, Kendrick doesn't know a stranger and headed right for a teacher's lap! 

Did I mention that Stephen is on a plane to Vegas?

I. am. exhausted. 

Field Day

For Cavett's last day of Pre-school, I volunteered to help with his field day.  I thought it would be filled with games and races, etc.  Unfortunately when I arrived, I was handed chalk, bubbles and sidewalk paint!  What did I do to deserve this?!?!?!  (The non-conformist lunch maker) I made it through the first two groups hanging out on the driveway in the hot sun with minimal paint and bubbles all over me until Cavett's class came out.  It was worth the mess to see Cavett enjoying his time with his girlfriend, Bella. 

On the way home we drove by his new school, Cheatham Elementary.  It is almost finished.  I'm so excited for him to go and learn.  He is ready for new concepts and to be challenged and find new subjects.  But, at the same time I don't want his innocence taken away.  Being in such a big school around so many other kids worries me slightly.  I just don't want him to grow up like that yet. 

So, if I happen to cry August 23rd, it is for his innocence, not because I want him to stay at home.  I will miss him (some), but he is so ready to be in Kindergarden.