We did change the kids school. They started a week and a half ago.
It's definately a change for us all. The frienship pool is smaller, since there are only 80 kids in all of the K-6 school. I think it's been a bit hard, especially for Chase, to make new friends at this school. Thankfully he still has his neighborhood friend Brenden and we've promised to try to have his friends over more often now that he isn't going to school with them. Tristan is a bit luckier, as he has one of our neighbors in his class. Plus he's already make friends with a boy who lives on the island. Good for him. Carissa is, of course, the social butterfly and has a new BFF, Gyllian. She seems to be doing well with that and is enjoying her new school.
Academically the changes have been quite big. Carissa's teacher does individualized reading levels with her kids and Carissa started in level 14 (out of 23). Most 1st graders start at level 1 so we were pleased to see her so high. She's a great reader though and she's proud of her reading level (she's already moved up to level 16). She also has her own caterpillar that just turned into a chrysalis. They're looking forward to letting them lose in the butterfly garden after they've transformed.
Tristan's teacher is just awesome. She has tons of field trips planned and has others coming to the school for demonstrations for the kids. He has been doing a moon journal nightly to study the phases of the moon. His spelling is still too easy but I'm hoping that he will move up to the next level or be given more challenging words.
Chase is always my problem child when it comes to the educational system. He doesn't tell me much about what's going on and his teacher is a bit hard to read. She has great ideas but I don't know how much of that has made it into the classroom. He is way advanced of his age group and I don't know whether she's had the time to test him for math advancements or not. I just really feel lost here so we'll see how things pan out. It is stressful for me ... I'm just worried about whether we did the right thing, whether he will fit in, whether he will be able to learn how to work hard at something instead of just having A's given to him. My migraines have been bad lately because of the stress and worry ... I'm hoping that will subside over time.
Aug. 31st was Tristan's 9th birthday. He had a bowling party and lots of fun with his friends. Sept. 15th was Chase's birthday (bad mommy forgot to take pictures at his birthday slumber party!!!). It was a busy day because it was soccer pictures, soccer game and the Sauerkraut Festival, our towns annual community celebration. Brian had to work it but called me to come watch the cabbage bowling competition between the Police Dept. and the Fire Dept. He did GREAT (a strike, a spare and 9 pins in his 3 rounds) and was definitely the top bowler of the Police Dept. They had a lot of fun even though they lost to the Fire Dept. by ONE PIN.
Since Belle left Brian has been wanting another pet. He's just an animal lover, I tell you. But this one is definitely ALL HIS, as I'm not particularly fond of this particular species.
This is Coral, Brian's new milk snake. She is very pretty and all but there's something about snakes that just sits wrong with me. Nonetheless, she graces a place in our front room now. The kids like her a lot and like to hold her, though none of them were really wanting to see her catch and eat the adorable little mouse that was her food this week.
Thank you to all who voted for me in the Scrapbook Warehouse "Queen of the Crop" contest. While I didn't win the popular vote (95 votes for me, 100 for another layout), I did win the judges vote and thus was named "Queen of the Crop". I came away with this awesome prize package:
My absolutely favorite piece is the Making Memories trimmer. That sucker sells for over $50 and I normally would never own it because of that. But I'm excited to get it out of it's box and play with it! In addition to that I got a CropADile, two carstock stacks, the entire line of My Minds Eye Bohemia papers and embellishments, two albums, and tons of other goodies. A nice little prize package. Best of all, it came in this adorable wooden trunk that I just can't wait to alter.
Soccer is in full swing - literally. See what I mean ...
That's Carissa (#30) and her teammate Aurora swinging their arms during a recent game. Can you tell that she's not really into it? She'd much rather talk and play with the other little girls. She did manage a goal the first game but only because the ball landed right in front of her and she just booted it into the goal. She doesn't like running after the ball and she hates when she gets accidently tripped or hit by the ball. I have a feeling that she won't be playing again next year, but it's cute to watch her anyways. Such a girly girl ...
So there you go. That's the update. Take care all.
4 comments:
I hope they take to their new school well and your migraines ease up. Such a stressful decision! Hang in there. :)
Cool pictures. I hope the school change works out great.
Great update....although I'm thinking I personally would draw the line at the snake. I have plenty of animals in the house...they're just all dead! LOL!
I'm drooling over that prize package! How awesome is that?
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