Katie's First Week Of School

Katie felt that her Lalaloopsy should be in the picture as well. LOL!

Last Monday, like many other children, Katie was up and looking her best for the first day of school.  Oh my gosh!  This day couldn't get here fast enough for Katie.  The week before all I heard was "is school starting soon?"  She was so excited to get in her class, making new friends and having a new teacher.  Four students from her class last year were assigned to her class this year.  One student is Katie's best friend, E.  They were so excited to see each other during Open House. 

Colton wanted his picture taken with sissy.  He thinks he is a cool cat with Katie's sunglasses.

Picture at school. 

Unfortunately, this is the best photo I could get of her because she had to go to the bathroom.  Ugh!  We'll try this again at another time. 

The first day of school was great!  Katie had a blast getting to know her new friends and teacher.  She was ecstatic once she got to spend some time with her old friends during P.E., break and lunchtime.  She has always loved school.  I think I had a harder time trying to get her picked up after school then she did adjusting to her new schedule and surroundings.  LOL!  You have to understand, this little school has 500+ students and that's only for Preschool thru First Grade.  There are two sections to pick up and oh my gosh, it's major chaos.  Which lane do I get into?  Traffic is AWFUL!  Katie's teacher told us during Open House that she would be at a specific spot at a specific time.  Well, the time I arrived, the specific time and spot, she was no where to be seen.  Top it off, one traffic director let me in on a secret.  You want to know what that secret was?  I had gotten into Kindergarten traffic.  Swell!  I was directed to move up and without my child no doubt.  Yeah, FUN.  When I pulled up to the front, I finally stuck my head out the window and asked another traffic director, if Mrs. G's class had made it out and if so, I would like to get my child.  She giggled and let me know when Mrs. G's class is usually ready for pickup.  Happens to be a slightly different time then initially discussed.  Okay.  I'm happy to report that today's pickup was much smoother.  YAY! 

During Open House, the teacher passed out a questionaire for all parents to fill out.  It's mostly information about your child to help her get to know her new student better.  Of course, I made sure that Mrs. G knew that Katie LOVES to talk and she has a bad habit of not paying attention.  There are times when she is off in her own little world, "Katieland" and she doesn't know what is going on around her.  I've been on her all Summer that she's got to start paying attention or her teacher would be sending me notes home from school.  Well guess what?  It's day 4 and what should I receive in my email?  Mrs. G reported to me that she's been having trouble with Katie socializing during class and not paying attention to her assignments.  Surprise, surprise.  Needless to say, Miss Katie got her yearly lecture about "work first and play later."  I hated to punish her because I think my 30 minute lecture is  punishment enough, but we took television away and had to go to bed 30 minutes early.  She didn't complain, I guess we let her off easy.  Doug spoke to her as she was sent to bed.  We've been through this going on 3 years now.  Usually one good lecture and small punishment at the beginning of the year will do it for the rest of the school year.  Let's hope it will stay that way. 

According to Mrs. G, Katie won't have real homework until next week.  Right now, she's been going over her list of words to recognize.  Her first sheet of words are just review from last year.  She can breeze through them pretty good.  Her second sheet of words are a little more challenging because it's words that you just can't sound out.  Words like use, take, eat and why.  These are words that you have to memorize.  She's suppose to have a test on all of the these words tomorrow.  I've been making her write the word and say them aloud each time she writes them.  After today, I believe she'll do pretty good on her test.  Please pray that she'll at least pay attention during the test.  UGH! 

Not only did Katie get to start back to school this week, but got back to gymnastics.  I was happy that Doug got to see her practice.  I could see, she was having a good time for the 45 minutes that we were there.  She basically reviewed what she has already learned back in June.  After they did their stretching, her coaches put her on the uneven bars and worked with her doing hand stands, cartwheels and somersaults.  They had a long thin mat flopped over part of the uneven bars.  Katie's coach had her climb up one end of the mat and slide down.  She loved it!  I told Doug if she keeps this up each week, she'll work that gut off.  Doug eary left with Colton because they were getting a little tired.  During Katie's class time, the Advanced Tumbling class was going on.  It was pure entertainment to watch these kids.  After Katie's class ended, we just sat on the bleachers and watched the tumblers doing their stunts.  Katie told me, she wished she could do something like that.  Eek!  I don't think this mama is ready for that because I hear too many horror stories about cheerleaders snapping their neck.  It brings chills to my spine.  On the way home, Katie told me that she was sad because she couldn't go to gymnastics every day. 

You're probably wondering how Colton is handling Katie being gone to school all day.  Well, he is taking it pretty good.  He has asked me every morning this week, "where we goin' mama?"  Of course, he has to repeat everything I tell him.  Once we drop Katie off at school, he'll announce "I go to school with Katie."  Every time he says it, I chime in and tell him that I would be so lonesome without him.  I've been trying to work with him for approximately 2-3 hours each day.  We sing songs like ABC's, 1-2-I Love You, Jesus Loves Me.  When we sing "Little Light of Mine," he'll stick out his pointer finger and sing right along with me saying, "not blow it out, light of my."  It is so precious.  I wish I could video him singing it.  Knowing him, he probably wouldn't sing it if a camera was in his face.  I'm trying to teach him his colors, numbers, shapes, letters and letter sounds.  I tested him the other day and he did good.  We were coloring, which is great way (I've found out) to teach colors.  I asked him to pick me out a specific color.  He picked out the colors: pink, blue, and green.  What I love is how he will repeat the color names back to me, even if he doesn't hand me the correct color.  Of course, at his age I have to work with his short attention span.  The one thing that I didn't lose his attention was reading the book Brown Bear, Brown Bear.   He loved my animal impressions.  HAHA!  I love this book and I don't know how many times I've recommended this book to everyone, so I'm going to recommend it again.  BUY THIS BOOK!  It was a fun way to teach Katie her colors at Colton's age and now we're using it again.  First, Katie used it last year to practice reading and now, I'm using it to teach Colton his colors.  He just liked this book a lot better than My First Color Book by Eric Carle.  I'm hoping he will like it in the future because it's a good way to test his ability to match the correct colors. 

Colton is still potty training.  Today, he got 3 treats for going potty and he only made one accident in his new underpants.  When he makes his accidents, he at least comes to me and tells me that he pee-peed.  "Uh oh, mama.  I pee-peed." he'll say.  I had Pull-Ups on him during sleeptime and later in the day when chaos strikes our household. 

My little angels are adjusting to changes around our house, like the strong and brave little kids they are.  I'm so proud of them.