Field Trip to the Pumpkin Patch! (Not)

Well Terra's class was supposed to go to the pumpkin patch today, but it rained them out. Now it's been postponed till next week - AFTER Halloween. On one hand I'm (a little selfishly) upset - I mean what's the point in picking out a pumpkin after Halloween? But on the other hand, she's still so excited about going, and I know she'll enjoy it, even if it's not till December. It *is* her first field trip after all! And of course we can use her pumpkin to decorate for Thanksgiving, or better yet, make a pie out of it for Thanksgiving!

We have new sight words this week: can, is, & it. Let me say again, I am continually amazed by how fast she is picking up all of her words, and how hard she works at implementing them into activities like writing stories.

Another green smiley today. Again, for a child who doesn't always listen very well at home, and who chatters incessantly, the fact that she behaves so well in class is a very happy surprise/relief. It makes me proud, because it demonstrates that she understands the differences in what behavior is acceptable in different places. It also proves to me that she's sometimes difficult at home simply because *I let her get away with it!*

Thursday and Friday - it's a two-fer, 2 days late!

Boy is life with 2 jobs ad three kids busy! I'm thinking maybe weekly blogging will be more manageable, because daily blogging isn't working out so well.

Both days were green smiley days. On Wednesday Terra forgot to take her library book to school for library day, so on Thursday she got to go get a new book - a Junie B Jones chapter book, which she insists we read one chapter of each day. She's just so dedicated to school work and learning, so thirsty for knowledge, so proud of herself for every thing she learns and can share with us. It's just incredible. I hope this is her attitude towards school for the next 13 years. If it is, she'll have no trouble with her future!

On Thursday afternoon, along with her new book, she brought home a note from her teacher requesting that she bring a towel or blanket and her favorite stuffed animal. The class has been collecting gum balls for their class gumball machine - when the machine was full, the class would get a special prize. They filled it up this week and they got to have a picnic with a special snack. Terra was so excited!

Friday morning she took her stuffed poodle and her favorite blanket to school. It was overcast and there was a 60% chance of rain. Scott and I obsessed a bit about the possibility that it would rain out their picnic. She lucked out - it cleared up and the sun came out and they ate cookies in the school yard with their stuffed animals. She came home and yelled at me for not packing a snack. A.) I actually DID pack her a snack, but accidentally put it in her lunch box. B.) She didn't need a snack, the teachers provided the "special" snack they all had. But she was soooo upset with me for not packing her a snack!

I'm feeling a little out of whack - working every week night has me struggling to get time in every evening to practice her poems and sight words with her. I do not want my situation to effect her school performance, and I'm really concerned that it will over time...

Another Wednesday

Well, today Terra came home not feeling well. She's been coughing, congested, having a tough time breathing through her nose. Thankfully she has no fever, but I won't be surprised if she doesn't go to school tomorrow (Thursday). She's vaguely anti-meds (we almost have to sit on her to get to hold still long enough to take any kind of medicine) - she seems to prefer suffering. Wonder where she get's that from!?

I washed and returned her spare outfit this morning. It was still in her book bag when she got home? I guess that big bag full of clothing in her tiny little book bag was easy to miss. She also forgot her library book, and wouldn't you know it, it was Media Center day. *sigh* She came home angry that she didn't get to bring home a new book, said it was our fault. I made sure to straighten her out and remind her that her library book is actually her responsibility!

Ah well, some days are better than others, right? I can't complain, she still got a green smiley, brought home a ton of pictures and worksheets she'd done, was in a great mood despite being sick...

Hmmm... that's odd

Terra came home in her "back up" outfit today. She wet her pants!? Ms. M said it happened during their math lesson, and they think she was afraid to interrupt to ask to go to the little girl's room. They reassured her that it was ok to go potty ANY time, so here's to hoping that doesn't happen again, I know she was embarrassed to have a potty accident in front of all of her friends.

Other than that, she had a good day complete with her green smiley -- and another announcement about school night at a local restaurant. *sigh* I wish I could afford to go to every one of these fund raising nights, but seriously, we can't afford to go to any of them. Maybe that will change soon, now that I've gone back to work. Working has definitely added a new element to the afternoon adventure. Of course, I feel like a crappy parent on days when I work, because I'm not available so much to do homework, make dinner or give baths... My rational side knows her dad is here, and is perfectly capable, but I can't help it! I feel like she's changing and maturing and growing so quickly that every minute I'm at work is time I'm missing out on with her.

I admit it, I have a different and deeper sense of appreciation of her than I did when the other kids were in Kindergarten. It makes me glad that I appreciate her, and yet, on the other hand, it makes me sad that I was so busy, working so much, and was so young and unappreciative with the other children.

Mom and Terra go to the jungle...

Part of our afternoon routine is to work with Terra with her sight words. She gets new words each Monday, today we added 'at, am, & see' and so we were working on them this afternoon. As we were were working our way through the stack of flash cards, she'd come up with a sentence with each word - unprompted.

This is a new thing, which progressed into wanting to make sentences with the actual cards. That's an adventure because the list of sight words is still pretty short, especially the nouns. So we made up a few new cards and commenced to sentence building. She actually ended up writing her own little story, which is pretty cool: I see Mom and Terra at the jungle. We see a gorilla. We love it. Three sentences is all they ask of them in Kindergarten, and not until later in the year :) My lil smarty pants!

She also got her new poem:

Five Little Apples
Five little apples lying on the floor.
I'll roll one away, and that leaves four.
Four little apples hanging on a tree,
I'll pick one off, and that leaves three.
Three little apples, I know what to do!
I'll put one in my pocket and that leaves two.
Two little apples sitting in the sun.
I'll pick one up, and that leaves one.
One little apple waiting in my lunch.
I'll eat it up with a
CRUNCH, CRUNCH, CRUNCH!

This one is pretty intricate, and she is going to need a couple of days to work on it, but she's getting it. 

We didn't have anything to make her lunch out of this morning, so she left mad, then we realized we forgot to even send her a snack! This morning was not one of our finest shining moments lol. She survived, ate lunch at school, and was subjected to the horrors of having to eat Goldfish for snack (egads!) but we made sure to go grocery shopping and stockpile lunch supplies and snacks. Here's to hoping that Tuesday is a better day, complete with a turkey sandwich and her applesauce. (Have I mentioned she's a little finicky about what she eats?)

She got her customary green smiley, but didn't tell me a lot of details about her day - not a lot of time to though, because I had to leave (suddenly and unexpectedly) for work at 5. We're going to have to get this schedule thing worked out!

Parent Teacher Conference (in lieu of 1st report card)

Bright and early this morning, we went to the school to talk with Terra's teacher about her progress so far. We don't actually get a report card the first grading period - this conference IS her report card. I was pretty excited going in, I wanted to hear if she was doing as well as she seemed to be, based on a long line of green smilies and 'good job' stickers.


Well, Ms. M. could have gushed a little more without hurting my feelings, but that's ok LOL. She's on level, or ahead, in pretty much every subject area. Ms. M and Mrs. L both assured me that she's slid effortlessly into the social scene, and is academically right where she should be. I got to look at her evaluation testing, and on most things, she was ahead of average, but not so much as to cause issues for her.

The most surprising news we heard while we were there: Terra does NOT talk incessantly while in class. Amazing. The coolest thing I heard today: "We can tell you work with her at home, and Terra is very proud of the fact that she has a word wall at home!"

Good stuff, I'm proud of her. She's a good student, she's attentive, curious, respectful, gets along well with other students and teachers, listens well to her lessons, and to the rules. She's learning quickly and the teachers pointed out no subject area that she's struggling in - so we'll keep doing what we're doing, cuz it's working!

2-for-1

Thursday and Friday were green smiley days, with little else to report.

Thursday was School Night at Kate's Skating Rink... the school gets a percentage of sales, so they obviously encourage parents to take their children. They do so by convincing the whole class that they, and all their awesome little friends, will get to go to [enter business name here] together and play and have a wonderful time.

Frankly, it pisses me off. I understand it's much needed income for the school, but it's unfair to spend so much time getting my child's (and everyone else's) hopes up about going skating, eating ice cream, or pizza, or going ice skating, or whatever other activity it is that week.We're barely scraping by, we're barely keeping the power on and keeping the rent paid, we can't afford to do some weekly thing that costs us a fortune - we have a family of 5, do the math ok?

BUT I AM SICK TO DEATH OF BREAKING HER HEART ONCE A WEEK BECAUSE I HAVE TO SAY NO!!!!!