School update
We're almost two months into the school year and it's going swimmingly so far!
Isaac
...is in third grade and he loves it. He came home the first few days of school saying repeatedly that "third grade is the best grade ever." At his school, third grade means a new way of going into the building (through the rear door with the older kids, instead of through the front with K-2) and moving up from a first-floor classroom to a second-floor one, and having a locker (albeit without a lock) in the hallway instead of a cubby in the classroom. So, in many ways it makes him feel more mature and cool. ;)
His assigned teacher missed the first month of school with medical issues, and they had a really fantastic sub. So that worked out well. They are supposedly learning multiplication, cursive writing, and some stuff about Native Americans this year. Also, they pair up with a 4th-grade class for science, which is neat.
The big news this school year for Isaac was the Nature's Classroom trip. This is an organization that takes busloads of city kids up to a remote location in the woods, and they sleep in cabins and do nature-y science-y learning activities. At our school, they do it every other year: the 3rd and 4th graders go for 3 days/2 nights, and the 5th/6th graders go for 5 days/4 nights. The school does a huge fund-raising push for it, the goal being for every kid to be able to go, even if their parents can't afford it (parents are supposed to pay a tuition of about $200 for the trip). In the end, about 85% of the kids did go, which is pretty impressive I think!
At the beginning of the school year, they did a couple of presentations to the kids about the program, and Isaac came home saying that he didn't want to go, he wasn't going to go, in tears several nights running because I didn't say "okay, you don't have to go." He was really anxious about it. I just kept telling him that it was going to be great, and that many of the other kids would be in a similar boat as far as first time sleeping away from home without parents, etc. -- of course I tried not to say "and anyway I already paid for it." ;) The mom who organized the whole thing had some of the older kids who went on the trip 2 years ago come and talk to Isaac's class, and the substitute teacher was great about leading class discussions where they all talked about what they were nervous and excited about.
And gradually, Isaac came around to it. He is a kid who processes things in his own way, so I mostly let it alone, and let him know that I was happy when he started saying that he was excited for the trip. By the morning they left, he was saying "I'm really really really excited...and a little bit nervous." He certainly enjoyed packing for the trip; they sent home a packing list, so we went to Target for a few things, and grandma loaned him a big duffel bag, and he enjoyed packing the items and checking them off the list. (Though that activity, on the last day before the trip, was interrupted by a late-night emergency-room trip with Ruthie...but I'll post about that later, I guess.)
Then came the morning of departure...some 60-70 kids loading their bags onto two school buses and then climbing aboard while the parents stood around on the sidewalk watching. At last the buses pulled away! What a moment.
Isaac had a great time on the trip, of course, and did some really cool stuff, like a "night hike" where they go out into the woods after bedtime to experience what it's like in the dark. He came home full of stories, and, of course, exhausted. ;)
Ruthie and I had a lot to do during his absence, so we didn't get a whole lot of opportunity to really experience how weird it was not having Isaac around. The first night, Ruthie had a sleepover at a friend's house and I had chorus rehearsal; the second night, we went to one of the aforementioned fund-raisers (dinner at a restaurant -- they donated a portion of the cost of dinner to the program) and got home late. The morning Isaac was due to return, I asked Ruthie whether she had missed him, and she said no. ;) She did enjoy sleeping in his bed (the top bunk of the bunk bed) that one night.
And that leads me to --
Ruthie
...is in kindergarten now and loving it. She has the same teacher and classroom that Isaac had, which is great. We love this teacher, and Ruthie loves the fact that after all this time of seeing Isaac go there, the school is now her school too, and the teacher (who remembers Ruthie well) is now her teacher, and so forth. Funnily enough, in Ruthie's class (which is very girl-heavy: 12 girls to 7 boys), there are at least three other girls with older brothers whom we know, including one whose older brother was in Isaac's kindergarten class and is now in his 3rd-grade class. There's also apparently a boy in the class who was in Ruthie's preschool, but he wasn't in her class then and she doesn't know him well.
Anyway, so kindergarten is going great. Ruthie loves pretty much everything about it. She loves the classroom and the learning activities they do. She loves lunch time and recess and afterschool. She's learning a lot, including math and writing stuff. She's also learning to speak Italian! Apparently, some local Italian-heritage group pooled their money to fund a teaching position to teach Italian to all the kindergartners (I'm not sure whether this is city-wide or just at our school). So Ruthie has learned the names of the major colors, types of clothing, a few types of food, and -- her absolute favorite -- how to sing "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" in Italian. Which I now know too, after having heard her sing it approximately six billion times. ;)
Having Ruthie in kindergarten is such a different experience than it was for me with Isaac. When Isaac started K here, we knew absolutely no one at the school -- we had to build community and make friends from scratch. Not that that was hard; people are friendly, and Isaac particularly befriended a few kids whose parents turned out to be very nice, and most of whom are still our friends. But now, with Ruthie starting K, we know so many more people. Like I said, there are a lot of kids in her class whom we know via their older brothers. There's also at least one girl in her class whose mom I've known online, via local parenting-related email lists, for a while now. There's a kid in her class whose mom I know from the local SMC group. In one of the other kindergarten classes, there's Ruthie's cousin/my nephew Baz, and there's the daughter of pekmez whom I know through college friends. So, in other words, there are people we know from a variety of different channels, and it's great. What a different feeling from three years ago!
Whew, well I could go on and on ;) but that's the school update for the time being.
Isaac
...is in third grade and he loves it. He came home the first few days of school saying repeatedly that "third grade is the best grade ever." At his school, third grade means a new way of going into the building (through the rear door with the older kids, instead of through the front with K-2) and moving up from a first-floor classroom to a second-floor one, and having a locker (albeit without a lock) in the hallway instead of a cubby in the classroom. So, in many ways it makes him feel more mature and cool. ;)
His assigned teacher missed the first month of school with medical issues, and they had a really fantastic sub. So that worked out well. They are supposedly learning multiplication, cursive writing, and some stuff about Native Americans this year. Also, they pair up with a 4th-grade class for science, which is neat.
The big news this school year for Isaac was the Nature's Classroom trip. This is an organization that takes busloads of city kids up to a remote location in the woods, and they sleep in cabins and do nature-y science-y learning activities. At our school, they do it every other year: the 3rd and 4th graders go for 3 days/2 nights, and the 5th/6th graders go for 5 days/4 nights. The school does a huge fund-raising push for it, the goal being for every kid to be able to go, even if their parents can't afford it (parents are supposed to pay a tuition of about $200 for the trip). In the end, about 85% of the kids did go, which is pretty impressive I think!
At the beginning of the school year, they did a couple of presentations to the kids about the program, and Isaac came home saying that he didn't want to go, he wasn't going to go, in tears several nights running because I didn't say "okay, you don't have to go." He was really anxious about it. I just kept telling him that it was going to be great, and that many of the other kids would be in a similar boat as far as first time sleeping away from home without parents, etc. -- of course I tried not to say "and anyway I already paid for it." ;) The mom who organized the whole thing had some of the older kids who went on the trip 2 years ago come and talk to Isaac's class, and the substitute teacher was great about leading class discussions where they all talked about what they were nervous and excited about.
And gradually, Isaac came around to it. He is a kid who processes things in his own way, so I mostly let it alone, and let him know that I was happy when he started saying that he was excited for the trip. By the morning they left, he was saying "I'm really really really excited...and a little bit nervous." He certainly enjoyed packing for the trip; they sent home a packing list, so we went to Target for a few things, and grandma loaned him a big duffel bag, and he enjoyed packing the items and checking them off the list. (Though that activity, on the last day before the trip, was interrupted by a late-night emergency-room trip with Ruthie...but I'll post about that later, I guess.)
Then came the morning of departure...some 60-70 kids loading their bags onto two school buses and then climbing aboard while the parents stood around on the sidewalk watching. At last the buses pulled away! What a moment.
Isaac had a great time on the trip, of course, and did some really cool stuff, like a "night hike" where they go out into the woods after bedtime to experience what it's like in the dark. He came home full of stories, and, of course, exhausted. ;)
Ruthie and I had a lot to do during his absence, so we didn't get a whole lot of opportunity to really experience how weird it was not having Isaac around. The first night, Ruthie had a sleepover at a friend's house and I had chorus rehearsal; the second night, we went to one of the aforementioned fund-raisers (dinner at a restaurant -- they donated a portion of the cost of dinner to the program) and got home late. The morning Isaac was due to return, I asked Ruthie whether she had missed him, and she said no. ;) She did enjoy sleeping in his bed (the top bunk of the bunk bed) that one night.
And that leads me to --
Ruthie
...is in kindergarten now and loving it. She has the same teacher and classroom that Isaac had, which is great. We love this teacher, and Ruthie loves the fact that after all this time of seeing Isaac go there, the school is now her school too, and the teacher (who remembers Ruthie well) is now her teacher, and so forth. Funnily enough, in Ruthie's class (which is very girl-heavy: 12 girls to 7 boys), there are at least three other girls with older brothers whom we know, including one whose older brother was in Isaac's kindergarten class and is now in his 3rd-grade class. There's also apparently a boy in the class who was in Ruthie's preschool, but he wasn't in her class then and she doesn't know him well.
Anyway, so kindergarten is going great. Ruthie loves pretty much everything about it. She loves the classroom and the learning activities they do. She loves lunch time and recess and afterschool. She's learning a lot, including math and writing stuff. She's also learning to speak Italian! Apparently, some local Italian-heritage group pooled their money to fund a teaching position to teach Italian to all the kindergartners (I'm not sure whether this is city-wide or just at our school). So Ruthie has learned the names of the major colors, types of clothing, a few types of food, and -- her absolute favorite -- how to sing "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" in Italian. Which I now know too, after having heard her sing it approximately six billion times. ;)
Having Ruthie in kindergarten is such a different experience than it was for me with Isaac. When Isaac started K here, we knew absolutely no one at the school -- we had to build community and make friends from scratch. Not that that was hard; people are friendly, and Isaac particularly befriended a few kids whose parents turned out to be very nice, and most of whom are still our friends. But now, with Ruthie starting K, we know so many more people. Like I said, there are a lot of kids in her class whom we know via their older brothers. There's also at least one girl in her class whose mom I've known online, via local parenting-related email lists, for a while now. There's a kid in her class whose mom I know from the local SMC group. In one of the other kindergarten classes, there's Ruthie's cousin/my nephew Baz, and there's the daughter of pekmez whom I know through college friends. So, in other words, there are people we know from a variety of different channels, and it's great. What a different feeling from three years ago!
Whew, well I could go on and on ;) but that's the school update for the time being.