Weekend Recap: Field Day!

Friday was Field Day at Aiden's school which is always tons of fun. I had the chance to help out again this year which mostly meant chatting with friends, hanging out in the shade and occasionally supervising a simple tire rolling game. This was a big improvement over last year when I was stationed on the sidewalk, in the sun, and tasked with helping the kids pop water balloons with their bare feet. I really don't mind getting dirty and helping the kids but drying everyone's feet and retying their shoes a zillion times was less than enjoyable so I was very happy with the shady station this year.

On Saturday we spent the morning outside with the kids and that afternoon Aiden had the chance to go swimming, so we took the babies out for hot dogs and french fries at our favorite outdoor spot. We used to do this all the time but this was the first time we'd taken Audrey and Rory. They are excellent diet aids (whether you're dieting or not) because you can take about three bites before they're bored and ready to move on. We don't eat food like that very often so we thought they'd be thrilled but nope, not even hot dogs can make a meal last more than thirteen minutes.


Sunday we went to the playground at the elementary school and Aiden showed us all the games he plays at recess and where he and his classmates planted flowers. We are all beyond ready for the break but I think he's really going to miss it all summer. He spent the afternoon swimming for the second day in a row.

And now it's Tuesday and we are on day two (and hopefully the last day) of Aiden being sick. I don't know if it was a cold or just too much activity all weekend but he was exhausted yesterday and came home early from school. He finally seems well enough since he's going bonkers inside so I think tomorrow it'll be back to the grind. Only five days left!

Thor Visits A New Realm, Brings the Thunder With Him

Rory had his preschool visit today. It was not awesome but it wasn't any worse than I was expecting. Sean and I had been debating all week about whether he should come with me or not and we finally decided that I'd be just fine with both kids. Note to self: NO. NO YOU WILL NOT BE JUST FINE. Always bring extra help.

I had talked to Rory about school and about how this was HIS school, not Aiden's school, this school is special and just for him! Yay! So fun. He was very excited and singing about school school schoooool all the way there. We walked fifty feet into the building, all was well. We peeked into a classroom, fine and dandy! A teacher came over to talk to us and Rory introduced himself by freaking the heck out. I was not surprised but they certainly were.

We see these teachers around town and every single time we run into them we get chatting about the kids and try and warn them: he's not like Aiden. Aiden who had a big, tear filled adjustment to preschool but did it quietly while holding their hand. They always laugh because of course! All children are different! We love those spirited little people! Clearly, they didn't quite get it.

Audrey started crying when Rory did because his volume was completely overwhelming. I ended up whisking them down the hall to the playroom because he was starting to scare the other kids. Rory continued crying in the playroom while Audrey decided she was done sympathizing with him and went off to play by herself. She is ready for preschool despite having another two years of waiting ahead of her. She got out some beach balls and a tricycle and was a happy camper. (Side note: someone at the school asked if they were twins, a question we've gotten about 500 times. I personally don't see it but apparently everyone else does! I mean, they're a year and a half, three pounds and six inches apart. But whatever.)

Various teachers came in and out to chat with us and see if he wanted to play in the classrooms with the other children. He seemed really interested in playing with the other kids he just had no interest in being near the teachers. Of course the teachers kept coming up to try and talk to him and calm him down which in turn made it worse. We finally decided that our brief tour of the classrooms and our extended stay in the playroom were enough for the day. He just wasn't going to calm down.

Despite the rough visit, I'm not too discouraged. We know it's going to be a big change for him and that in the end he's going to love being with the other kids. He is such a spirited kid, and underneath the tough exterior he is so sweet and independent. I just hope that other people take the time to see that and don't chalk him up as being "difficult". Once he adjusts I think he will be one of the happiest kids there. Until then, he just might be one of the noisiest.

 

Cute Chicks Here

I'm just wondering how many people will be disappointed by that title.


Aiden's first grade class has been taking care of a brood of chicks. They hatched over the weekend, except for one who came partway out of his shell and fell asleep for a day or so (that chick is Sean's spirit animal). By Monday they were all fully out in the world.

It has been so adorable to hear Aiden talk about all the important things they do to take care of the chicks: "They're not in an incubator, they're in a brooder now Mom! You must be careful not to move the table and scare them! They all run over to me when I visit them! They must think I'm they're dad!"

Guys, it's just SO CUTE. He told us all about having to clean and feed them and about helping the poor chick who trips and gets it's beak stuck in the wire floor all the time (that chick is my spirit animal). He has such a strong paternal instinct that he even gets annoyed with his classmates who don't take raising chicks seriously enough.

"We have to be careful because they are so small! They rely on us for their food and someone needs to be here even on the weekend! You can't take a weekend off because they are living creatures!"

It's like he's wise beyond his years. I love seeing this caring, sweet side of him.  He told me even got to name three of them.

"They're called Darth Vader, Car and Strawberry"

Yeah...he's definitely seven.

Poor Car over there on the left. We've all had those days.

The Books That Made A Reader

This week Aiden had to sit through various tests at school, some on math and some on reading. I knew he would have no problem on the math test but I was a little worried about the reading one. Up until this point, Aiden has been a reluctant reader. The joy and sheer love of reading that came naturally to me as a kid has not come as naturally to him. We have always read to him, and we've always encouraged him to read to himself but up until now it's been a challenge for him to tackle new books. That inherent challenge is what prevented him from seeing reading as a pleasure as opposed to seeing it as an assignment that required work.

He came home from school and I tentatively asked how it all went. He smiled and assured me it was fine, he felt like he knew it all and wasn't at all nervous. That was good to hear. His teacher sent home the sheet saying he had finished the required lists of words each first grader is expected to know. That was even better to hear. The best, however, was when we got to the library yesterday and instead of zooming towards the picture books and handing me a stack to read, he said "I'm going to go find some books to read by myself". It was like fireworks going off. Houston, we have a reader!

I don't know exactly what tipped him over the edge from reluctantly cracking open the nightly assigned reading to actually looking forward to finding his own special books to read,  but I do know we've put in a lot of work this year. He spent each evening trying his hardest and we did our best to find interesting books that were at his level. We finally found a few different choices of books that seemed to keep him engaged. These are the ones I'm buying extra copies of to give to Rory:

One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish

The first books he was really able to read himself were Dr. Seuss. These are a classic for a reason and something about ridiculous tongue twisters just clicks with kids. I won't lie, I think that letting him seeing Sean and I trip over some of the rhymes ourselves showed him that it's okay to make mistakes.

Frog and Toad 

 I actually hated these books as a kid, but Aiden really enjoys him. The dynamic between the two characters is really sweet and I find I like them much more now as an adult. The story where Toad loses his list is pretty much me in a nutshell. And who can't relate to this one:

 

Pete the Cat

I had no idea who Pete the Cat was until Aiden's teacher dressed up as Pete for Halloween. We found an easy reader series about him for Aiden's birthday. Turns out that Pete is a cool cat. He 's very laid back and manages his way out of all sorts of jams like having everyone tell you what to wear or everyone asking you to draw them pictures (basically, seven year old problems). Aiden loved his oddball friends and relatives and found them extremely funny.  

Non-Fiction

Aiden loves nonfiction. He would much rather  have us read him a description of how combustion engines work than a story about a magical creature. I don't think he's the only kid out there who has five jillion questions about the world and enjoys science. So why is it so hard to find easy to read books about nonfiction topics? We ended up stumbling across a whole series at the library (go libraries!). It's the Scholastic "Rookie" books, and there's a set on geography and animals that we've found so far. These seem to have made the most difference, since it's obviously going to be easier to get a kid to read when the subject matter is something they're actually interested in.

Knowing that Aiden has turned that corner and become a full fledged reader is so exciting. I can't wait to spend the summer finding more books to share with him. These are the books that we will look back  on and say "Remember when you learned to read? Can you believe there was a time when you couldn't do that?" For me, that book was Little Bear, and for him it's Pete, Frog and Toad and a whole world of science. 

 

Uh, nice try Buddy.

3 Things: Mental Vacation Edition

The weather is still unseasonably warm over here and it feels like vacation is just around the corner when in reality Aiden has over a month left of school. That's just....inconvenient.  He has testing for most of the week and a field trip smack in the middle, with various other activities and projects happening also. With everything going on right now it's not a great time to mentally check out so I'm really trying to keep my game face on...but I'll be honest, it's hard. I mean, come on, it was even Cinco de Mayo this week! I call for everyone to put down the number 2 pencils and pick up tacos. And maybe a margarita. 

                         
               
                                                       My brain the past five days

Here's what we've been into this week.

Reading:

I'm finishing up The Distant Hours by Kate Morton. I started reading this book, I kid you not, three year ago. Yeah. It creeped me out so bad that I had to hide it behind all the other books on my night stand. It's not even what I'd consider a typical horror book, no guns or knives or anything of that nature. Just a creepy tale of a mysterious old castle and the odd elderly sisters who live there. I am a really huge chicken so you may not find this as goose bump inducing as I did but it's still quite good.

Watching: 
 We've been watching this clip from Last Week Tonight all about standardized testing. When Common Core was first introduced, and everyone was losing their heads over it, I kept reading about the overarching goals of the program and it seemed like a good idea. I get the whole concept. Now that I have a child in school I also see how monumentally awful the implementation has been. There is frustration and confusion all around. Students hate it, teachers hate it and I am certainly not a big fan. I still think we need to hold students to a higher standard if we want to compete globally, but that means the objectives need to be clear and there needs to be a clear cut way to achieve them. That's the part that's lacking. We can tell students they're not measuring up but how do we help them move ahead? Anyway, John Oliver manages to make the whole thing a little more entertaining: John Oliver on Standardized tests.

Listening: 
My best friend texted me a song by Brandon Flowers and it was really good. Brandon Flowers is the lead singer from The Killers, and Sean and I love The Killers. We listened to them a lot when we were first dating and their album Sam's Town was on repeat while I was pregnant with Aiden. I went going back and was listening to some of their music when I came across a whole slew of songs I'd never heard. I realize they were released in 2012 and, well, that whole year is a blur so that may be why I don't remember them. I really liked "Shot At The Night" so here that is:
 

The Great Preschool Quest, Round 2

So, I don't know if you're aware of this but my second child, the chubby cheeked bumbling toddler, will be three in a few months time which means that it's nearly time for PRESCHOOL.




I know! I was shocked myself. At first we had no worries. Rory, despite being such a babyface, has the spirit of a Viking and is ready to conquer preschool. We fully planned to send him to Aiden's old school because we loved the teachers, the director and the options for 2, 3 or five days a week.

Enter Drama, scene left: The director retired! She handed the program down to a teacher that we really liked so that was okay until the building they used was torn down! They moved downtown into a newer facility so that was okay too. Except the entire program changed! Now the only option for a three year old is just two days a week. I don't feel like that's enough time to get used to such a new routine.

This all seems like small beans as I write it down but by then I was on a roll. Over thinking things is my cardio. It didn't help that we read a study saying that money spent on a child's early education pays off more than money spent on their college. Add in those swirling thoughts about whether or not we should have found a more serious preschool for Aiden and I was off researching.

 I found a new place that offered three days a week and a lot of really neat side programs and they were full, of course, even though this was early March. I also found a lot of really intense programs that were full day and insisted that all children be potty trained, Rory was no where near potty trained.We looked at one more school that was really promising, albeit more expensive, but in the end circled round to the original school. It's still only two days but we love the teachers, the location and the fact that Aiden was able to start Kindergarten with several friends from this preschool.

In the end I think he'll be just fine. He is such a smart kid and such a little clown that I can't wait to see how he likes school next year. Oh, and in true Rory fashion, he decided (after weeks of me casually suggesting he give the potty a try and him politely saying "no thanks") to go ahead and be done with diapers. Just like that. So there you go. He really is going to be just fine.