Yup - that kind of mom

Today is the last day of school before Valentine's Day - and Ashlyn's class is having a party (their last of the year).  I'm sure I will inevitably embarass her one day - but I love her and I think - at least in 1st grade - it'll make her day.  So we have some Valentine's M&Ms and Nerds and pb&j cut into 3 hearts and 2 luscious lips!  Along with a raisin/Craisin mix.

And to impress all the other parents we have concocted a heart-do.  :)  Cute eh?

  

First day of preschool!

Nathan's a big boy now! He has been asking when he would start preschool all year long! He is so excited to go and be with Miss Patti and his new friends! He enjoys playing with the cars, singing, going outside on the swings and slide, and playing with his buddies (even a few girls made the list!)

Friday - CrAZy Day!

We have, for your viewing pleasure....a CraZY girl! A tutu with grass skirt, butterfly leggings, water shoes and the obviously funky hair! Love it! I need to post my pics of Homecoming/Spirit week from when I was teaching. You'll see we have a history of really getting into these things!

Nathan did this all on his own! What a fun kid! He was pumped to be CrAzY too!

Thursday - Sports Day

I think gymnastics is a sport! We don't have jerseys and ball caps here supporting a fave team because we're really not sportsy people. So in order to participate today we raided the dress-up box. We have, for your viewing pleasure, a neon green and hot pink sequined unitard. Ha - we've got spirit!

Who's who

Now these aren't my kids so you don't get names, but maybe you'd like to know about Ashlyn's school year and the kids who made it memorable.

Front row:
First on left, green shirt: Girl whose papers we get b/c their names are similar.
Third from left, tan jacket: famous from twin day, often shares a computer to play Freddi Fish with Ashlyn, one of her best friends

Second row:
First on left - the giver of the Valentine's day chocolates, got a little crush on our girlie. Likes to give her pretty rocks and fake flowers.
Last 2 on right - the guys she's considering for a husband. You know the "quiet" ones. The second from the right was her first love and mutually anticipated spouse (also likes to bring her fake flowers from home), the last one was a late-comer - but very promising!

Third row:
Last on right - the boy who's always in the "Thinking Chair" for less than stellar behavior. He's super crushy on all the girls and likes to try and get their attention by poking them and talking during work time and by stabbing pencils in their arms.

Last row:
1st on left: the princess herself
Hot pink, 4th from left: pal from Miss Patti's - went to the races together

And also... that is not her teacher. She left for a wedding that day! That is actually her teacher's aide. At least the substitute teacher isn't in there!

Wednesday - Twin Day

Yup separated at birth these 2! I cropped it funny b/c you can see in the back corner the boy that Ashlyn is going to marry. At least according to them. They are going to meet in college and get married. Ashlyn is naming their girls Angel, Temple and something I can't remember. He is naming their boys Devan, Max and another name I can't remember.

Why did she choose him? Well, because he's quiet - "like Daddy." Really? I hadn't noticed. Maybe she means the strong, silent type. Why is quiet important you may wonder. Well, then "he won't wake up our kids when I put them to bed". Her other husband to be option is the same kind of kid. Clean cut, polite, way cute, a bit short (just wait until their growth spurts, right?), soft spoken, fun loving - man, she did great! Oooo - this reminds me of something! I'm going to post in just a sec about her class picture!

Tuesday - Color Day

Kindergarten is ORANGE!

Be glad you aren't a boy in preschool! (PINK)

We've got Spirit yes we do!

Ashlyn's school has proclaimed this week to be spirit week! So I'll be documenting all of our fabulous and funky outfits and styles for you so you too can have SPIRIT!!!

Monday - Pajama Day!

V-day Class Party

On the actual DAY of Valentine's Day Ashlyn had her last day of school for the week and her last class party of the year. She had a lot of fun writing out her Valentine's for all of her friends to put into their decorated bags. To save time, none of the cards were to specific people so the kids could take their pile o' cards and drop one into each bag assembly line (sort of) style.

Ashlyn wrote TO: My friend FROM: Ashlyn on each of hers. But this little "no personal" Valentines didn't stop her admirers! She's had a couple of little boys bring her presents from time to time at school and one of them bought her a little mini Russell Stover heart-shaped box with chocolates inside for Valentine's day. He kept it in his backpack and gave it to her when they were getting ready to leave. I was there with Nathan for the party and he looked back at me and said "I gave that to her!"

He was very excited. I whispered "Thank you!" and he mouthed back "You're welcome" with the cutest smile. He is adorable!

100

Ashlyn recently celebrated the 100th day of school. Each child was asked to bring in 100 of something to share with the class. Some brought marbles, some pennies or googly eyes - below you can see what Ashlyn thought would be fun. She wanted to make a beautiful poster of sheep and decorate it with princesses, lovely colored bins of hay, and a surrounding landscape. That's my girl!

Little Late - halloween craft

I promised myself I wouldn't throw away the kids' cute crafts without taking a picture first. This helps me with my little problem of keeping every single thing they make and then having nowhere to put them. Now I feel a little better if I toss it since there is a picture for posterity!

At Ashlyn's school they had a Halloween party and I came to help out with Nathan. Since there were crafts left over I got one for him to make at home.

First day of school!

Well, to round out the month of August we had our first day of Kindergarten for Ashlyn! Very fun day! They lined up under silver balloons with their grade number (or a big "K" in our case) and then walked up the red carpet into the school while they played a cheesy back to school song. :) Ashlyn had a great time! Since we've been in school now for 2 months I can tell you that Ashlyn really has a fun time. At first she wanted to stay home because K was a bit too "busy". But she's doing wonderfully now and says everyone is her friend!
She's doing well academically and learning so much! K is so academic now (a result of our continual worldwide drop in standing) it's been shocking for me to see and I just hope they aren't burning these sweethearts out early with all they're cramming in.
She'll be testing next month for the Honors program to see if it's a good fit for her next year (they run it from 1st grade through middle school here). It's no biggie either way, but it would be a great thing for her if she qualifies and is accepted. In all of the meetings we attended to get more info, the program's goal is to offer enrichment opportunities and the chance to fit in a peer group of people just like you.
All the smart kids know how, even though you still make a ton of friends in elementary and middle/junior high school it sucks to be the one who has to do all the group projects in order to prevent your group from pulling you down. Or to have to fake disinterest or understanding to fit in with others. They do some really fun things in the program!

Last Days of Preschool

Well, May was the last month of preschool and Ashlyn't last year with Miss Patti. She was heartbroken - it was so sad!

She left not a pre-schooler, but almost a Kindergartener!

She'll always look back with fond memories!

Oma came up for a few days to see her "end of year" program and hang out. I'm sure that having a fun oma here took the edge off of not being a preschooler anymore!

Espanol!

Ashlyn is loving her Spanish unit in preschool! Some recent favorites: Her hair is rojo-ish and she likes to eat at Rojo Robin. And today she was big on "de nada". She would say something to Nathan and then whisper to him to say "De nada." Then she would say "You're de nada too Nathan."

Too cute!

Preschool

And in other news...

We cut $$ out of the food and household budget and our now doing preschool. I feel a bit more peace about it since we went ahead with it, so I know that either Heavenly Father thinks it's right for us and her or He doesn't care and it'll work out fine. So that's one less thing to worry about.

We went to the orientation today and got all the info about what her class will be doing this year. Miss Patti told us she checks in with area kindergarten teachers every 2 or 3 years to find out what their expectations are for the kids. She said she is surprised that each year it increases a bit! So last year they went over shapes, colors (I can't imagine kids not knowing those by this age), numbers and counting, and lower case letters (since those are the letters they need to recognize in order to read). Also she says last year was mainly about getting ready to learn - like learning to follow 3 directions at once, how to interact with teachers and students, sitting still, raising hands, things like that. Now they are going hard core into academics! :)

This year it's...

• Social Relating
• Music, including rhythm, dance, and using percussion (better her ears than mine)
• Geometric shapes
• Colors
• Alike and Different
• Patterns
• Letter Recognition
• Sounds of the letters
• Beginning sounds
• Vowels
• Blending sounds together
• Counting by rote
• Counting objects
• Number recognition to 20.
  

In art they're doing painting and coloring and SCISSORS!

The science units are:

• Cowboys and Colorado (a favorite - they make stick horses)
• Arachnids
• Dinosaurs
• Arctic animals
• The Solar System (now minus our beloved Pluto)
• Jungle animals and Marsupials
• Plants and Insects
• Holiday themes

PE:hop, skip, jump, run, catch, etc.

Thinking, logic and problem solving.

And of course, show and tell every Monday.

Thoughts on preschool!

First, this is meant to be for you guys to help me! :) So feel free to chime in with an opinion!

We are (basically that means I am) having a dillema here in Colorado: to preschool or not to preschool? It is completely a $$ issue right now. We can afford it if we cut off our cell phone and go on no dates ever. Is that worth it? And why can't we live in Utah where is preschool is cheap/free? Man, I wish this were easy! Ashlyn loves Miss Patti and her preschool, but I do not love the $155 a month price tag. I have been hemming and hawing for weeks over this and I still don't know which way to go. So here is my list:

Pros:

• Ashlyn loves it.
• She will learn her alphabet, numbers, etc. better at school.
• Miss Patti has the time and resources to do a better job with everything.
• I don't have to take time out to try and teach her myself.
• She gets away from mom and that pesky little brother.
• She learns cool songs.
• She gets a lot of social interaction with kids her own age (there's not really any in our ward any more).
• She gets to participate in recitals/programs.
• She gets to do arts and crafts/painting/lots of dress up and pretend play.

Cons:

• Money!!!

Ok, so there's a basic list. I think that my main reason for not knowing what to do is because I'm such a money person, even though the lists are obviously skewed to the "pro" side, it still bothers me to spend so much on this! I was convinced to pay the $100 last year because I know kids in preschool do better in school, and because I thought it would be a great social opportunity for her. It was very nice - but I'm not convinced it was worth $900. I know she doesn't need it academically, but I'm not sure how much she may need it in other ways. Like getting a break from a busy mom and a sometimes annoying brother.

I'm thinking about trying it for the first few months and seeing how it goes, but I'm not sure yet. I know we can do without it - lots of people do. I know she will survive. But I want her to have fun and do cool things while she can. And with all of the discipline problems we've been having I wonder if it will help to give her time away from us. Decisions, decisions...

My little genius

Lately, Ashlyn and I have been trying to do a bit of preschool each day. We work with some flashcards and workbooks to help her learn her alphabet and work on her writing skills. After we had gone through the alphabet and some numbers I told her we could use some of our special mommy and Ashlyn time to read stories.

While she was picking one out I wrote "book" on her magnadoodle to try and tie in what we had been doing with what we were about to do. (Plus "b" and "d" are tricky for her and I wanted to reinforce the letter.) Anyway.... she got back and while I read a story from her "The Friend" magazine she was doodling "k"s on the screen. Which, by the way, I was exstatic about! She keeps thinking "k"s are "r"s. So I was thinking "great, more practice!". Well, while I was reading she erased my "book" and all her "k"s and started writing her very own "book". Oh my! I was surprised! But she's a smarty pants, so I suppose I really shouldn't have been. I think the fact that there are "o"s in the middle helped a lot! But anyway - you all have witnessed her first written word (not counting Ashlyln).