Rose Begins Preschool

The day is finally here!  Rose has been dying to go to preschool ever since Clara started at John Knox two years ago!  Rose was so pumped for her first day of school and was just thrilled to finally be old enough to go.  

We had a meet-and-greet with the teachers (there are 3 full-time teachers for Rose's class - Mrs. James, Mrs. Richards, and Mrs. Harper) a few days before school started.  Rose went right in and made herself at home playing with a big wooden castle and loads of princess figurines.  There was a big conversation between Belle and Gaston about something I couldn't quite follow.  

While there, Mrs. Harper told me that even though Rose was enrolled in the TTh class for 3 year olds (since she has a January birthday) there was a chance that since the teachers all know Rose already and she was SO CLOSE to the December cut-off that we could get an exception for her to attend the MWF class to give her one extra day of preschool each week.  Lucky for us, Mrs. James (the head teacher) told me when I asked that they had just had a girl cancel her spot for the MWF class because her family was moving and we were given that spot even though there was a waitlist since Rose had a sibling who went to JKCP and family members always get the first spot on the waitlist.  

It's been perfect for Rose since three of her friends from church (who will all start Kindergarten the same year as Rose anyway) are also in the MWF 4 year old class.  So we know lots of friends and all the teachers this year and it's just been such a great transition!  I get to volunteer there in a couple of weeks and can't wait to see how she interacts in the classroom!

Rose's favorite things to do at preschool are dress-up and playing with the princesses.  But she has also come home with art projects that she has been so excited to show to me and Paul and Clara and always tells us "it's for youuuuuuuu!!!"

Their first day of school was actually the day of the solar eclipse and the teachers took the kids out 2 at a time with solar eclipse glasses so they could look at the sun with one-to-one supervision just to make sure none of them pulled the glasses off.  

Rose's extracurriculars include speech therapy (which we FINALLY have set up with the elementary school!), swimming (she's doing AMAZING and can totally swim in the deep end without any fear or hesitation and is working on her arm and leg coordination), and a tap/ballet dance combo class.  More informally, I kept our schedule open so that we can also do Music Makers each week which is a free song/story/playtime thing with a bunch of other moms and toddler/preschool aged kids from the stake.

Speech Therapy is going well so far - we really like Miss Penelope, her new teacher, and it's very apparent that Rose really needs the help.  She's super smart (we have zero worries there) and doing excellent with language skills as far as vocabulary and ability to tell a story.  The only problem she has is with articulating and she drops consonants all over the place.  It's going to be a lot of work getting her speech where it should be since she has almost every issue in the book as far pronunciation goes, but when she focuses, she can actually make a lot of the sounds.

It's more like her brain just isn't connecting the sound with the word and the necessity of saying the word exactly right.  Like she can make the "sssss" sound of a snake, but when it comes to saying "SNACK", Rose asks for "nack" and drops the "s".  When I tell her to make the "ssss" sound and model "ssss-nack" she always flips them and says "nack-sssss" about 7 or 8 times before she FINALLY puts the "ssss" in front of the "nack" sound like she is supposed to.  It's definitely a work in progress but I'm glad to have support and structure to start moving forward.

Rose is still a feisty little thing who is incredibly happy and hilarious as long as she is well-rested and fed but man-oh-man, if that girl is tired or hungry her crankiness is off the charts.  We love her so much though, even when she is being a grump!  I'm so excited to see how she grows this year at preschool!

Clara Begins First Grade

Summer seemed to flash by in a blur!  I will have to go back and play catch-up, but wanted to share some back-to-school pictures I took of Clara for her first day of school first.  

Clara was so, so, so excited for the start of First Grade.  She loved Kindergarten and really thrived in the social and academic environment of elementary school.  There were no tears or nerves or hesitations the morning of her first day - she was up and getting dressed and all smiles on our way to school and lining up outside her classroom.  

Clara actually has two teachers this year - Mrs. Cartmell and Mrs. Gonzales.  They are a mother-daughter duo and they take turns teaching the first and second half of each week.  Both seem very nice and Clara likes them a lot.  There are 15 girls and 10 boys in her classroom and Clara knew three of them going into it - a girl named Bella from her Kindergarten class, Jacob from swim team and preschool, and Wilson who was also in her Kindergarten class although she didn't know him very well.   

We did our traditional Back-to-School Feast for both girls the night before school started.  Clara requested grilled lamb chops this year (last year she wanted whole grilled fish - I like her menu choices).  We had an apple pecan salad, fresh homemade sour dough bread (my sour dough skills are a work in progress but it sure tasted good), and a berry pie a la mode for dessert.  

Afterwards, both girls received Father's Blessings in preparation for the new school year.

I had to wake Clara up in the morning but she popped right out of bed and got dressed in the clothes we had laid out the night before.  Drop-off was crazy with all the parents trying to park and walk their kids to their new classrooms.  Fortunately, we had left plenty early so we had enough time to park and walk with the crowds of kids touting shiny new sneakers and bright backpacks.

Clara got right to work coloring and hardly seemed to notice when it was time for Rose and me to leave.  Rose had the hardest time of anyone, asking all morning when we could go back and get Clara and telling me that she missed her.

I did the same thing as last year and took the girls' back-to-school pics the day before school actually started so that we didn't have worry about it that first morning when I knew we would be rushing to get out the door or after school when hair was messy and girls were tired and possibly not as cooperative.  Incidentally, if you click through to that link, it is frightening to me how much the girls have both grown in the past year!  I miss my little Kindergartener!

Clara LOVED taking pictures this year.  She hammed it up for the camera and kept coming up with new poses that she wanted me to be sure to get pictures of.  She wore her cute new dress from Gap Kids that I found on clearance for something like $12, her sparkly shoes (also a clearance find at Gap Kids - Rose has matching ones and they are the favorite shoes for both girls).  I got the chalkboard sign at the Target dollar section and I love it!  Hopefully I can find some place to keep it so that I remember to bring it back out again next year.  

When we were getting school supplies, Clara told me with so much enthusiasm, "Mom, I don't need a backpack or lunchbox this year because I have my purple ones from last year!"  I ran with it and was excited with her because I'm not going to be a new lunchbox or backpack if I don't have to and she doesn't care!  And hers were in perfectly good shape anyway.

I was going to include this little run-down in Clara's 6-year old update, but seeing as how her birthday was in MAY and it is now AUGUST, I think I had better just include it here.  These are some of the milestones Clara experienced in Kindergarten/as a 5 year old.  

• Lost her first tooth.  She has actually lost 4 of them now.
• Learned to ride a bike without training wheels.  She still needs practice but we've gone on bike trails and she does pretty well.  
• Learned to swim.  And not only learned how, but discovered a love for it and really excels at that sport!
• Learned to love skiing.  We took her when she was 4 but she didn't love it like she did this past year once she was 5.  
• Learned to read.  She can actually read super simple chapter books even like Junie B. Jones and Princess in Black and she has started doing it without prompting even!
• Learned to make scrambled eggs.  She still needs direction but she's loves doing it and we are working on pancakes and chocolate chip cookies next.  You know, the important stuff.

The rest of the year is already shaping up to be a busy one for Clara.  She has a bunch of extracurricular activities that she is involved in (to the point that I worry we are overextending, but so far she loves them all).  She's still doing gymnastics, which she continues to love, swimming lessons (once a week at a new swim school that is focused more on competitive swimming - it's more intense and great for helping her with her technique), piano (we've met her teacher and she starts lessons on Tuesday), and soccer.  

I was going to pull her from swimming, but after Clara told me that she loved swimming more than anything in the whole entire world except for me, Paul and Rose, I just couldn't bring myself to take her out of swimming until next summer.  And while she is a strong, fast swimmer, she definitely needs to correct some bad habits and improve her technique.  

The one thing we did drop this year was Spanish class.  She enjoyed it last year, but didn't love, love it, and her friend who was taking it with her can't do it this year either.  It also conflicted with our gymnastics time and I didn't want to rearrange the schedule that was such a pain to construct.  

Soccer is going great so far.  Clara's coaches are super nice and great with the girls.  So far she has just been doing practices and doesn't start games until September 9th.  It's a girls only league and they don't keep score at this age so it's not super competitive or intense, but I think that's perfect for what we want Clara to get out of this.  Her team is the T-Birds.  

I think Clara was more excited about her new gear - turquoise running shorts, socks, and cleats with shin guards and a new ball - than anything else.  Her only complaint has been that her shins get sweaty with the shin guards.  

And that's pretty much the update on how things are going for our First Grader so far!

Clara's First Day of Preschool

Yesterday was Clara's second first day of preschool.  Last year we did a preschool coop that was more like homeschooling with four other moms and kids from church.  This year we are in another coop preschool but it is much larger with 24 kids in her class, 3 full-time teachers and a classroom and everything.  The parents are required to work there two days at a time about once a month, so there are always 3 parents there in addition to the 3 teachers.  It is also super convenient for us because it is just around the corner from our house so we can just walk there every day. 

We visited the school late last spring when we found out we were on the waitlist and Clara has been talking about "her new school" ever since.  A few weeks ago we made a countdown chain together so that she could tear off rings and see how close we were getting to her first day.  She even took the last chain to bed with her the night before school started.  Paul also gave her a father's blessing and she was very reverent while receiving it and as soon as she stood up Rose jumped off my lap and climbed into the place Clara had just vacated and indicated that she was ready for hers too.

Clara's first day went great - no tears or fears or anything.  She went right in and joined the other kids and just had a wonderful time.  If anybody had a hard time, it was Rose, who cried when we left Clara (although it could easily have been because she wanted to play with the preschool toys as much as not wanting to leave big sister behind). 

She reported that they ate Star Wars crackers and she got to pour her own juice, played on swings, tricycles and with dress ups, sang songs, and did an art project.  On the walk home she told me that she thought her teachers were very nice and she played with two little girls named Alanna and Indiana.

She took me to the arts & crafts area where we found her painting still drying.  I'm impressed how Clara knows to look at the name tags to try to identify names start with "C" to see if she can find her own.  She jumps the gun at "Cassidy" or "Christopher" until she is reminded or remembers to look for the next letter in her name, but she has got the idea in her mind about how to identify her project by her name rather than by what the project looked like.  Oh, and incidentally, those white hair clips that Clara is wearing?  She puts them in herself and is so proud that she can do her own hair now.  I straighten it for her to clean up the ends a bit and part it, but then she wants to brush it and changes her clips in and out all day long switching between her favorite colors and trying to match her outfits.

We just can't believe what a beautiful, confident, fun little girl Clara is growing up to be.  She has a great imagination and a sweet heart and is just so willing and eager to be helpful.  We are so proud of her.  I took her measurements this morning for the record and she is just short of 42" tall and weighs 35 1/2 pounds.  I wasn't planning on school shopping for clothes for her, but as we have started to feel just the tiniest shift in temperature I went through her closet and realized that Clara doesn't have much cold weather attire that will fit her anymore.  So when we were at the store the other day I mentioned getting her an outfit for the first day of school and oh man, was she thrilled about that idea.  So she has a few new pair of leggings, shirts, cardigans, and dresses to wear and has been pleased as punch to get to cut the tags off and wear something new each day.  We did a few photos at a park in another one of her school outfits before school began and the poses were all her own.

We are thrilled to watch how she grows this year in preschool!