It's The End of the (School) Year As We Know It...

And we feel fine!  Or at least most of us do.  Summer is in some ways a bit crazier with no schedules!

Cory got to go on a cool end of year field trip to our local museum where they learned about the Native Americans that first lived in this area.  His creature above is supposed to be an owl I think.  Then they went canoeing!

Two weeks ago his class put on a play.  It was a story about a boy who wanted to bake a cake for the princess' birthday, but along the way he ran into many troubles so that by the time he got to the castle all he had left was a juicy strawberry, but a guard stopped him because the princess was allergic to strawberries.  So he was very sad and told the princess he was sorry that he didn't have anything to give her, but after he told her the story of his adventures she declared it the best gift ever because it entertained her when all the other presents had been the same typical gold and gems. 

Cory was a narrator and the kid on the left was the main character.  Then there were another group of students on the left that were a chorus of sorts.  They had created hand drawn backdrops and when the scene changed they took one down off the white board with more underneath.  It was about 15 minutes long and pretty impressive for 3rd grade!

Last week was Noah's end of the year presentation at his school.  After the tragedy of how the school year started we have been so amazingly blessed by his school.  It's been a perfect fit and we will miss it when he goes off to public school for first grade with his brother next year.

Their project for the last quarter of the year was all about honey bees and why they are in decline.  Noah's poster talks about the different kinds of bees (worker, drone, queen) and he made a bee out of clay.

The class together put on a presentation about what things are affecting the honey bee populations.

This is Noah and his friend's dramatization of the bees dying after they come to a tree that's been sprayed with insecticides.  Note the yellow bees already dead on the floor at their feet.

It was very cute, but also really great to see kids at such a young age involved and asking questions that even scientists aren't able to fully answer yet.

And now I have a newly minted 4th and 1st grader in the house, plus two girls ready to start preschool in the fall.  The baby stage is well and fully behind me!

Chug, Chug, Chugging Along

I realize elementary school music programs only matter to parents and grandparents, but they read this blog so here you go...

Cory was so proud he had a line to say at the program tonight.  He was the only one that didn't get a costume, but his line was more narration and the other kids were representing the lines of the character they wore.

The theme was something to do with the railroad and historical songs chants and songs that the slaves would have sung.  There was Harriett Tubman, Abraham Lincoln, a peg leg Joe, and a conductor.

I know the blanked out faces look weird, but I wanted to show the background (and of course my kid will always be standing in the back row!) and they were all too cute!

He also had a part where he played the xylophone, but I missed it as one little sister had to go to the bathroom and I'd already made her wait for him to say his lines!

Then little sisters stole my camera focus by helping put away all the folding chairs.

Yes, the chairs were pretty much as big as they were, but they did a really good job either carrying or dragging the chairs over to the rack for us to put them up.

Wordless Wednesday: First Days of School

Due to mom being out of the country, these are a bit late.

School actually started last Wednesday for this guy, third grade!  Hat tip to dad for taking the first day of school photos.

He says he's enjoying it so far!

Noah was also supposed to start school last week, but due to very tragic circumstances he actually didn't start until yesterday.

Yes, this is pretty much what life looks like around our house!

We had to find a new school for Noah on short notice (and from another country), but thankfully this one hadn't actually started so he was able to begin with all the other kids yesterday.

There are a couple kids there from his old school and it's a place he's familiar with.  He already told me he likes being there with some older kids too!

Officially a kindergartner and so excited for school!

First Day of School times Two!

It wasn't hard to get Noah out of bed this morning, he's been waiting for this day since he turned 4 in March!

First day of preschool, new lunch box, new tennis shoes, he's ready!

I think he might be a little sad when he discovers he's not going every day... good thing because of Labor Day the first day happened for both boys on the same day!

My second grader wasn't quite so ready, he wanted a late start for today!  This change to being out the door when we're normally just getting up is going to be a bit rough!

This is what they're really like... pray for their teachers!

Here's to a good year of school, preschool and second grade!

It's the End of the Year

And all those awards and special programs to go with it.

Last Wednesday was the awards night at Awana:

Noah had his first year in Cubbies.

Here they are all showing off their singing skilz.

Such a ham!

Cory had his first year in Sparks although he was in the second year because we skipped last year with the girls.

He did get his whole book done and started the second one so we might be able to get one and 3/4 books done next year and finish on time!

Daddy helped with the oldest age group and they were very proud of him!

Thursday all the first graders put on the Ocean Commotion music show at school.

Cory did not have a speaking part, but when I went in that afternoon to help in his classroom they discovered that one of the kids who DID have a speaking part wasn't going to be there that night.  His teacher asked me if we were and gave him the line.

We worked on it on the way to his eye exam and then home.  He delivered!  Loud and clear and with plenty of attitude.  It helped that it was a line about sharks!

Part of the way through the hat got pretty hot so he took it off and was swinging it around...

Then when he put it back on he did this...

My son, the fish head!

And this one is the natural ham so he needed his photo taken too.  It's very sad that we are going to be out of town the week there is a drama camp for 4-7 year olds next month...

I guess they come by it naturally, their Dad loves acting!

An Apple from the Teacher

Last week on the same day as the Veteran's Day assembly there was an awards assembly at 8:30am.
And yes I actually made it there with the three little ones only a few minutes late!

Cory got An Apple from the Teacher for being a hard worker and always turning in his best work.  Also for getting better about getting started so he can finish his work on time!  The teacher loves his company, but not at recess when it's her break time!  My little social man!

He didn't know I was coming so it was fun when he finally realized I was there!  I'm surprised he didn't pick up on his sisters fussing in the stroller!

I'm very impressed with his teacher after having been in the classroom a couple of times.  She's a very good teacher and very kind with the students.  Cory always has nice things to say about her.  First grade has been good to us so far!

My First 1st Grader

We ordered Cory a special backpack and I almost wasn't sure it would get here in time... but it came on Friday and we were on the way somewhere... someone couldn't wait until we got home!

And then he had to show everyone!

This morning he was afraid he was going to miss the bus with 20 minutes left until the bus came... I don't think I've ever seen him eat his breakfast so fast!

My first day of school monkey!

He walked off to the bus stop all by himself... and we can spy on him from our front window (with my telephoto lens).  I think he's ready!

Reading Eggs Review

Cory is 5.  He'll be starting school in the fall and in fact we're in the process of signing him up for a local Montessori school.  I'm super excited about that!

But before we knew what we were going to do I was on the lookout for any curriculum or apps that would help him get started.  When the opportunity came up for us to try out a program called Reading Eggs I thought I'd give it a try.

Reading Eggs is an online learn to read program that lets your child work at their own pace.  At first Cory wasn't thrilled because it was a bit of a challenge for him.  But as soon as we figured out that you earned eggs for completing lessons and you could use those to buy clothes and other things for your avatar and his house he was hooked.  You can also use them in the arcade to play games, but he doesn't seem to care much about that.

Here's what I think about the program.

Pros:

• Individualized learning
• Teaches the letter sounds and gives audio examples of sounding out words
• Has short activities that come at each lesson from different angles
• Creates an incentive for kids to keep working
• Is NOT an annoying program for a parent to listen to and work with

Cons:

• Requires good listening skills to know what to do in each segment (I think this could be easily fixed by not allowing a child to click "next" until the directions are done being read - at least in the first few lessons or the first time a new type of activity is introduced)
• Could teach a kid that he needs a reward for learning

Cory isn't very far into it, but already I can tell that he's learning how to sound words out.  And he's now asking to play it all the time.

Personally my biggest complaint is that it is more like a game and he's only doing the lessons to get to play the games.  I think learning is something that we need to learn to love and I don't see that happening right now.  Although once he learns to read that will open up a whole new world to him and he does like books already so hopefully that won't be an issue.

As a teacher myself I know that sometimes you just have to learn stuff that isn't super fun.  If you don't learn it you can't go on to the "bigger and better" stuff without the basics.  I don't think that everything is like this, but I don't particularly like the idea that there should be a reward for learning.  Learning is its own reward.

That being said, I think there is a place for this and since I don't seem to be as organized as I'd like (what, twins?) this is helping Cory where I can't right now.

And they are always running specials so the price is pretty reasonable!  Sign up for a free 2 week trial and see if your kid likes it first!

I was provided with free access to Reading Eggs to facilitate my review.  I was not compensated in any other way and all opinions are my own.