Reading.

Lately, at bedtime, when we read stories, Molly asks to read to us.  I let her and I've been amazed at how she has improved in the last year.  Here she is reading the last book she received from The Imagination Library, "Look Out Kindergarten, Here I Come."

At first, I thought she was memorizing the book and going by the pictures to tell the story.  But when I have her read random words in random books, she is mostly right.  She has a lot of sight words learned, such as "circle", "the", "school"... words that if you sounded them out by the letters themselves, would make no sense.  English is a crazy language when you really think about it.

For instance, these words:  "tough, rough, cough" sound nothing like the similarly spelled "dough."  "Circle" has both a soft C and a hard C sound, not to mention a silent E.  "School"...has not a K in sight, nor a U.  

Seriously, English is screwy.  Did I spell that right?  Shouldn't there be a K or U in that word too?  Why do we even bother putting the L in "Should, Would and Could?"

More crazy language examples:

Say these words quickly:  "Beak, Creak, Leak, Peak, Weak, Break"

Hey, what's a breek?  (haha gotcha)

And let's don't confuse the matter by even thinking about

Beek, Creek, Leek, Peek, Week or Brake

...yes, beek is a word.  Dust off that dictionary and look it up, or do as I did and google it.

Now say:  Eight, Weight, Freight, Height, Light, Night, Tight, Right, Taught, Caught, Bought, Ought

Laughter, Daughter

(is it said like "lafter" and "dafter" or "lotter" and "dotter?")

What is up with all those useless G's and H's anyway?

And let me tell you something right here and now,  Molly will learn the delicate differences and nuances of these words that are all too often misused to the point of making me dizzy from shaking my head:

"They're / There / Their"

(They're over there in their car.)

"Too / Two / To"

(It's too bad two million people never learned to get this right.)

"Your / You're"  use "Ur" and I'll forehead thump you.

(Your teacher says you're smart enough to learn this too.)

Ur: text-talk = blek!

"Hear / Here"

(Now hear this, here is the right way to write this.)

Oh yeah, there's "right" and "write" too!  My head is spinning.

"It's / Its"

It's time to go.  I've had enough of English and its crazy rules.

How did any of us learn to speak this messed up language?  

When I see a 5 year old reading, I see a miracle.

Full Days, Full Weeks

Monday morning was the first full day.  All ready to go on her first full day of school, and the first day to ride the bus.  The school day starts at 7:45 and dismisses at 2:30.  She has a full day of assorted class time activities such as English Language Arts, Reading time, Math time, and they cycle through Art, Computers, P.E., and Music....of course, there is plenty of play time outside at recess and lunchtime around 11 seems to be quite a big deal to her. 

We walk down to the corner at 6:40.  If she looks chilly, it's because she was....to her, 70 degrees is cold.  It was actually quite nice and then nearly 90 that afternoon.  Lately, the mornings have been very foggy but warm.

The rest of the neighborhood kids that ride the early bus to the Primary and Intermediate Schools meet at the bus stop with their parents.  It's nice to see everyone, laugh at the kids playing, talk about stuff happening on the street and at school.  Molly is one of the youngest kids with one other kindergartener at the stop.  The "big" kids are nice and play with her and let her and the other young boy onto the bus first.

My neighbor took this one for me since I never get photos with Molly.  This wasn't a work day, so I went back home and realized for the first time, just how quiet our house can be.

One small step for little kids...

one giant step for kindergartener-kind.

She's in there somewhere...

without a 5-point harness child seat strapping her in place.

Here she comes back home again.  I think I took this one on Wednesday, when I figured out just where the bus actually stops in the afternoon.  The afternoon drop off is at 3:20 and she's usually hot and sweaty, so I try to have an ice water bottle ready for the short walk home.

My baby girl is home again.

Second Orientation Day.

Since Dan was off, he was able to come to Molly's school.  Here they are walking to class on the 2nd orientation day yesterday.  The full week schedule starts on monday.

Coming out to meet us at the car lane at noon.

All smiles after a great day.  She exclaimed "I can't WAIT until monday!"

Check out the system the school has for getting kids to their car rides.  I took this video last week.  Molly is the tiny little speck walking with a determined step up to cone #1.

There she is at cone #1 holding the helper's hand, waiting for me.

This was on the testing day back in July.  That's Molly in the yellow shirt.

They sit the kids out under the porch and line up colored cones from 1 to 8 or so with a door opener person by each one.  A lady with a megaphone walks by and reads the child's name on a car tag in each car.  That child goes to the numbered cone read out by the megaphone lady.  Each car eases up to their cone...kid climbs in...you hook 'em in super fast without getting out or pull up to the front of the circle to do it...then you leave.  I was impressed by the orderly nature of it all.  I still think the bus is the best way to go.  Even with the 1/2 day and fewer parents picking up kids, the wait was about 20 minutes because you have to get there early or it will be longer and more congested.

After Dan and I dropped Molly off at school that morning, we went to the grocery store.  While there, I noticed this sign in the bakery / produce area....and thought, how true?  When we were kids, school started after the Jerry Lewis Labor Day Telethon in early September.  What happened to summer?

Easing into Kindergarten

Ready for her first 1/2-day of Kindergarten.

August 16, 2013

The night before, I laid out her school supplies on the bed before packing them all into her backpack.  We also picked out her "Daddy's Little Monkey" outfit since her classroom's theme is Curious George this year.  There is also a bag in the kitchen for her share of the classroom snacks...RitzBitz, Mini Nillas, Teddy Grahams, Mini Cheez-its.

6:30 sure is early.  She wondered why it was so dark.  In a couple weeks, when she starts to ride the bus, we'll have to meet it at the corner at 6:45.

Cutest Kindergartener in the world.

Standing by her cubby before sitting down at her little desk.  There were only 5 kids in class that day as they ease into the school year.  For four days a different set of kids comes for orientation.  She was assigned Friday the 16th and 23rd for her half day orientation days.

On August 26, she will begin her full days at five days a week and she'll ride that big yellow bus to school and home all by herself.  How does a parent let their baby ride a bus for the first time all by herself?  I have no idea, but I guess we'll find out next monday.

Meet The Teacher Day

Today was Meet The Teacher Day at Molly's new school.  We went to the cafeteria first to see which room she'd been assigned to, which was Green 209 with Ms. Gibson.  So, we wandered down that way to go meet her teacher and see her classroom.

Her room had a Curious George jungle theme, which is very familiar to this little monkey.  We were warmly greeted and then Ms. Gibson asked Molly to go around the tables to find the folder with her name on it.  Inside were some more papers to fill out and an updated supply list.  We wandered around the room to see all the pretty things and get acquainted with where her desk and cubby will be.

She found the cubby with her name on it in the corner.

She posed with Curious George in the rocking chair.

There are lots of big bright books just waiting to be read.

Building blocks and some cool toys.

A table with painting supplies...

The snack prep area, sink and the little in-room bathroom.

Another area for reading, playing...

Wonder how well that "Quiet Zone" sign works?  This is an area where they might have video stories and lessons.  Here she is picking out her special treat bag from the treasure chest.  We also chose the size of shirt she will need for her gym class.

For the first two weeks of the school year, the little kids will have one 1/2 day of school a week assigned to them.  Molly will go a 1/2 day on Friday the 16th and then the 23rd.  Her first full day and full week begins August 26th...incidentally also our 7th anniversary.  She will also start riding the bus on her full week.

We have a Parents' Night to attend on the 22nd and Dan should be able to go to that so he can see the school first hand too.  It's going to be a great year, full of new things that will further develop her mind and expand her little world a bit more.

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