Levi has been in Kindergarden for a whole week and a half and I think it's gone well so far. Last week was crazy because every time we went to pick him up it seemed like an absolute mad house but now we've timed our walk so we are a little before or after the rush which helps.
He likes the kids in his class and his teacher and LOVES the bus. A few days ago he brought home a picture of a bus with a bird, I think it has something to do with a book they read and he told me some other kid said his bird didn't look like a bird, which made me a little sad because it made him sad. But we talked about it and he was fine.
Overall I am loving the schedule so far, we'll see what I say about everything when we throw preschool for Max in the mornings (Levi is afternoon) into the mix. I almost went with Mustard Seed which Levi did last year and loved but opted to do a co-op this year and Mustard Seed next. I just calculated the $ and decided to do what we did Levi's first year would be fine. So I'm teaching along with 2 other moms, which for me is a good number, I didn't want it to be tons of kids but a nice small group. We're doing something called 'Joy School' which focuses on specific principals. I've yet to really look at what I'm doing but it is kind of a rigid curriculum with a schedule of what to do and when which for me is fairly overwhelming because I feel like if I don't do it exactly as set out I've failed in some way, but the other mom's wanted to go this route (one is very prego and was stressed with something that wasn't all laid out like that), but I've already told them I'm not a super structured teacher, I like to have a plan but always tend to deviate depending on what is of interest and the needs of whoever is being taught. Good thing they're fine with that cause that's just how I do it.
Also since we have more of a routine going I've been more on the ball as far as dinners go and cleaning the house. I have been working with the boys on helping cleaning up around the house and they have put away the dishes every day this week, cleaned out the hall closet, vaccumed under/in the couch, Levi did the stairs and even cleaned the bathroom countertops and mirror. Wierdly they love cleaning the bathroom. They've also helped when they can with preparing meals like washing things, mixing, and cutting things with a plastic kids knife. And while I didn't focus a ton on school work during the summer we are back at it and we've been working on doing a little bit of 'homework' everyday practicing reading and math (for Levi), letters and numbers (for Max), and working on crafts skills like cutting gluing and other things. One of my big things I've been working with Levi on (again something I should have been doing more in the summer) is practicing his writing, it's very rough. Max has gotten into it and can almost trace lines better, but Max loves to draw and Levi is more of a mover and shaker.
I love that Levi loves to learn. We, Levi and I, get into interesting topics, some I'm not sure are age appropriate but I like to talk about what he's interested in. We love to listen to The Magic Treehouse chapter books in the car and one of them turned out to be about the civil war so we've since read a couple of books about the civil war and he knows about slavery to some extent. After we learned about it I wondered if that was too mature of topic for him, but he seemed fine with it. We've also read books and talked about the revolutionary war and I think he kind of understands that one. Then today we read part of book about the body uncle Jared gave him (it's like a textbook for older kids with lots of pictures) and he learned about the oxygen, nitrogen, and hydrogen cycles. Even though I'm not sure if he's old enough for some of this he seems to get it and enjoys learning about all that stuff.
Levi has also been doing soccer for almost two weeks and is doing pretty well. His first couple of practices he took a lot of breaks and layed down on the field a number of times but I've been really impressed with his past couple times and how he's been listening well to the coach. He had a game Tuesday which is a game for 4-5 year olds who most have never played/seen a game in their lives. It was actually quite hilarious because I'm pretty sure 1/3 of the goals was someone kicking the ball in their own goal. It's pretty cute. Levi really seemed to get it and he was fearless and got right in there (with a few reminders) he even made a goal. He was beaming right after that one. Also there's this tiny little gal on the team who is 4 maybe and has in 4 practices/games spent 5 minutes total in the field standing up, mostly she likes to play in the trees and run around. What warms my heart is Levi numerous times sweetly calling her name to come and play with them. It's adorable.And this other kid on the team and him got a little tried running around because we had no subs and we're trailing from where the action was and they had their arms around each other and said 'lets go get the ball' and ran off. I wish I had brought my camera that day.
Max has been a building machine lately. I watched him put together a lego creation the other day and it was so amazing what those little fingers were able to do. For the past several days while Levi's been at kindergarten he's been building "Toy City" which involves him taking out most of our tubs of toys (animals, wood blocks, lg legos, small legos, little people, trains.....) and lays out a city. It's a mess but very cool. He'll do it the whole 2 1/2 hours sometimes. I can't believe my baby is so big building cities, talking in full sentences, 'writing', out of diapers.......
Jason has been doing well and has been working hard. He had a job interview for a permanent position at Nike doing his same job, but salaried and will find out soon if he got it or not. It's been a roller coaster job wise and we're keeping our fingers crossed.
Also about a month ago he finally got the truck that he's been researching for over a year. I think he's liking it and I'm loving that I don't have to drive around my grandma's big wheelchair van and can cruise around in the car. Speaking of truck, Jason should be getting a new calling any day now. He doesn't know what and it's not official or anything but the ward mission leader who he was working with let it slip. I have a theory of what it might be.......
Me? Same ol' stuff. Kids, kids, kids, work, kids, kids, family family, work,......this is my life. It keeps me busy and out of trouble. Kind of.
No comments:
Post a Comment