Fed Up

I have had it with our school system. I really am just at my wits end. When i posted about Phabian's school problems almost a month ago i thought i was their but now i know i am. Since the last post i have talked to the teacher a few more times and attempted to get in contact with the vice principal and principal to no avail. I have left messages, and even showed up. Nothing! Nada!

Today we got his report card for the semester. He got all "s" (satisfactory) except one. He got a "n" (non satisfactory) in completes independent work carefully. So maybe this isnt a big deal to anyone else but to me it is odd that a 5 year old, boy to boot, is expected to write neatly. Maybe i am reading into this too much or wrong but to me it just seems a little overboard. To add to it at the bottom of the page where the teacher can leave comments she said and i will quote here:

"Phabian is still doing very well, and is a good reader. His behavior has changed a little in this past 9 weeks. I'm hoping its due to the holidays and excitement going on around here. I'm sure he will come back ready to work and learn."

Now it has never been brought up to us in any meeting that he wasn't willing and ready to learn. For that matter it has always been told to us that he is a great student and loves to learn. He always finishes assignments quickly and picks up fast on new things. So i am confused by that last sentence. If there is a lack of work ethic going on it needs to be addressed.

It seems to me like a brush off of everything i have talked to her about. Like it was never discussed between us that Phabian has been acting out and how we could possibly correct or divert this behavior. I am just a little livid at the way the school is treating this situation.

But this is not why i am tyoing today. What i came here was to ask for help. I have decided to look into home schooling. I am lost a little as to where to start. I know a lot of mothers who blog also home school and i would like to talk to you guys. Where did you start? What resourses do you use? How do you keep your sanity?

I am not sure if i can do it or not. I am not sure if it is a affordable option for us as well. All i know is i am not happy with the way things are going and short of camping out at the school to catch the vice/principal at a free moment i am lost. So please if you home school or know someone who home schools send them to me. Give them my email, blog, what ever it is that you can to get into contact with me. I just want to get information and make an educated decision.

Advanced

When i was a kid starting out in school, advanced was a word i heard often. My teachers would say to my mom, "Courtney is really advanced for her age", or "Have you ever thought of advancing her a grade".

When i started Kindergarten, having never attended a preschool, i already knew how to read and do basic math. I could write my name as well as other small words and sentences. Back then (20 years ago) that would have qualified me to go straight to the first grade completely skipping kindergarten.

My Mom refused to advance me. She felt that it was important for me to have that kindergarten year to become accustomed with how school worked since i had never attended a preschool. In other words she wanted me to be socially smart as well as intelligent smart.

I had my problems in kindergarten. I got bored a lot since i already knew a lot of what the other kids were just learning. I was given special assignments to help keep my attention. I was aloud to go to the library and read if they were doing something that i already had mastered. It made me feel a little separate from the other kids, but over all i can not complain about my kindergarten experience.

I had the best kindergarten teacher in the world (and still hold her as my favorite teacher to this day). And the school dealt with me in what i would call a perfect way. They did what they could to help me excel and gave me things to do that both helped my education and my social abilities.

Now 20 years later i am facing a similar problem only in the position of my mother.

Phabian started Kindergarten back in June (year round school). After about 3 months of school we came to realize that he is a little more advanced then the other kids. He is pretty much reading now and writing wonderfully with little help. He can count and do simple math. Socially he is even doing great. I accredit this to his 2 years in preschool with the worlds best pre-k teacher and aid. They however accredit it to me. 

Now as we approach the end of the 2nd semester he is starting to get bored. He is losing focus and getting in trouble a lot. Not anything major but little things that insinuate he is bored with what he is learning. Unlike the school where i attended as a kid, his school is apparently not prepared to deal with this. He is forced to sit through things and grin and bear the outcome of his boredness.

After a parent/teacher conference with his teacher a month ago i confirmed i am not happy with his environment. She pretty much told me that he should have been skipped a grade but it was too late now since we are already half way through the 2nd semester and the 1st grade curriculum would be too advanced. I was a little furious. We have known he was advanced since the year began back in June so why was this option not mentioned to me earlier.

I am not ok with my child constantly getting in trouble because, essentially, he is TOO SMART! How is that teaching him anything? To me it is telling him, " Hey your too smart, so maybe if you weren't smart you wouldn't get in trouble".  To top it off they have a daily grading system. It goes from a Paw (best behavior) to a D (worst behavior). If at the end of the semester they do not have enough Paws that child will not be aloud to attend the field trip planned for that semester. So once again Phabian might lose out on something fun because he is too smart.

Yes i understand he still has to learn to behave and follow instructions. I get that, i promise. But what would be wrong with giving him something more advanced to do if you are working on something that you already know that he knows. If you are working on the letter F and you know he already knows that, why cant you give him a book to read or something else to work on? Is it that hard to give him busy work so that he doesn't get in trouble?

So here is where the big dilemma comes in. I have talked at length with MJ (and Phabian's) pre-k teacher. She knows all about Phabian and the trouble he is having. She suggested to me that i might want to go ahead and have MJ tested to be advanced to 1st grade instead of starting in  kindergarten because he is also showing signs of being very advanced for his age.

I don't want to face the same problems with MJ that we are having with Phabian. MJ is already starting to read. He is learning from his brother and is almost on the same scale as his brother in some things. If i have him tested i don't know if there is a down side. If he passes the test (which i have been told is pretty hard) he will have proved he is smart enough and mature enough to be advanced, if he doesn't then it isn't any skin off anyone. He will just go to kindergarten and no one knows the wiser.

I hesitate because i worry how Phabian will feel about this in the long run. Phabian has always took pride in being the older sibling. He is older in age, he got to play football when MJ wasn't old enough yet. He got to start "real" school first. He gets to do homework. If we do choose to skip MJ a grade he will be right there with his brother. Possibly (even though i doubt it) in the same class. I just don't know how Phabian will feel about that or even how to ask him about it. They attended pre-k together for a year and never had a problem but they are older now and have had a whole year apart in separate classrooms.

So help me out here. I need opinions from everyone. If you know a teacher send her/him over so i can get that opinion too. I am just so confused as to what i should do. Advance MJ or don't? How can i help Phabian? What suggestions would you make if you were in this situation?

Cross Roads

So it seems like forever since i have really been able to sit down and write a long update. I think everyone has been pretty busy in our day to day lives, summer plans, and just enjoying life. So i thought since it is 8am and i am awake and the kids are asleep i would take some time and update on how life has been going.


I have been doing well. I think i have come to a cross roads in my life where i am not sure exactly which way i want or am suppose to go. I want to go back to school, my best friend is moving away, my kids are growing up too fast, and i feel a little left behind.

Lets start with going back to school. I think this is the harder one for me. I am stuck between a rock and a hard place. I want to go back to school but at the same time i am still really unsure what i want to go for. Now most people wouldnt scold a 24 year old for not knowing what exactly they want but since i am not your avereage 24 year old i find myself in a hard spot. Maybe you guys can help me wade through this mess. I have 3 fields of interest each with their own difficulty in achieveing or following through with.

First i have a passion and desire to do photography. I love to take pictures! I take about 100 a day and never get tired of it. It makes me feel great when i know i am capturing a memory that will last forever. A little reminder of what was happening in that interval in our lives or the lives of my subject. We do have a collage that offers photography as a major but the biggest problem is how far can i take that degree. I have a family that needs my help financially (and God forbid something happen to my husband i would be the soul provider) and photography can be such an unpredictable field. I have watched and followed as several of you have persued dreams of your own company and watched how hard and how much struggle you have had. As much as i love it i just dont know if it is reasonable or responsible of me to choose this as my sole career.

Then we have Nursing which comes with its own difficulties. The biggest hurdle being that the 2 year program offered at our local college takes a lot of time. Essentially you have to be in class from 8 am to 8 pm 5 days a week the first year and then the second year when you start rounds from 6 am to 5 pm 6 days a week. Now this wouldnt be a problem if i didnt like my kids or had no desire to be in their life but since i kinda am fond of the little buggers i have a BIG problem missing so much of their life. Then there is also the problem of daycare and being able to afford it on just my husband's salary for 3 kids. If i am in class 12 hours a day there is no way i can get a job to be able to pay for the daycare cost that would come with being in school that long. It is like a catch 22. In order to get a better job making good money with excellent benifits i would have to suffer through 2 years of not seeing my kids and struggle hand to mouth since i wouldnt be able to work and that would stretch our paychecks to nothingness. I just dont know if it is worth it to me.

Then their is my last option. I would love nothing more than to go head first into the pool and get my Psychology degree. I dont mean just a bachelors either i mean full out doctors degree. Now this is a lot of time and a lot of money but it is spread out more and would leave me time to work as well as still having time with my kids. My classes would be in the mornings while the kids were at school leaving me only needing daycare for Sione'. I would be able to work several days a week to provide the daycare cost, and maybe even a little extra. The problem is that 1) the local college doesnt offer anything but a bachelors which means i would have to consider moving out of state to finish my degree, 2) it is a lot of school and would rack up a whole lot of debt on top of the debt i already have accumulated, and 3) i just dont know if i have the support {as far as my extended family} to accomplish this long haul.

So as you can see my crossroads is driving me insane. On top of it all Chelsie is moving at the first of the month to Charleston, SC. I am sad about this. Really really sad. Chels is more like my sister than a friend. We have been together for 8 years. Having each others backs through childbirth, death, break-ups,heart aches, make-ups, fights, hard times, and good. We are each others back bones and our kids are just like each others kids. I am going to miss my nieces and my boys will miss thier best friends. Jayden and Phabian have been together since they were concieved (yes we use to let them play together in the bellies lol). Phabian tells me all the time he is going to marry Jayden when he grows up and ya know what, i believe him. He loves that little girl more than any other friend.

Marcus and I plan on moving down there ourselves but that presents its own problems. Money, time, jobs, school, it is all difficult. Neither of us have fmaily there but it is a half way point between my family in Florida and our family in WV. I was born and raised here in WV and it isnt easy for me to just pick up life as i have always know it and move to a big new place where i know no one.

As of right now we have set a 2 year plan. In 2 years we plan on moving. We decided this because we want to test the waters. Starting next June i will be able to wokr full time only having to worry about daycare for one child (which as you already read brings its own complications with school and such). If we move to SC it would require both of us having a job to support us because the cost of living is higher and the income would be needed. So we want to test it out. Have a plan mapped out so to speak of how things would go once we moved. We also want time to get our credit scores together because once we decide to move we dont want to just rent anymore. We want to buy a house. We are at the stage in our lives, in our family where we want to settle down. We are ready to own a home and stop using someone elses. But that requires us to be able to first afford it and then be able to qualify for a loan. There are a lot of decisions to be made.

So what do you think? I need some outside input as everyone in my life is too close to the decisions being made to really give me uninfluenced advice. I just feel a little stuck. So many decisions to be made and what seems like not a lot of time ot make them.

Update On Phabian and School!

So as i mentioned before Phabian is back to school and they have already completed their initial testing that they do at the beginning of each year. You might remember my bragging from last year, so i promise this is not as braggy but more for record purposes. However i am a very proud Mama!!!

So, Wednesday i had a parent teacher meeting with Phabian's teachers. Phabian did very well. He scored above average on everything but especially high on his Motor Skills.

They measure it by setting a normal range (which is 4y4m-4y7m) for his age. He is 4y 5m and scored an overall of 4y 11m. He scored 83 and the cut off was 72. He scored at 5y 1m on is Motor Skills, a 4y 11m on Language, and a 4y 6 m on his Academic. His teacher said he would have scored higher on his Academic but he was getting very bored towards the end and lost a lot of interest in the counting part (She gives him 10 blocks and then asks if he can hand her 5, 7 and 9 blocks back. He gave her the 5 but then refused to do the 7 and 9 even though we know he is able.)

She said he can identify his full name and age but did not know his address which she said most kids don't at 4. He knows all his colors and count to 30 (he is only asked to count to 10). He can identify all the objects asked of him (ladder, scissors, leaf, nail, duck, fish, tractor, snake, but she said most kids cant identify the nail and tractor[they have to say tractor not truck or mower]). He can pick an odd object out of a line up of objects that are the same, and can draw all of his shapes. He can identify all of his body parts except ankle and jaw.

I am just so proud of my big boy! We talked about how the schools focus too much on testing a not enough on the actual learning but how these basic tests can really help the Pre-K teacher know how to help kids in a specific area before sending them off to Kindergarten.

We also talked about MJ starting soon and how MJ and Phabian are like night and day. She is in for a big surprise when she gets MJ in that classroom lol. He is just as smart but expresses himself so much differently than Phabian.

I must say i love my smarty pants boys!!!

First Day of School

I have the great pleasure of my kids attending year round school.

Now some might not see this as a good thing but i personally LOVE it!

For are family it means being able to plan our vacation not just during the hot summer months but during any of the multiple 3 week breaks. There schedule goes something like this:

• School year starts in July (attend for 9 weeks)
• Break in late September/early October (3 weeks)
• Back to school in October (9 weeks)
• Out in late December/early January (3 weeks)
• Back in January (9 weeks)
• Out late March/early April (3 weeks)
  
• Back in April (9 weeks)
• Out in early June for 5 weeks
• And repeat....

So the upside besides vacation is my kids don't have a lot of time to forget what they have learned through the school year. Now in my area the only schools that have this are the Head Start Programs and the Elementary Schools (only 3 of them at that). I wish they would expand it to all schools but they say it would be inconvenient to the sports (specifically football season).

Now i told you all this just to lead up to this...

I got the great pleasure of being their for my beautiful niece's (my best friend's daughter) very first day of school. She is now attending Pre-k with Phabian. Chelsie's camera was dead so i also got the pleasure of taking the pictures. Jayden looked beautiful as always and Phabian was so excited to have his best friend their with him.


They love each other so much! The last picture is by far my fave!

Little Quick Post

Today is my Anniversary so i am not going to write a big long post. I will save that for tomorrow and tell you how today went.

Phabian got his school pictures back today and i must say i am very very impressed. My usually cheesing child actually gave them a nice beautiful smile. I spent a little more than i wanted to but i got a good deal. 1-specialized 10x13, 1-8x10, 4-5x7, 24-wallets for $67. They also give them a free shirt that has a picture on it and says, "I am special at Shining Light Preschool 2008-2009". It is so nice. So i will share a few pictures and you can rejoice with me about how non shoolish looking these are (because i am sure all of us have those hideous school pictures hiding somewhere in a show box in the floor of a deep dark basement lol).

Get It Read

I got this from my friend over at Happy Family. It is the Top 100 Books from The Big Read Project. They are trying to reintroduce America to reading. It is a great project as i don't think many of us read as much as we should. So i am going to post the list and bold the ones i have read (about 11 out of 100). I want to challenge myself to read as many books on this list as i can. I will update as i read them so you will know if i do. Now i just need to renew my library card (that is sad right).

Top 100 Books
1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With the Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37.The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz
57 A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On the Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones's Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte's Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

The Big Read estimates that the average adult has only read about 6 out of 100 of these books. I guess i am a little above average but sad enough most of the ones i read were in my teen years and was made to read the by a teacher. I really do love to read. I think i just have not given myself the time. Like many adults i have indulged myself in the TV instead of a book. Why read the book when you can watch the movie, right? Wrong...but i didn't realize this until i read The Da Vinci Code and couldn't put it down. Then i saw the movie and was so disappointed that it was not as exciting as the book. Now i find myself saying i don't want to see that movie yet because i have not read the book. Sadly i think a lot of people have not read these books because i notice that most of these on the list have been made into movies. Now i am not saying that all books are better than the movie but why chance it. Read the book and them watch the movie. Note the differences and use your imagination to develop the characters. I know it was very fun for me while reading The Da Vinci Code. So i challenge you guys to do what i have done here. Tell me how many of these you have read and then try to read them all. Keep track of it in your blog or hey if you don't wanna share with all write it down in your own personal journal. Just get out and read.

Parent/Teacher Meeting

So please bare with me as i spend the next however long bragging about my child.

We had Phabian's very first parent/teacher meeting today. We dropped the kids off at Granny's house and walked over to the school. We met alone (which was great) with both his teacher Ms. Kim and the teacher's aid Ms. Angie. The meeting started at 10:30 and lasted till 12. I didn't expect it to last that long but it was great. They answered all my questions and filled me in on what all goes on in the class during the day. She told me that Phabian is such a great student and loves to ask lots of questions and listens equally well. He is always very patient and plays well with the other kids. He shares well and always asks for help if he needs it. For awhile i thought she was describing the wrong kid because the kid she was talking about was not the kid who was probably at that moment ransacking his Granny's house.

I thought it was the wrong kid until she started to tell me about their testing process. They are required to test the kids twice a year to see what level they are on and what they should work on with them. She showed me the test book that they use and explained how they proceed giving a 3 year old a rather lengthy quiz of his knowledge. I must say i was impressed with how they turn it into a game for the kids to make it more fun. So she them gave me a big smile and showed me the results. Phabian is 3y and 7 m old. As of the 21st this is how he ranks: In Motor Skills he scored on a 4y and 2 m old level, in Language he scored on a 4y and 1m old level, and in Academic he scored on (and she said this is rare which shocked me) 3y and 8m old level. Now avoiding the fact that he is average on the academic while advance in everything else i ask how is that rare. She said that most kids his age come in slightly lower than their age (but still in the average range) in the academic portion.

So here is where they bragging comes in. My baby, my first born is above average. He is intelligent and has good people skills. They even said he has a great sense of humor! This makes me ecstatic!!! It validates that i am doing something right as a mom. For all the time that i have beat myself up and tore myself down over things i could have done better, i am doing a great job. My son is smart, well rounded, funny, and plays well with others. I, as a mother, could not be more proud not only of my son but also of myself. It is so bittersweet that my baby is in school but gosh darn it he is doing so good. He is learning so much everyday and growing into such a swell kid right before my eyes.

Ok i have to stop before I start crying again. yes i already cried once today about this. It just makes me so darn proud! Thanks for baring with me on this bragging mommy moment.

My Dear Sweet Phabian

So it has been a ruff week for my big boy Phabian. He has been having a hard time with school. I think it is caused by the fact that they go year round. They go for 9 weeks at a time and are out for 3 weeks at a time. Now i know they say this is an attempt to help kids remember more and forget less but it is very confusing for a child at age 3. I think he went for the first 2 weeks then they left on break and he thought,"ok i went to school its done now". Oh my poor child if you had only know that your excitement about school needed to last about another 20 years.

It all started the 4th day back from break. It was a normal Friday as always. They were learning about the letter F and playing outside as long as the good weather lasted. He threw a rock while they were outside playing. Now every Friday they get (if they have been good all week) a treasure out of the treasure box. This so called box contains both toys and candy. Because he threw the rock he didn't get any treasure. He was so upset and cried. The next school day he seemed fine, but lone an behold when we went to pick him up he was crying. They had been learning about Fire Safety and they used a puppet. Well apparently one of the other kids was playing with it and made a gesture at Phabian like the puppet was going to get him. He was petrified. Now it is a fight every morning. When we approach the school he starts in with i don't wanna go. Then once we get inside he screams bloody murder. When we pick him up the report is always the same,"He cried for a few minutes and then he was fine".

Now this is very hard for both of us. As a mommy i want to run back in and grab him and hold him till he is ok, or run home with him in my arms. I hate that he is sad. It is the policy of the school that you allow your kids to get through these times by leaving them there and allowing them to gain trust in the teacher by allowing her to console him. I wouldn't have a problem with this if i didn't feel like he is somehow losing trust in me. I feel like i am the one who is suppose to help him through this and i am the one who is suppose to console him. It is frustrating. He is doing better though. Day by day the time that he cries is getting less and less. Yesterday it was 2 minutes and today it was only 1 and he is no longer in tears when we pick him up either. I hope it passes soon. He is such a big boy and i just don't want him to feel like mommy has somehow abandoned him to fend for himself.

So i guess that is my rant for today. My big boy is getting to big and growing even faster now. Each day that passes i see my first born growing into a well mannered, intelligent, all be it rowdy young man. Soon he will be playing little league sports and i will be cheering him on in the stands. Soon he will move from the comfort of his small school with 12 students to a big school with lots of kids. My baby is growing and all i can do is sit here and wonder where the heck time went to and why i didn't notice it was flying by.

Oh yes and Phabian's word of the month: Steep (ie: "Mama we can't climb that hill cause it's steep!!!")

and some pictures to end with.

Silly Face

Pout Face

Happy Face

Surprised Face

Questions For The Mommies

Ok so no pictures to share today...well at least not yet lol. I have a question for all my mommies who have kids in school.

Yesterday we went to pick up Phabian from school and his teacher was telling us how smart and wonderful a student he is. She said that he can trace his name perfectly (that is one of the things they practice everyday), he catches on quick to the songs and games, and that he is very patient and well minded. At this point she must have noticed me looking at her with this stunned look on my face because the child she just described sounded, to me, nothing like the child i see at home.

Patient is not a word i use to describe my energetic little boy. He, for that matter, has always had his mommy's personality of now now now. He usually lives in the moment and never thinks past what he is doing that second.

Now i will not argue that he is smart. We noticed from an early age that he was very quick to learn. He tends to catch on to things very quick when he wants to learn them. I was so proud to have someone else notice my child's intelligence.

He can trace his name and most of his letters???? Are you serious?????? They sent home a practice sheet last week for their letter of the week "Ee". We tried for hours to get him to trace them like they do at school and he would refuse. When he would "trace" it he would just scribble on top of it not even trying to actually trace it.

I am in no way saying that my kid is a mean, impatient, brat but he does have his days. He is very hard headed and tends to like to do what he wants to do and you either can fight him or you can just go with it. I was just kind of stunned.

So here is my question for the mommies....Does this sound anything like you kids? Are they one kid at school and another at home? Did i miss some mommy memo that says your kid will be prefect for teachers and a hellion for you? He doesn't share much of his days with us. He tells us he played and ever so often we get a story about what they did that day. I know i have a lot of my ladies that have just put their kids in school this year so i am looking for some insight here. How do you kids behave at school compared to home?

Phabian's School Turtle

So i meant to post these a week ago but i totally forgot. Phabian was learning about animals in school and they made Paper Plate Turtles and Bird Treats. I don't have any pictures of the Bird Treat cause it was immediately hung in a tree outside for the birdies lol. It was one of the ones you make our of Peanut Butter, Pine Cones, and Bird Seed. He was so proud of it. What i do have pictures of is his Paper Plate Turtle. He was so excited to show me. He hurried us home so that he could get it out and show me his Turtle. The teacher said they made it all by themselves. They helped them cut but they glued and colored it themselves. I think i have Picasso (sp) for a baby lol but i am probably bias.

MJ had to have his picture taken with it too. He was just as excited to show me as Phabian and he didn't even know what it was at first lol.

First Day Of School

So today is the day. Phabian is at school and MJ and I are at home. It is so awkward for me to only have one child here with me but i know he is in good hands.

We left the house at 7:15 this morning. We walked to my MIL's house and waited til about 7:30 to walk over to the school. We got there early and waited in the waiting area. At 5 til 8 they took my baby in the room. He didn't even say goodbye at first. I had to call him back to give me a hug and kiss and to tell him to be good and that i would be back at 11:30 to pick him up. He could have cared less. MJ on the other hand had a fit. He was so upset that bubby was gone. He wanted to go with him. It was so sad to watch my baby MJ cry over his bubby. We returned home and now we are chilling together just me and him. Well right now he is watching Handy Manny and drawing me a picture and i am, well, i am writing this blog.

Here are a few pictures from this morning and drop off.

I love this shirt: Holding out for chocolate milk!

Gotta love the fake cheese lol

Granny with Phabian in the waiting room.

Another one...he was so excited that Granny walked him to school.

I am still in disbelief that my first born son is even old enough to go to school, but i guess you blink and time flies by. I only shed a few tears this morning only because he wasn't even going to tell me goodbye. I mean when did he get to be so big that he didn't need to tell mommy bye. He is so confident and so happy about this experience where i am still a little anxious and apprehensive about it. I trust the teachers to take care of him but he is my baby. No one will ever care for him the way i do and even though it is only 3 1/2 hours a day that is still longer than he has ever been away before (besides at family's homes). I know i will adjust and MJ and i will begin to enjoy this time together but right now i am a little sad about it. He grew up too fast and next year MJ will be gone too. It is just so hard to let go even if they are ready to go.

It make me wonder how many moms they have drop off a kid and then come back an hour later in tears not ready to let their baby grow up. That's kind of how i feel. I just wanna run back and get him and say no its not time for him to grow up yet. He is too little to be in school doing work and learning letters. He is still just a baby in my eyes. I still remember bringing him home from the hospital. When and how did this happen? When did he get so big? How did i miss it? These are all the questions and more running through my head.

Well all i hope everyone is having a good day and i will update more about how his day went later when he gets home and we talk about it.

School Bound Boy

Well it is official. Phabian is a school student in a head start program. I am so very confused about how i should feel about this. On one hand my baby is all grown up and starting school. On the other hand i am so very excited for him to have this experience.

Phabian will start his first day of school on Tuesday, September 2, 2008. He will attend the morning session from 8am to 11:30am. We had a meeting this morning with the program coordinator and we also got to meet his teachers Ms. Angie and Ms. Kim. It all seems very nice. As i was finishing doing my paper work i could hear then saying the Pledge of Allegiance and singing along to a stretching song. They sounded so happy and excited. I hope Phabian has just as much fun as those kids.

I have faint memories of my first day of Kindergarten (as i did not attend any type of pre-k). I remember walking in holding my mom's hand. I was not a shy kid but meeting all of these people for the first time was very shocking for me. My mom was a stay at home mom starting when i was about 4. I always went to work with my mom before that. She was a social worker for a assisted living home. I never knew anything but the world she had created for me. I remember how the class was set up. It was split off into 5 sections. There was the sink, bathroom, and backpack holder in the front of the room. On the right behind that was the chalk board on the left was the computer area. Behind that on the right was a story telling space and on the left of that was the play area. There was a kitchen and lots of blocks, magnets, and books. By the play part of the room there was a big green door that led to the outdoor playground in front of the school. There were two doors other than that in the class room. One led into the hallway and the other into the first grade class room. All the class rooms were connected by a thin wall and a wooden door. It was a small school but very close knit. My teachers name was Mrs. Winefordner. She to this day is still my favorite teacher i ever had. I can only hope Phabian enjoys this as much as i did as a kid.

The only thing we pay for is lunches which are based on your income so we shouldn't pay much if anything. Because it is part of the Kanawha County School System it is considered public free education. It is the best thing ever that my boy can start school and be ahead of his class all because they offer this great free program. I just know that it will be wonderful. As long as i keep telling myself its only 5 days a week 3 1/2 hours a day. It will all be ok.

The Rest of My Day

Ok so i already told you all how well my morning went now let me tell you how the well the rest of my day has gone. A friend of mine called and wanted to know if i wanted to go to lunch with her and a few friends. I said let me see if i can afford it. Hubby and me added all things up and decided it was managable. So we went out to lunch to Famous Daves. Now for anyone who does not know what FD's is it's one of the best BBQ places on earth. So i got to go out to lunch with friends...no kids...and have adult conversation...that was the greatest thing ever lol.

When we were leaving the restaurant they ask if i wanted to ride to Value City with them and i was like sure. I dont have any money to spend but it keeps me out for a bit and i needed the break so yea. Mary (one of the girls who was with us and a very close friend) ended up buying Phabian a new pair of shoes and 2 jackets for school and bought MJ a pair of Croc type shoes. Here are some pictures.

Phabian was so happy he couldnt stand it. He kept saying, "Look Mommy, look school clothes,". It then caused a huge problem when i told him he had to take them off so we could put them up til school starts but hey atleast he loves them.

So i got a huge break today and it was great. I havent had to yell at anyone, discipline anyone, or be bad mommy at all today. Just another adult in a restaurant with the rest of them. How gret is that?