Third grade

It's the obligatory back to school post!

The May Queen has been looking forward to school starting pretty much since we arrived in Michigan, because she knows that school is a good place to make friends. She had an extra long summer, as Louisiana school ended before Memorial Day. All her LA friends started back up at the beginning of August, but here she had to wait until after Labor Day. She has had her outfit picked out for weeks. This is the first time she hasn't had to wear a uniform, and she's delighted.

Her classroom is an old kindergarten room (the school is now just 3-5 grades) so is extra roomy and fun. She's pretty excited about the lockers. And the Garfield posters. Garfield is a latest obsession.

She'll take the bus "home" every day, to my husbands office, where he'll either bring her home or I'll pick her up (since we don't yet live in the community). She was SO excited to ride the bus, as her private schools have never had buses before. She ran off the bus to give me a hug (yay! melt the Mommy heart) but then declared that the bus was not what she expected. "It's much louder!" And the boy behind her kicked the seat the whole way. She's pretty much decided that the bus is no fun. I could have told you that, kid.

But she did like the bus cupcakes I made to celebrate her first day. She had good things to say about everything else, and didn't seem upset that she played by herself all recess (on the tire swing. Everyone else was supposedly playing something she didn't want to play). I hope she branches out today, but I'm not pushing as she seems content.

Teacher's Pet: Daily Gratitude 5

I'm so grateful that I played school with The May Queen today.

The actual playing of school is not particularly exciting to me, but I know that ultimately the May Queen just wanted some time with her mama, something she hasn't gotten much of lately. So when we arrived home from her actual day at school and she asked if I would play school with her I glanced at my watch, did some quick calculations of what needed to be done before I left for rehearsal, and agreed.

Not only did I get some good time in with my darling daughter, but I got a real window into what she's learning at school. First she had me color a cat picture I drew last time we played school (that was stored in my old folder in my own "desk" - a priority mail box). While I did this she, as the teacher, was hard at work at her own desk. When I was done coloring I had DEAR ("Drop Everything and Read") time, like she has every day at school. I read some of the book she's reading at school. Then she handed me a math worksheet that she had created, full of addition and subtraction problems. Harder ones than she was working on just a few weeks ago. As I completed that she created a spelling worksheet... writing out sentences with misspellings. I was then to rewrite the sentences correctly. I was impressed with what she put together.

Then she broke character and whispered to me, asking if we could watch the Cats DVD we picked up at the library. I whispered back that yes, we could. And a snack? Yes.

She announced to the class (that would be me and all the lined up stuffed animals) that we had a special treat, and would get to watch a MOVIE.

I only got to watch about 25 minutes of the DVD with her before I had to pack up and head out for rehearsal. But we talked about how it was different from when we saw it live, and she asked lots of questions and we got to talk about the things we were seeing... the dancing and the makeup and the characters... in a way we couldn't in the theatre.

I often find that when I'm feeling stressed and like I have too much to do that stopping and really focusing on time with MQ seems to calm me down and put things in perspective. And it most certainly did.

So I'm grateful that I said yes. I'm grateful that my daughter wants to play with her mother. I'm grateful for the things that she's learning at her real school, and I'm grateful that I can be surprised to find her getting smarter and smarter each day. I'm grateful for my sister in law, who sent her a box full of school supplies that inspired her to play school regularly. Most of all, I'm grateful to be the mother of this incredible little girl. I am indeed her student. Every day.

noun: a person, place or thing

Dear MQ's Second Grade Teacher,

I certainly hope you aren't angry at me, but I really felt like I couldn't let it slide. The vocabulary list that you sent home last week gave the definition of a NOUN for a word that was a VERB. The definition even began "something that..." Some THING. A noun, of course, being a "person, place or THING." I hope that I pointed it out kindly to you, asking whether I needed to change the definition or change the word from "collect" to "collection," which is what the definition, well, DEFINED. Even though you admitted your mistake, I noticed you did not take me up on my suggestion to send a revised list home with all the students. Maybe you're assuming that the parents of the other 19 children in the May Queen's class didn't notice, if they bothered to look at the definitions at all. But now you know there's at least one set of parents on their toes.

Sincerely,

Painted Maypole

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This post has been a Monday Mission. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to write a post in the style of a letter to the teacher. If you DO play along, please put a link to your post in the widget below.



Join us next week, when your mission will be to write a post in the form of a facebook status (or several... with or without comments... be creative!)

Will you sign my yearbook?

Trying to figure out who all these people are requesting my friendship on Facebook has sent me running to my attic in search of my yearbook. Which led to digging out the photo albums. And scanning a bunch of pictures.

My senior photo. Rockin' the backlight. It's almost enough to make me run out and get another spiral perm. Almost.

I even created a facebook meme- quoting what people wrote in my yearbook and tagging them to see if they can guess who wrote what. I did skip the usual "have a great summer" and "I'll miss you" and "K.I.T." There were some pretty funny ones, with the major themes being the major things I was involved in my senior year: Choir, calculus (Why, I ask you? Why???), drama and the school newspaper. And some very funny stuff about dancing. Oh, and spring break. We travelled north. Like real Michiganders.

Reminiscing has been fun.

And she's off to school!

The May Queen was excited to put on her uniform this morning (cute, huh?) and even TIED HER OWN SHOES (I just taught her how to do this yesterday. The fact that she is nearly 6, entering first grade and didn't know how to tie her shoes is clearly all the fault of whoever invented Velcro, and not at all due to any lazy parenting on my part). The bag is the only thing that didn't have to follow strict uniform codes (did you notice that even the SOCKS are monogrammed? sigh) so I decided to spoil her with some of her favorite princesses. She was thrilled.


As I suspected she did just fine once at school, and was even ready to say goodbye to me just inside the front doors. I walked her to her room, but then left pretty quickly. She wasn't particularly talkative about the day (her favorite response to our questions was "I forget"), but what we did hear was good, and another little boy was calling goodbye to her as she got in the car.


We came home and kept up the tradition of the first day of school cake.

(and for those of you wondering about school starting so early - the reason school starts so early here is because they want to be done before Memorial Day. WHY they want to be done before Memorial Day is a complete mystery, but that seems to be how they do it in the south. My husband thinks it's because they like to start in August and pay the highest air conditioning bills possible!)

To my big first grader,

I have a hard time believing you're in first grade. It seems so much older than kindergarten. Kindergarten still feels young. Just barely out of preschool. The youngest class at elementary school. But FIRST grade? The very name implies that it's just the beginning, the first in a long line of grades. Before we know it you'll be in second grade. We'll blink and you'll be in fifth grade. Ninth grade. Twelfth grade.

Tomorrow you'll head into that first grade classroom, and I know that you'll warm up more when we're not around. You were extra shy and refusing to talk when we met your teacher today. I know that won't last long after I've dropped you off in the morning. It was frustrating, though, to see you that way.

You're an incredibly smart and sweet girl, but you've been giving us a heck of a time lately with the baby talk and the whining and the not doing what we ask you to do. You've been masking rudeness with shyness, and we've had to put our foot down. Maybe you're just nervous about the changes coming with a new school, new teacher and new friends. Maybe this is just a hurdle we have to get over so that you can take that next step into being more grown up. We know you can do it. (We know WE can do it, too, although it's hard to see my baby turning into this lanky GIRL)

Any minute now that first tooth is going to fall out (we can see the new tooth fighting its way in beneath it!) and from behind that big girl gap-toothed grin you'll be begging for play dates and telling me what you did at school today, in first grade.

First grade.

If I keep saying it, maybe I'll believe it.

But you. You will bloom in first grade. I just know it.

Go. Grow.

Much love,

Mama

brief school update

Remember how we decided to switch schools this upcoming year for The May Queen, in large part because we were worried that the small school she was in would close due to financial problems?

Guess what letter we got in the mail while we were on our Road Trip? Yup. The school closed. We're SO glad we took care of this last spring, and aren't scrambling for a new school now (she couldn't just go to the public schools, due to being 3 days younger than the cut off).

I'm sad the school closed, but OH SO GLAD we figured this one out early.

My child is "superior"

Part of the admissions process when we applied for The May Queen's new school was an IQ test. I have my misgivings about standardized testing, having tutored for the SATs (one of the most miserable jobs I've had!). I wonder about how someone (even a professional someone) can make a judgement on intelligence in the course an hour, and I worry about what labeling students might do to how they are treated in the classroom. All that being said...

(warning: bragging commencing...)
The May Queen was ranked as "superior" (the second highest ranking out of 7. They did not give us a firm number, although we can call the psychologist to get it. We do know she was between 120 and 129). The admissions director told us they see a few "superiors" at their school, but most kids are average or "high average." The written assessments are very in line with what we, her parents, have noted. She "demonstrated significantly advanced skills in vocabulary, in verbal abstract reasoning, in non-verbal abstract reasoning, and in spatial reasoning." She has always had an astounding vocabulary, speaking early, and always far beyond the number of words she was supposed to be speaking at a young age. She has always loved patterns, sequences, sorting and counting, which of course are pre-math skills. She tested highest in the math areas. The area she wasn't as strong in (not WEAK, just not superior strength) was reading, and she did struggle with reading at the beginning of this school year, although her skills are rapidly catching up now that they are reading stories and not lists of words.

We are obviously pleased to hear the professional opinion that our child is as bright as we, her proud parents, think she is. It also confirms that we made the right choice in putting her in kindergarten this year and advancing her into first grade next year. She clearly would have been bored if she had to repeat kindergarten. We feel confident that her new school will work with her and continue to challenge her.

I don't remember ever taking an IQ test, but my husband says his three tests as a child ranged from 123-131. I decided to take one online. While I can't vouch for its authenticity, I feel it must be pretty on target since it has my score as 142. Clearly, I am a genius. (and that score was WITH my husband coming in, discovering what I was doing, and openly mocking me)

How about you? Have you been tested? Have your children? What do you think about the validity and usefulness of an IQ score?

6 words

Well, it was bound to happen. I've been tagged by Angela for the "describe yourself in 6 words" meme. Here goes:

Thespian mommy, wife: Child of God

I had a button in high school (I had a jean jacket covered with them) which I've kept, and think it also defines me pretty well, in 6 words it just so happens:
"I'm subject to bursts of enthusiasm"

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6 words are more than the May Queen had in response to the fact that she'll be at a new school next year. When we told her at dinner she basically said, "Okay!" She later asked about who her teacher would be and where she would be going for second grade, but basically seems unconcerned. We'll see how things go tomorrow at school. Her two best friends in kindergarten are both moving on as well, so I don't think there will be a big missing friends issue.

The Young and the Uneducated

When we last left off, The May Queen's teacher had suggested that perhaps Painted Maypole and The Big Guy take MQ out of her private school and put her back into Kindergarten at a public school... not because she's not smart, but because she plays with the younger children. After much sighing, staring off into space, advice from the internets (you!!) and heated discussion with badly written dialogue, PM and The Big Guy decided to forge ahead with First Grade as planned. Ashley and Victor were remarried on a tropical island... wait... wrong soap opera....

In the most recent episode The Big Guy raised the question of would the small church school still be open next year. With dwindling enrollment, the decision not to open a 4th grade classroom as planned, and cuts all over the church staff, this was a legitimate question. The Big Guy put forth the theory that there was a hidden message in the teacher's suggestion: that the school may not be around next year. Public school is not an option because of The May Queen's status of being born THREE MEASLY DAYS AFTER THE CUTOFF, so The Big Guy and Painted Maypole set off on a quest to research other private schools in the area, sneaking behind the back of their current school, and their daughter. The first school they look into has no art or music classes, or recess. Painted Maypole is appalled, and goes into several rants about the importance of art in education, different learning styles, and creating well rounded individuals. It was love at first sight at the second school, however, her dance card was full, and PM and the Big Guy kept looking. At school number three they were entranced by the bright artwork in the hallway, the welcoming and encouraging staff, the friendliness and comfort level of the students, and many recommendations of friends and acquaintances. The school is closer to home, but more expensive. They decide it is worth it. A testing time is set up.

Painted Maypole and The Big Guy explain to The May Queen that she will be going to a different school for some "learning games" to figure out how best to teach her next year. Since The May Queen did a similar thing last year this does not strike her as odd. She happily goes. Meanwhile, The May Queen's current principal receives a request for The May Queen's records and confronts The Painted Maypole about her cheating ways. PM stammers something about checking out her other options, but please keep us enrolled.

The Big Guy and Painted Maypole wait anxiously for a week and a half for the phone call. Will their love be returned? Is this the start of a new educational partnership? There is much nail biting, reassuring of each other, and exclamations that elementary education should not be so stressful.

Finally, the phone call comes and The May Queen has been offered a spot in their first grade. Painted Maypole and the Big Guy celebrate by flying off for the weekend to an exotic island oops... wrong soap opera... PM and the Big Guy give each other a high five.

Join us next week as Painted Maypole and the Big Guy explain to The May Queen that she will be switching schools, and break the news to the current principal.

*****This has been another edition of Monday Mission. This week's mission is to write a post in the style of a soap opera update, starting with the words "When we last left off..." (idea thanks to No Mother Earth) Write your own post and leave a link in the comments, and I'll get it into the post as I am able (I still have not resolved the Mr. Linky problem)

other soap opera updates:
-Helen's Lawn Saga includes lying, sneaking around, broken property and an overgrown yard
-Melissa is on the verge of homeland warfare in The Lives of the Bold, Restless Children in the Hospital have the Light of the World
-Dragonfly emerges from the edge of death (or a really bad flu) to let us know that The World Still Turns
-De gives us a final update in When We Last Left Off.... (stop by her place and bid her a fond farewell, will you?)

upcoming missions, should you choose to accept them, are to write posts in the style of:
5/12: a personality test (idea thanks to Emily, inspired by Alpha Dogma)
5/19: a list of rules
5/26: a warning label