Transitions

It's been a busy week. It's the end of a third day of working and a third night when Mike's had stuff going on in the evening. The job is going very well, and I'm thankful for it, I'm just well... exhausted, and when I'm this tired, doing laundry, baths, making lunches, and listening to the children's many stories seems harder than it should be. I crave a nap, some time alone, more energy to do a workout, and meaningful conversation with an adult ... if chocolate were involved, well that would be nice too.

The kids are making me smile. Sam still loves homework with a passion - I imagine that someday in junior high he'll be shocked he ever did. He sat down and we had some quality time with his math enrichment exercises.... which he said he needed help with. I sat down and read the question aloud and he rolled his eyes. "Oh. Never mind." Then he wrote the answer down without any help. I've never seen a kid get disappointed that his math homework wasn't more challenging, and yet I know he'd hate it if it was too hard. It's fun to watch their personalities at work.

Katarina is in her element with her day divided in half with 2 different teachers. She loves the excitement her two teachers are working at building in anticipation of a four day field trip to a remote location. It'll be like summer camp in October for her. Each afternoon she comes home with new information regarding the trip. "Mom! We're not allowed to bring snacks with us because Mr. SoandSo said it'll attract wild animals and we might be walking along and suddenly a squirrel might JUMP onto our backpack." Katarina smiles, waiting for me to laugh, as she knows me well enough that I do just that.

Her homeroom teacher's main focus is math and science and Katarina comes home excited to tell me what she's learned in science, as her teacher finds a way to connect it to current events.

Sam went to show and tell today and brought his lego car, ramp, and car launcher that he had built. I was waiting outside after school, and before I even saw Sam three kids had expressed to me that 'Sam is coming. His lego car set is sooo cool!'

Anabelle came home with three stars for three days of excellent behavior. She truly likes her teachers.

The kids have all had their share of struggles during the first part of school as well, mostly happening at recess, but they're doing their best to handle it.

Anabelle is improving her reading skill, as she read aloud what Sam brought home from school - it was Sam's 'silly' sentence to help diagram the notes of the treble clef: E, G, B, D, F.
I was washing dishes as I heard Anabelle read, "Every Girl Barfs when Daisys Fart," then turned to see the cartoon drawing of a flower with bubbles coming out of it and a girl beside the flower with stars shooting out of her mouth.

Oh my...

When I asked Sam about it he said, "When I read my sentence, the class loved it."
"And the teacher?" I pressed.

Sam replied, "She said, 'While that's very creatively done, I'm afraid we can't hang that up in the hall.'" Sam's grin was so wide I couldn't help but grin with him.

Sam hung the sentence complete with drawing up on his room door.