All things Art, a Little Bookworm, and a New Friend, Yellow Shirt

Since it's about a month into the school year, I figured I better post a few photos from the first day. This post has been drafted since about the second or third day of school, I just haven't had much time to return to it since then. Many of the girls activities have started up again and each school night has felt very full with homework, Open Houses, auditions and gymnastics. The relaxed pace of summer is long gone!

The first few weeks of school have flown by, and the girls are loving it. School started on a rather gloomy, drizzly morning. The rain made it really difficult to take pictures, which made me even more grateful that I took the time a few weeks back to get some photos. Those pics are coming soon, I promise it won't be another month until I post again :-)
On the first day:
 5th grade is a pretty special year for the students at our school and Alyssa is loving being the "Big Kid on Campus." She and her classmates have all kinds of school responsibilities that are entrusted to them, which is a fun privilege. The jobs are things like helping out the kindergartners at lunch time, collecting attendance forms throughout the building and bringing them to the office, bringing the recycling to the back door of the cafeteria etc. Right now her job is to collect all the bus slips and bring them to the office. She's very excited about it, and will rotate through all the different tasks throughout the year.

She has also given up one of her recess periods to be part of the Hand Chime Choir. I'm not exactly sure what that is, but it completely sounds like something she would love, and I'm not at all surprised that she joined.

Alyssa's teacher seems to be placing a great emphasis on art, which makes me very happy. Although last night she was up until 10:30 working on the art, and then this morning she woke up before 6:30 to finish it. She is very detailed orientated and everything had to be just right. One day last week I had the opportunity to help out with an art project in her class and I learned a couple of things, first of which being that my "talents" are most likely a lot better used doing the more behind the scenes tasks that have kept me busy at school over the last few years. Every peace dove I made was a complete disaster!!

Secondly, Alyssa displayed a tiny bit of maturity that surprised me a little and also made me proud. There is a boy in her class who I know has some behavior issues. During the craft, the teacher observed him wandering around the room and she asked him if he finished his peace dove. He shouted out, "NO! SO SUE ME!" My mouth about hit the floor, and most of the rest of the class, including the other parents in the room, burst out laughing.

Alyssa leaned into me and quietly gave me some "insight" on his behavior. What sent most of the room into fits of laughter she immediately saw as a need that wasn't being met. He had been rude and disrespectful, but she was able to respond, and wanted me to respond in a compassionate way to him. I get glimpses at times of the people I hope the girls will be someday, and that was one of those moments. He did eventually finish his dove :-)


 Thank you so much to Great Mommy and Great Daddy who sent a box of goodies to the girls right before school began. They have had all kind of yummy Hawaiian treats in their lunches everyday like these Candy Bead Cookies and Puffed Rice. So Ono!


 Here is Emma and one of her good friends, Jonathon. They have been in the same class three years running. Jonathon is a very nice boy and doesn't always look like he's about to bite :-)

Emma has been loving 2nd grade! She's one of those kids that if I ask her everyday how school was, everyday she'll tell me very enthusiastically: "Good!" But I won't get many more details. I usually have to wait until she wants to tell a story about something that happened before I hear much more than the one word responses that my questions elicit. So far there seems to be a lot of reading and writing involved in her classroom work, and that is by far her favorite kind of school work to do, so it's been great for her.

2nd grade is the first year that English reading is taught at our school, so while I have known for a long time that she can read English, much of our focus the last couple of years has been making sure she is learning to read in German. It sounds a little backwards, I know, but it works! It's been so nice lately to hear her reading lots in both English and German. I can actually understand at least half of what she's reading now, and we practically have to pry to books out of her hands. She'll walk around with her nose in a book, only half paying attention to what she's doing. It's also pretty common for us to arrive at a destination and she'll be in the back of the van still reading long after the rest of us have stepped out of the van. So I guess her enjoying reading so much is a good kind of problem to have.



Sweet and silly Rebekah on her first day. I think she's exaggerating a little bit about how "heavy" this back pack is. There's not a whole lot in there!
 Rebekah has gotten off to a good start in K4. She is learning all her colors and shapes in German, how to introduce herself, she can tell us where the "toileten" is, and she can count (which she already could before school). A few people have asked me what K4 is. Essentially it is like Pre-K, although our K4 teachers simply refer to it as kindergarten. Where we live, there are 2 years of Kindergarten. Five year old kindergarten is mandatory, four year old is not, but will be sometime in the next few years.


 

Here she is walking into school on her first day, doesn't she look tiny? Those pig tails only lasted about the first 5 minutes of the school day, and she has not let me do anything with her hair other than brush it since. Sometimes she'll cooperate with having one of the super thin headbands pull her hair back off her face. All this to say, she is totally the shaggy haired little girl in her class, and I will never again assume because I see a messy haired child that their mother doesn't care about their hair. I care quite a bit, unfortunately, Rebekah doesn't care enough for the both of us.

On her first day of school she was excited to tell us about a new friend she made and everything they had done together at school that day. Apparantly, they sat on the carpet together, they ate lunch together, I saw them running around the playground together, and when Rebekah needed help, her new friend helped her put her shoes back on and pack up her backpack to go home for the day. After hearing all about her new friend, I asked her, what's your friend's name? She looked at me with confusion and like she was asking me a question said, "Yellow Shirt?" The second day of school the little girl's name was "Black Shirt," and by the third day, we found out her name is Ariel. :-)

I will do better updating more frequently, for everyone who has so politely asked about my absense. Thanks so much for checking in!!