Awards Assembly

Q had his first awards assembly on Friday two recognitions and an award. He received a recognition for perfect attendance with no tardies (thanks to B who gets the sleepy little guy up every morning and to school on time), he received recognition for a "caught being good card" that he earned during recess and the award he received was an award for honesty and integrity. His teacher let us know about the awards assembly ahead of time by slipping a note into his going home folder that also let us know to keep it a secret. He was so surprised to receive his award and was excited that we were there to see him. He even went right up to receive his award and pose for pictures, he's grown up so much since the start of kindergarten just two months ago.

Reading

Q's kindergarten class started using the website Ticket to Read this week. Part of their homework is to log on and use the site for at least 30 minutes a week. The site is really cool, his teacher can go in and check how long each student spent on the website and see which lessons were completed. Q loves all the games and has learned so much.

Halloween

Halloween was so much fun!! Since Q started kindergarten this year, I thought for sure this would be the year that Q would switch from cute costumes to total boy costumes. We looked at costumes online, I thought he might go for iron man or maybe one of the super mario bros. I was so excited when he told me, he doesn't like those kinds if costumes. Since he loves rootbeer right now, I showed him a cute rootbeer bottle costume which he didn't like because he didn't want a straw coming out of his head. On the same site, he spotted this horse costume that he loved! This is probably my last year to enjoy little kid costumes, he's already told me he wants to be a vampire next year. He doesn't even know what a vampire is, he just loves wearing the fangs. Maybe he'll just wear a cute costume again with the fangs, that sounds like something he would do.

Octoberfest!!

Last weekend was the beginning of our Octoberfest! Friday night Q's costume arrived and he loved trying it on, Saturday night we went to Disneyland to check out the Halloween decorations, then on Sunday we went with the Michael family to Tanaka Farms. Tanaka farms was so beautiful, so much better than the side of the road pumpkin patches. The kids got to run through rows and rows of pumpkins and through a corn maze. We took a tractor ride around the farm and got to see a pumpkin cannon shoot a pumpkin 350 yards. I love our version of Octoberfest. We've done the pumpkin patch, now we still have pumpkin carving and Halloween left to enjoy!!

Child Care

We went to back to school night last Thursday. It's a strange feeling sitting in your kid's elementary school classroom, I still think of him as a baby. His teacher said he's sweet and quiet, but did say he participates! I was thrilled! He's already changed so much since his first day of school, he's more independant and even more confident.

He was having a really hard time with child care. I was picking him up from school, having lunch with him then dropping him off at his preschool for day care for the rest of the day. I thought it would have been easy for him because his preschool was a familiar setting, but we realized it was hard for him to be picked up then dropped off again. We talked about it last week and decided to have him stay at school for child care and thankfully they had an opening for him. I explained to him he would be having lunch at school, he had some concerns but still wanted to give it a try. Yesterday was his first day at child care, when we picked him up he looked like a real little boy, candy on his face and paint on his shirt!! He had a blast! He made a couple of new friends and a two of the little girls asked me if he could keep coming to child care.

It's strange to think Q is at school all day with kids I know nothing about. These are the kids he will be growing up with and it's completely out of my control. It makes me even more greatful for the wonderful friends that we have in our lives. My hope is that Q will see what good friendships look like so he will be able to recognize good relationships.

Celebrating at the Beach

To celebrate Q's first week of school, we told him he could pick wherever he wanted to spend Saturday afternoon. He picked the beach and we had a blast! Summer just flew by this year and somehow we never made it to the beach. I forgot how much Q enjoys the beach, he lets loose at the beach unlike anywhere else. He splashes around in the water, he gets dirty making sand angels and runs around chasing the seagulls. He had so much fun that we took him again this last Saturday to celebrate his first combo class week.

The Second First Day of Kindergarten

Monday was Q's first day in his new Kindergarten/1st Grade combo class, he was so nervous. His new combo class is so different from his kindergarten class. Before school, he lines up with the other classes and grades, instead of lining up with just kindergartners right in front of the kindergarten classrooms. He has his own supplies stored in his own desk (that's him at his desk in the turquoise shirt) and he has to go outside to the bathroom instead of having a bathroom right in the classroom. One plus, he still gets out at 11 with the other kindergarten early birds. Thankfully, his first combo class week went well and he's still enjoying kindergarten.

It seems like he's already grown up so much in just his first two weeks of school. I peeked in on him in class when I picked him up on Monday, it's so strange to see him maneuvering around the room and following directions. He looked so grown up, so different from the scared, little boy that I left on the rug on his first, first day of kindergarten.