Educational Excellence

I hope you enjoy this excerpt from G's kindergarten newsletter as much as I did.

"As we FOCUS on our students toward becoming college and career ready..."

#1 - College?  He's six years old!

#2 - The grammatical error builds great confidence in me.

Or at least it makes me laugh.

My Cooking. It is that bad. Really.

I spent some time this summer around real moms.  Moms who cook.  And I've been inspired, in my own little way, to spend more time preparing meals.

Last week I was trying a slow cooker lasagna recipe.  It involved browning ground beef.  This is not something that I usually do.  Or something that I ever do.

Evidence:

I'm at the stove and G approaches me: "Waz dat?"

Me: "I'm cooking meat."

G: "Das not meat."

Me: "Yes.  It's a different kind of meat.  It's not chicken meat.  It's beef meat."

5 minutes later G comes back for another peek.  With complete confidence, he announces: "Das not meat" and walks away.

Case closed.

Behavior

We've continued to navigate some challenges with G's behavior.

Church has provided plenty of "opportunity" in this area.  G transitioned from the preschool room, where free play was the norm, to the K-3rd grade class, where the children get to engage in more learning.

Me: "What did you do this morning, G?"

G: "Iz so boring, Mama.  We's just learning about God.  All da time.  Every time.  Just learning about God."

He seems to feel that he already knows enough.  He's done with learning about God.

Most weeks, the children start in the church service with the parents and then they're dismissed to their classes, where they get picked up after church.  However when we take communion, the children are welcomed back into the service.

This hasn't gone so well with G.

Imagine the scene.  Everyone in the sanctuary has been solemnly preparing for communion.  Everyone is quiet.  That is, every except G, who suddenly bursts out:

"I WANNA GO HOME!  I WANNA GO HOME!  I WANNA GO HOME!"

Yep.

Church: The New Battleground.

Math Skillz

I watch G playing with his action figures.  He's got them talking to each other.  One guy is turned to face the other.  He states authoritatively:

"Eighteen comes after eleventeen!"

Yes, our counting challenges continue.

Sympathy. Or not.

One of Joseph's long-standing complaints against me is that I tend not to be overly sympathetic.

Have a cold?  Here are some tissues and you'd better get moving so you don't miss the bus.

Unfortunate, but true.

By the end of high school, Joseph had trained me to ask "Are you ok?" - although it wasn't always delivered with the maximum possible sympathy.  I mean - c'mon - I can see when he's really ok.

Anyway, one of my favorite moments from the summer came in August, after G fell off his chair and started to cry.

Joseph looked at him, totally dispassionately, and stated: "Well, I told you that'd happen."

Long pause.

And then he turned and caught my eye - - - busted!

What's that about the apple and the tree?

Kindergarten

School has started!

Given G's challenges with transitions, we started preparing early.  In May we went for a long tour of the school and also got to visit his classroom-to-be.

Afterwards, I processed with him, helping him to remember key aspects.

Me: "G, your new teacher Mrs. L seems very nice, doesn't she?"

G (puzzled): "Mrs. L?  Who was sitting by me?  With her big teeth?"

Yep, that's the teacher.  With her big teeth.  I'm feeling super confident about the start of this relationship.

Hi !

Anyone here?  I've missed sharing this space with you.  Hope we can re-connect!

So - it's been a summer.  Interesting how much can change in so little time, eh?  I'm going to do my best to share, although I still don't have internet at home, so it may be challenging.

The biggest change for us is that my brother-in-law has been diagnosed with a brain tumor.  You know G's three sweet stairstep cousins, ages 6, 4, 2?  It's their daddy.  So if you'd please be praying for him I'd sure appreciate it.

That news is consuming us right now, but there is plenty of other fun stuff to share.  I'll try to come back soon.

Welcome to September!
Heidi