Wednesday, March 4, 2009

So little computer time

Wow, I can't believe it has been so long since my last post. Weekends are typically hard to post on but lately it seems as if everyday is a challenge!

Last Friday night I was able to enjoy a great night out with local ladies down on Main Street. The merchants stayed open late and offered wine tasting as well as cookies, snacks, and even a sample of Chinese Chicken Salad. I decided to be the designated driver and fill my car full of ladies. It was great having adults only in my car for a change! The women all had a great time too!

Hubby and I are still trying to do date nights. January was a success with two date nights. Unfortunately in February we didn't have any but we have already started March out great and had our first date night of the month on Sunday. This time we had dinner and a movie. The girls really love their babysitter Meagan too. This time she brought over bowling, Monkeys in a Barrel, and another game for them to play. She is really good at always playing with the girls and giving them her time.

The past month for Aly has been a bit of a roller coaster for her. She started a new reading group up where she was sent to first grade so that she would be challenged. This ended up not being a good experience for her. She was very uncomfortable not having any of her fellow students in the class. She felt like the first graders were "big kids" and was a bit intimidated by them. There was also no effort made into trying to buddy her up or help her make a friend. Once it was suggested to do that I was hopeful that things would work out but we still ended up having obstacles. Apparently one of the first graders disciplined her for something and the teacher's expectations were not at Aly's level. What I mean by that was since Aly is in kindergarten she is still writing in mostly uppercase letters. Since this reading group is in first grade with the exception of Aly, the teachers expects the students to write correctly with lower case letters except for capitals where needed. Anyway, I guess the teacher didn't want to make an exception for Aly given her grade level and would make her go back and erase the words she had written and write them over again. This was frustrating for Aly on multiple levels...first she had never been expected to do that--neither her kindergarten teacher or I expect that out of her, we are just helping her to develop her writing skills, secondly she still is confused on writing some of the lower case letters, and finally she has never been told to redo her work before--she is always very careful on her papers so this was quite a change for her. The final thing that happened was the first grade teacher told her that she couldn't come to her class anymore if she was going to cry! So I told her kindergarten teacher it was just causing Aly too much stress and it wasn't worth it. I will help Aly at home with reading and her kindergarten teacher said she would get some materials and try to challenge her.

KK has grown so much in this last month. I really need to scan in some of her drawings. She has been drawing faces now and even drew me with glasses. She is also drawing dogs and elephants--of course she has to tell me what they are because I don't really recognize. She is also starting to write letters on her own which is so much fun to watch. She knows how to spell her name but is still hesitant on writing it. She would still rather stay home with Mommy everyday then go to preschool so I made a compromise. I used to have her in preschool two days a week from 9-3:45 but now she is only going two days a week from 9-12. Since I am only subbing for Aly's teacher I don't really need KK in full days. KK is also so amazing on the computer! I can't believe how well a three year old can navigate her favorite websites like pbskids.org and Playhouse Disney. She rarely needs any help and can go from game to on these sites and she doesn't even know how to read!

So hopefully this week I can get some more time on the computer as I have a ton of photos to post and want to scan in some of KK's drawings and such.

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