Alyssa Octavia Interview

Kindergarten Camp

 Our elementary school offers a week long kindergarten camp.  It is only 3 1/2 hours a day but it did go for all 5 days this week.  We talked up how much fun it would be!!!  She did quite well on her first day.  She found two friends right away that she knew from preschool.

 Here she is waiting in line to go to school!

Coloma 4th grade trip

 Kayla had a 3 day sleep away camp for her 4th grade class at Coloma.  She had major reservations all year about going because of the over night portion.  The night before the trip she wanted to cancel  I asked her teacher if she could try camp for the day and if she still wanted to come home, could I come and pick her up?  She said that would work so Kayla agreed to go.

 Here is the morning of the trip before the class left.  Poor Kayla was sad and already nervous to go.










Once she got there she had a good time gold panning.

 The camp fire was great too!

 Here she is celebrating because she spent the night!

Another Mom is giving her a congratulations hug!!
















The truth is, she actually did want to go home at night.  In fact, she asked her teacher twice.  Her teacher told her to lay in bed and give it a try.  When the teacher came back to check on her, Kayla said her heart was racing and she still wanted to go home but her teacher said no, your not going home, you will stay all 3 days, going home is not an option.  You will not tell your parents that I made you stay, you will tell them that you chose to stay on your own.  Do not tell them I told you that you can't go home.

Personally I was not very happy to hear that happened.  In my opinion, it broke Kayla's trust.  I assured her had I gotten a phone call I would have gotten her..especially considering it is only a half an hour from our house. What right does a teacher have to make that decision and on top of it to tell a child not to tell her parents the truth?

Summer's preschool picture

 Here is Summer's preschool picture.  We were allowed to download the digital copy at full resolution and print them on our own.  I cropped the photo and at it centered on her for the printed out version that I will use as an 8x10 for my wall.  I loved her natural smile!!  Kristi must have snapped her photo at just the right moment to capture that!

I thought her class photo turned out great!  The funny part was that it was pouring down rain!!!  I was there when the photo was taken.  The kids were such great sports being out in the pouring rain!

Aly's kindergarten graduation

Last week Aly graduated from kindergarten. She was so excited to dress up pretty and even asked me to curl her hair. I had just recently purchased some clothes at Gymboree outlet that were totally adorable and a really good deal.

I know it has been forever since I have uploaded a video so here is one finally! Here are some great pics too!

Here she is posing just before leaving for school.

Here she is accepting her certificate.

Aly wanted some pictures with her favorite friends!

Aly with her teacher and her best friend Nathan.

Aly's school attendance promotion

Aly's school is super strict on attendance and this year they are tying multiple contests into promoting perfect attendance. Almost every letter sent home mentions how they only get funding for each day your child is physically in class and if your child is out sick, they loose the money.

I guess their answer to the budget crisis is to try to promote all students to have perfect attendance. Some of their contests include putting a sign on the window of the classrooms that get perfect attendance for the week and doing a drawing once a quarter to win an IPOD if you have perfect attendance. I can't remember the other incentives but I just find it quite a double edge sword.

If you are a fifth grader you would probably be really interested in winning that IPOD. So does that mean you will go to school with strep throat, a horrid cold, stomach flu, etc. just so you can have your chance at winning the contest? I am lucky that my child is only in kindergarten and doesn't seem to care about the hype. Don't you think that this type of promotion can send many sick children to school spreading more illness around than if they just stayed home?

I find it going a little bit over board. I guess we will see how it works for them. Perhaps it will work great and I can insert my foot in my mouth. It will be interesting to see if they give us any kind of an update on attendance after the first quarter.

What are you thoughts on this topic? Do you think it puts added pressure on young children to attend school when they are sick?

Why breakfast is so important for school age children.

I never knew that children would need breakfast so bad until I had my first child enter kindergarten. I am lucky that she eats a good breakfast and have learned that it is super important. Everyday I pack her a great lunch filled with 4-5 nutritious choices and I also pack a 10 ounce container filled with 1/2 juice, 1/2 water. By the time she gets home she still has 3/4 of her lunch and 3/4 of her juice. She is starving and very thirsty and sits at the table after school each day to scarf her lunch down. This is at almost 3:00 p.m. everyday.

I thought perhaps my child was unique in this experience but after asking around to many other parents they say the same thing. Their children are barely eating at school and are starving by the time they come home. For my child I am sure it is because she is too busy talking and doesn't get enough eating in. For other children it could be that they would rather scarf something quick down and go play on the playground.

So if you think about it if your child doesn't have a good breakfast they are literally starving most of the day. This makes it difficult for them to concentrate and learn. So wake up earlier and get that good first meal in. It will help your child tremendously!

Aly's first day of Kindergarten

Today was the big day! Everything went smoothly on our new morning routine thanks to practicing it all week. We needed to leave around 8:10 but our plan was so smooth we were ready 15 minutes early!

Here is Aly's lunch for her 1st day of school. She requested a bologna sandwich so I used fondant cutter to make her sandwich into fun shapes. She also had Pirate's Booty--otherwise known as organic cheese puffs, freeze dried strawberries, a cliff kids fruit twist, mini champagne grapes, and a fruit bar. I know a lot of fruit but that is what she wanted. I also put a surprise special note in her lunch that said, "Mommy loves you! I hope you are having a good day!" I attached a Hershey's Kiss to it.

Aly modeled for me on the stairs in her new outfit. She was very proud of how she looked in it and told everyone all about it. KK was feeling like she wanted to have a picture taken too so I took one of her as well.

Our first stop was to Aly's classroom. On the door was a note that we needed to go down to the big playground and wait in line until the teacher came and got them. I was a bit sad about this because I assumed that meant we couldn't walk them to class or see there classroom. Check out KK standing next to Aly in front of her classroom. She seriously thinks she is going to Kindergarten too!

Check out Aly's new frog Littlest Pet Shop backpack. She is so thrilled to have it! BTW because Aly was wearing a backpack KK ran and got a backpack to wear too! Check out KK, Aly, and Nathan on the playground. I started to take a picture of Aly and Nathan and KK jumped in! She really wants to go to school! Good thing preschool starts for her next week!

The first picture shows Aly's class and her teacher getting ready to go to the classroom. Thankfully the teacher was kind enough to let us go into the classroom with our kids. She said we could stay until 9:30 but I left at 9:08 as I knew Aly was fine and I wanted to give the teacher some space. The second picture shows Aly already making a new friend. She was also lucky enough to sit across from her friend Nathan.

While Aly was at school I worked really hard making a surprise for her. I spent the entire time making her a frog dress! I thought it would be a nice surprise for her.

When I picked her up she was a bit grouchy but only because of the weight of her backpack and the heat. It was really hot! In fact she told me it was so hot today that she didn't even play on the playground. She just sat in the shade with her friend Nathan.

She said she liked school and her teacher was nice. She did tell me that during story time the teacher told all of the children to be quiet and listen to the story. Aly said that her and Nathan listened to the teacher and didn't talk but many of the other boys and girls did. I told her I was proud of her for listening to the teacher and following the rules!

Do you know what Aly was begging me to do? She said she wanted to take the bus home from school tomorrow! I told her I didn't think Mom was ready for that yet, maybe next week, I need some time to let go.........................

BTW the whole way home poor KK was crying that she wanted to go back and go to kindergarten. She was very sad, I felt so bad for her. I can't wait till next week so that she will understand that she is starting preschool.