Independence

As I have mentioned before Little Reader is in third grade and technically old enough to walk to school on her own (according to the school rules).  She is also allowed to escort her sister who is in first grade.  Some of her friends walk to and from no problem and she often asks me if she can too.  We only live 3 blocks from school and I will admit it would be nice to just say goodbye at the front door and send them on their way (instead of rushing to try and get everyone ready and me showered and out the door in time).   Still, I'm not ready to do it yet.  So far I've mostly used the reason that since I do stay home, there's really no reason why I can't walk them to school, so I just do it.  I tell my daughters that I trust them, but I don't trust the crazy people in the world.

Some mornings there is a police cruiser parked on a side street by my daughters school. I'm not sure if they are there for traffic safety assistance or what since the officer usual stays in their vehicle.

Thursday morning as I was turning the corner where the officer was parking his car, we saw a woman approach the car and ask to speak with him. I couldn't hear the conversation, but noticed the officer enter the school through a side door after he finished talking to the woman. I thought that was odd, but figured it was really none of my business.

That afternoon I was looking something up on the school website and noticed an alert regarding suspicious behavior. It mentioned that a student had been walking to school when a car pulled up next to him, asked if he attended the school. When the kid answered yes, the driver asked if the kid wanted a ride. The kid said no, kept walking then stopped into a friend's house that was between the car and school, and told his friend's Mom what had happened. I assume the woman I saw was the mom in that house.

So the good news is the kid is fine cause they did the right thing. We've gotten these kinds of alerts before but this is the first time I actually told my kids about it.  We have talked about strangers before and how to respond if approached.  I recently found this post on Pinterest and thought it did a good job of explaining how to talk to your kids, about strangers and "tricky people".  I've read the ten rules with my kids before but a refresher is always a good idea.  Even though we do live in a pretty safe area, a healthy dose of fear is a good thing.  It helps give you street smarts.

I'm all for raising confident and independent kids, but a parents number one job is keeping their kids safe, and for now and at least for this school year, I will be walking my kids to school.  We'll revisit it next year.

5 Things About Little Hugger

Little Hugger also had to bring 5 things to her class.  Here's what she brought

Sketch pad - since she loves to draw

Stuffed cat - she loves cats and has been lobbying hard to get one as a pet.  Right now we're sticking with stuffed "pets".  One of these days we'll get a real pet, but for now we are debating dog vs cat.

Stuffed elephant - elephants have been her favorite animal for a long time

Kitten's First Full Moon - her favorite book (partly due to loving cats, but also a very sweet book about a cat that thinks the moon is a big bowl of milk).

Mac & Cheese - her favorite food. She'd eat it for every meal if I let her, thanks Kraft for adding the cauliflower so she gets some extra vitamins. Yes, the teacher chuckled a bit when she pulled this one out. Most  of the other 1st graders agreed they like Mac & cheese but she was the only one to actually bring it to class ;)

5 Things About Little Reader

Both of my daughters were asked to bring 5 things into class to help the other kids get to know them. A photo or two were ok, but not only photos.

Here's what Little Reader brought:

The stegosaurus because she loves dinosaurs. She wanted to be a paleontologist for a long time, but then found out that there are often scorpions in the desert and is now scared. I've told her they have fossils in other parts of the world but she's since decided she wants to be a grade school teacher who will spread the word that there is no such thing as a brontosaurus/

Simba figurine as her favorite movie is Lion King. Her room when she was 4 and birthday party were Lion King themed - thank God for EBay.

A picture of her and her Dad at Tivoli in Denmark as she is Danish and wanted to show a cool place in Denmark.

A picture of the mountain on Mars that Curiosity is slowly making its way to - she likes outer space. After the Lion King theme, she switched her room to outer space.

A coin from the Pirates House in Savannah GA where we stopped last year for lunch on our roadtrip thanks to a couple of recommendations from bloggers. She had wanted to bring a ship in a bottle she had gotten in St Augustine (while we were in the next stop on our trip in Jacksonville) but unfortunately dropped it.

Back to School

School started for my daughters last week. They started Tuesday afternoon bringing all their supplies to school and getting settled in their classrooms. They had so much stuff we had to use the stroller to bring everything to school. Little Man and I walked behind them.

Our school has a different door for each grade so we dropped Little Reader (now 3rd grade) off at her door and then took Little Hugger (1st grade) to her door and waited for the bell to ring. It seemed like the first graders had the most supplies and the teachers didn't want parents coming in with their kids - trying to keep the tears and paparazzi to a minimum I guess. She went in happily and then Little Man and I went home to run some errands before coming back to get them. Wednesday was a full day. Thursday was Parents Night for 3rd grade. I had to bring my kids as my husband was removing appendixes all over the Northwest suburbs but since it was only a 30 minute group meeting with the teacher it went fine.

All the kids are excited to be back in the swing of things, and this week piano lessons start and the following week dance/soccer/basketball start up. Back when I only had one kid in school I thought the slow/spread out start was annoying. Now I like it. It always takes a couple of days to get back into the routine so it's nice to slowly build up to our full schedule.

Luckily I have a couple of things that are making things easier this fall
1. Little Man can and will dress himself
2. Little Man is starting to eat more regular food.
3. Running in the morning means three days a week I don't have to shower before dropoff, just throw on my running clothes and shower after.

Now I just need to work on my schedule for the time I am kidless. My plan is to run right after drop off, come home and clean some part of my house, shower, pick up Little Man, home for lunch and then whatever.

The cleaning is the main thing I need to work on. Since we let our cleaning lady go, I haven't been very good about cleaning. Time to get back on track.

Back to School

Little Man started preschool yesterday.  He was extremely excited, he picked out his clothes the night before (including the extra set of "just in case" stuff).  He listened intently as Little Hugger told him what she remembered about the school, including how show and tell works.  She even had him do a practice. One with a prop and one where he pretended he forgot to bring something and then just told something about what he had done over the weekend.

Unfortunately the actually morning was rainy so we weren't able to get a lot of outdoor pictures, and his umbrella is covering his face in most of the ones I did manage to get.

We all walked him down to his classroom, and met his teacher.  She's new to the school (although I had found her on Facebook once the classroom assignments came out).  Based on her age, I'm assuming she's getting back into teaching now that her own kids are older.  She was very smiley and seemed nice and had big floor size coloring books for each kid to color in until everyone arrived.  We gave Little Man a quick hug and kiss goodbye and left.

To take advantage of our girls only time, we went to Michaels to get some supplies for upcoming craft projects, and then I surprised them by taking them for mani/pedis. They both got flowers and jewels on their thumb nails which they loved.

We went back to pick up Little Man, and his sisters started firing questions at him.  It's always tough getting real info out of kids this age, but we did find out that most of the kids were nice but there were a couple of mean boys (who hit one of the other kids - but the teacher scolded them, so it was dealt with).  He doesn't know anyone's name yet, but that usually takes a while - especially at this school as it also functions as a day care so kids can share a teacher but be on very different schedules. They played in the gym as it was raining outside.  They did a butterfly craft to hang in their classroom (aka the Fluttering Butterflies).  They each got a gummy bear as a reward for cleaning up quickly.  The snack was Cheerios which he said he didn't eat because he wasn't hungry, but I had a feeling was more because he has negative memories of gagging on Cheerios. 

For lunch he had his usual peanut butter sandwich, but since I want him to get over his fear of Cheerios (and other small chewables) I made him try one before his regular snack of graham crackers.  I told him that from now on he should try at least one of whatever is served at snack time.  He agreed.  It's ok not to be hungry and I'm not forcing the kid to eat, but the more things he tries the more he'll learn to like and hopefully we'll be able to drop the feeding therapy.

He did make another big kid declaration after school today.  "I'm not a toddler anymore, I'm a preschooler.  Preschoolers don't eat yobaby".  Woohoo!!  I have nothing against Yobaby.  It's obviously a great source of protein and calcium, but the more of the old "baby" foods that he drops and replaces with other things, the quicker I think he'll progress.  His sisters mostly eat Yoplait and Trader Joes yogurt so the consistency is a little different.  So far he's refused to try any of those, but I know one day he'll just decide he misses yogurt and try one.

He's very excited to go back again, and I'm sure will have even more fun as he makes some real friends and they get into a good routine at school.  

Getting ready for back to school

My kids go back to school the week of August 22, which seems early to me especially since their school does not have air-conditioning.  That means we've got 33 days til we start up again, and time for me to start getting organized.


We've already been to the pediatrician, eye doctor and dentist, and they passed all those exams and forms have been submitted.  Both kids needed backpacks and lunchboxes for camp so we're already set there.

1. School supplies
We got the school supply list ages ago, and although our school does offer the schoolpak program, I prefer to get the stuff myself.  I checked their prices and it's ridiculous.  My kindergartner needs 8 different things

1 Baby Wipes, Unscented, 80ct Tub (04-241)
1 Crayons, 8ct, Crayola©, Large (04-127)
8 Glue Stick, Small, Elmer's©, .21 oz (04-121)
1 Glue, Small, 4 oz, Wash, White (02-224)
1 Index Cards, 3x5, Unruled, White, 100ct (04-214)
12 Pencil, Primary, My First Ticonderoga© w/eraser(04
1 Tissues, 100ct (04-641)
Total price $23.76 + an extra $9 for shipping.  Ridiculous.

As with most things it comes down to time or money, what do you want to spend?  For me, I think I can get those 7 things for much less than $30.  I got a couple of things the other day at Meijer that were on sale.  I figure if I keep an eye on the Sunday circulars and buy stuff when it's on sale, I'll save quite a bit.  My second grader has a longer list, and the markup is similar, so I'll do it myself thank you very much.

I realize they're providing a service and I love the idea, but would love it more if the shipping were included in the price. Last year I brought my daughter with me, but realized quickly that that was a mistake.  I thought she would want to pick out her stuff, and she did but she wanted all the cool stuff that wasn't on her list, not just a boring blue folder but the one with the cool pictures on the cover, which was not on her list. This year I'll go solo. Also makes it easier if I want to comparison shop.

2. Start hoarding quarters and singles.

Our school has pizza day once a week as a PTO fundraiser.  $1.75 per slice.  My daughter is still young enough that one slice along with her usual fruit and treat is enough.  On pizza day, the kids are expected to bring their money in (in exact change of course) and give it to the room Moms who then figure out who gets what at lunch time.  As much as possible I try to give one single and three quarters.  I felt guilty once when I had to give 7 quarters, until one my friends who is a room Mom told me that a parent in her room, always sent the kid with pizza money in pennies!!! Yes 175 pennies.  Every week.  And they weren't in rolls, in a little baggie.  Nuts.

Then there are various things that come up throughout the year, field trips, other PTO in school fundraisers that they need $2 or $3 for, so I'm hoarding my small money.

3.  Box Tops for Education
I love free money.  Who doesn't?  I started collecting box tops before I had kids.  A woman in my office was collecting them for her son's school and had a dropbox for anyone in our office to contribute whatever we clipped.  Once I had kids of my own, I kept clipping and even before my kids started school, I would drop them off at our local grade school, which my kids now attend. On the last day of school, the kids all get a ziploc bag for keeping the box tops in over the summer and then they hand them in at the beginning of school.  Last year my daughter's class had the most in the school, so they got a pizza party as a thank you.  She was so excited cause she had contributed a lot (I think it was over 50 box tops) so she felt like she was the one who put her class over the top. All in all over the course of the school year, her school of about 600 students collected enough box tops to earn $1500.  Pretty cool. 

4.  Summer Homework packets
As I mentioned in an earlier post, my daughter's teacher gave the kids summer reading packets and book reports to fill out.  She hasn't worked on it yet, beyond keeping track of which books she has finished, and I let it slide the first part of the summer as she was attending summer school - taking a sign language class and a science class.  Now it's time to get back on track.  She's usually pretty good about doing her homework without me bugging her, and naturally hates when I do nag her about stuff, but I figure in a couple of days I'll start reminding her about it.

5. Fall activities
Next week, our park district fall brochure comes out so it'll be time to pick out activities for the Fall.  My 2nd grader takes piano lessons, and last year also took ice skating.  She mentioned that she wants to try karate so I have to do some research on that, as the park district class requires the parents to participate as well, which doesn't really work with the other two kids.  My kindergartner loves dance, and wants to try soccer.  And the little man is doing well in camp, so I think I'll sign him up for the tots dropoff playgroup.  He desperately wants to do a sports class, used to watch the classes going on in the gym in the same building as his sister's dance class.

Not too bad a list, but I know if I don't start now, it'll be a nightmare to get the school supplies as it gets real close to school starting.

Fight the mushy vacation brain - READ!!

On the last day of school, my daughter's first grade teacher asked all of her students to make sure they don't get "vacation mushy brain".  Summer vacation is great as it let's kids play and be outdoors more, have more unstructured time to be creative and also just relax.  However, too much play and no work over the next almost 3 months of vacation makes it tough to get back up to speed when the school year starts up again - vacation mushy brain. 

She gave the students a packet of book report sheets.  The assignment is to read at least 10 books and answer questions on at least 5 of them.  The kids need to turn in their packets when school starts up again in August and then the teacher is going to have a pizza party for all the kids who participated.  What a great idea!

From the time they were newborns, we have read to our kids.  It's true in the beginning they didn't pay much attention but we kept with it, and have been reading bedtime stories every night for the past 7 years.  The great thing is that now our kids read to each other. Even our 5 year old (who isn't starting Kindergarten til the fall but is already reading) loves to snuggle up with her little brother and read to him.  My 7 year old goes through chapter books faster than I can bring them home.  Thank goodness for the library and the $1 section at Target. I just got her 3 books from Target this morning.  She started Little Women around 1, I bet she'll be done before her brother wakes up from his nap. 

This summer we are participating in multiple reading clubs.  The library has one for all ages.  Even an adult one (yes I enrolled).  The kids mark off every 20 minutes they read and for every 100 minutes they get prizes (usually coupons for free stuff from local businesses), and raffle tickets towards bigger prizes.  For the grown up one, if I read 4 books in the next 6 weeks, I'll get some local coupons as well as raffles towards theatre tickets, gift cards for restaurants etc.

There is also the Borders reading club aka the Double Dog Dare Challenge, where if they read 10 books, kids 12 and under get to pick a free book (from a pre-selected bunch).  It started June 1st and my oldest has already completed that one. We haven't had a chance to pick out the free book yet so I don't what they are, but last year I think she got a Beverly Cleary book, and there were other good options.

http://www.borders.com/online/store/MediaView_double-dog-dare?cmpid=SA_20110616_4


Then this morning I read about the Children's Book Club of the Month Summer Reading Series on Sassy Moms in the City.  They are holding a contest where the prize is as follows:

One lucky winner will win over $750 worth of prizing:

• Beach Reading selections for mom ($150 value)
• $100 restaurant.com gift certificate
• 25 assorted children’s books for the children in your life ($450 value)
• $50 package of selected books for your child
  (All books included in this prize package will be selected by CBOMC) 

How awesome is that?  We're planning a road trip this summer for about a week (but about 30 hours of driving split among that time).  It would be great to have a whole bunch of new books to take with us on that trip.  My favorite part is that they included "Beach Reading selections for mom".  It can't all be about the kids right?



http://bit.ly/MySummerReading

There are a few different ways to enter, either blog posts, Tweeting, or Facebook.  Check out the link above for all the details.  

Happy reading!!