"First Day in the First Grade, First Day in the First Grade!" (think of the song) and I think this will be a really good year for her. Her teacher is new to the school (a transfer from another school in the district) and is really on top of things. I am already lined up to volunteer in the class, homework is going full speed and Jocelyn has told me about all the exciting things happening in the class.
Over the summer Jocelyn was telling me how excited she was that when you're a 1st grader not only do you get to play on the big playground, but you get 3 recesses! She reported in the other day that having 3 recesses is not as cool as she thought because it just means that you are at school for a longer time. She's been struggling a little with the 7:40 start time each day. The kids are having a little adjustment to earlier bedtimes (even though they are tired) and aren't settling down as fast as they should. Hopefully they'll get the hang of it soon.
I decided to take it a little easy with extra curricular activities this year to help everyone adjust to the new school schedule (and help me adjust to chasing after 4 kids) so she's taking art classes about 6 times this fall (when we swap with the teacher for babysitting). She and Lillian will participate in the music, art and drama program at the Presbyterian church on Friday afternoons with our neighbors for a couple months, ending with a performance about Joseph and the coat of many colors from the bible. We've heard great things about the program and it was the least expensive, least time consuming activity I could find that I thought they would enjoy-We'll see how it goes!
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| 1st Day in the 1st Grade |
Lillian, after much debate and discussion between Jared and myself, has started kindergarten...She didn't get in to the Pre-K program that we were hoping for because she's an August birthday and they are last priority, but I'm still not convinced that we'll go full force with kindergarten. I am leaning toward having her do 2 years in kinder to give her that extra year that will hopefully help her fly through school socially and academically. We felt fine about starting her in kinder and she is doing great in there, but in the research I've done, it seems it usually catches up to kids by 3rd grade and I don't want to hold her back then, I'd rather do that when she's young and there is no stigma attached. We're enjoying where she is for now and she has the same kindergarten teacher that Jocelyn had last year so she feel very comfortable which is great!
Lillian and Jonas are now sharing a room because Jocelyn needed her own room to be on a better schedule for her early hours. It seems that Lilly and Jonas have been enjoying being together where Lilly is the "leader" or "authority" of the room. Sibling dynamics can be so perplexing at times!
Jonas is potty training. I look forward to the time when this can be a past tense verb, but he is doing great! Actually, a lot better than either of my girls did. I kept putting off potty training because it is such a headache in my opinion, but toward the end of the summer we had a couple weeks where we didn't have any huge regular commitments, and Maren was still here to act as backup, so I figured I had no excuse. He had the hang of it in hardly any time, which I was relieved about, but he does have one hang up...He believes, for whatever reason, that he needs to be stark naked while using the potty.
It doesn't matter if we are in a public toilet, or needing to run out the door to be somewhere, he insists on taking EVERYTHING off to sit on the toilet. Jared and I have been reasoning with him: "Look, no one else in the family takes clothes off to go potty! you just need to pull your pants down a little and ta-da, you're ready!" And I've finally gotten him to the point where he will keep his shirt on. But shoes, pants, unders, are all completely removed. I'll take what I can because at least he's making it to the toilet consistently and self-driven, but oh my!
He is also getting more familiar with gender distinctions in this regard. At first, the girls were saying "look, Jonas, you get panties!" to encourage him, but Jared put a quick stop to that so he wears "big boy unders." And, after going pee he would take a little piece of toilet paper off the roll and throw it directly into the toilet because he knew that his sisters would use toilet paper and he didn't have any physical need to clean anything but, by golly, he was going to put his toilet paper in the toilet as a rite of passage! He is also learning the correct terminology for body parts and pointing out all the guys that he knows and says "he has 'body parts' like me, but girls have 'other body parts'" According to our family rules, you can say all the potty words you want as long as you are in the bathroom (thanks Katie Lillywhite for the idea) and he is taking full advantage of this. Sometimes when we are finishing up going to the bathroom he'll just start spouting off the extent of his potty language skills "bum-bum, pee-pee, poo-poo, ga-ga, toilet, toot, stinky" and smile at me because he knows he can't get in trouble for that while in the bathroom.
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| Jonas in his big boy unders |
Lately we've been trying to figure out how to fit it into our budget to get a family rec center pass and the kids are totally on board because Greg & Maren had one over the summer and the kids benefited from it by going to kids zone, going to the rec pool, etc. with Maren. The other day Lilly asked "Mom. Are we ever going to get a rec center pass? You keep saying we will and we don't!" To which I replied "We'll see where we are financially when Daddy gets his bonus and we pay all the bills, okay? We would all love to get one." Jonas, without missing a beat said "But Mom, I'M the bonus!" That's his nickname: Jonas-bonus and it was as if he was saying "what else in the world do you need, you have me! I'm the ultimate bonus!" We all started cracking up and told him he was exactly right!
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| My Jonas Bonus |
