Kindergarten So Far!

Since we are at the end of the first nine weeks of school, I felt it was time for an update on how school is going for him (and me :) ) Noah still loves getting up and going to school every day. Even though, he says he still misses going to Mrs. Laurie's every day but is glad he still gets to see her at drop off and pick up for Ryan. I was afraid by now the newness of school would have worn off and he would not be as happy about going - but so far so good!

We drop Ryan off at 7:30 a.m. in town with the babysitter, and Noah's bell doesn't ring until 8:15 a.m. so Noah and I have a little time each morning together to talk, go over what all he is going to do that day, and say a prayer before dropping him off. Except on Wednesday mornings - he loves the breakfast pizza so I make sure to get him there early on that day so he can eat breakfast at school. Noah insists on blowing me 3 kisses and throwing me 3 hugs before he will go inside - so I am that crazy mom blowing kisses and throwing hugs while slowly pulling away from the school :) Noah is still going to work with me after school and it is really working out great. First I make him do homework (which luckily is only once a week) and then he gets on the computer and watches videos or plays with toys. He rarely disrupts me and I am still getting all my work done. I am really enjoying getting to see him more now.

I am amazed at all the papers Noah brings home from school. I figured I would keep them all so he could look back at them someday. Well, the big expanding envelope I got was filled up after 2 weeks! So, we are going to have to go through them together and I am going to let him pick out some of the ones he wants to keep. I LOVE looking over all his work with him. As soon as I pick him up the first thing he does is ask for his binder so he can get all the work out and explain to me what all they did that day at school. A lot of times he even wants to re-do all the work from school at home again :)

Feeding Elliott after school, the mini-horse at my office :)

I am volunteering at school on Fridays. I have to say, I absolutely love it! The work is not hard, it is a change of pace for me, the teachers are so nice and make me feel appreciated, and I love the girls I volunteer with. I also get to eat lunch with Noah on Fridays, which is so special for me. I just love watching him light up and tell the kids in line "that is my momma" when he sees me waiting at the end of the hall. I have also started reading to Noah's class every other Friday. I did not sign up for this originally. I am scared to talk in front of strangers or crowds so this intimidated me. But while I was volunteering the volunteer coordinator said "you signed up to read to Noah's class right" I said yes. I am not sure why I said yes, because I was scared to death to do it, it just came out. But, I am glad I did. Noah was beyond excited and it was not anywhere as bad as I thought it would be. The kids were very good and so funny - they kept complimenting me too, which I didn't hate :)

Noah's first parent teacher conference went great! Ms. Damon said he was doing amazing and right on track for everything. The only thing he is struggling in is neatness and spacing of his letters. He just doesn't care about staying in the lines when he colors or making his letters the same size. But Ms. Damon assured me that neither did any of the other boys in his class and that it is usually a boy thing :) So, I am going to work on that with him. Another thing that has come up is Noah's speech. His teacher has recommended him for speech. We are not surprised and are happy he is going to a school that recognizes he needs help and then offers it. It was hard for me to be sure if his speech was bad enough for speech therapy because I hear him talk so much I know exactly what he is saying. Once his teacher told me she was recommending it, I listened to him talk to a boy a little older than him at our house. The little boy kept saying "huh?" or "I don't know what you are saying" and for some reason listening to him talk to him I could hear how bad it really is. It almost made me cry, but then I realized it is such a small thing and is completely fixable. It was just hard listening to him talk to that other little boy. Noah's grandpa and uncle both had speech therapy and talk just fine now. I know he will too. I want to get him all the help we can before he gets older - I know first hand that kids are mean and I cannot even think about Noah being bullied. I went over it with Noah. He knows that he is difficult to understand sometimes so I told him that wouldn't be a problem after this. He said he knew kids in speech and they said it is fun and he seemed excited. So, this is a new season of our life we are ready to dive in to!