the girl crazies....

The joy of my life... the reason why I LoVe to live :) Erik and the boys :) Today we are in Orcas Island - for the 2nd time in the last couple months ... it's magically beautiful here - for anyone who has yet to come, you must!

I had to share some of the fun things about the boys today.  They were so funny at times ... :) Elijah is 'into' hot girls lately.  Oh sheesh! :) He's draggin little Malachi in even though Malachi is so caught up in ninja swords, etc I predict Elijah's gonna be the heartbreaker for a living; Malachi is going to break hearts - he just will be slightly oblivious about it.  These 2 boys are something else!

Anyways - they were watching the latest Dora today on the trip over.  They were oohing and ahhing over Alicia on Diego.  Elijah is in love with her - I looked up a bit of info on her, as I thought it would be cute for him to see one of his crushes later in life...

Alicia is Diego's 11-year-old sister and resident computer whiz. She adores her younger brother and is amazed at his natural gift for communicating and bonding with animals. Alicia is also protective of Diego and warns him of approaching dangers via his video watch from her monitoring position at the Rescue Center.

wanna know what the schools do? :)

going through this little kindergarten package is fun actually ;) it tells you what curriculum they use and what skills they are taught ;) I think this is mostly interesting because I am curious what will be the case when my grandkids are in kindergarten ;) I hope to still be blogging then!
Science:

Our science curriculum is Foss and focuses on the five senses in kindergarten

We'll learn how we use or senses to learn about our environment.

Math:

Our math curriculum is Math Expressions.

Many of the skills and concepts are taught through explorations, activities, and games.

Your child will learn about numbers, addition, subtration, geometry, algebra, measurement, time, money, and problem solving.

Writing:

Our handwriting curriculum is Zaner-Blozer manuscript

We use Picture/Word Dictionaries to practice handwriting

Spell Phonetically by segmenting letter sounds

Write high frequency words correctly

Write to a topic

Label pictures

Practice punctuation

Reading:

Recognize and learn sounds of letters Aa-Zz

Blend sounds to read words

Learn high frequency words

Increasing vocabulary

Read pre-decodable and decodable books

Recite familiar rhymes, songs, and poems

Learn various reading strategies

Learn phonemic awarness and phoneme isolation

yikes, that seems like a lot! way to go Elijah and Kindergarteners!!! :)

Elijah's Kindergarten Day :)

I remember a couple things about kindergarten, but not much... I remember making banana bread with my class one day at my teachers house - that was neat I recall ;)
I attended this little tiny school called 'Ebenezer' when I was in kindergarten.  My parents were so wise about this - they got me to get into kindergarten when I was only 4 (even though my birthday was Sept 22) I'm thinking it was more common then to have your child enter early.

Here is Elijah's Daily Kindergarten Schedule ;) In case some day he wants to know ;)

He is in 1/2 day Kindergarten - pm style ;)

12:53 - 1:02 unpack and pledge ;) (how cute ;)
1:05 - 1:30 Math
1:30 - 1:45 Recess
1:50 - 2:20 Math/Calendar**
2:20 - 2:35 Story
2:40 - 3:15 Reading/Writing
3:15 - 3:25 Open for projects, birthdays, etc.
3:25 - 3:30 Pack up
3:30 Dismissal

** 1:50 - 2:20 Library on Monday or Tuesday

Writing Project in Classroom

... love you baby boy :) you've told me that your favorite buddy in school is Mikey - his mom Abigail is really sweet :) Today when I was driving you to school I was so proud of you - we have the best little 'chat's' and you are doing so good with your little self, you are so loved!!! :)