The Bear is now in second grade!
The first day of school (which was the first day of our homeschool tutorial) began with you not wanting me to leave you. Your face crumpled up and you clung to my neck, furiously regretting your decision to get in the car that morning. Fast-forward to the end of the year and instead of a crumple-y face, you had a sticky, cotton candy-y face plastered with an enormous grin. I knew you’d love it. And I also knew you’d have to come to that conclusion in your own time (which only took about two weeks).
You blazed through your math book this year. You still maintain that you don’t like math, that you just happen to be really good at it. (I gave you a side-eye as I typed that). Your handwriting improved a lot this year, too. I wish I had started it at the beginning of the year and not just a few months ago, but I had you write a journal entry every day and draw a picture about what you wrote. You could write about whatever you wanted to, but well over half of your entries had to do with Star Wars.
You can read really well, but it’s our little secret. I won’t tell anyone. You have yet to really enjoy reading anything other than your Lego magazine, books about Legos, books about Star Wars, and books about Lego Star Wars. But hey, whatever floats your boat. Or Death Star. Whatever.
Now let's go and build a Lego beach (because, let's face it, that's really the only kind of beach I enjoy) because IT'S SUMMER VACATION TIME!
Hugs and smooches,
Mommy & Daddy
Thursday, May 16, 2019
2018-2019 School Year - Natalie's Recap
How’s life, Ms. Finally-a-Fifth-Grader? Good? Excellent. I was hoping you’d say that.
I’m sure it’s because your heart is full-to-overflowing with the goodness that was this past school year and the satisfaction that you finished well. I’m sure it has nothing to do with that you can finally spend your days not reducing fractions and explaining why the main character felt angry/happy/confused during a particular chapter.
This past school year was definitely good. It was hard and messy and teary-eyed and stompy-footed, but it was good. It was frustrating and delayed-gratification-y, and yet, still good.
We finally found a math curriculum that works for you, so now you (almost) believe me when I tell you that you’re very good at math. I read out loud lots of books over breakfast. You fussed out loud about having to do literature reviews on those aforementioned books. I struck out (again) with our science curriculum, but all my fingers are crossed that next year will be easier. I think I hit a winner with our history curriculum, but we’re taking it slooooooow so that it’ll probably take us at least another year to cover the first book. No biggie.
You became the anti-Garfield and loved every Monday because it meant you got to go to your homeschool tutorial. Our living room turned into a craft factory during the weeks leading up to the Science Fair. You turned into a first place winner after turning in your project for the aforementioned Science Fair. We practiced all kinds of words for the Spelling Bee but neglected to study a certain word found on the third-grade list. NO ONE CARES ABOUT THE WORD ‘WRY’ ANYWAY. You channeled your inner five-year-old as you played the part of Gretl in your school’s performance of The Sound of Music.
As much as I loved seeing your face as you understood your math work or watching the excitement as you held your first-place ribbon or seeing you ham it up on stage, it still pales in comparison to the hard work of character-building that we did. Apologizing, tone of voice, choice of words, respect, not giving up, and humility were just some of the areas we talked about. I also introduced you to the art of Finite Venting – for a few minutes, you get to have a crazy pity party full of irrational wishes, giant complaints, and big ol’ wallowing. And then when time’s up, it’s back to real life.
There were some amazing parts to our school year, but I think I can speak for the both of us when I say, HELLO SUMMER, YOU’RE SO CUTE. LET’S HANG OUT.
Hugs and smooches,
Mommy & Daddy
I’m sure it’s because your heart is full-to-overflowing with the goodness that was this past school year and the satisfaction that you finished well. I’m sure it has nothing to do with that you can finally spend your days not reducing fractions and explaining why the main character felt angry/happy/confused during a particular chapter.
This past school year was definitely good. It was hard and messy and teary-eyed and stompy-footed, but it was good. It was frustrating and delayed-gratification-y, and yet, still good.
We finally found a math curriculum that works for you, so now you (almost) believe me when I tell you that you’re very good at math. I read out loud lots of books over breakfast. You fussed out loud about having to do literature reviews on those aforementioned books. I struck out (again) with our science curriculum, but all my fingers are crossed that next year will be easier. I think I hit a winner with our history curriculum, but we’re taking it slooooooow so that it’ll probably take us at least another year to cover the first book. No biggie.
You became the anti-Garfield and loved every Monday because it meant you got to go to your homeschool tutorial. Our living room turned into a craft factory during the weeks leading up to the Science Fair. You turned into a first place winner after turning in your project for the aforementioned Science Fair. We practiced all kinds of words for the Spelling Bee but neglected to study a certain word found on the third-grade list. NO ONE CARES ABOUT THE WORD ‘WRY’ ANYWAY. You channeled your inner five-year-old as you played the part of Gretl in your school’s performance of The Sound of Music.
As much as I loved seeing your face as you understood your math work or watching the excitement as you held your first-place ribbon or seeing you ham it up on stage, it still pales in comparison to the hard work of character-building that we did. Apologizing, tone of voice, choice of words, respect, not giving up, and humility were just some of the areas we talked about. I also introduced you to the art of Finite Venting – for a few minutes, you get to have a crazy pity party full of irrational wishes, giant complaints, and big ol’ wallowing. And then when time’s up, it’s back to real life.
There were some amazing parts to our school year, but I think I can speak for the both of us when I say, HELLO SUMMER, YOU’RE SO CUTE. LET’S HANG OUT.
Hugs and smooches,
Mommy & Daddy
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