Kindergarten

Snack Time - Taking school very seriously

Waving to her audience at recess

Walking to school with Daddy and Tinkerbell to help her be brave

Working on a self portrait

(Note: Here we have an appearance of the "Flapper Girl" headband)

Writing her name in rainbow colors

Lots of Kindergarteners singing and flapping their arms

Can you believe it? Annalise is in school!!!! She had her first day of Kindergarten on Wednesday, July 21st. I'm thankful that parents were invited to spend the day with them in the classroom because we got to see the routine and understand what they would be doing all day. Her teacher, Mrs. Johnston, was wearing white lace sneakers and a long denim jumper. I couldn't help but smile because it seemed like the perfect outfit for a kindergarten teacher to be wearing.

Let me just say that it was a full house in the Kindergarten wing that day! They had two classes in the same room for carpet time (along with teachers and two parents per child) but the kids seemed to enjoy it. Annalise made friends with several girls and she was generally smiling the whole time from ear to ear. She joined in the writing and reading exercises and she sat like a generally well behaved child on the carpet. (We are scarred from the many calls we've received about her older brother's carpet time antics and we were fearing the worst.) The only drama from the day came when we had a wardrobe malfunction. It seems that her headband served much better as a toy than accessory and she played with it nonstop. She was, however, very fashion forward and she turned it into a Flapper Style headband for the majority of the day. It looked cute on her, I must admit.

Since school started, Annalise has had some ups and downs. She started out strong but then she had some trouble when she realized how much she misses her friends from Rhode Island. There were two days in a row where she cried her little eyes out and I had to push her, heartbroken, into the classroom. We talked at length about Brynn and Gwen when she got home and she now carries a picture of the three of them with her whenever she can. I think she's comforted because I have reassured her that they will always be her friends regardless of where we live.

On Wednesday of this week I got to spend the whole day volunteering in class. The kids were working on writing the sentence, "I see a red ___." Their assignement was to fill in the blank by sounding out the name of whatever abstract item they had painted the previous day. Here's a bit of a shocker: The exercise didn't go very well. I spent the whole time helping them learn how to hold the pencil as well as helping them "remember" what random thing they had painted since I was having difficulty differentiating between a man, a car, an apple, or a tree in their red blob pictures. Mrs. Johnston regrouped and had us write the letters for them in yellow so that the kids could trace the words. (By the end of the year, California has decided that our 5 year olds need to be writing full, descriptive paragraphs - I'll be holding my breath if you care to join me).

Life at home for our Kindergarten girl...

In her continued pursuit of freedom and independence, Annalise is having a hard time acknowledging anything we say that she does not like. With this in mind, she has invented the Language of Bird, which has been helping her out tremendously. Here's how it works:

Mom/Dad: "Annalise? Did you finish your vegetables?"
Annalise: silence...
Mom/Dad: "Annalise? Did you finish your vegetables?"
Annalise: more silence...with some fidgeting added to the mix
Mom/Dad: "Annalise, please answer when I'm talking to you."
Annalise: silence...fidgeting...and now high pitched, singsong whistling to go with it...
Mom/Dad: "Annalise!"
Annalise: "What?!?!?! That was 'Yes!'...IN BIRD!" followed by the rolling of the eyes

Mom/Dad: "Oh...I never would have guessed that...I guess I need to learn BIRD!"

For illustration purposes, let me reassure you that she has undoubtedly mastered the skill of "The rolling of the eyes." This action is often accompanied by folded arms, a loud huff, a 180 degree turn on her heel, and then a retreat to safety with her head held high.

The Language of Bird is now commonly used in our house as a bit of comic relief as well as a good way to avoid giving an answer that someone doesn't REALLY want to give. It's magical! Half the time everyone is laughing so hard that the original offense has suddenly been forgotten. If you're not quite that lucky, you can generally distract people for long enough creating their own BIRD sentences that you think of a reason that the original problem really wasn't a problem at all. Our only issue now is that we need to remind her that BIRD is not a school approved language and that she is going to need to curb it when inside her classroom walls.