Tonight was Gillian's art show. The boys stayed home to work on John's book report, so it was just the girls. Gillian was so excited! We ran into her art teacher and she told me all about the projects they have worked on this year.
Yesterday, Gillian and John told me all about Groundhog Day. John completely understood the concept of the groundhog predicting the weather. Gillian was a little confused. I got a video of her explaining what happens on Groundhog Day.
Gillian has a new classroom job this week. She told me yesterday "I never had this job before. I read the sight words!" Tonight she told me "I'm the sound checker at school. I use the eye stick to point at the words. The words are on a pocket chart." I was confused. "What's an eye stick?" She said "It's a stick with an eye on it." And I said "What's a pocket chart?" She said "It's a chart with pockets." Oh, that makes sense.
I had Daddy ask Gillian about her job. She said "I'm a sound checker!" And she proceeded to tell him about how she reads the sight words to her class using the eye stick. I'm still not sure I understand, but she is very excited about this job.
Friday Gillian's school had their first ever Kindergarten Music Concert. The kids have been practicing for months. Gillian has been home singing songs for weeks now (check out the lion sleeps tonight).
The theme was "Old MacDonald Had a What?"
The kids started out singing Old MacDonald and then replace a common farm animal with something crazy. Then they would sing a song based on that animal. The first song was "Rockin' Robin." Gillian is in the middle of the group wearing a fish hat. Please don't mind the bad video quality, I used my cell phone and the lady in front of me was not very cooperative!
The second song was "The Lion Sleeps Tonight." This is obviously one of Gillian's favorite songs.
The next song was "Humuhumunukunukuapua'a." The kids explain in the clip, but the humuhumunukunukuapua'a is the state fish of Hawaii. It is a fish that looks like a pig. Gillian has a very special part during this song.
Gillian has learned how to count by ten. If you ask her how she learned, she says "From Peg + Cat!" Peg + Cat is a new show that the kids found on Netflix. It's about a little girl, Peg and her cat. It's on PBS and the kids seem to really enjoy it. Anyway, every time Gillian counts to 100 by tens she adds a little extra flair.
She cracks me up. And of course when you ask her where that little bit at the end came from, she says "Peg + Cat." With a little bit of help (from John) I found the episode Gillian learned how to count by ten.
This is the full episode. The song is at the end when Peg is cleaning up the chickens.
Over the past month and a half, Gillian has been having some problems at school and aftercare. She has been misbehaving and acting out. Our first response was to take away her favorite thing, her blanket (aka Manket). This didn't make a difference in her attitude. So we changed strategies. We opted for a reward system. She gets stars on the calendar when she behaves and frowning face when she is bad. She then earns privileges for a certain number of stars in a row. Today was her 10th good day in a row! She earned Manket back! She was so excited. This morning she woke up and said "If I'm good today, I get Manket! Almost ten stars!" When I picked her up from school she was grinning from ear to ear. She knew it was a good day and she would get Manket. I let her have her blanket as soon as we got home. She is so happy! Let's hope this good streak continues.
Tonight, Gillian kept singing this little song. It went something like "follow directions quickly." Later I heard her say "Rule number two." Finally I got her to sit still long enough to sing the full song.
Her art teacher made up these simple rules for her classroom. The song helped Gillian to remember. Very creative teacher.
Last week, Gillian's school had their first fire drill. Her teacher had an entire lesson to go along with the fire drill. Gillian came home with this picture.
I'm sure you have noticed that Gillian made a little modification to the picture. I asked her "Gillian, what's on the kids' heads?" She said "Tiaras!" Whew, we didn't think they were tiaras. She then proceeded to tell me "The ones with the orange tiaras are the king and queen!" I didn't realize tiaras were necessary attire for fire drills.
On Wednesday night, we had a back to school night for Gillian. It was an opportunity for us to meet teachers before school started. Gillian also got to come and meet her teacher, the kids in her class and learn how to buy lunch in the cafeteria. While we were there, Gillian's teacher told us that in the afternoon the kids would have a rest period and that we should send them in a blanket to lay on. She said it would only be for the beginning part of the year and the rest of the year they would use that time as free reading. Gillian gave up naps 3 years ago. On occasion she would actually sleep at daycare, but it was rare.
We sent in a blanket on Thursday. She came home that night and said "The monkey blanket is too small! My feet don't fit on it!" Daddy and I explained that we wanted to send something small to fit in her cubby and that we were a little shocked to even find out that we needed to send in a blanket.
On Friday, I asked her "Did you take a nap?" She said "There's no napping in Kindergarten! It's a rest period. You don't nap in Kindergarten!"
Today was the kids' first day of school. Gillian started Kindergarten and John started 3rd grade. Our town passed full day kindergarten this year and in order to accommodate the additional kids, the schools got shifted. The schools historical had one for K to 3rd, one for 4 & 5 and one for 6, 7 & 8. In order to the full day program, 3rd grade got moved up to the next school. That being said John and Gillian go to two different schools (and will never be in the same school until high school). So today was a big day, new schools for both kids.
We woke them up and went thru the typical morning routine. We had a little photo shoot on the porch.
And then it was time to go to the bus. Two different schools means two different buses and pick up times. Luckily the bus stop is the same and pick up times are only 10 minutes apart.
Gillian was not very patient waiting for the bus. Finally her bus arrived and she jumped on. No fuss, no problems.
We didn't have to wait long before John's bus arrived.
Yes. I cried. I'm a crier. It's a big change for both of them. And I worry. Daddy and I spent the day together waiting for them to be done with school.
We picked them both up from aftercare and they were smiling and happy. John said "No homework! I bet no one got homework!" He told me a lot about his day and it sounded like a lot of fun. Gillian couldn't remember everything, but she did tell me little bits. We asked her if she made a friend on the bus and she said "No one sat next to me. And it's not easy making friends." I don't really believe that. She will make friends fast. I did ask both of them if they wanted to go back tomorrow. Gillian said "YES!" John said "I can't wait!"
This is Gillian's last week at The Lincroft Center for Children. She is ready to move on to kindergarten eventhough Mommy isn't. I only drop and pick her up once a week, so my drop offs tend to be filled with drama. But not today. As we approached TLC, I noticed that the kids were outside playing. I said "Gill, all your friends are outside." She said "Wow. That's fast. Let's go right outside." We walked through the gate and she immediately clung to my leg. I knelt down and she hugged me super tight. It was like she knew. She gave me an extra hug and then ran over to play with Clarissa. I ran inside to sign her in and put her stuff in her cubby. As I walked to the car, I could see Gillian and Clarissa sitting at a table chatting. They saw me and waved. Such a big girl.
Thank you Gillian. That extra hug helped Mommy get through this last drop off.
Today was John's Kindergarten Graduation. I can't believe that my little boy has graduated Kindergarten. It seems like it was just yesterday when we were bringing him home from the hospital.
Our day started early. John woke up and found me in the bathroom. He told me "I need to get handsome." And he proceeded to comb his hair (he has a crew cut). Then he brushed his teeth. He informed me "I'm going to make them shine!" He knew today was a big day and made sure he was ready and looking good.
At breakfast, he informed Gillian "After graduation, you can stay at school or you can come home with me. I'm going with Daddy. I'm not staying." It was at that point when Daddy and I decided we should just let the kids come home after the ceremony. I dropped them off at school and told them I would be back in time for the ceremony.
Daddy and I got to school and we pulled Gillian from her class and brought her into the earth room. Grandma, Grandpa, Mimi and Poppy all arrived at the same time. We only waited for a few minutes before the procession started. John proudly lead his classmates into the earth room. Miss Mary Ellen said a few words and then it was time for the pledge of allegiance. John got to hold the flag. He had the biggest smile for the entire pledge.
Next it was time for songs. The first song was "It's a small world." Next was "I'd like to teach the world to sing." Below is a video of the kids singing.
Next the kids sang, "Somewhere over the rainbow." I didn't get video of it, but I'm sure you can imagine how wonderfully they all sang. Then they presented the diplomas. John was first to receive his diploma. After all the kids received their diplomas, they read "Thank You for Me" a sweet little book. John read the first set of pages. Below is a video of them reading. Notice when the third kid reads John taps Jillian on the hand to signal that she needs to flip over her paper. The kids did an excellent job reading.
After the reading, the kids did a few dances. The first dance was to"Down the Avenue." In this dance, the kids listened to the music and walked or skipped or jumped. Then they danced to "Brazilian Carnival." John told me last week that they were going to samba at graduation. But I really didn't believe him. I was wrong. Well, I take that back, I was right. John was the only one that actually did the samba. Check out the video below. Notice how John shakes his hips.
In closing, they sang "So Long, Farewell." What a beautiful ceremony. I'm so proud of my little boy.
I asked John if he had graduation practice today. He said "Yes. And we had an audience today!" I said, really? Who watched you practice today! He said "Gill!" I was a little surprised and asked if it was just Gillian or if her whole class got to watch (I was a little afraid that Gillian was in trouble and her punishment was watching graduation practice). John said "The whole class." Gillian described practice "I sit in a chair! Johnny sing a song. Then sit on the steps. I clap." She was so happy that she got to watch John practice. She told me all about it again when I was tucking her in to bed. She is so proud of her big brother.
I made cookies the weekend for John's kindergarten graduation. When I asked John if he would like me to make cookies for his class, he said "That would be great!" He wanted to help me decorate the cookies, but when he asked I was working on the outline for the caps and I told him no. Instead he stood over me while I outlined saying "Steady. Steady." As you can imagine, he was very helpful. But it didn't stop there, on the next cookie he said "Steady, steady. Whew, that was a close one. You know, I could help. It's going to take all night to do all of these cookies."
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