Yes they're all Mine

Saturday, June 5, 2010

Kindergarten Program 2010

Emmy receives her published writing from Dr. Coffman

"Best-ies"

We sat through our final Kindergarten program for Emmy and it was lovely. I will say right off the bat that I did NOT cry during the entire program! I did sit and wonder how it was possible that my youngest daughter was now finished with kindergarten? Of course knowing that we were done with kindergarten also was a little strange after having had Ms. Hatch and

Mrs. Nevius for 3 years straight. I remember getting so annoyed by people who assured me that "this time goes by so fast"-thinking that time was going by so slow! Now as I sit and look at my prospective first grader I realize that I would give anything to slow time down just a little! Now I am the Mom who looks longingly at the Mom with littles ones-I am the Mom who wants to whisper it really does go by so fast!

1st grade here we come.

Fiona's Play Day

Fiona and I enjoyed lunch on her play day at school. Unfortunately the weather did not cooperate, so her play day was inside rather than at the park. It turned out great-the kids had such a good time at stations and then in the gym!!

DARE Graduation

Peris' certificate of graduation from DARE

Her super cool DARE t-shirt
(they were NOT this cool when I was a 5th grade teacher! Mine was white with huge red lettering)

Among other things, 5th grade means DARE. DARE is an awesome program put on by local police enforcement to teach kids about D-drug A-abuse R-resistance E-education. But it is so much more than that! This program also teaches the kids about self esteem and having the power to "say no" to so much more than drugs and alcohol. It lays issues out on the table such as smoking, peer pressure, and friendship. The program begins to hold the students accountable for their actions and does address the question-what will you choose to do when faced with these choices? What I couldn't believe is that this program has been cut in our community!! Our 5th grade students are the only 2 classes in our area who received this program for the 2009-2010 school year! I hope that changes, because for some kids this will be the foundation that will help them cultivate the skills to remain drug and alcohol free through junior high and high school! That seems priceless to me.

Monday, May 31, 2010

Good fortune

We are fortunate! While many schools are facing significant staff and program cuts, we have the luxury of knowing that our kids will have the same awesome opportunities and teachers next fall!! It is painful to hear of programs that are falling by the wayside-many of them art based. There is always the question "Is art a valid part of the school curriculum? Is it necessary?" I think my 7 year old daughter can answer that question quite clearly. While going through the end of the school year "stuff", we came across this writing sample done by Fiona. The prompt was simply to "write about something you love". Here are her words:

My favorite thing is art. I like art because it gives me passion. It's something where I can exspereince (experience) my work. It's something where I can just give what I got and give it all my might and just get my creation out of me and on to the paper. Art is fun to me because I can just make funny, cool, weird, and crazy creations and it's realy (really) delightful to me.
I LOVE ART!

So thank you Mrs. Mohrman for providing such funny, cool, weird, and crazy opportunities for the kids to just get "it" out of themselves and on to the paper! We are so incredibly blessed to be where we are and that is never far from my mind!