Sep 09
Everyone,
This week at Butterfly’s school was back to school night. Last year I found it very informative and really helped me to feel more comfortable in the school. This year, I really enjoyed being there. I enjoyed seeing the administrators I know, and having all the teachers happy to see (and call her by name!) Butterfly.
Butterfly happily showed us to her room. Mrs. Dez was making a presentation about the year. It was quiet and everyone (maybe 5 parents out of 15 kids) was paying great attention. We made quite the ruckus as Butterfly happily flounced to her DESK and pulled her supplies out of her DESK.
Pirate happily followed on her heals and picked the desk across from hers. He watched her pull out her supplies, and pulled out the supplies from Butterfly’s neighbor. We had to intervene.
There was wailing. I asked Butterfly (in a quiet whisper because Mrs. Dez was bravely still trying to talk) and she pouted at me. These were HER school supplies! HERS!
Now I hissed at her under my breath to just give the boy one crayon so that he could color.
NOW.
She threw a crayon out. I listened for about a minute to parent teacher conference dates and there was more wailing.
This time from Professor who just noticed that he was kind of being left out. Also, he didn’t want the cookie that he was given while walking into the school. He wanted a different one!
Sigh.
Please tell me it gets easier.
After the presentation, Butterfly showed us around (boys! put that back! no please don’t pull out all the boo— boys! please help me pick up all the books you spilled. No stay right here and pick up books! boys!)
We left rather quickly. They were much happier roaming the halls with the rest of the school than being in the classroom.
Butterfly showed us this gem hanging in the hall:
Butterfly knows what she wants to be. Do you?
A “nacholist” (for those of you who don’t read 1st grader) is a naturalist. See, Butterfly loves to draw and nature so she thinks that she should be someone who categorizes things in nature. See her drawing the 2 different kinds of flowers in her picture?
I think that is an awesome job!
We stopped by every table. I signed Butterfly up for information about girl scouts. We got bookmarks, 20 flyers and signed up to be Butterfly’s room mom.
At the end of the night, we came to the cafeteria and found out that we could have dropped our kids off for an evening of fun with the after school care people and we could have gone, alone, to the rest of the stuff.
Oops.
Oh well. We rested in there while the kids played.
Butterfly has the most stunning eyes.
Don’t you agree?
Safire
SafireButterfly in School Butterfly
Aug 29
Everyone,
Today was the first day of school for Miss Butterfly.
We were all very (very) happy to hear that her school had power, after the weekend brush of Hurricane Irene, and would actually be open to receive students this morning.
This year Butterfly will ride the big “blue” bus that is yellow. She hopped right on this morning.
And after a few hours, she hopped right off.
Her teacher this year, Mrs. Dez, is going to be a lot of fun.
She is thrilled this year to have a DESK all her OWN. She is also excited to put her school supplies in her DESK.
It’s just too thrilling.
This morning, before the bus, I asked her a few questions:
“Are you excited?”
“Yep.”
“What are you excited about?”
“Playing with my friends on the playground. And lunch.”
“Who are you looking forward to playing with?”
“You know! My friends!”
“Are you nervous about anything?”
“Nope.”
“Alright. Have fun!”
“You know I will!”
Tonight we went out to ice cream to celebrate the first day of school. She had cookie dough ice cream with a cherry on top. She said it’s been a cherry on top kind of day, wonderful and special.
We measured her (52 and 3/4 inches tall) and ended with a father’s blessing for the school year (protection and friends).
I think it’s going to be a great year!
Safire
SafireButterfly, Butterfly firsts, Butterfly in School, Butterfly stats Butterfly
Jun 16
Everyone,
Just a few months ago Butterfly started Kindergarten.
And today she finished!
In her own words about today:
“So we were all really sad that it was the last day and we wouldn’t be together anymore. I told everyone that Mrs. Madeline will be in our hearts forever. Is that right? Will we always remember her?
My backpack is SO fat and heavy! I have tons of things to show you at home! I had pizza for lunch. We played tag at recess. We got to have choice time.”
That was it. She was super bouncy and happy all day today. When she came home, she spent 20 minutes with Flower singing her the songs she learned (poor girl still can’t really carry a tune) and showing her all the paperwork. They sent home a writing portfolio which is super cute. She also got a report card. She got a P in everything. She is passing everything. Well, except music and gym. In those classes she got an I, which is not failing but not sailing through. (See above comment about carrying a tune.) Maybe it stands for Needs Improvement?
She had a great year. Mrs. Madeline said that she was a bright spot in her class. She is helpful and had really good ideas. They were having a problem of everyone not getting along about a week ago. Apparently, people were making a bunch of things for other people in choice time. Some people were getting a lot of things, some nothing. And the people who were getting nothing were upset (understandably so). So they had a class meeting about being nice to everyone. Butterfly piped up and said that everyone in the class is like a link in a chain. And the chain only works if everyone works together. Sometimes it takes things awhile to go down the chain, but each link will be touched eventually.
Huh. I don’t remember teaching her that. But the kids really got it and Mrs. Madeline said she’s going to use that next year. Way to go Butterfly!
She ended the year reading on a level 11. The benchmark for Kindergarten is level 4. She is well beyond that.
She is truly amazing. I am so blessed.
Safire
SafireButterfly in School Butterfly
Apr 14
Everyone,
I’m too tired to do a proper post about what we did today so you get the check list version.
- Meet Lolli at my house at 8:45 am for an adventure!
- Drop Butterfly off at school, with Lolli, and then drive to the metro station for our adventure!
- Ride the train.
- Get off at correct stop.
- Find the National Capital Food bank.
- Walk two miles because that’s how far away it is from the metro.
- Curse seemingly simple directions.
- Join tour of Food Bank late but enjoy what we do see.
- Have lunch with our friends!
- Have friends take pity on us and drive us back to the metro.
- On the way, decide last minute that we should go see the cherry blossoms on the Tidal Basin.
- Drive past and realize that we’ve missed the blossoms.
- Go to Hain’s Point National Park instead and walk on the water.
- Throw sticks into the water.
- Throw chips into the water for the ducks.
- Throw rocks into the water.
- Meet a nice guy with fishing rod and cast a few lines in the water too.
- Get dropped off at the metro station.
- Ride home.
- RACE to the car because we are late picking Butterfly up from school.
- Thank Butterfly’s friend’s Grandma for hanging out with Butterfly at school.
- Thank her again. A lot.
- Whisk kids back to our house.
- Go play at the park for half an hour.
- Convince kids to go back inside because mommy is TIRED.
- Welcome Juice home.
- Take kids and Juice to Butterfly’s school for Family Learning Night and pizza.
- Watch Butterfly make a puppet.
- Watch Juice from across the room try not to pull out his hair while the boys do their own “craft” of making confetti.
- Smirk over the fact that both the boys use scissors with their left hands.
- Think back and realize that they have both been using their left hands to eat and draw lately too.
- Go home.
- Put kids to bed.
- Fall asleep in bad position on bed.
- Wake up after about 10 minutes and start my chores.
- Clean dining room table from all the gooey loveliness.
- Vacuum cobwebs.
- Wash picture frames.
- Scrub kitchen floor.
- Write blog post.
- Take out contacts.
- Go to sleep.
Safire
SafireButterfly in School, DC outings, Lolli cleaning, Food Bank, school, Washington DC
Feb 07
Everyone,
Butterfly ran out of school today saying she lost her tooth! It was barely loose! But here she was, clutching a baggie with her tooth in it and jumping up and down.
I’ve been trying to teach her how to whistle and she was all upset that she couldn’t practice whistling (it involves pushing her tongue on her front teeth) anymore. Wait, is that what she was doing in school when her tooth came out?
You betcha.
Love my girl.
Safire
SafireButterfly, Butterfly in School, Butterfly milestones, Butterfly's missing teeth Butterfly
Feb 01
Everyone,
Lately for Butterfly’s bedtime story we have been reading the “Felicity” books from the American Girl collection. My mom sent them to her because Felicity is based in our area! Although I think they are a bit old for her, she has been lapping them up and asking a lot of questions. She really likes that Felicity was born in the same state she was (Virginia). My mom also sent a little mini doll that has to be present for each chapter reading.
Butterfly’s teacher sends a chart home that we can write all the books down that we read together on. Since we’ve been reading chapter books, we haven’t been able to fill the chart up for January. (December we filled the page front and back, even though it didn’t have a back. Mrs. Madeline [her teacher] is smart and sent home 2 sheets for January.) Butterfly was beyond upset that the chart was not full yesterday and begged me to read books to her.
I spent over an hour reading books and filling out the chart so that she could turn in something that was “done.” Her part in this? She had to read the first 2 pages to me and I would finish the book. She has turned into a very good but reluctant reader. But since she insisted on doing this and it was important to her, I thought she should give something to it.
******
Yesterday Butterfly needed either a plain white child sized t-shirt or $2 so the school could buy the shirt for her. They are decorating it for the 100th day of school (which really isn’t the 100th day of school because they had basically a week off last week…). I thought I would maybe save a dollar and go to the Salvation Army here in town and buy a plain white shirt. I found one on the rack but was reluctant to buy it since it had no price. There were no other plain white shirts. I took it to the register to find out it was $4! When did the Salvation Army become so expensive?
So we went to the dollar store, which had all colors EXCEPT for white. Then over to Big Lots which had a pack of 3 white shirts for $4. Brand new.
And then I thought that I would just send the money to school and be done with it.
Look, I saved myself $2!
**********
I am reading 4 books right now. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society,
Oh and one more on my ipod touch but I can’t remember what it’s called.
It must be winter!
Safire
Safirebooks I read, Butterfly in School books, Butterfly
Dec 20
Everyone,
This week is spirit week at Butterfly’s school. And because I think it’s important to involve kids as much as possible in their school, we jumped in with both feet. Today’s spirit showing activity? Crazy hair!
Is this crazy enough for you?
Butterfly thought it was SO funny. She couldn’t stop laughing. She also sat VERY still while Juice and I fussed over her. Want to know how we did it? We put a cup on her head and then combed her hair around it. Then we put the beads on and put a rubber band over them to hold them in place.
She came home with the beads and the cup in her back pack though. It was apparently very slippery and fell out before lunch.
What a fun way to start off Christmas week!
Safire
PS- Joining in with my friend Cheryl to see what makes other people’s Mondays great!
SafireButterfly in School Butterfly
Nov 24
Everyone,
Today I took the boys to Butterfly’s school for a little Thanksgiving party that they do every year. They go into the cafeteria for different stations that have a Thanksgiving Theme. They asked if I could help, and I asked if I could bring the boys. Mrs. Madeline said yes! So off we went.
We started of in the cooking station. Here, the kids were making corn bread muffins. And here we also see that my daughter is a genius at math. The teacher was talking about thirds and explaining that we needed 1 cup of corn meal mix. And since she only had a 1/3 cup, how many scoops would we need to do? Butterfly piped up, “Three!” Then, while we were counting how many scoops we were putting in, she asked how many more we needed. “Two!” called out Butterfly. And she was right. What a smart girl!
Anyway, after the corn bread making, we did a craft. We made toilet paper roll turkeys. The kids thought this was great, especially Pirate. He would not let go of his turkey once we got home. I’ve had to re-glue the thing about 4 times, but it’s holding up rather well. For a toilet paper roll.
Then we went to play a game (which I won’t go into here). After the game, we went to the other craft table and they made American Indian headbands and feathers. SO cute! Pirate was so proud of his and wore it all day today. (Professor wanted nothing to do with it. I think he might be getting sick.) At this station, Mrs. Madeline asked if the boys were left handed. Professor is. He has a very defined preference for his left hand. But Pirate is still going back and forth between both hands. Butterfly is still going back and forth between both hands.
It was a fun morning for us and it was great to see Butterfly at school.
Tonight at dinner, Pirate finished early and went to play in the other room (with his little green feather bobbing after him). We had just pulled out or Thanksgiving Little People set and the kids have been fighting over the Mayflower. (My fwower! My Fwower!) Pirate came running back into the dining room asking Daddy to put on the little back pack we have. Then he came in with a very sad face and a little person in his hand. It’s the Indian with a baby on it’s back in a papoose. Pirate pointed at his back and said, “Baby?”
Of course Juice got him a doll and put it in Pirate’s backpack. And of course I took a picture of it!
I love how the boys are starting to play. They are growing up so fast!
Safire
SafireButterfly in School, Pirate Butterfly, Pirate
Oct 29
Everyone,
Happy Harvest Day at school. When I was in school, I remember being able to wear our costumes to school. Sadly, Butterfly’s school doesn’t do that. Sad! Instead they have a fun little half an hour or so at the end of the day for a party. I got to go and help out.
Everyone got to make a braclet in a pattern (that’s what they are talking about in school) and then they played musical squares. (Like musical chairs but with felt squares on the floor.) The kids seemed to like it. I think Butterfly’s teacher was a little overwhelmed. One of the other parents said that they don’t know how Mrs. Madeline does it every day. There is only one of her and there were 5 of us and we couldn’t even keep them together!
Butterfly came home bouncing on cloud nine at the fun time she had at school. And even though she didn’t get to wear her costume to school, it was still a success!
Safire
SafireButterfly in School Butterfly
Oct 11
Everyone,
Butterfly’s school opened for observation today. I left Juice with the boys and spent a half hour in kindergarten this morning. After a very late start (Butterfly forgot her backpack and we had to go back for it.) I enjoyed seeing what she does in class every day.
Everyone gets breakfast at her school. She eats it because she gets it. After breakfast, they have to clean up and sit on the carpet for the day’s news.
The news is something like this:
Today is October 11, 2010. Happy Birthday Jacey! We will go to the computer lab at 2:45pm this afternoon. We will go to the library to look at the book fair tomorrow. We have been in school 28 days.
Stuff like that.
They sing a song to start the day. Listening to them has just solidified the fact that Butterfly can’t sing. Poor thing.
They then go to draw or work at their tables. This is when I had to go. Her teacher seems a little exasperated but if I had a bunch of 5 year olds to deal with all day, I’d be a little exasperated too.
I think Butterfly enjoys it and is doing well. Wish I could have stayed longer!
Safire
SafireButterfly in School Butterfly
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