School 's Out For Summer Time!

Ok...so school has been out for my kiddos since June 5th. We quickly jumped right into summer mode and I hope to highlight all the glories of this summer, but I simply must reflect on what a great school year these kids had. In just a few short weeks, we'll be packing up the backpacks and lunch boxes and heading back to school. Hard to believe! But before then, I want to tack down here a bit about their 2008-09 school year.

Ms. Jen, Ms. Cole, Meagan and James

Meagan (3rd grade) and James (1st grade) were in the same class this year. They go to a Montessori school where the kids are grouped for grades 1-3 and then for grades 4-6. This allowed these two to share a classroom. They had two dynamite teachers, Ms. Jen and Ms. Cole. Jeff and I both spent quite a few volunteer hours in the classroom and these teachers ran this class like a well-oiled machine. Any day at any hour one could walk in this room and find 30 kids genuinely engaged in their lessons--even if many of them were working on different lessons side-by-side. What's more, each child in this class seemed to have a real sense of belonging to a caring community. This tone was set and set early on by these two fantastic teachers.



Meagan loves school. She loves the sense of orderliness, and the facts she learns, and the relationships she builds. She is especially fond of math, getting so excited to learn long division with a few other kids in her class. She also loves to read, always with her nose in a book--as long as the book involves animals, especially horses. She is nervous and excited to be moving to upper pod, as it's called at their school.



Thiswas James' first year on this campus as the school on this campus starts at 1st grade. He was so excited to move to the "big kid school" and seemed to walk 2 inches taller from the first day of school on. James' reading just took off this year. He too is often found with his nose in a book these days. James is one of the most inquisitive people that I know, always asking questions and hypothesizing answers. His favorite part of school was doing and presenting research projects. He loves school and thrives on being a part of a caring classroom community.



It was great having them both in the same class. It made it very easy to help out in the classroom and to get to know all the kids in the class really quite well. I loved listening to the two of them recapping their days in their shared classroom over an after-school snack each day.



This fall, Meagan will move up to 4th grade in "upper pod" and James will be a 2nd grader in this same classroom he has grown to love.

Ms. Jen and Charlie celebrate Hawaiian Day on the last day of school.

This was Charlie's first year of school. He was involved in a little home-based preschool 2 mornings per week last school year, but this was the real thing. "Big Kid Preschool" every morning. He too attended the Montessori school, at the preschool campus. I worried a bit that Charlie might not mesh with the Montessori methds of self-directed focused learning like his sister and brother had. No worrying needed. He LOVES school. So many of the materials are hands-on materials and Charlie is a hands-on kind of kid. He loved solving puzzles and problems with manipulable objects. As he himself will tell you, he is the "puzzle master" (the kid does not lack self-confidence, that's for sure). We fully intended for this to be the first of a two-year preschool experience before moving onto Kindergarten (all in the same multi-age classroom). He qualifies for Kindergarten this year based on his age, but only by a few weeks. I, especially, was emphatic that he wait a year to start Kindergarten, giving him more time to mature and really be ready to start his many years of formal education. However, by March, it became clear that academically and otherwise, he was ready for the challenge of Kindergarten. To our surprise, Charlie started bringing home these little "readers" every night. He insisted on reading his book to each person in the family individually. We all obliged and were impressed with his newfound skill to read, really read! He also started to really grasp basic math concepts: adding and subtracting. Charlie loves a challenge and invites challenges all the time. He is often begging Jeff to give him spelling words or math problems like Jeff does with Meagan and James. So, our baby is off to Kindergarten this fall. He'll be in the same classroom as he was last year, with Ms. Jen as his lead teacher. She and her two assistants are wonderful and patient teachers. Charlie is so excited to be a kindergatener and go to school all day (as this means he will get to have a lunch box and recess on the playground). Me? I'm excited for him, but mostly I'm gonna miss the little guy!

What better way to celebrate the end of a great school year and kick-off the summer break than with ice cream cones!! (For the record, Meagan is holding my ice cream cone so I can snap this picture, not enjoying two cones while her brothers have one--they would have none of that!)