First Day of First Grade!

Kylene was "nervous and excited" for her first day of school. But, she did great and came home loving her teacher. She has a huge class (around 30), but luckily her teacher, Mrs. Ebbs, has a student teacher, Mrs. Dawson, helping her. Kylene was relieved that her friends Emory, Gwen, and James are in her class and she comes home most days now telling me she made a new friend. It's cute to hear about all her adventures, but the day sure is long for me. I miss her a lot. Here are a few pictures from the first day:

She has P.E. four days a week! That really surprised me, but overall it's probably a good thing. She told me the first day that her p.e. and music teachers had lots of rules and all they did was listen to the rules. When I asked her what rules she had in her classroom, she said they didn't have any! Then throughout the rest of the evening, she was telling me all the different things Mrs. Ebbs said they had to do (i.e., the rules). I was smiling inside that her teacher has a way of introducing structure and rules without Kylene feeling like they are rules! I think that is, indeed, a talent!

The first week has gone smoothly and she's only told me a couple of times that school is boring:). But she loves showing me what she has worked on, telling me about her day, and making her lunch each night; we'll see how long it all lasts!

Here is a cute one of Skyler trying on Kylene's back pack:

First Day of Kindergarten!

Kylene is officially a Kindergartner! It is hard to believe, but she was definitely ready. She is actually doing Kindergarten at home (yes, I am home schooling!), so here she is on her first day, backpack and all, although admittedly she hasn't much worn her backpack since then:). She still wanted to go buy one and all the school supplies, so Wal-Mart still got our business.

She wanted to start school the same day as all of her friends (although a month earlier she also told me she wanted to start then, so we did school work off and on as she wanted), so her first official day was September 14th. That also happened to be $4 day at the Oregon Zoo, so I figured: here is one of the perks of homeschooling right away: we can do what we want! And off we went to the zoo for the day. She had been begging to go all summer, so she was thrilled. Jana and Daniel were kind enough to join us (and it was a huge help to have another adult), so we had a lot of fun. (Our brand new camera was barely/sporadically working---another story, grrrr--so these are the best ones of the kids I could get. I'm leaving out the pictures of the animals, since you've all seen those before; sorry!)

Deciding to homeschool Kylene has been a long time in coming, and was a hard(er than it should have been) decision. But, all in all, it is going wonderfully well. Other than not having much of a break in my days, I love it and feel very good about our decision. It sure made it easy when we left four days after school started on a 10-day family vacation!

Although Kylene was super excited about being homeschooled at first (she was a very open part of the decision), that first week watching her friends go off to school was hard on her. "I want to go to regular school, mom." But after we left on our trip, and since returning home, she has not said a word about going to public school, and seems to love her Kindergarten experience thus far. She still has her regular play dates with her closest friends and is doing soccer for the first time and loving that. So, plenty of "social" opportunities. And I love the freeness of our days, the unique one-on-one time I get with her, the many "ah ha" moments we've already had together, and knowing exactly what she's learning. I love doing reading time in my bed, on the couch, on the floor, or anywhere else we want to. I love spontaneous "tea parties" for our "school snack" with water and the leftover "paint" from our pudding paint project. Yes, I know the year will have its ups and downs, and its "Why am I doing this again?" moments, but I love being my daughter's teacher as well as her mommy. She is one beautifully smart and intelligent daughter of God and I am so thankful to be her mom! Here's to a learning filled year, for her and me!

Our Preschool Graduate

Kylene is officially "graduated"! Way to go, Kylene. You are definitely ready for Kindergarten!

For the graduation "ceremony", we had a fun field trip to the Oregon State Capitol. The children all went on a photo scavenger hunt around the Capitol grounds, stopping in the middle to go inside and see the rotunda, etc. We finished at a horse statue (one of the first circuit rider's in the West), had popsicles, then a small graduation ceremony (with Dollar Tree hats, certificates, and all)! The kids loved it. We ended with a picnic, then playing in the street fountain across from the Capitol.

Here are the kiddos on the steps right in front of the Capitol entrance.

Right after the ceremony.
Kylene, Jacob, Gwen, Emily, Gabe, Rachel

Lunch time.