Sadie and Kaden were still asleep when the kids left for school. I sent them on their bikes this year instead of driving them because they knew where their classes were and they wanted to have bikes to ride home afterwards. Actually, Kylee may have been on her Ripstick. She's a little obsessed with it and rode it so much the back wheel wore down to a little nub. Kylee also likes to go to school with her friends that live across the street. Averi is new this year, but Jerzey has been hanging out with Averi too so they kind of all hang out together (when they aren't busy leaving one of them out, tween girls {eye roll})
So I got pictures of Sadie before I took her to Kindergarten at 11:30. And Kaden always likes to cheese it for the camera if everyone else is getting pictures. So he couldn't be left out.
When they all got home, I tried to get a picture of them together but they were all riled up. So this is the best I could get. Adorable, though.
Dylan has Mrs Tangren, who is a very nice young teacher just graduated from BYU-I. He was actually assigned to Mr Adams at first, and I hadn't requested anything specific or anything, but as soon as I saw it was Mr Adams I started to think... First of all, what I've heard about him is that the kids have fun but don't really learn anything (Kylee had him for math and she says they played Just Dance the whole time). Dylan is a smart kid but he's not self-motivated (like Kylee) so he is happy to just glide along instead of being pushed. So I was nervous about that. But then I remembered the only other thing Kylee had said about him. He likes to tease. In particular, he likes to tease the boys about the girls they may or may not like. I imagined what would happen if he teased Dylan, and the scene that played out in my head was not a good one. Dylan would get mad. Dylan would lash out or "get back" at the teacher. He would not show appropriate levels of respect. The teacher would lose patience. Dylan would lose faith in the teacher, and perhaps even feel like school was not a "safe" place to be. The more I thought it through, the more I got anxious about the setup. Finally I decided it wouldn't hurt to run the situation by the principal and see what he thought. I always figure there are a lot of kids so the staff there can't possibly know all of them and certainly wouldn't remember who belongs to me. But I didn't even tell Mr Roberts who my kids was. I just explained that I didn't think their personalities would go very well together. And he immediately said, "I think that's a legitimate concern." He said he could switch him out but he didn't know where. I told him I didn't really have a preference. I mean, I wanted Mr Kinelly because I've heard he's good and a few of Dylan's friends were in there, but I didn't want to make that kind of request so I said it didn't matter. He ended up in Tangren's class. When I talked to Dylan about Mr Adams he said, "I know how to handle him. I just grab the badge that hangs around his neck!" Apparently Adams likes to walk around the lunchroom and pretend to steal food when he's on lunchroom duty. This just solidified my concerns. Dylan already had in his head that Adams was playful and I think he would have a hard time taking him seriously.
Anyway, Mrs Tangren is brand new, which means I had no idea what to expect. I worried she would be timid and not know how to get the kids in line. I told Dylan a little before school started that he should make a good first impression. I figured if he showed his sweet side first, she wouldn't immediately lump him with the "hyper" unfocused kids. And she would give him a little more slack when he did misbehave on occasion. I hadn't mentioned it other than that one time, but I guess it sounded like a good idea to him because he made her a card and gave her a piece of chocolate. The card said something like "good luck on your first day" It was adorable. And as far as I can tell, it has worked. I've heard nothing about behavior regarding Dylan so far (and though the date on this post says August, I'm writing it Nov. 6th)
Sadie has Mrs Argyle, who is also brand new and very young, another BYUI graduate. I wasn't too worried about Sadie's class. She's a sweetheart most of the time. But I did want to make sure she gets opportunities to move ahead with reading if she's ready. So far the teacher has been really great, and seems like she is following along with Mrs Kirby (the other kinder teacher) and Mrs Crowther (the one she replaced because she had a baby, and who Dylan had). So far so good, other than the one time when I went in to help with reading and passed off a few kids on their letter sounds even though they stumbled a little (but ultimately knew them once they thought about it) and she pulled them all back to keep working on them! I knew Sadie at least was ready to be reading and she soared through the blending sounds and the little Jungle Book really quickly, yet her teacher pulled her back to letter sounds. Wha? Okay, I tried not to be offended, I tried to be patient. And I sent out an email asking what she expected because I volunteer every Monday so I needed to know what I did wrong! It was super awkward and I didn't want to come across as a bully to this tiny little teacher who is super sweet. But it worked out and Sadie did eventually pass off sounds after a few days and now (Nov 6th) she is reading the big books. She's quite proud of the fact that she's the only one in the real books in her class. She's actually a really good little reader and I'm about ready to ask if she can jump ahead. But I'm trying not to push it after all that went on before when I tried to rush it.
Since it is November, I have already met with all the teachers for parent teacher conferences mid-term (which is weird, but we've moved to trimesters so it's all different now). I don't know how I got so lucky, but every one of my kids were just praised and told they were going to try and challenge them. Not a bad word was spoken, they're all acing everything. Kylee's lowest grade is like 98% and Dylan's is like 96%, Sadie is far above what she needs to be at with letters/reading and counting/numbers. I felt kind of embarrassed, or maybe that's not the right word. I felt like I didn't want others to hear how amazing my children were because it would be rubbing it in. Like when you do really well on a test or a race, you don't go around telling everyone how much better you are than them. Of course I don't take much credit for how bright my kids are. We try to do the things we are supposed to with them. I try and check to make sure they are completing homework and doing it right, but I don't always. They are just really good, really smart kids. Ryan and I have good genes I guess. On that note, Dylan and Kylee were both asked to be tested for the GATE program, which is the gifted and talented something or other. They tested Kylee this last week and Dylan will start this next week. They were going off of their test scores. It sounds like there were about five kids in each class. It's for creativity not just book smarts. But I was very proud of both of them. I'm not sure anything will happen with it, not until next year probably. And I'm not sure we will even participate if it does. But it was an honor for them to be chosen.
I may as well talk about Kaden too. He's adorable and fun and sweet and he sleeps great and is not usually a very difficult child. He's learning and he's very smart, but his speech is not great. I'm happy that he seems to be quite smart in general because he really is a lot farther behind than my other kids were when they were approaching age 2. He knows words and tries to say a lot but it's just hard to understand. He says all the animal names and sounds. We're teaching him colors right now and he's doing ok. But I worry. I know he will eventually catch up with his speech. It's hard to see other kids his age that speak really well. I don't want to explain to everyone that he doesn't talk well because he had a setback at 12 months and I don't know how much it affected him. But I'm not giving him anymore vaccines for another year or two. We shall see. He's very technologically smart, I'll tell you that! He can maneuver the iPad and my phone as well as any of us.
Kids make life so fulfilling and I love every minute!!
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