Blogworthy?

This morning when my husband told me I needed to update my blog, I knew it was serious. Last night we were with friends who were joking about me updating it....so I guess I'd better get at it. You see, I'm no good at writing about "nothing". Compounding that problem is the fact that unless I feel inspired, writing feels difficult and pointless.

Soooo.....when all else fails, I guess I'll brag a bit. Our kids are so much fun these days. I don't want to bore anyone with the details. It's not what I'd talk about in a group of people, so don't feel you have to read on.

The other night we went to the school to see the girls' work. It always amazes me to see how well they are doing. Chelsea has turned the corner in reading and I can just tell it's all going to come together really quickly. She can write a sentence in her journal now too. Her teacher told me she's doing so well...she just loves having her in the class. It felt really good to hear that. She's such an amazing little math whiz. I can ask her almost any addition problem now (eg. 4+5) and she'll think for a few minutes (I can see her counting in her mind) and says....9! She can fill in her number chart to 100 now too. I'm sure I couldn't do those things in kindergarten.

We had a similar experience in Maddie's class. Her teacher told us how much she enjoys her "thinking out of the box" answers and ideas. She loves to play with language and finds so much humour and delight in words. She was so funny about her conference. She insisted on reading us every little piece of writing she's done. She reads so fluently and expressively. It's amazing to me. I found it funny to see our life documented through her journal. I think she's happy in her class. For a while she was finding the beginning reading activities boring. I hesitate to even say that. I just hated it when kids in my class said that. I think she's finding challenge for herself in other things though. I want to look for an SRA reading kit. I've had this conversation with a few people now who remember working through those in school. They were great self directed
cards you could go through at your own pace. I'd love one, even for my own classroom. In some ways the very bright children are more difficult than ones who are slow learners (for lack of a better term!) I need to be careful that Maddie keeps up a positive attitude towards learning. I think it will be important to find a good classroom placement for her next year.

It's a fun season and we're enjoying watching them learn and grow daily. In fact, we're just off to their piano recital now. Maybe I'll have more to blog about after that!