2011-2012 1st Quarter Report Cards

We celebrated the kids 1st Quarter Report Cards with a family outing to Chuck E Chesse! This was Rose's 1st report card, ever! In Kinder she gets 1,2,3 marks instead of letter grades. Rose has adjusted pretty well to Kinder and has learned so much more then I would have imagined. She struggled at the beginning of the year with her letters. Mainly, it was that she struggled with being intimidated. It took her pretty much the whole quarter until she felt comfortable enough to even tell her teacher she needed to go to the bathroom. So obviously when her teacher was testing her she would freeze up and be shy. I'm happy to say that she has gotten over that. Mainly because I would quiz her with flashcards or while I pushed her on the swings while Nathan was at soccer practice. Oh, my goodness Rose loves for me to quiz her, like begs and begs me to do it. She just needed to feel confident in her answers and not even have to think about. I love my sweet, sensitive girl!

I'm also so proud of Rose! She really has taken to school. She is very studious and loves (makes that begs) to do her homework. Yeah, I don't know how we ended up with children like that. She is an awesome listener in her class and follows all the rules. Actually I do know how we end up with children like that, or at least this has been my philosophy and it's worked really well with our children.

Before they go to school I focus on creating a strong bond with our children, playing with them, exploring with them and encouraging their curiosity, and in general teaching them to be helpful and happy. That's it! I was super frustrated that the first quarter of school seemed all about testing and expecting Rose already know how to read. Which isn't exactly true, but it felt that way. But here's the thing, I think my job is to give my children all the necessary skills and attitude to learn. When they have the right attitude and know they can figure anything out then the learning comes naturally and lasts a lifetime.

As for the boys, they were both straight A's all the way! This is Nathan's first year in middle school. He chose Multi-Media for his elective and has been loving it. He does alot of projects and seems to really like it. He wanted to do Kickstart for his PE class but instead he got put into a regular PE class. It was disappointing for the first week but he got over it super quick. He really likes all the different athletics they do, he also doesn't mind running a mile a couple of times a week. I keep trying to encourage him to do track but he is insistent that he doesn't really love running. Which he may not, but he is super quick and does like being one of the fastest kids when they do the mile. Nathan is also taking all Pre-AP classes for his core classes. Our biggest worry for Nathan starting middle school was making friends. Not many of the kids from his elementary are in the zone for his MS, and in particular his best friends from 5th grade, Arthur, is at the other middle school. We were super happy that he made a number of friends the first week and already had a good set of kids to sit by at lunch.

Darin is in 7th grade and a pro at the whole middle school thing. He is doing Band and Kickstart again. He made it into Honor Band this year and really, really enjoys it. He is also in all Pre-AP classes. At their school that means that he is finishing up the 2nd half of the middle school core classes. So next year when he is in 8th grade he will be doing his Freshman HS classes. We have mixed feelings about that. I love that he is challenged more then he would be in a regular class and that he attends classes with other kids who are more studious. However, we are not fans of kids graduating from High School with a ton of college courses. It frustrates us that we hear about it all the time and he is only in 7th grade. We don't like the pressure it puts on the kids, we want him to enjoy school and not be stressed out thinking about his future. And that pertains to college too, we want him to live up and enjoy his college moments at the proper time and maturity level too. The one exception Ken and I have thought about this since it seems inevitable for our children to be on this path is that having some college courses taken care means that they could take more electives in college.

Anyway, onto the partying. This was also just days before Ginger's birthday so even though she doesn't get report cards yet, she got a say in picking the venue. The boys were outnumbered with their two sisters having such momentous events this time.

The boys still had lots of fun playing the racing and fighting games. Unfortunately Nathan left the party a little early for soccer practice.
I had Ken take this picture of Darin and Ginger because they were totally zoned out watching Chuckee's birthday show for some twins. They couldn't hold a conversation at all:-)


I remember being so sensitive about my boy playing with guns when they were little. Then we have the girls who run around playing with guns with their brothers when they can barely walk. Ginger was totally drawn to this game. Clearly, I'm not hyper-sensitive anymore.

Rose was so happy to get lip gloss with her tickets.