Scenes from School

The girl's teachers take lots of pictures of their activities during the week, and have started sending us smileboxes (picture shows) that show off their skills. Looks like Hannah and Leah are doing a lot of cooking along with their art projects and and playing. And they've even learned how to vote! We're amazed at all the fun and creative things that all the kids have been exposed to...most of which I would never think to do at home. They've all had fun with different "flannels", which are laminated pictures of things that they are learning for the week or month. Joseph was a huge fan of these, and the girls have had them in their classrooms too. Hannah and Leah have taken a few outings to parks that are in walking distance to school, and Joseph has been taking buses all over the place to go to water parks, plays, the zoo, and next week he gets to take a trip to a farm. On Joseph's field trip last week, he actually managed to loose his sandals. The director called that afternoon to apologize and say that they were doing everything they could do to locate the shoes, but I've already been broken into daycare and realize some things do get lost (though it did take me two years to feel this way) and I was just glad they hadn't lost him! (every phone call should start with "everyone is OK") Besides, for the most part their shoes are all bargains from Kohls clearance rack with coupons and out of coincidence I had just stopped there over lunch and bought him a new pair of perfectly priced sandals. I suspect the old ones that were falling apart were chucked off his feet on the bus ride back to school. He sometimes does this in the minivan too. We can loose shoes....but we absolutely cannot loose our most favorite stuffed animals. Joseph has grover at home, and a tiger at school. Both are key to happiness. And Leah like her brother, has a bear at home and a lion at school. We would be in huge trouble if either were to go missing. Hannah on the other hand, has bunny at home, and just her pacifier at school. The goal is to get rid of the pacifier by the time she turns 2, so we may have to substitute another favorite stuffed friend at some point. Joseph continues to work on his letters and numbers, and writing his name. He even brought home a piece of paper with all of our names that his teacher helped him with. And the girls are learning their colors and shapes, and apparently are each others best friends. They tend to play with each other most of the time and will only hold hands with each other on the playground. But when they are separated into different classrooms they play well with the other kids, so I don't think we need to worry about anything now. Just a big decision for when they go to kindergarten but we have some time to figure that one out. A more recent milestone, is that we are to the point that we can walk all three kids in and out of daycare at the same time? (if parked close enough to the door, in order to avoid any chance sprints out into the street) We used to take multiple trips in and out, and sometimes still do depending on how much stuff there is to carry. By fall we'll be pros.