Thursday, November 6, 2008

Shout Out to Awesome Teachers

As the Thanksgiving season is upon us I have a lot of things for which to be grateful, but one thing that keeps coming back to me is how blessed we have been by our children's teachers since we've moved here. For the girls sake, I don't want to go into too many specifics but they've both had their share of struggles academically. The teacher's have always been very open to communicate with us and to provide whatever resources they could for us.

I keep hearing from other's about "one size fits all" teaching and I can honestly say that has been the furthest from our experience these past 3 years. I know each of these teacher's has gone out of her way to adapt the classroom and teaching to my specific kid and her needs. All of them have communicated with me openly and freely and what I love most is that they always come to me with a solution already in mind. Eveen when they have felt stumped they've mentioned that they would talk to the other teacher's in the grade for helpful ideas. They've been willing to listen to any of my concerns and to act on the things we've discussed quickly.

I can't express enough what a blessing and a relief it is to send my kids to school and know that whatever struggles they have that day they have someone at school who I know is in their corner routing for them. It's made an amazing difference. It fills my heart when Kendall comes home telling me how she did and I know it's a direct result of her teacher showering her with positive reinforcement and encouragement. Or when Rebecca comes home telling me of something she learned or accomplished and I know it's because of a teacher that has repeatedly demonstrated that she knows Rebecca can do it even when she might not be sure of it herself. Not only has it made a world of difference academically but socially and emotionally as well.

So I just want to give a big but inadequate THANK YOU to Mrs. Morea, Mrs. Proctor, Mrs. Jensen, Ms. Buchwald, Ms. Keiffer, Ms. Heard, Ms. Hurst and all the teachers that support them. I couldn't have asked for better teachers for my children if I had hand picked them myself.

Monday, November 3, 2008

My Poor Neglected Blog

Well sometimes something has to give and lately it's been this Blog. Matthew has been hounding me to post something for sometime. I was a little busy getting ready for Disney World and Halloween and then I came home to a broken computer. I have lots I wanted to share but it's just not the same without my pictures which I don't have easy access to at the moment.

The kids have been busy with school and all their other activities. The 3 younger girls are loving their dance classes and thanks to the Lego catalog I can now at least picture what it is that Rebecca does every Friday at Robotics club. We had teacher conferences the week before our trip and both girls are doing well in school. They both struggle with the same concept (spelling/ sight words) which I'm thinking must be a genetic thing. Both teachers are perfect fits for each of the girls and we feel like we've hit the teacher jack pot since we moved to this school district.

Prior to our trip I got the idea to make outfits for the girls to wear to Disney. So, much to Matthew's delight after 2 lonely years I finally pulled out the sewing machine. I've been having lots of fun with it. So far I've made each of the girls a dress for Disney and a Halloween dress and a vampire cape for Elliott. My next project is scrubs for the kids and Christmas gifts.

Papa completed the Play House and the kids are loving. Matthew has decided it's not bright enough in there so has been digging up the yard and laying cable so that it will have electricity.

Our trip to Disney was fun and exhausting. The twins had a hard time sleeping and it made for far more tantrums than we expected. Despite that we had a good time. Some of the highlights were probably getting to see the twins ride their first roller coaster, Rebecca overcoming her fears and being more adventurous in her rides (she actually road Everest), Kendall meeting Tigger and bouncing with him, having dinner with Matthew's friends, and meeting up with some of my online friends. We stayed in the Fort Wilderness cabins and we loved it. I would love to go back there for a week and spend half the time just at the campground and half the time in the parks. In fact someone told me that they've even stayed at the campgrounds and not even gone into the parks. It really was a great place to stay.

A couple of funny things. My brother Benjamin let us borrow his TomTom (GPS) for the trip. Well the kids didn't know what to think of it and Dakotta would start to argue with it. The TomTom would say "Turn Right" and she would retort "We already turned right." Then one day we got of the boat launch at the Magic Kingdom and Corinna says "Turn left and then turn left" just like the TomTom.

Also, the automatic flushers were quite the issue. Corinna and Dakotta caught on quickly that you have to hold your hand over the sensor. So we'd walk into the stall and they'd take turns holding the sensor for each other. Kendall on the other hand didn't trust them with this most important job and insisted that I was the only one responsible enough to cover the sensor for her.

Elliott got to spend the weekend with his cousins and Uncle Stephen and Aunt Shelene. He seemed to have a great time and came home barking whenever he sees a picture of an animal. And he even got to sing in church with them during the Primary program. His sisters were not happy with us for leaving him home but I think he had a great time and am pretty sure Matthew and I couldn't have handled all 5 of them without some help. I'm sure they will be sure to let Elliott know that they all begged mom and dad to take them but we were the mean ogres that didn't bring him to Disney.

Well maybe someday I'll have my computer working and will be able to update with some of the hundreds of pictures I've taken this month.