Clara & School

The only complaint I've gotten about school so far is why we have to wait until the afternoon to go.  Clara loves it so much that it is hard to wait until noon to go everyday!

She started off the year a little uncertain about things.  Unlike Gracie, she's not a big fan of change or new things.  So even though Gracie was in Mrs. Matejka's class last year and Clara spent a fair amount of time in the kindergarten room (I think they have parties almost every month!), it was still nerve-wracking for her.  She loves it now and even last week when she said her throat was hurting, she didn't want to miss a day.  I think she still must worry a little though, because every day on the way there she says we can do drop-off (at the front door) instead of walking her into the classroom.  And every day, I check again when we get to the school and the answer always changes to "mmmmmm... walk me in!"

But she's definitely over most of her worries about school and nothing can deter her from her beloved kindergarten.  In fact, two weeks ago, we got the special treat of having Mimi at our house for the day.  And Mimi got to walk Clara in to kindergarten that day.  Well, she was so excited, but as soon as she got there, quickly showed Mimi her table and her cubby, she was ready to get to work in her "center" (different areas where they play for the first 10-15 minutes of class).  I had to remind her to tell Mimi good-bye! 

Here are a few of the "special moments" so far of kindergarten: 

 Mrs. Matejka at our house, reading stories with Clara & tucking her in.  She takes the time to visit all of her students at their house in the evening, read them a bedtime story, pray with them and tuck them in.  Gracie got to enjoy it last year and this year, Clara just loved it.  In fact, Clara talked Mrs. Matejka into 3 stories somehow.  And it was Mrs. Matejka's birthday the night she came to our house, so we got to make her some homemade caramel popcorn and a homemade, rainbow-striped duct tape bag.  I didn't get a picture (what was I thinking?), but it turned out really neat!!

The next big event for kindergarten was the circus!  Clara's first plan was to be a lion, since one of her buddy's at school (Byron!) was going to be the lion tamer.  But during the practice the day before the circus, she decided to be an acrobat.  "Because," she informed me, "I'm the only one that can do a cartwheel, and an acrobat *has* to do cartwheels."  I was relieved, just because I didn't know what kind of lion costume I was going to come up with in a few hours, but I was curious to see how these "cartwheels" were going to come out, because she really hasn't mastered that skill yet!  But she did a great job & it was fun to see her having so much fun.  And her big sister got to be in the room watching as well (she's in the 2nd picture below).

They've also made rice babies (fill a sock with your birth weight of rice - Clara was 9lbs6oz - that was a lot of rice!).  Of course I forgot my camera on that day, but we've got "Clara" at home now, so I'll get a picture of her and Clara's Bag Buddy ("Rose") that they made in the same week.  The week they called "Meology."  

I was really surprised on the day of the creation of the rice babies by Clara's reaction.  Mrs. Matejka has a rocking chair in her room and for all of the kids, she holds the rice baby (after they've been stuffed, decorated with eyes, paci's, belly buttons and swaddled in a blanket), talks about how the babies came to be with their parents and then hands the baby to the student.  When it came to Clara's turn (we were last - we had the most rice to get into that sock!), she was almost crying when Mrs. Matejka handed her the baby.  I don't know what made her so emotional, but I hope it was happy emotions!  And maybe, the goal of the lesson just really hit home with her - to realize how special it is to have that little baby in your arms. 

Of course, there are all of the other academic things that are happening for Clara in school.  She's officially learning all of her consonant and vowel sounds and applying those to her rapidly improving reading skills (she's really reading lots of things these days - as long as she doesn't get too intimidated).  She's writing her first and last name with the correct lower and upper case, and they aren't really doing any math yet, but she's got a workbook at home and was busy at it tonight.  Coming back to ask me about "seven take away five, is two?"  Yes, yes, Clara. 

And the Ranger Rick "Just For Fun" puzzle magazine that Mimi & Pap sent and Mimi thought might be too hard?  She's been working away on a fill in the word puzzle (12 sentences all with one incomplete word.  The incomplete word has the letters "rat" in it, but has other letters missing.  You have a list of 15 possible words you can use.)   I didn't realize it until tonight, but she's been working on it over a few days and has five of them done!  I was impressed.  Although I suggested that "My sister takes --rat- lessons" might not be "My sister takes 'pirate' lessons."