School Starts

We just came from Will's school's open house, where we met his 2nd grade teacher, Mrs. Hemphill. (He's WAY happier than this pic - our eyes are stinging today from the pool; Hank cleaned & chlorinated it right before we jumped in to celebrate the last day of Will's summer vacay! :-P) We are extra excited for this teacher, b/c the daughter of one of the best 1st grade teachers (who has become a friend of mine at church now, too) is in Will's class, and you *KNOW* she would make sure her kid is in the best one! :-D WOOHOO!!! The bus rolls up to our house tomorrow morning!

[PS - guess which sucker responsible, involved, SAHM signed up to be Will's class "room mom"? Is it selfish that I want nothing to do w/ PTO, but I have no problem being room mom?]

Annelise is ROCKING Kindy, so far. She has homework every night, but she says she likes it, that it makes her smarter. :-P She's exhibiting perfectionist tendencies (where does she get that? :-P) and at this rate, she'll be reading better than Will this year! :-O She & Will both inherited my proclivity for putting off things that seem "too hard" instead of just barreling through. I hear the same words that were chanted at me ad nauseam - "If you would have just gone on & done it, instead of making excuses, you could have been finished & already playing by now" - coming out of my own mouth. :-P They are both so proud of their achievements, though, and obviously we are, too! Annelise is even "pre-learning" her multiplication tables - this is a great example of how Montessori teaches kids the foundations of how to learn: they're not drilling tables to memorize. In their regular Kindergarten-level practice of writing out their numbers, they write different number patterns: 2, 4, 6, 8; 3, 6, 9, 12; 4, 8, 12, 16; 5, 10, 15, 20. In figuring out what number comes next, they're teaching themselves multiples. :-)