A couple of weeks ago John changed his work schedule. He used to work 2pm-11pm (but he'd actually leave for work at noon and come home well after midnight), now he is working 5am-2pm (but he's getting home closer to 3 or 4 most days). This has changed everything about our family life. With his old schedule he'd get up at 10am, eat breakfast and get ready for work then leave. We hardly ever saw him. Now we see him every night, for several hours! We eat dinner together, we watch TV in the evenings, John reads bedtime stories to the boys by the fire, we get some couple time after the boys go to bed...It's like a whole new life. After two years of hardly seeing each other during the week, we appreciate these "normal" evenings so much more.
I'd been pushing John to look into changing his schedule because next year Alex will be going to school all day and Alex would only get to see his dad on the weekends. This opportunity came up and John was unsure of it at first because of the early start time, but it turns out to be perfect. Even if he works late (as he often does), he's still home in time for dinner.
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Alex brought home his first ever report card yesterday and we couldn't be more proud. He's meeting all of the academic expectations even exceeding a few. The best and most informative part of the report card were the teacher's comments:
Alex is a pleasure to work with. He is very affectionate and caring. He loves to create and make things. He has a little trouble with transitions. He doesn't want to quit a project he's working on when it is time to move on to another activity. He also needs to work on solving problems in a positive way instead of outbursts. I compliment him on trying to do his best. This trimester we have worked on letter and letter sound recognition, identifying beginning, ending and middle sounds of words, blending syllables, listening for rhyming words, alliteration and "robust" vocabulary words. Alex has been successful in working on these skills. He reads 11 high frequency words. He should continue to practice blending sounds together to sound out new words as he practices reading at home. his handwriting is progressing as he gains more skill through practice. I am pleased with the progress he has made and look forward to watching his skills grow and grow.
In math, he does what is asked and tries his best. He understands the concept of patterning. He counts to 39 by 1s. He should practice counting to 100 by 10s and then 1s. He needs to practice writing numbers to 20. He knows math facts up to 5. Our goal for the end of the year is to know math facts to 6. He needs to learn his address, phone number and birthday.
He is doing a good job on his homework. He has completed 7 out of 7 homework assignments. During our group time, he is attentive, participates, raises his hand and does what is asked. He gets along well with the other children. He seems to enjoy his association with his classmates. He is cooperative and helpful. He is a great member of our class.
Outbursts and trouble transitioning have been issues since his first year of preschool and is something we try to work on with him. He is much better than he was last year, and I'm sure that he'll continue to get better as he gets older. Also I'm positive he knows his birthday, he must not have been paying attention when she was asking him, because if there is one thing Alex knows, it is September 25th. Maybe not the year though. We'll work on that.
The way she describes what he's like in class makes me glow with pride. I volunteer in his classroom every month and I see how he is in class, but it's great to know that's really what he's like everyday and he's not just on his best behavior because Mom's here today. Kindergarten has been great for Alex, he's happy, he's learning, he's growing and gaining valuable social skills. Seems he's started his school career on the right foot, I hope we can keep up this momentum for the next 12 years!
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Also in Alex news, he has a girlfriend, Zoe, who makes him little projects that he brings home every day.
Zoe drew a picture of the two of them holding hands.
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Poor Max doesn't have much going on these days. He won't start preschool until next fall, so he gets to just hang out with me in the afternoons while Big Brother is in school. We've been walking to the park on nice days and it's been very fun to spend some one on one time with my baby.
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Life has just been really good lately. Our finances are still in the toilet, but because everything else is going so well, it's kind of just an afterthought. We're working on making it better, but not stressing out about it at all. For the first time in my life I really feel like I'm living in the moment. Enjoying life right now. It's a big deal for me, I've always been so focused on making a plan for the future, I've often missed out on everything happening in the present. What are my goals for 2012? I don't know. I don't much care. I think I'll just go play hide and seek with my boys and not worry about it.
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