Along with the hundred other things I did on Friday, I squeezed in Emma’s first grade parent teacher conference. I’m not sure why I thought Halloween was a good day for it, but never the less, that is when I scheduled it.

It turns out it was one of the nicest few minutes of my whole day!

I haven’t spent very much time one on one with Emma’s teacher, Ms. Hensler. I met her at back to school night, but there were so many other parents trying to talk to her that night. Many of them were totally monopolizing her time, and I am just not one of those parents. But we did talk a bit and I got a really good feeling about her.

I heard a lot of different opinions about her from previous students parents. The biggest complaint I heard was that she wasn’t very warm. I have not found that to be true at all. She is really shy and quiet, but extremely sweet and nice. I think people mistake her shyness for standoffishness. (Is that even a word? )

But what other parents think doesn’t really matter because Emma LOVES her! She draws pictures and makes her cards almost on a daily basis. Emma was very interested to hear what Ms. Hensler had said about her, and her eyes lit up when I told her.

Ms. Hensler loves Emma. Her review was great. She said that she is a great kid and that she really loves having her in her class. She said she brings a great positive spirit to the class that really rubs off on the other kids. She is right where she should be as far as academics–ahead of most of her peers, but not so far ahead that she is bored. She is a good worker and a quick learner.

Ms. Hensler gave her the nicest compliment I think a teacher can give someone. She said that Emma is one of those kids that makes her consider having children. She said that if she could guarantee that she would get someone like Emma, she would definitely have a baby.

My Halloween was crazy and stressful. I had way too much going on, and Scott was sick with strep throat. But Emma’s conference turned out to be just what I needed. I was proud to hear that she is doing so well both academically and socially. I feel lucky to have such a great little girl for my daughter.

Nora is ready to potty train. Actually she has been ready for at least a month.

The problem is, I don’t know if I am quite ready.

A few months ago I decided to get out the potty chair. I put it in the powder room. Nora loved it immediately. Right away she wanted to take off her diaper and sit on it. She proceeded to take off her diaper and sit on the potty about a thousand times a day, but she never did anything. Mostly she just wanted to sit there and play with the toilet paper.

A few weeks ago she started to get it, and she figured out how to pee on the potty. A few mornings I just left her diaper off and let her run around naked. She did pretty well at going to the potty when she needed to go.

Here in North Carolina we decided to get her a potty chair. Of course, she loved it. Every day she has been sitting on it and peeing every once in a while.

The last couple of days she has started to tell us when she has to poop too. It is so funny. She says “I poop it” over and over. It comes out sounding like I pooped, so we check her diaper and don’t find anything. Sure enough a few minutes later she poops. I finally figured out she tells me that before she has to go.

Today she had a big break through. She got up this morning and her diaper was really wet. I took off her pajamas and diaper and she got up and ran away. I decided to just let her run around naked for the morning. Every time she had to go she just went into the bathroom and did it herself. She came and got me once and saying “I did it! Come on.” She grabbed me by the hand and took me to the bathroom. I looked into her potty and she pooped! She was so proud of herself.

I left her diaper off until it was time for her nap, and she didn’t have any accidents. So, I am thinking it is finally time for me to bite the bullet and start potty training her. She is the earliest by almost a year of any of my kids. I kept thinking I should wait, and that it would be easier. But she is definitely ready. I guess a few weeks of running to every potty in sight will be worth it to have my last child out of diapers!

I just got the kids all in bed and it is just before 7pm. It is so nice to have a little peace and quiet.

We are in North Carolina again. We got here on Thursday night, and we plan to stay for 2 weeks. Scott came with us on Thursday, but left last night to go to work in Denver. He’ll be back again next weekend.

The weather is beautiful here and we have all enjoyed a little bit more summer. The kids spent most of today and yesterday playing outside. They rode bikes, blew bubbles, and just enjoyed being outside. It was fun to see them playing and having a great time together. Even Nora got in on the action and rode her tricycle and “helped” with the bubbles. Her helping involved spilling most of them on the deck and then playing in them.

I am glad that they were having fun, but since we have been here they have all been so LOUD. Emma has been especially loud. I don’t know if it is just because this house is louder or what is going on with her. Every little disagreement or issue sends her into a screaming fit. I have tried talking to her a number of times. I remind her to use her words and talk things out. I show her what kind of a voice to use and ask her not to yell. She seems to get it, and then the next minute, more yelling.

Hopefully tomorrow she will be a little quieter Either way, I am looking forward to tomorrow. We have a babysitter coming and my mom and I are going to go out to lunch and do a little shopping in Southern Pines. I am looking forward to a little grown up time, and hopefully no yelling!

Nora turned two on Saturday. We spent her birthday camping at Lake Powell. (For a great re-cap of the trip check out my friendVicky’s blog). I knew the day would be spent rolling around in the red dirt, but I still wanted to make it a special day for her. I made a cake to take with us, and we all sang Happy Birthday to her around the campfire. It was a bit windy and we had a hard time getting the candles to stay lit. Then, one of our friends twins kept getting upset that she missed singing. We ended up singing about 3 times–which was great for me because it gave me more opportunities to get a good photo

Emma was really excited about Nora’s birthday. She made her and adorable card and some drawings before we went on our camping trip. First thing in the morning Emma gave her a big hug and told her happy birthday. All day, whenever anyone said happy birthday, Nora said it back to them. It was adorable!

She has been the sweetest and cutest little girl lately. She has such a likable personality. She is so friendly and outgoing. She loves to smile at people and is constantly saying “hi” and waving to strangers. She has such a cute little smile and people are just drawn to her. She is cute and tough at the same time. She gets hurt and she just rubs it and goes on with hardly a whimper. Lately she has had a speech explosion. It seems like she can say everything now. She is so funny when she talks. She says somethings that are hard to understand. If you say what you think she said, and it is wrong she keeps saying no and correcting you until you get it right. When you finally get it, her face lights up and she says “uh-huh”. I am still savoring all the little baby talk and cute little baby things because I know the time is just flying by.

This birthday, for some reason, I wasn’t quite as emotional. I know she is growing up, and it is all going so fast. But I felt OK with it this birthday. Maybe it is because she is at such a cute stage and I am enjoying her so much. Whatever the reason, I am so glad that she is my little girl and that she is a part of our family.

My friend Vicky told me about “Princess Day” at the Paul Mitchell School. They were doing a charity fundraiser where they invited little girls to come and be treated like princesses. They did their hair and gave them tiaras to wear. They they did manicures and made a picture frame. It sounded like it would be so much fun for the girls. We took them, and it was cute. I think Emma and Denali were both more interested in watching “The Little Mermaid” that they were showing on flat screen TVs. Emma looked like she was being tortured most of the time. I am not sure if she had fun or not

Emma did not want to smile. This was the best I could do. We did stop at a park on the way home and I was able to get some good shots of Emma there. They turned out pretty cute. The lighting was terrible in the Paul Mitchell School, but it was nice in the park. I’ll post some of those later in the week.

Last night was New Parent Orientation at Ian’s school, Soaring Wings. Being there made me feel so good about my decision to change schools. They did a few little presentations mostly to show what a Montessori education is all about. I just found myself nodding in agreement with so much of what they said. I really love the Montessori method and all that it does for my kids.

One of the the demonstrations they did showed a language work called the step board. I hadn’t seen that work before, and it was amazing. There are “problem strips” that have words on them. The child takes the problem strip and looks at the picture, then spells out the word. Only the correct letters will fit on the problem strip. Once the word is completed, then they take a paper and trace the words with a pencil. You can see a demonstration of it here.

As Ian’s teacher Ericka was demonstrating it, she explained that it is usually a skill that the 6 year olds work on. A little light went on in my head, as I recognized the small strips of paper with the words spelled out on them. We had a whole stack of them taped to our refrigerator at home! Ian has been working with the step board all week, and he has been doing great with it.

After the presentation I went to talk to Ian’s teacher. Her eyes just lit up as she told me how much she likes Ian. She was so excited to tell me that he had been working with the step board that she demonstrated. She was thrilled with how much Ian knows, and how willing he is to work and to learn. That is one of the best parts of a Montessori education for Ian. He is a bit advanced compared to some of his peers, but since they teach to each individual child’s level, he is continually challenged. He is lagging behind a bit on his writing, but they didn’t seem too worried about it.

I was happy that I juggled my schedule to be there last night. It just reinforced for me that the move was a great choice. Now I get to hear positive things about what a special boy Ian is, instead of hearing about all the negative things he did on the playground. I am so happy that they are able to see Ian for what he is–an energetic intelligent BOY!

The kids started school on Monday. I really can’t believe that our summer is over already. It went so fast!

This year the kids are in two different schools for the first time. I have to juggle two different schedules and different start and end times. Luckily, both schools are close together and it all seems to be working out. Emma starts at 8:10am and Ian starts at 9:00am. Emma is starting her first grade year in a new school. She is going to the elementary school down the street from our house. It feels so strange to have her in such a big school. I can’t believe that she is already in first grade!

For the first day we all got ready together and the whole family went to take Emma to school. She did great! We drove up to the school to the drop off area. I decided to walk her over to her classroom. Her class was just lining up outside the door, ready to go into the classroom. She got right in line and literally ran into the class. She hardly looked back to wave. I was just glad that she was so comfortable in her new school. She came home in the afternoon just raving about it.

After we dropped off Emma we had some time to kill so Scott and I went over to the bagel shop and had a little first day of school bagel with Ian and Nora. Then we were off to drop off Ian.

He was excited about his new school too. I walked him in to his locker. He knew just what to do. This is a new school for him, but he is not new to the Montessori method. He just marched right into the classroom and immediately got out a work to do.

He hardly said goodbye either. But, I wasn’t sad about it. I am just happy that my kids are well adjusted and happy to try out new things.

The first few days have gone really well. Both kids have come home from school saying that they loved school. When I picked up Ian yesterday the head of the school, Duna, had some nice things to say about Ian. She was his substitute yesterday. She said she really enjoyed Ian and that he had a big personality. It was so nice to hear some positive things about him. I am glad they are able to appreciate his personality because he really is a funny and sweet kid.

Today as I was driving Ian home from ice skating lessons we had the cutest little conversation, I just had to write it down.

“Mommy, I love you.”

“I love you too, Ian. I think you are a really special boy.”

“And I think you are the best Mommy in the world……and I think you are the beautifulest mom in the whole world too”

It was so incredibly sweet. I got all teary eyed because it made me feel so special.

Our interview at Soaring Wings Montessori went really well. Ian was right at home in the Montessori classrooms. He tried out a few of their works. As usual he gravitated to the practical life areas. He wanted to play with the water works, but since it was summer none of the water works had water in them. He was thrilled to see the computer in the classroom, and wanted to spend time playing with that. While he played the director and I talked while she observed him. She loved him. He was his usual charming self. He carried on conversations with her. He was so excited to see the animals in the classroom. When they saw the gecko, Ian yelled “Hey, that is a leopard gecko, just like the gecko we have at our school.” I think she was impressed that he knew what a leopard gecko was

I talked to her about the reasons I wanted to move him. I explained how he does great in the classroom, but struggles when the surroundings get chaotic. I told her he has been struggling on the playground. She watched him and told me he seems like a totally normal 4 1/2 year old boy. She said she said based on our visit she thought he would do wonderfully in their school. I think he will do well too.

The main difference I see with the two schools is the way they deal with problems. Soaring Wings has a plan when they encounter problems. They talk about them to the student, then they talk to the parents and explain how they are going to work on it in the classroom, and what the parents can do at home. My friends have experienced this throughout their kids years at Soaring Wings. I also think they are more structured and more strict Montessori. I think it will all work out better for Ian.

I am feeling good about the move. I think it will be better for Ian. I think he needs a fresh start with new teachers. I think he needs to get away from the situation where the teachers are expecting him to act out. I am sure that he will have issues at the new school as well, but I am confident that they will be able to help him work through them.

Ian and Emma have been going to camp at Little Miners last week and this week. It has been a nice break for me, but it hasn’t been going very well for Ian.

Last year, his first introduction to school was at Little Miners camp. He struggled when he started. He was thrilled to go, and had no problems saying goodbye. But, he had a hard time controlling himself at school. He was active and too physical with the other kids. But once school started he calmed down, and the physical issues decreased. He did great in the classroom–he was extremely focused and really loved all the Montessori works. Academically he excelled. Where he struggled was on the playground where there wasn’t as much supervision. He does well with structure, but when it gets more relaxed and chaotic he has a hard time controlling himself. He isn’t mean spirited, he just gets really hyper and wiggly. He waves his arms around and sometimes hits people. He starts doing his “karate routine” and just forgets how to act around other people.

I think this has been a big part of his issues this summer at camp. The environment is much more relaxed and less structured. The playground is more chaotic. There are new kids that have never attended a Montessori school. Ian has already spent a year there, so the teachers are expecting him to be a good example to the other kids. But, so far that hasn’t happened.

The fist day he had an issue in the sandbox. The teachers told me he kicked sand in some kids’ faces. I asked Ian about it. He told me they were making a sand cake. He asked if he could make it with them. They said no, so he kicked sand at them. I talked to him about it, and we went over better options. I asked him what he could do, and he said next time he would say “That isn’t very nice. I’d really like to play with you.” I’m not sure what the teachers said to him, but I know that they had him sit in the office until the end of the day–about 2 hours. When I picked him up the teachers never said anything to me. I just assumed he had a good day.

The second day Sue B. stopped me when I picked him up. She told him about the previous day. She said that he hadn’t gotten to eat popsicles like the other kids, and that he had spent “most of the last 2 afternoons in the office”. The second day while he was in “time out” in the office he crawled under the desk and ate someones chips. I definitely think his behavior requires discipline, but I am not pleased with spending the afternoons in the office.

First of all, he isn’t learning anything by sitting in the office. When the school has a problem, I feel like they should come to me and say “Here is the problem, and here is what we are going to do about it.” Instead, I feel like they just tell me about it, with no solutions. Sue B. keeps telling me about him, and she just looks exasperated when she talks about him. I’m worried that he is being labeled the “bad kid” and no matter what happens, it must be Ian’s fault.

Last week he told me one of the boys had punched him. He went to the teachers and told them. They didn’t see what happened, but Ian got a time out again.

Today he got in trouble again for hitting someone. The teachers just told me he punched someone, and he spent the afternoon in the office. When I asked them about it, they just rolled their eyes and said he was up to the same old stuff. When I asked Ian about it I got a different story. He told me they were play fighting–which I don’t think they should have been doing in the first place. He said they both hit each other, but when Ian hit the other boy he cried. Ian went back to the office.

It makes me sad to hear that Ian is struggling. Nobody wants to hear that their child is having a hard time getting along with others. But I am worried that the school isn’t doing enough to help him learn from his mistakes. They aren’t giving him any alternatives or any lessons. They are just sending him to the office. I am worried for him, and thinking that Little Miners just might not be the best fit for him.

There is another Montessori school in town that everybody raves about. They seem like they follow a more strict Montessori curriculum. I have two close friends who send their kids there. They are opening a new school right down the street from our house. They have space available, and I am thinking about moving him there. I thought about switching there at the end of last year. Scott and I discussed it, but we felt that the last part of the year had gone well and so we would leave him where he was.

I just want to make the right decision for Ian. I am not condoning his behavior in any way. I don’t think it is OK for him to hit other kids. I just want the school to be more proactive. I want them to have solutions to the problems he is having. I want them to help him avoid the situations that lead to rough play. I think he needs more supervision on the playground and more direction. When they see him getting involved in an activity that could lead to him getting too physical, I want them to talk to him and redirect him to better activities. I want him to learn better ways to interact with other kids. I think that is part of what preschool is for.

I have a meeting set up at the new school tomorrow. I think we will go and have the interview and just see how it all feels tomorrow.