My Little Pilgrim

Big Bro has his First Grade Feast yesterday, where the first grade classes dress as Pilgrims and Indians and have lunch in the hall with their families. I was so sad to miss this but hubby was able to go. Big Bro looked so cute in his little costume!

And we are off to see my family for Thanksgiving! I am so excited, as it seems like forever since we've been to Granny and Papa's. Big Bro keeps telling me that he can't even remember their house, which I know is just a guilt trip because in the next breath he will tell me all the things he wants to play with when he gets there! Little Sis is very excited as well. For the last 3 days she has been asking if it was time to go yet! So we have a long day of driving ahead filled with "are we there yet?".

Christmas Lights (& Heights)

It's starting to look a lot like Christmas...not really but we wanted to get our lights up while it was still nice out. The lights are nothing fantastic but I figured this photo would quicken Granny's pulse!

Weekend Blast

We took Big Bro's rocket out last weekend, figuring it would be the last time until spring. The kids love this thing!

WOW!

Big Bro had an assignment to come up with some original artwork to the theme "WOW". So he took the camera out into the yard and snapped some photos by himself. He actually got quite a few good shots. We decided to use this one. His artist statement read "Wow, those are some pretty sharp thorns".

I Dressed Myself

Here's one of Little Sis's Fashion Creations...a present day late eighties-early nineties look?
I really need some of those stickers, "I Dressed Myself", to slap on this kid!

Angerize?

Big Bro's favorite new game is to tease sis until she screams. All week we have been telling him to "Stop antagonizing your sister". So I just had to laugh tonight when I heard him start to tease and little sis piped up "Brother stop angerizing me. I am really getting mad."!!

Fall Changes

Like the weather, I seem to notice the biggest changes in my children during the fall and spring.

Big Bro has gotten amazing at spelling. During dinner the other night I asked hubby if he wanted to make a f-i-r-e (not wanting to get the kids excited if the answer was no) and Big Bro knew exactly what we were talking about. I guess that means this year we won't be talking about the t-o-y-s from s-a-n-t-a while they are around!

Little Sis has grown considerably too. She now dresses herself each morning, everything from taking off her jammies to putting on her shoes. It makes for some interesting outfits! I am so amazed that she can button and unbutton her clothing already! She has also grown into quite the little helper. Here is some video of her helping one of the little guys I care for put on his shoes.

Fall Colors

I love all the colors of fall. I try to capture the kids playing in the leaves every year. We were a little late this year due to the unusually wet weather we have had and our hectic schedule. Here are a few we managed to get anyway.

Halloween Photos

Little Sis was feeling a bit better by Halloween night so we took them out trick-or-treating just around the block. I wanted to post these photos even though I am late getting it done.

Quit Pushing Our Kids So Hard!

So I just spent another morning in Caleb's school and feel the need now to VENT!

I spend Thursday mornings reading with the kids individually. There is a massive list of words that the kids are expected to know and certain dates throughout the year they must know them by. We are approaching one of those magical dates and so have been having to focus extra hard helping kids learn these words. Not only do they have to know these words, they must read an incredible amount of them in 60 seconds!

On top of that, several different subjects have had to be introduced this week, (i.e. the possessive "s", the "ing", the "ed" and the "er"). And they had to know sentence structure (noun, verb, etc). This has to be done in a specific time frame as well because of the WASL. It seems that all the teachers are now required to structure their teaching around this standardize test. UGH!

As I was working with the kids this morning I noticed great amounts of frustration from many of the students. Some were giving up, some couldn't stop fidgeting, and most were exhausted. When the bell for recess rang there were many still at their desks attempting to complete their morning assignments, including Big Bro. I went over to help him and he said he was having trouble focusing. Yeah, who wouldn't with the amount of crap shoved at him during the first hour and half of class? His teacher let these students work for another 10 minutes and then told them to go outside and get some fresh air. Big Bro broke into tears. When I asked him what was wrong he said that he didn't want to have to finish the assignment later, he just wanted it done now. I think he was just tired of looking at it. Poor Guy.

I stayed and talked with the teacher as Big Bro went to recess. It seems that all the first grade students are having this problem, yet no one will listen to the teachers. These teachers are instructed to mold our children to fit some politicians grand idea of the perfect first-grader. Yet they are not accounting for the differences in our children. Individuality is being striped just for the sake of passing the WASL. Our children are being pushed to the breaking point.

But what can I do about it? Move to a different state? Or are all states focusing on standardize testing these days? Home school? But what about the social repercussions?

Why do we push our children so hard? Why do we need them to grow up so fast? Why should first graders do third grade work? Why does passing a standardize test matter so much? And why does the test need to be so difficult? Who is benefiting from all of this? Not our children!

No Child Left Behind? What a joke! Maybe that should be renamed Leave Childhood Behind!

Hmmm...I wonder if the politicains could pass the WASL. Probably not!