I’ve made as much preparation as I can think to do.  I’ve purchased a number of soft foods, got some drinks, got my Camelbak filled up and ready (they say fluids are very important), and I’ve got a lot of technology and reading to amuse me.

Videos follow.

Charlotte and Nicole Dancing:

Informative little Nicole:

Ila eats, claps, and “talks”:

Sorry, no Isaac video, I’ll have to capture one of him afterschool sometime for you.

The first day of school was August 17th.  We met his teacher the night before at a back to school night.  Her name is Mrs. Rader.  She has taught school for 37 years and this is her second time teaching first grade (she taught 2nd grade last year).  She seems like the kind motherly type which I think is a good fit for Isaac since he tends to be shy and scared.

School Bullies?

The first day was a half day so we picked Isaac up at 11:15.  He got in the van and started complaining right away that the van smelled like “stinky” (poo).  When he got home, he was convinced that the whole house stunk and he only calmed down after I let him spray air freshener all over.  I asked him lots of questions about his day and he had no complaints.  He said Anne and Emma were at his table along with some kids he didn’t know and that his seat was on the end.  He said that he enjoyed his first day.  Later he complained that a boy was holding him and trying to hurt his head at recess.  I emailed his teacher.

Within a few days he started reporting more incidents of kids picking on him.  He said a kid was biting him on his arms and legs and that another kid told all his friends to hit him and that someone tried to steal his lunch.  I became very concerned and called the school to set up a meeting with his teacher.  She called me back a few hours later and said that she had talked to the boys and that it seemed to be a misunderstanding and that she didn’t see anyone giving him a hard time, but she’d keep an eye on him.  Not knowing if he was making things up, I tried not to put any ideas into his head and I avoided questions about if other kids were mean to him that day.  He had a few days where he reported nothing unusual, but before long he started telling stories that made no sense.  He told me in a very heated voice that a boy in his class was trying to give him more math to do because the boy wanted him to stay at school for 100 years!  I asked if someone tried to get him to do their math and said no.  He said someone took his lunch bag, ate his lunch, then returned the bag.  His stories have become so outrageous that I can’t believe them, however, I am concerned about why he’s telling me these obviously untrue stories.  Hopefully, I’ll get a chance to spend some time in his class when my mom comes to visit so that I can get a first hand view of what’s going on.

Reading

I went into the school to pick up Isaac for a Dr. Appointment on Monday.  The teacher said she was really glad to see me because she was excited about Isaac’s reading and wanted to talk to me about it.  She had screened kids by having them read a list of words.  Isaac was one of six kids who could read all the words.  Those six took a test that gave them a reading level.  Isaac’s level fell somewhere between 1.7 and 2.7 (first grade, 7th month and second grade 7th month).  Without seeing the test, I assume that he was able to read some words at both levels, but did not read every word within that range perfectly.  Because his scores are sufficiently high, he has started reading books at school and then taking quizzes on the books he’s read so that he can earn points towards rewards at school.

This doesn’t really relate to school, but a few weeks ago I had sent him to his room to get dressed and when I went in to check on him, he was standing in his underwear reading a book.  I was very excited that he was enjoying reading enough to get distracted by it!

I’m also starting to wonder how he does in math since it sounds like the worst fate he can think of is having more math to do.  Perhaps I should spend some time working on first grade math concepts with him.

One day Isaac excitedly proclaimed “My reading skills almost go the whole way!”

Charlotte has been telling me that she’s growing up.  One day she was so convinced that her growth was obvious that she told me Dad would say “Oh Charlotte, you’re growing up.” when he saw her after work.  The other day she said “Mom, you’re growing up.  You’re growing up to be a grandma!”

Charlotte announced:  “When I grow up, I will be a mommy and I will have 4 kids.  I will name the first  one Isaac and I will name one Charlotte and Charlotte will be first, but not very first.”

While scribbling some of the red scribbles she kept saying “oh, no Bunny.”  I don’t know if she was referring to an actual bunny or her Grandma Bunny.  She also calls squirrels bunny for some unknown reason so she may have even been drawing a squirrel.

Click Read more to read his Journal entries

6.15.10  I like trains.  I love Mom.  I love Charlotte.

6.16.10  Tomorrow is my birthday.  Grandma will make it so you can play with us.

6.18.10 I will like it at Kid fit.

6.21.10 I like air hockey.

6.22.10 I have been building with Legos.

6.23.10  I love you.  I like trains.

6.25.10 I like Roller Coaster Tycoon.

6.28.10  I like air hockey.

6.29.10 I surprised Mom by getting her some water.

6.30.10 I have a loose tooth.

7.1.10 I gave everyone a water today.

7.2.10  the tooth fairy gave me money.

7.5.10 I love everyone.

7.6.10  I am always nice.

7.7.10 I got a water for everybody

7.8.10 I will start building a computer out of Legos today.

7.9.10  We got here too late for the first class, so we have to go to the last class.

7.14.10  Dad missed a red light because he didn’t see it.

7.27.10  I’m too tired of writing.

7.28.10  My hands are tired.

7.29.10  I’m going on an adventure with Dad today.

7.30.10  We are going to the beach soon.

8.2.10  I love you.

8.3.10  I love Dad.

8.10.10 I like playing Sim City 4.

8.12.10 I will be in the First Grade.

8.13.10  I’m afraid that First Grade will skip playtime and lunch.

Here is a sample of her reading skills.  I post this with the idea that this is the sort of thing that grandparents would be really interested in watching, but friends and casual blog readers may want to skip the video

 Here is a copy with labels to help you decipher the drawing

We met his teacher at the open house tonight and asked her questions about first grade.  He was very excited when he learned that in first grade he’ll get 25 minutes of playtime which is 5 more minutes than Kindergarten.  He thought the kindergarteners would be sad that they weren’t getting as much time to play.

(Charlotte comes out wearing a brown shirt that says “I heart Chocolate” and a pair of colorful Hawaiian shorts.)

Me:  Charlotte, those clothes don’t match each other, you can wear either the shirt or the shorts

Charlotte:  The word Chocolate is white and there’s white right here on my shorts.

Me:  It doesn’t match.  You can wear your blue shirt with those shorts or jeans with that shirt, Jeans match everything.

<<Charlotte runs off and comes back wearing pink pants>>

Me:  Charlotte, those pants don’t match

Charlotte:  They’re my pink jeans.

Me:  Only blue jeans match everything.

Poor Nicole must not have been feeling well, because she didn’t leave my Aunt’s arms to play in the pool.  She clung to her and even fell asleep in her arms in the water. Zach brought the big kids over to play in the pool and wash all the sand off their bodies.  He reported that they built a nice castle and a canal system, but we have no pictures since my camera was with me at the pool.

We went back to our room and decided to get ready and drive home since the kids were kinda sick and the last two nights of sleep in our room were less than restful.  Everyone showered and got dressed.  Zach went to fill the tank with gas and fetch some lunch (shrimp from “The Sea Shack”) with one of our remaining food vouchers while I packed up all of our things. 

We drove home by way of Charlotte, North Carolina.  It added an hour to our trip, but we really wanted to be able to take our Charlotte to Charlotte.  We arrived around 8:00 PM and had a late dinner at IHOP in Charlotte.  Everyone enjoyed chocolate milk, pancakes, bacon, sausage, crêpes, and coloring. By the time we were done with dinner, the sun was setting and it was starting to rain.  We drove to downtown Charlotte to see the skyline and look for buildings and signs with Charlotte’s name on them.  Unfortunately our van’s wipers were terrible and it was pouring rain.  By the time we pulled into a parking lot  so that we could get  a picture of Charlotte in Charlotte it was completely dark and pouring rain.  Zach hoped out with his umbrella and the two big kids and they all came back soaking wet. Before we could drive out of Charlotte, the rain poured down so hard that it was almost impossible to see the road so we pulled over to wait out the storm.  After about 15 minutes, the storm died down enough for us to drive on and we were soon out of the storm and on our way home.  We arrived home in the wee hours of the morning.