Saturday, August 24, 2013

Back to School

This past week was back to school week here in Arkansas.  
That meant hubs went back to work, my mom went back to work, my mother in law went back to work, lots of friends went back to work, and last but not least, Sara Kate moved up classrooms!  The week we were at the beach was a fun week but it was also an exciting week job wise for Chris.  He had lots of email conversations, a phone interview, and in the end, got a new job.  He's still teaching choir in Fayetteville, but he moved from a middle school director to a junior high director (along with being an assistant at the high school).  He was sad to leave his boys at the middle school, but he was also excited and ready to start a new adventure.  I'm a big dork and always take his picture on the first day of school...his mother recently thanked me, haha!
Monday was a big day for Chris, but it was also a big day for Sara Kate.  She moved from the Skipper class to the Monarch class!  The Monarch class is considered the 'preschool' class.  She's been a Tadpole, Pollywog, Frog, Pygmy, Skipper, and now she's a Monarch.  Only one more class, the Pre-K class (Emperors), before she goes to kindergarten...I can't believe it!  Anyway, she was very excited to go to the Monarch class, and on Monday she was VERY excited to wear her new back to school outfit that Meme bought her (even though she's been back in school full time since the beginning of August).
I didn't see her new teacher Monday afternoon but I talked to her on Tuesday and again on Thursday, and she told me Sara Kate is doing GREAT in the Monarch class.  She's listening, following directions, taking a nap, eating lunch, and if she starts misbehaving, they can corrects it quickly with redirection.  I'm so relieved to hear all of that.  It's no secret that our daughter is strong willed and very independent.  She was having a lot of behavior problems at the end of last school year in the Skipper room, and her teacher told me then that she thought the root of the behavior problems were that Sara Kate was bored and needed to be challenged more (but they couldn't move her yet).  Hopefully we'll continue in the right direction with her behavior.
I'm so proud at some of her take home sheets from this week.  They are really working on tracing and are starting to write letters.  Her teacher bragged on her at how well she's doing with her tracing (see the 'school' picture above too!).  
Here is her working on writing an 'A.'  She's 3 years old...I'm impressed (even though I've already seen her starting to write some letters like an 'S' and and 'H'...still impressed.).
One more back to school item I want to mention has to do with our precious niece Hannah.  She started kindergarten this week and I can't hardly believe she's old enough for big school!!  We talked to her Monday night and she said she made a few new friends, made a friend that was a boy, and her favorite part of the day was recess.  :-)  We love her and are so proud of her!
Overall, I'd say the first week of school was a success.  We all got to school and work on time (well, mostly on time for me, ha!), traffic wasn't too much of a nightmare (but the University starts back next week so that could change, ha!), all lunches and dinners got made (whew!), and we all went to bed at a decent time each night (thank goodness!!).  Hopefully Chris will have a good year teaching at the junior high and Sara Kate will continue to learn and thrive this year in the Monarch class.  If you went back to school this week, I hope you had a great week!  If you go back in the coming week, good luck!

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