Yesterday was the first day of school for Lowden, Parker, and Lauren. The summer was great (I have lots of catch-up blog posts to do on it) but it's kind of sad that it had to end. I am happy to report that we had
no major trauma this summer. That was one of my goals this summer. It's nice to send Parker to school this year without having to worry about him bumping his head (which he wasn't allowed to do for 6 weeks after his craniotomy last summer). Yesterday, I saw the school nurse and let her know we survived the summer injury-free. She was happy to hear it! ☺ I also told her she should call me sometime just to "chat" since usually when she calls it always to involve sickness or injury. LOL.
Lowden is starting fifth grade this year. Although he claims not to be happy about starting again, I know he secretly is. Last summer his reading total was 11,603 pages. He beat that total this summer by reading 14,424 pages! He is hoping to participate in the
Oregon Battle of the Books this year which his school is participating in. He finished all but 2 of the books for the 3rd through 5th grade division list so far. Other books he enjoyed this summer were the
Hardy Boys books (1-17), the
Pendragon series, the
Artemis Fowl series, quite a few by author
Gordon Korman, and he reread a few old favorites like
Hatchet and others. I am really happy that he has a love for reading. Yesterday, he biked off to school far ahead the rest of us, reminding me how independent he truly is becoming.
Parker still wanted to walk with me yesterday which made me happy. He was excited to get a teacher this year who is as excited about sports as he is. He was happy to have friends in his fourth grade class this year who he hasn't been together with for a few years. Parker got more of the reading bug this summer. He read 3,311 pages. His favorite books were the
Geronimo Stilton series, the
Time Warp Trio series, and books by Gordon Korman like
Swindle and
Schooled. (I think next summer I will give the kids a prize if they beat their page totals from this summer.) Parker also claimed to not be "happy" about school starting but look at this face...do you believe it?
Quick Funny Story: I went to pick the kids up from school yesterday and Parker's class was playing outside. He ran up to me very concerned that a girl was "chasing him around and trying to hug him"! I told him to "hug her and get it over with". He was appalled that I said that. Sometimes it's fun to be appalling to the kids!☺
Unlike the boys, Lauren was
VERY happy to be starting school again. The whole way there she told me what her favorite subjects were and how happy she was that
Aly and Lily are in her second grade class this year. Lauren's summer reading total was 2,331 pages. Early on in the summer she was loving
Junie B. Jones books still, but later in the summer her favorite switched to
Katie Kazoo. She also enjoyed
Clementine,
Little Bear,
Frog and Toad, and
Amelia Bedelia books. She still loves the color pink as you can see.
I wasn't expecting to miss them so much by midday yesterday, especially after the less-than-civilized behavior they had displayed over the weekend. But, I love these monkeys! And, as crazy as they are at times, I am happy that they are mine!
13 comments:
Oh, your kids are sooooo beautiful! Thanks for sharing those funny school stories. It makes me look forward to when mine start school. :) I love that they are so into reading too. How did you get them that interested? Any tricks I should try? :)
Thanks for your comment on my kids! It was SO sweet! I don't have a secret per say to encouraging reading. But, this is what I think helped.
When Lowden was a baby, I read to him all the time...everyday at least for 30 minutes. Reading aloud is the best way to encourage reading to little kids because they can listen on a higher level than they could possibly read themselves. Also, I loved "The Read Aloud Handbook" by Jim Trelease. I read it for Children's Literature at BYU and it was a really helpful resource. It is a great guide to GOOD read alouds because not everything is a great book to read that way. Here is a link for his website http://www.trelease-on-reading.com
Also, I go to the library all the time. Our library lets you request online and put the books on hold for free. That way I can browse online and pick up what I want to quickly when I go there. Lowden often tells me what books he wants to request and I will do that really quick online for him. The library emails me when the books come in. It's SO great!
Also, I think it may have helped to keep track of what books they read this summer. I didn't have a reward per say but something about writing it down was encouraging to them. Anyway, I hope that helps!
Fun back to school post. Is Bennett going to the same preschool this year as last year? The kids look great!
What big readers you have. That cracks me up about the girl wanting to hug Parker, he is a cutie. The pictures are great and what a fun post you did. Also yes I did get the pan, sorry I didn't call or e-mail. I have been awful about checking my hotmail account this past month. I hope you will forgive me, I was not meaning to ignore you.
Thanks for the tips! I'm going to read more to Pumpkin than I did to Mister. Hopefully he'll be more into reading than his brother. We go to the library often, but Mister just wants to play with their train tables and puppet theater. :)
Love Lauren and I love that she loves Amelia Bedilia...I LOVED those books and even considered naming a child after her! Also why do Matt and I have a little star after our names?
I can't believe how big your kids have grown!! So cute! Then when I was reading this blog about the grade levels, I realized our kids are in between yours with 4th, 1st and Preschool. CRAZY!!! Your kids love to read and I hope mine will too someday because I certainly do!! So glad to hear you had an uneventful summer in regards to injuries! :)
Allyssa participated in Battle of the Books last year and loved it! He will have lots of fun.
I hope your kids got a free book at Barnes and Noble for their summer reading. This is the second year my kids have turned in summer reading pages for a free book at Barnes and Noble (actually last year they let you get two), and they love it!
Your kids are so cute! Battle of the books was the best. I miss that.
Here's to another year! I miss summer, but it was nice to get back on a schedule. I missed my little monkeys too and cried when that kindy bus came for Eli, but all is well:0)
Yeah school has started, boo summer is over!! Isn't it bitter-sweet. How awesome that your kids love books that much.
Hey Meg, thanks for saying hi on my blog. It looks like we're dealing with kind of the same things with our oldest being eleven and lots to keep track of as we go along. What cute kids you have! Isn't it interesting as they grow how much fun they get in different ways? Anyway, just wanted to say hi!
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