Oh, the first day's here...give a rousing cheer!

It's been awhile since my last journal entry. What can I say? Too much has happened in our family within the last few weeks. There just hasn't been a spare minute in which to use any remaining brain cells to compose a journal entry for all to endure. So much to blog about, so little time....but alas, I'm back again, ready and willing to keep my family and friends informed on the lives of ourselves and our children.

So we'll start with school! Day after Labor Day, our school system began. And with a bang and a whirl, we embarked on another fun-filled year of academia and scheduling! Aubrey started 2nd grade this year with her teacher Mrs. Luna. (Aubrey thought it was so cool that her name meant "moon" in spanish.) She's been a great teacher and very compatible with Aubrey.
Not that Aubrey is in any way a menace to the schooling system...in fact, Aubrey actually gets rather bored with school and sometimes makes up her own homework. In Kindergarten, her teacher was impressed that Aubrey was using "decorative font" on her homework. Aubrey apparently thought that because she had some 'extra time' during Kindergarten work time that her penmanship needed a little pizazz...
In first grade, Aubrey asked the teacher why they weren't able to use negative numbers throughout their math problems. She kept telling her teacher, Ms. Hargrove, "the add-ends don't always have to add up to a positive number." The teacher gave Aubs permission to use the integers and it satisfied Aubrey. Aubrey really doesn't make a fuss, she just doesn't like to be bored. The teachers tell me that they just love her in their class and don't at all seem frustrated.
This year, during the first week of school, Aubrey was apparently bored again. During math review, the problems went something like this...4 + ? = 10. Aubrey had no problem figuring them out and quickly so the teacher finally asked Aubrey how she was answering the questions so fast.
That afternoon, Aubrey jumped into the car when I came to pick her up and she said "Guess what, Mom? My teacher had me explain to the class something you taught me.." Aubrey went on to explain the method of looking at the equal sign as a "magical opposite box" (Okay, not my most creative approach, but it did the job at the time with Aubrey...). "When you want to find the missing number, you take the other number and have it jump over the magical opposite box, thus reversing it's sign and it tells you what the missing number is." Yes, Aubrey, I remember that. Aubrey went on "Yeah, my teacher asked me how I was figuring out the problems and when I told her she said, 'Yes, Aubrey, that's called Pre-Algebra'." The teacher then had Aubrey teach the rest of the class the method. Aubrey loved the idea of teaching the class and then ended her story with "I want to be a teacher when I grow up!"
So I guess the reason why I journal this long story is to show Aubrey, years from now, when she becomes a professor :) when it all began. She, simply put, loves to learn.

Walker has been quite the student too! Much to our astonishment. He's never wanted to do any workbook of any kind with me, he's never liked to sit and read a book, he's never wanted to write his letters on a piece of paper. He, simply puts, has never shown interest in learning, until now. He entered Kindergarten and is soaking everything up like a sponge. His teacher, (who was Aubrey's Kindergarten teacher) Mrs. Karlquist is amazing! He actually didn't get her to begin with.
When we received our letter a few days before school was to start informing us of his Kindergarten teacher and schedule, he was initially given Afternoon Kindergarten with another teacher. I really wanted the morning schedule, but thought that I could make it work. I went to Kindergarten orientation the next night and ran into Mrs. Karlquist. I told her that I really wanted her and her morning schedule, but was out of luck this year...Without a hesitation, she said with a smile, "Oh, but Walker got my partner, I made sure of it..." We got Walker's immunizations done too late to grab a morning schedule slot, so she put Walker into her partner's class.
I was discussing this with my good friend Audry who was in town for the weekend and telling her that I was sad that Walker didn't get Mrs. Karlquist, when the phone rang. Believe it or not, it was Mrs. Karlquist. "We just had a slot open and I know you wanted Walker in here for the morning, do you want to take it? I've already asked permission from the principal and he said it's okay...." I couldn't believe it. Walker is now in morning K, with this wonderful teacher and we couldn't be any happier.
And come to find out, everything I attempted to do with Walker, he actually listened to. The teacher said that he is attentive, and uses good manners and answers all of the questions. He just loves the school environment, and proudly shows me his homework every night. He loves learning about Spiders, and eating Sundaes and S'Mores, after all, the letter of the week is "S." And can't wait for the next day to see what they'll be learning. I have just loved to see him thrive in this environment especially because we weren't sure if he would take to it. Throughout the summer, we even pondered keeping him home one more year, since he's a young 5. These first few weeks were going to be experimental for us, and so far, so good! He just loves it!

Maverick just really wants to go to school, or anywhere for that matter. He is constantly asking me to draw shapes, or numbers, or now letters...he says his favorite shape is a diamond, which I think is funny because everytime he says that I respond "Yeah, that's your Aunt Randa's favorite shape too!" At any time of the day you'll hear his voice with his little magna-doodle full of drawn shapes (that he totes around with him) saying: Circle, square, rectangle, triangle, diamond, oval, and even octagon. He calls hearts, "Aubreys." He refuses to call them hearts. It's pretty cute.

It's funny, I sit here and write these little stories down and realize that I sound like quite the "proud parent" but, you know what, it's true. I love that my children are at a point where they love school, because I know that this won't last forever. I love that they love to learn and hope that that will last forever. I have very little control over anything but I can at least say that I tried to teach them something.....