4 posts tagged “school”
This Friday (June 15), my beautiful daughter Brianna will be FOUR!!!! ACK!!! I can't believe it!
She and nearly 30 of her closest friends will enjoy gymnastics, pizza and strawberry shortcakes at The Little Gym on Sunday, and she is SO excited!
I just can't wait to see the look on her face when she wakes up on Friday to see her brand-spankin'-new big girl's bike!!! Nope.. not a hand-me-down, either!
Brianna's class celebrates each student's birthday during the year, but for the kids born in the summer months, they have a Summer Birthday Picnic. June kids are included in this celebration, so Brianna was one of the kids honoured today. I'm sure they will acknowledge her big day on Friday too!
Brianna (in the stripety sweater) enjoyes some yummy snacks after a hard morning of climbing and swinging!
She's listening to the group sing "Happy Birthday" to her and the other Summer babies.
Group shot. Lovely tongue, Brianna!
Happy Earth Day! What are some of your favorite ways to reduce, reuse and recycle?
I try to recycle as much as I can (I even recycle the plastic liners from the twins' bottles). I also just found out that PartyLite tealites are in recycleable plastic cups. Very good... they will be added to my "plastic" bin. The only things I don't put in my recycle bins are bottles, cans and juice boxes that can be returned for money. I take those to the bottle depot, and the money goes into Brianna's piggy banks. Actually, I guess I'll have to start splitting the cash 3 ways! ;-)
I was surprised to hear that a lot of schools are trying to go "litter free". I think that's a great idea. Kids can take lunches and snacks in reusable or recycleable containers, fruit peels can be composted, and parents can save money on ziploc bags and such.
Friday was my first Earth Day as a Mommy. Brianna's school celebrated Earth Day by holding an assembly and a community clean-up. I almost didn't go. It started at 9, so I had to scramble to get the twins fed and changed, me showered and dressed and out the door in time. I was a few minutes late, but Brianna was still thrilled that I came and participated with her class. That's what being a stay-at-home Mommy is all about, isn't it?
There's only 5 classrooms in Brianna's Montessori school (preschool to Grade 7), so everyone was able to gather in one of the rooms. This is a photo of Brianna sitting with her class while one of her teachers talked about all the things we can do to help keep the Earth clean. She also had the kids hold their breath for 10 seconds. Afterward, she told the group about all the things that occured in those 10 seconds. She actually started tearing up when she mentioned things like: 1 person in the world died of AIDS, and 2 more became HIV positive; 42 children were born in the world, and of those 42, 40 were born in poverty; etc... Pretty deep for preschoolers.
All the classes presented a song or speech. Brianna's preschool class sang a song. Very cute!
After the assembly, all the classes went outside and cleaned up the neighbourhood. Our street was pretty clean, but the kids still managed to find garbage. Brianna found a popcicle stick in this picture. EEEWWWW... Use your gloved hand, Brianna!!!
Brianna (in red) and her class at the end of the community clean-up. Brianna gave a copy of this photo to her class today.
We were at Brianna's school today for thier International Day Parade. All the kids were dressed in costumes from their respective countries... Bree wore the tartan dress we bought in Scotland and she carried "Nessie" -- her stuffed Loch Ness Monster we bought from the Loch Ness museum. She sleeps with him every night, and she said he really enjoyed his field trip to her school.
Some of the costumes were amazing, especially the ones from the various parts of Asia.
This is Brianna and some of her classmates parading through the school. She's the one in the dark green & blue tartan dress with the bright green stuffy in her hand (in case you couldn't figure it out).
This is a closer shot of Bree and Nessie. There was a lot of kids and parents around, so it was hard for me to get her to pay attention long enough to get a good smile out of her.
Mike wore his kilt outfit to show the kids. We loaned it to the school to show on display for the week, so the kids thought it was neat to actually see it on a person, and the other parents got a kick out of it too. I wanted to get a photo of Mike and Bree together, but we didn't have a chance during the parade, and I completely forgot when we picked her up from school later on. We also loaned a bagpipe CD (Brianna was very distressed that her CD was staying there for a whole week), a picture book of castles and ruins in Scotland, a large Scottish flag, and a photo from our wedding in Scotland. Brianna's teacher was impressed with all the stuff we brought -- I guess other families didn't bother.
Anyway, it was fun. I just love supporting Brianna in her school activities. My parents were never able to attend things like this during the day -- I don't blame them for having to work, but it would have been nice. I can see the happiness/pride/comfort Brianna feels when she sees us at her functions.... or even her first glimpse of one of us when we pick her up from school.
On the 20th of December, Brianna's school held a Winter Celebration Concert ("Christmas Concert" just isn't PC). I was so proud of her for getting up on stage and singing with her classmates. She had been practicing her songs over and over for about 3 weeks beforehand, so I felt like I knew them well enough myself!
Each class had its own presentation, and the older students even did their own version of The Nutcracker (ballet and all)!
Anyway, I felt so badly for Bree when she got on stage... she was the only student without her scarf. I had packed her scarf & mittens in a bag as instructed by her teachers and sent them to school a few days before the show so that they would definitely be there for rehearsals and the show. I hadn't realized that Brianna had worn her scarf home the day before the show, so it was no longer in the bag. I still hadn't clued in when she saw her scarf on her coat hook at home and said, "Here's my scarf, Mom! I was looking everywhere for this!" She says that about everything she comes across, so I just dismissed it. When we pulled up to the church for the concert, she realized that the scarf was still at home and told me she forgot her scarf. I looked at her and told her she was wearing a scarf (she has many scarves and had one on with her coat), so I still didn't clue in.
Once I saw her on stage, it all came rushing back.... the pick scarf I had packed in the bag, around her neck when she left school that day, on her coat hook when she became excited about finding it (she must have been looking for it at school and probably very distressed), and then in her hand as we were leaving for the concert. She must have put it down for some reason before we left the house (I saw it sitting on the stairs when we came home).
I felt AWFUL. How could I have been so dense???? If I had just taken the time to listen, I could have suggested that she use the scarf she had worn to the concert. It didn't matter what colour it was... she just had to wear a scarf & mittens. She didn't even think of it as her teacher called her and her classmates to follow her and prepare for the show.
That's what I get for not paying attention. Sometimes, my 3 year old DOES have something to say, and it takes something like this to happen to make me just stop and listen.
Well, the show was wonderful anyway... and they did sing some traditional Christmas carols (the entire school sang We Wish You A Merry Christmas at the end). She didn't say anything about the scarf, so maybe it wasn't as big of a deal for her as it was for me.
