Hellobee Boards

@808love: omg quarters for the vending machines - I love it!!! They are constantly asking me for quarters!!

We have adopted a couple of kids through DD's school again this year. One is a 7-yo girl, and one of the requests for her is for "learning toys." For me, magnatiles, snap circuits, etc are all "learning toys" but I suspect that they mean something electronic. Any ideas? She's also requested clothes and new bedding so I don't want to spend a ton on a toy that may or may not interest the child.

Happy New Year!

How did it go with the holiday parties and crafts? I think we escaped relatively unscathed...the teachers hosted a school wide gingerbread house building party for the kids the day before school break, using milk cartons and graham crackers as the base. I thought it was quite smart!

I am actually getting ready for Valentines Day, as this stuff tends to appear quite fast. I think my son will give a tiny bag with a heart paper airplane and a rubber bracelet. I bought some stickers for decorating the glassine bags and I will print some circle stickers with his name and those are done.

I have to think about something for the mailbox, I might order kits from Oriental Trading, unless someone has a brilliant, low cost idea....decorated shoe boxes, maybe?

I'm not ready for Valentine's either! DD's 7th birthday is this Saturday, so I need to get through that first.

For the holiday party, the kids made an edible snowman and did a Christmas tree craft.

@T.H.O.U.: that's so sweet of their teacher! Must've been a lot of work crocheting for an entire classroom of kids.

@lamariniere: We also go back on the 8th. We kept the kids home last week, but this week I have DD enrolled in tennis camp, and DS is back at preschool.

We are back as well. The break was fun even though we didn’t do much because it was so cold. I feel like I have one foot out the door as we are looking for a new school for next year. It really trips me up because I believe in public schools theoretically speaking but LO is not thriving and we feel like we’re “losing” him if that makes sense.

This year the holiday activities lasted a whole week. They decorated gingerbread houses, celebrated religions around the world (to conclude their lesson on religions), and ended with a Polar Express Day. My LO had a great time.

Valentine's Day is pretty low key at my LO's school. Last year we were asked to bring in simple boxed Valentines for the kids to work on in the classroom, and they decorated paper bags for their Valentines.

The kids went back to school on Wednesday, but they were off yesterday and again today due to the weather.

@looch: ugh, yes, camp. That needs to be on my radar, too.

@Baby Boy Mom: We switched to private. I was willing to give public another shot when we moved, but DH fell hard for a private school and my son loves it. I still have odd feelings of guilt, though.

Parent involvement is huge in my son's school, every time I visit during the day, which is at least a few times per month, there are parents in the school. I think it's super important, because it's a community that we're trying to build.

Now, if there were something going on, let's say he was having an issue with a particular subject, then I am not sure how me being in the room to observe would help that situation because my son tends to get embarrassed when I am there and there are no other parents, so I am not so sure how the behavior would present.

Social issues are interesting because there I do think observing could provide insight and I think the principal would be accommodating. It's not like you'd get free reign to walk around the school , you'd be escorted in and out.

Dropping in for a very informal poll of fellow first-grade parents: How many of your kids struggle with staying organized (things like remembering to bring homework home, losing things, etc) on a routine basis? Are they able to stay on task during even short homework without constant encouragement/help? And for god's sake, are they able to sit still during dinner?

I know it's extremely overdiagnosed and my son might just be immature (he is a late summer birthday), but ADHD has slowly crept onto my radar. I don't think I'll pursue any sort of formal diagnosis anytime soon, but now that I'm looking a diagnostic lists, I'm like, "ugh yesssss" (especially to the inattentive type, not as much the hyperactivity).

@Mrs. Yoyo: Sitting still during meals is a constant battle here! I diagnose it as the condition of being a 7 year-old boy. We just remind him to get back in his chair and to try to be still.

I think organization is something that will come with time and practice, probably lots of both. I wouldn't expect a first grader to be at the point where they didn't need help/reminders to get things done/bring things with them. Mine certainly needs some prodding, like for schoolwork he someone to tell him what needs to be done and when because he doesn't really have a good sense of how long things take. And he'd happily do stuff like walk out of the house without brushing his teeth in the morning, because it's a pain to do and he doesn't care enough (yet). So I could totally see him 'forgetting' his homework at school if he wasn't being reminded to take it home. I wouldn't worry unless you see other things going on or have some other basis for concern.

Eta: I think focusing for extended periods on hard tasks is a skill you build up to gradually. And at 7, I think nearly every child is going to need a parent/teacher right next to them guiding them as they work on hard tasks. I know when I leave my son to do his own thing for a bit, he often gets distracted. I think that's typical.

I have noticed that my son is more restless after school, I really attribute it to both being tired and needing more gross motor activity.

I notice the biggest difference when in a group of other kids though, my son is the most "controlled" with his body. He's newly 7 though, compared to the kids in his class who are sometimes a full year younger.

I think my son does pretty well with all the sitting still demands we put on him. But he has never been the kid running around wild and crazy and bouncing off of the furniture either, it's just not his personality. He nearly always remembers his homework, but I suspect the teacher tells them what to put in their backpacks at the end of the day.

On a different topic, DS's class is going on an overnight trip (actually 3 nights!) to a sailing club about an hour outside of Bangkok sometime in March. I chatted briefly with his teacher this week, but there's a formal meeting in 2 weeks to get all the details. The school has been to this location several times with various classes and it sounds like it will be a lot of fun for the kids! Of course, I have safety concerns and the teacher addressed them, and I'm sure I will get more information at the meeting.

If I had to guess, it's without parents, and there's no way I am ready for that for my son! I don't think he'd want to go either, though.

@lamariniere: WOW!!!

@looch: yes we have a father/daughter dance and then a mother/son challenge - they are $12 per person

@Mamaof2: We are having our first one and are charging $20, which seems steep to me, but I am just going with it. Tell me more about the challenge, I kind of like that, is it like American Ninja Warrior?

@808love: That sounds like private school prices, that wouldn't fly in our elementary school, for a dance in the gym, basically!

@looch: It was for church and it was red carpet princess treatment, valet, photo booth --the works..

Bump for spring!

I finally organized camp...we had a total of 7 snow days this year so the last day of school was up in the air for a bit. We're doing three different camps, which sounds a little nuts, but it's all stuff that my son really likes and he expressed that he didn't want to go back to the nature camp this year. That's personally my choice, but I had to get over it that he didn't want to go for the 4th year in a row.

We are also technically in April break right now and we've not done much because my son kept complaining he didn't feel well. He did one day at the arts center where they made miniatures out of polymer clay and another day we went to NYC to see a show. He's been with my parents the rest of the time.

I also have to order some more pants for my son, he's been blowing holes through all the knees. I've been sending him with them on when they're tiny holes and by the time he comes home that afternoon, the pants are shredded, no patch will save them, lol. I feel totally crazy buying sweatpants instead of shorts right now, but there's no way I am buying more of his school trousers in the current size!

How about you all, summer locked and loaded yet?

She's signed up to go back to our daycare program for the summer. She really wanted to go the Y because of a flyer that came home. I also want to send her to martial arts camp for a couple of weeks and swim lessons at the start of summer.

We have about 6 weeks left. Today ended a marking period and they have one more left to go. We've already done our field trip and she only has one more school holiday left (Memorial Day). We normally finish before the holiday, but this year the calendar has us back for 2.5 days more... Ugh!

She's committed to moving forward with Spanish Immersion again next year. It's been exciting to see how much she's picked up this year.