Winners from last year's Sullivan Halloween partyGrace has been on my case to put up the Halloween decorations for about 2 weeks solid. I kept putting her off with, "as soon as October is here." This past Thursday night she reminded me that October had arrived. I was kind of tired after parent teacher conferences (see below) & I had a cold, but the kids insisted.
Fall is my #1 favorite time of the year. I had really wanted to get up to Cecret Lake with the kids this weekend to see the leaves, but the weather didn't cooperate.
Grace at Cecret Lake last summerWednesday temps were in the 90 degree range, the rest of the week it's been 40-50-ish, snowing in the mountains, raining in town. Oh well...we've got a ghost hanging next to the front door. A fire in the fireplace. Fall is here.
Among a bunch of other stuff that we did on Thursday, Mike and I made it over to the school for parent teacher conferences. Two of them gave me cause to worry. For the first time ever we had a teacher have a serious talk with us about a child's behavior in class, and another teacher shock us with the news that one of our children had a couple of very low grades (we were under the impression this child was doing well). By this time of the day, because of my cold, I had reached the limits of my stamina and was like..."What are we talking about?" The main thing I got from p/t conferences: I need to be in the classroom more so I know what the heck is going on.
News on the school-front is not all bad, and I'm not completely out of that loop: Tillman is making fast progress with his reading, and impressing his Kindergarten teacher. Grace is thoroughly enjoying herself at school, writing pages and pages of stories, and proudly tells us that she is very good at math. Noble has A's in every subject and continues to bring in "supplemental" material from home to contribute to whatever topic his class may be studying. Jess will be playing Hermia in her class production of A Mid-Summer Night's Dream in November. She is super excited and has related the entire plot-line to anyone who will listen.
Also, this weekend we watched LDS General Conference - our twice-yearly tradition.
My kids have gotten pretty good at sitting through most of the four 2-hour sessions over two days. They actually kind of look forward to it... of course that might have something to do with activity packets, candy, and an open buffet of munchies in the kitchen. But talking with them tonight they actually absorbed one or two things from the sermons. I was rapt, as much as one can be with 5 kids squirming around. I was struck by Elder David Bednar's counsel to remove hypocrisy from our lives, by Elder Jeffrey Holland's testimony of the Book of Mormon, and many other moments. I love Conference time.
My kids have gotten pretty good at sitting through most of the four 2-hour sessions over two days. They actually kind of look forward to it... of course that might have something to do with activity packets, candy, and an open buffet of munchies in the kitchen. But talking with them tonight they actually absorbed one or two things from the sermons. I was rapt, as much as one can be with 5 kids squirming around. I was struck by Elder David Bednar's counsel to remove hypocrisy from our lives, by Elder Jeffrey Holland's testimony of the Book of Mormon, and many other moments. I love Conference time.
3 comments:
Sheesh. It's always something with kids, right? And with us it's usually the middle one...
One thing I could never get used to with public school was the absolute lack of communication between parents/teachers. Kinda floored me. Neither parents nor teachers expect to have any communication until conferences.
Find a way to communicate with the teachers - whether through notes, email, phone -some teachers work better with different methods. They probably won't mind - just most parents don't do it.
T will be way jealous of Jessie's part - she loves Shakespeare - you should show your kids the animated version (at the library - Shakespeare for kids? I think?) before you go.
And where is Cecret lake? Never heard of it!
Kirsten - I hear you about the communication...some of the kids' teachers are excellent communicators, some we don't hear from unless there's already a problem (as in the post) but then they keep in close touch. And then there's the "Your child has a problem...good luck with that." approach. We also got that at p/t conf. That was the one that left me speechless. I got home, cleared my mind and sent her a lengthy email about what I need from her as we try to support this child...yada yada.
Yeah, Jessie stressed for about a week waiting for the teacher to announce their parts. Hermia was one of two she was hoping to get.
Cecret Lake (pronouced "secret") - Albion Basin above Alta. It's a quick hike with kids (maybe 1 mile round trip) with amazing scenery - and the leaves are supposed to be outstanding in Fall.
I can feel your anxiety and frustration about the kids and school, I hate surprises like that. It would be bad enough with one, but you have two children to work with.
Congratulations Jess, on the part! Wish we could be there to see it.
Everyone is making me homesick with all this talk about autumn. We just spent the last two days in monsoon rain with mosquitos, doesn't feel much like October here.
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