Say Cheese

Fall School Picture Days at School.  Baby bear had hers last week.

I was thrilled that she liked one of Lila's old outfits and agreed to wear it to school, with a smile, nonetheless.  Score for me!

So far this kid is totally rocking it at school.  She loves going to see her friends every day.  They get to paint almost daily, go to recess twice a day, visit the library and music class each week, and have story time every afternoon.  

Why, oh why, was picture day for these two the day after a three-day weekend?  It was so early, but we just had to curl Lila's hair.  I think they both cleaned up pretty well.

My big 4th grader and my sweet 1st grader.  We had conferences with their teachers this week, too, and they both got glowing reports.  They told us that they are helpful, attentive, focused, and always ready to learn.  All three teachers said that they are a joy to have in their classroom.  And doing well in all their subjects, too.  Go Hays kids!

This girl has really come out of her shell this year.  She is full of personality, but as angelic as they come.  My angel baby is growing up.  She is doing SO well in school.  She's become a big-time reader and can often be found in her room enjoying a good book.  She's an excellent writer and is doing very well in math, too.  From Ms. Garner - "Lila is a delight to have in class.  She is very studious.  She takes school, learning and behavior very seriously.  Her work is very well thought out.  She has very high expectations of herself and others around her.  A true leader in the classroom.  Her strengths are in both language and math.  I highly recommend testing her for the PACE program this spring."  Way to go, Lila!

This boy has always been a top student.  He's really been impressing us this year with his writing skills.  His ELA teacher couldn't say enough great things about his writing and believes that a lot of that can be attributed to the fact that he's an avid reader.  Yay!  He really does loves to read for enjoyment, which is such a blessing.  Ms. Fulbright wrote, "I am enjoying having Jackson in my class.  He is doing a phenomenal job...very focused and hardworking."  She also told us that he's one of the kids that "just makes coming to work every day a joy."  His math and science teacher said that she's really impressed with how kind and helpful he is to other students in the class.  She says he's self-motivated and gets very high grades, but it's the social aspect that we love hearing about the most.

Of course we want our kids to do well in school, but hearing that they are good people makes us so very proud.  I wonder a lot if we are too strict on them sometimes.  But then we leave these conferences, and I feel like maybe they really are soaking in a lot of what we are trying to teach them at home.  It's reassuring, and so nice to hear.  Raising three kids isn't easy, and you don't get too many pats on the back, but I'll take this as my blue ribbon for the month!