Back to School!

Ian started school on Tuesday. Even though today is only his third day, it seems like this has been a long week already! I think we just need to get back into the routine. It does help to have more of a schedule to the day.
Last Thursday was Ian's open house. He got to meet his teacher (we finally found out who she was). He in Vina Chattin this year, which is for 2nd and 3rd grades. He saw the new building, and lunchroom, gym, library, etc. After that he was pretty excited about school, but he still feels like he will miss out on all of the fun things that we do without him. (I'm not exactly sure what that is!) On Tuesday morning, I could hardly get him to sit still long enough to take his picture. When I was going to leave, I was trying to get his attention to tell him, but he was so busy talking to his friends, I just gave up. At the end of the day, we practically have to drag him out of the classroom. At least we know he is enjoying himself.
His teacher is from the area, but was living in WA until this summer, so is new to the school. They hired her in August, so she didn' t have alot of time to get ready, but she seemed like an experienced teacher. She has 17 kids, where most of the teachers have 20, so I hope that her class will stay a little bit smaller. I am going to try to take some more pictures of his class. He looks so small compared to some of the students. He did grow some over the summer, and I'm hoping that it is part of a big growth spurt.
On Tuesday, when we asked Ian what he did all he could do was talk about the movie he watched in Blackfoot Language class. It was all about monsters-- vampires, Medusa, etc. Sounds like he's off to a great start in 2nd grade!
Isabelle had her open house for preschool last Wednesday, and her first day was yesterday. She is very excited. She wants to go to preschool all day, every day. I think all kids love Ms. Olson. She does such a great job. Caleb would have liked to stay, too. At least I don't have to worry about our kids being too clingy!
She will be going on Monday and Wednesday afternoons from 12:15-2:15. During this time I will stay in Cut Bank, run errands, visit with friends, go to the library, etc.

(In other news we are meeting with the CMA reps in Great Falls next Friday the 14th at 1pm as a final step in our confirmation process with them. I hope that light at the end of the tunnel is not a train....
We would appreciate your prayers for that meeting as well.-- added by Stephen.)

Summer School

We are doing "home school" for summer, partly just to give Ian some structure to his days. I also thought that since we will be doing home school eventually, I should get an idea of what works and what doesn't. We are reading, and doing a little bit of writing. Our subject to study for the first two weeks is dinosaurs. Of course, Isabelle and Caleb need to join in the fun. Isabelle is practicing writing her name.
Yesterday, we went to the dentist in Kalispell. I called on Monday to make an appointment. It usually takes a couple of months, but they had a cancellation. He had his teeth cleaned, and two baby teeth pulled. The baby teeth were about to come out anyway.
After the dentist, we went over to the Orts and had lunch with them. I went to Wal-mart on the before we came home. I forgot how hard it is to shop with three kids! We did manage to buy lots of toys to play with outside. By the time we got home it was raining, and today it is cold and windy. They went out for about 30 minutes this morning and it started raining again. Hopefully, it will warm up, so that they can go out and have fun.

Ian's last day of school

Ian and Mrs. Coleman at the end of the last day of school

Ian had a good last day of school. I realized (after I took the picture) that taking a picture of a teacher at the end of the last day of school is probably not very nice. Next year, I will have to get his teacher toward the beginning of the year, before all of the kids wear her down.

Ian's Awards

Ian and Mr. PillingThis is Ian with his principal, Mr. Pilling, after his awards program in the gym yesterday. For the awards program they had all of the children seated in chairs in the gym facing the bleachers. The program opened with a traditional Blackfeet song by three of the students from the highschool. It was in honor of the first graders completing their year.
Then, Mr. Pilling called each students name to come forward and receive their awards. Ian got six awards. They were as follows:
Principal Award (reading 60 sight words in one minute)
Super Award (reading 100 super high frequency words)
Independent Reader Award
Fluency Award (for reading 122 words/minute)
Blackfeet Language (for participation)
Blackfeet Numbers (for participation)

Today is his last day of school. They are going to help the teacher clean the room and then do exploration stations. Ian was looking forward to that (not the cleaning part!)