Thursday, March 15, 2007

Gracie Madelyn......

What is Gracie up to these days???

***I've been instructed that they can't say the "L" word at school. Believe me when I say that my mind raced when I heard that. I was thinking, "What in the world is the "L" word and please don't let it be what I think it might be!" Much to my relief, I found out that the "L" word was simply "leprechaun." Mrs. Stauffer told them they couldn't say the "L" word because then he might not visit their classroom. Of course, I've had lots of fun saying the "L" word just to hear Gracie squeal in protest! I'm anxious to see if he visits despite my having said his name!

***Tomorrow is a "Parent Activity Day" at school. Chris is off so he'll get to go! They gave quite a few options for ways we could participate. They'll be doing presentations of how the Smart Boards work in the library. I have a pretty good idea of how they work (and they're really cool!) but I think Chris is going to sit in one of the presentations since he hasn't been around them as much. Fridays are always "testing days" for First Grade, so the teachers said we could come & observe them take their tests then stay for the St. Patrick's Day activities. I am interested in seeing how the testing process goes each week (reading comprehension, phonics, math & spelling) so I'll go observe that then Chris will come for the "fun stuff" and stay for the Smart Board thing. This way, we can both participate but not have to take Katie OR find someone to watch her. Since I'm in her classroom generally once a week & have participated in other "fun things" this year, I thought I'd let Chris go do the fun stuff tomorrow.

***Mrs. Stauffer asked if I'd stay a little longer when I go to the school on my regular day so that I could stay through lunch. She wants to give the kids the incentive to sit outside during lunch-guess who their chaperone will be?? I guess they can get their name put in the bucket when they are acting the right way and then Mrs. S will choose a certain number of names to pull out. Hopefully it will serve as an incentive for the kids and more of them will make good choices. Sometimes even the simplest of incentives can go a long way in helping a child do the right thing! Gracie & I hope that her name will be pulled at least once!

***She is into reading the "American Girl" books right now. My friend Kate loaned her the 'Samantha' & 'Felicity' ones and Gracie has latched onto them. The other day we had a mini "Boston Tea Party" lesson after reading a reference to it in one of the 'Felicity' books. She wanted to go to the library to check out books on it so I guess we'll be making a trip there soon.

***She is turning into me as far as loving to watch "Little House on the Prairie." We watch it together a lot.

***She told me the other day that she still doesn't understand how God & Jesus are the same 'person'. I tried to explain it once again all the while admitting that I don't understand it all myself! We talked about how it's good to ask questions about things like that & prayed that God would help her to understand.

***She is excited about a special something we're doing tomorrow night but she doesn't know what it is. I gave her some hints but she can't guess it. The hints are: 1.) We're all 4 going. and 2.) a white rabbit

***I am having a HARD time clothing her!!!!!!! I am quite conservative when it comes to dressing her (& myself!) There are some things out there in the 6 year old fashion world that are probably "okay" but she's not begging to wear them and I don't love them so I'm not forcing them on her. I don't know if that makes sense. I'm just really trying to teach her modesty & decency. I know some people probably think I'm crazy but if I haven't started teaching her modesty already I feel like I'd already be behind. The problem I'm having isn't that she's begging to wear things that are inappropriate. She really couldn't care less about fashion! It's that she's 6 1/2 years old and a lot of size 6 or 6X things are HUGE on her. Shirts that hang off her shoulder or gap really big in the front or the armholes are so huge that you can see clear through to the other side-& everything in between! If the pants don't have adjustable waist I can pretty much forget it. Even if they do have the adjustable waist she still sometimes can't wear them. I think she's precious and I'm proud of her for already having a good grasp of whether or not she should wear something as far as the modesty factor goes. Like I said, I know some people probably think I'm crazy but I really don't care. Hopefully teaching her modesty in dress will impact the purity of her heart & life and that's way more important than whether or not she's wearing the "cool" clothes. Don't get me wrong......she looks cute! She just looks cute in a modest way! I have a hard time looking at 4/5 size things at Target for my 6 1/2 year old! Besides, some of those things are too short. She has been getting a lot taller lately. Let's just say when I find a t-shirt that fits (like some of the Target ones) I look for many of them in different colors/patterns!

***Katie fell off the couch this afternoon (I don't know how!) and I loved the way Gracie rushed over to see if she was okay!

***My heartstrings were pulled the other day when I was at lunch with her class. I just stayed for 5 or 10 minutes and I told Gracie & Hunter that I'd be picking them up later. A sweet little boy who sits next to Gracie at lunch looked up at me and said, "Can you pick me up too?" It about broke my heart and I wanted to take him home with me! I said, "No, I'm sorry. I can't." He walks to a friend's house and we'll sometimes see each other as I'm driving down the road. It's only about 3 blocks he walks but it still makes me sad that he's walking just with other kids and no adults. We are very much a "neighborhood school" and quite a few kids walk alone or in groups-from the middle & high school also. I tend to keep an eye out my window and am very alert whenever I see a car stop and a child get in. I always think, 'if that child ends up missing, I'll know what kind of car they got in.' I really probably wouldn't have as good a memory as I think I would unfortunately. This particular boy was so incredibly shy last year (he was in Gracie's K class too) and this year has really seemed to come out of his shell a lot. He is reading really well and is funny and sweet. One time he saw us on the porch of our house as he was riding his bike and he talked about that the next time I saw him at school like he just thought that was the coolest thing that he knew where we lived.

***She is into horses, horses, horses. She wants to go to 'horse camp' this summer and have a sleepover birthday party with 2 little girlfriends (only 2-yea!!!!!) with a horse theme.

***These are just a few things I can say about my sweet first born baby!

2 comments:

jettybetty said...

Sounds like you are doing such a goo job with her--I think the modesty concerns will pay off in a few years, when you don't have as much impact on what she's thinking.

Kids like that at school always pulled at my heart strings. While I was at my kid's school, I always tried to pay them some special attention--and not just my kids and their friends. I don't think some kids get very much attention at home--and just a wee bit some times makes their day!

Malia said...

Sweetpea hasn't started reading the AG books yet, but that's a good idea to check some out of the library. I should do that soon. She really like Little House, as well and I like to watch them with her! Ah the memories!

Our number one clothing rule with Sweetpea has always been: it Must be Modest! The others are it must be seasonally appropriate (no bathing suits in winter, or sweaters in summer - it seems intuitive but sometimes she really shows her "blonde" side!), it should be clean (mostly), and it should appropriate for the activity (again, seems intuitive, but she needs to be reminded sometimes!).

I bought a couple of dresses for her at OC's consignment sale last week. I ended up getting one that was larger than I thought (it was labeled wrong and I didn't check the tag, my bad!) but of course it's her favorite one. It's too big in the chest area, wide gaps that show off everything so I told her if she wants to wear it she has to wear a little sweater/jacket over it! She was fine with that! I need to make sure she treats it well so that it lasts a couple of years!