School, I mean. Is it really starting next Wednesday? That seems so…soon. Summer just sped on by. It seems like just yesterday they were bringing home the last of their class papers and celebrating the first day of no school. And here we are – a week away from the first day of 2nd grade for CG, and the first day of 1st grade for CB. Wow.
Last year summer seemed to last forever, but I think it was helped by the fact that I was unemployed. CB was with me all day long starting mid-January. Then once CG was done with kindergarten I had to entertain BOTH kids all day, every day. So we were constantly going to the pool, going back and forth to VBS (morning AND night sessions), going to free movies at the theater, and whatever else I could find to fill their time so they wouldn’t be bored.
Not so this year. Summer 2010 was but a blip on the radar. And now it’s gone. I think we ended up going to Carowinds about 12 times through the whole summer. For a $300 investment, I’d say it was worth it since most times we went it was BOTH kids and me. Plus, we’ll go a few more times on the weekends as the weather cools down (it stays open on weekends until November) making our per-visit cost even lower. Will I be getting season passes again next year? OH YES. The kids had a blast and by next year they’ll be able to ride even more rides.
The kids recently got their teacher assignments and while CG gets to enjoy a THIRD year with her best friend, CB is not so lucky – only two kids that we know of from his kindergarten class are in his 1st grade class, and one of those he doesn’t care for too much. Most importantly, his “girlfriend” is not in his class, which makes him sad. However, he still gets to sit with her on the bus to school each morning, so he’ll still get to see her every day.
CB’s reading continues to go through the roof. He is ALWAYS reading something – basically, anything with words he tries to read. As such, I’m confident he’ll be one of the – if not THE – top readers in his class this year. CG struggled last year, and so last week we went back to basics and I pulled out the reading book that I used with CB to teach him to read. She has done really well and I’ve figured out the problem.
It’s not that she CAN’T read, it’s that she can’t be BOTHERED to read. She plows through it so fast that she messes up the words – but yet as she’s reading she comprehends the story just fine, so she just makes up the end of the sentence based on how it started. My solution? I have her use her finger to follow along with each word as she’s reading. It forces her to slow down because she ends up concentrating ONLY on the word above her finger.
Obviously she can’t do that forever (I envision her in college, finger furiously following physics formulas (heh)), but for now it has helped a lot. I think she’s FINALLY starting to enjoy reading. Not as much as her brother, but more than she did a few months ago. I predict this will be the year she catches up to him in that area.
The good thing about school starting? Early bedtimes for the kids (they’ll go from being in bed by 9 p.m. to being in bed by 7:30 p.m.). The bad thing about school starting? I have to get up 30 minutes earlier since they need to be on the bus by 6:50 a.m. Harrumph.