School

The last day of school. Mommy was sad because I have a whole 3 weeks without school before it starts up for the summer. I know, I am spoiled. Most of my friends' schools don't meet in the summer and ours does. Katherine has no concept of time and has not realized that she has gone a whole week without school. Last year I totally forgot to take a picture for her first day of school. This year I remembered.


But then I forgot about the last day of school so I had to re-enact it later. It is amazing how much Katherine has physically changed over the last 9 months.

She has grown in many other ways as well. She has learned so much. We were at a new school this year and it was technically called "Mother's Day Out" not preschool so I was not sure what to expect. She learned a ton. Every week they focused on a different letter. She knows all of her letters and most of their sounds. She can now count up to twenty - eleven. She does not formally understand math but she has developed a great number sense and knows number terms of hundreds, thousands and millions. She has a great one to one correspondence when counting and can count on her fingers. She can recognize,without counting, groups of up to five objects. Katherine knows the days of the week, the months of the year, the seasons and the pledge of allegiance. She has improved her fine motor skill, learning to cut, glue and color in the lines. She has also started to draw pictures that are something other than just scribbles. She has great manners and is able to sit in a classroom setting.

She has also learned some negative things. Any time your kids are away from you, you lose a little control over what they are learning. She now says things like "that's not fair" and she sings "nanny nanny boo boo, you can't catch me". I asked her where she learned these things and she named a child in her class. I know that all kids learn things but sometimes it sounds so mean.

After February, she was the only girl in her class. The other two girls had to leave to go to full time day care. Katherine said she did not care as Cole and Landon were her best friends. But, boys are different. I am sure you did not need me to tell you that. Whereas Katherine loves to play princess, dolls and kitchen, the boys like to play super hero, bad men, monsters and war. Katherine actually told Nana, "Boys don't like to play princess, they like to play . . . dead." Yes, my sweet daughter can do a wonderful imitation of someone who is dying from a mortal wound.
Boys also have a lot of potty talk. We have had to teach Katherine that potty talk is only appropriate when you are actually going to the potty. One of the teachers even told me that she is constantly on the boys for their potty talk. The biggest shocker of what she learned at school from a classmate was that girls sometimes marry girls - what! I was not planning to teach the concept of marriage that our family and the Bible believe rather than what the world allows at such a young age. We had a very interesting conversation in the car where she argued with me that girls sometimes marry girls. When I asked where she got that idea, again she named a classmate.
Next year we have decided to move Katherine to a new school. It has been the hardest decision. We have loved her school and have no complaints about it. In fact, she will be there this summer and Caroline will attend there in the fall. But, we really want her to be with girls and there are no girls registered for her class in the fall. I think at age 3 the differences in girls and boys and their interests really start to develop. She loves her school so I feared what she would think about switching schools but she is excited to be in a class that is half girls. I think it will be really good for her.
I can't wait to see what she learns and how she changes next year.

These photos at the pool were the last day of school celebration.