Back to School [2016]

I got to back to school shopping with my soon to be 1st grader! We didn't get too wild and crazy. After we registered for school, we headed to Wichita. Christian picked On The Border to eat lunch, which is fine by me!!

We went to pick up new shoes...super bright ones! Then we finished up at Target...and a treat from Sonic for the ride home :)

My two handsome boys on their first day of school..2016-17 year.

1st Grade ----- HS Spanish (2nd year teaching at HHS)

Christian 1st Grade >>> Mrs. Kaufman

Most looking forward to: "Being with my friends and playing at recess."

He got off the bus with a beaming smile...and said, "I had a GREAT first day!!!"

End of the first year

After February was over, it seems like the rest of the school year went super fast. It's bittersweet that my little boy is already done with kindergarten. He has truly learned and grown in so many ways. I can't believe he knows how to read, write, count and so many more things!

He had such a great teacher, Mrs Lehman...such a good teacher. Mitch had her as his kindergarten teacher..and she still remembered him quite well. In high school, I was her student aide...and I really enjoyed her then too.

She was very kind to Christian this year, very encouraging and always had such positive feedback. 

For the end of the year field trip, she takes her class to her farm. I got to come along as a helper. What a great time! We had a pizza picnic, hay loft jumping, pasture exploring, four wheeler rides, horse rides, and basketball. Christian REALLY enjoyed the horse ride.

 

Mrs. Lehman's class (she is in red in the middle back). Christian is in the middle front.

 At the end of the year, the elementary school has field day, which I also got to help with in the afternoon. It makes it all the more sweet to help when Christian is very expressive with how glad he is that I'm there.

During the last week of school, I brought Noah and Jonah into Ben's Spanish class. He had asked me to come sometime this year, and we just never arranged when...so we HAD to fit it in before the year was over! Part of his class stayed later to hang out with us :)

Ben has had a good first year, he enjoys Hesston...both other staff and students. It is so nice to have him close and glad Christian can spend a little bit of time with him after school as they come home together.

 Last day of Kindergarten/

Last day of 1st year at HHS

Jonah has loved watching the bus come and go in the morning when Christian gets on it. 

"Bye-bye busssss!"

I'm proud of both Ben and Christian as they finish the year. Ben keeps a positive attitude about work, and right now in the fantastic state of KS with the way education is...that isn't maybe the easiest thing to do. I respect his choice to be a teacher, not only to teach, but to be a role model and a positive influence.

The Bus

 Christian has been looking forward to being able to ride the bus to school. The first week, I took him. The second week, Ben took him when he went into the high school, and then walked with him over to the elementary school. So, riding the bus, actually does make more sense especially since its almost the last stop prior to school!

Yesterday was the first day for the bus. We waited together, then when I asked if he wanted to go meet it by himself, he wanted me to come with. He didn't hesitate a bit when it got to our house.

Oh goodness, for some reason I felt more mixed emotions about this than his first day of school! 

I prayed for you, Christian. That you would be brave and safe (even though you don't have far to go).

It was pretty sweet when I asked how it went, 

you said, "Oh good! So many of the kids asked me to sit with them, so I just picked one."

You are gaining experience and independence everyday my boy...and I am proud of you.

Back to School

The school year is beginning...

Christian is starting Kindergarten and Ben starts teaching Spanish at Hesston High.

I thought I'd make a fun day of back to school shopping with Christian. Originally, when I suggested this, his answer was politely, "Oh, you can get my things Mommy." When I was explaining that it meant he can pick out the things on the list, and then we could get a couple new shirts. He again made it sound like a favor he was giving me, "Yeah! You can pick those out for me." I didn't want to force it, but he did decide on his own that it might be alright to go. I'm glad, because we had a fun day, complete with a stop at the toy store...

"I just can't believe there are ONLY toys in here! This is amazing!!" And the 'Perplexus' that he picked out from the toy store, has proven to be a good choice.

(At Old Chicago...where he got his meal WITH a root beer! Oh man...he was living large.)

 We visited Ben's classroom prior to school starting.

My handsome fellas on their first day of school.

And Noah gets to go to Sunday School for the first time this year...

and is lovely teacher assistant just so happens to be Grandma!

Preschool [end of year]

First Day of Preschool                                             Last Day of Preschool 

(it was literally freezing outside if you can't tell by his posture, but he INSISTED on wearing this outfit!)

 The last day of preschool was at the ZOO!! 

Christian fed the giraffe! He loved it.

All the preschoolers/families met for lunch.

This picture was intended to be for the kids wearing their "I Hesston College Preschool" shirts...and Ms. Larissa. 

Christian and Ms Larissa.

Its pretty crazy how many things he has learned through preschool...whether it be actual information that the teachers taught, the silly things that other kids have taught, or different art projects that he has learned to appreciate.

He can count easily 1-20..sometimes up to 40

He can recognize numbers 1-9..and surprised me when he puts bigger numbers together correctly, like 84.

He knows the alphabet, but is a little sketchy on recognizing ALL the letters without help.

He can write his numbers and letters, mostly all by himself, some assistance still required. 

He easily writes the CHR part of his name..then always says "what comes next", even though he spells his name all the way through. 

He tries to refer to things in lengths of time..however this far from accurate. It's usually something like, "that will take 50, 100, 62, 100 days" or "that will take a year, and a month, a year, and a month!" Although, it is interesting how he grasps how many "tomorrows" take...as in if its in three days, he'll ask "tomorrow?...tomorrow?...tomorrow?" The first time he did this I said, "I said no," after the second tomorrow...but I then realized what he was doing after he argued his point.

There was a little boy he enjoyed playing with at preschool, and apparently they liked to be rather silly. After telling him its fine to be silly..but not when the teacher is talking. He would say, "I let ____ know we can't be silly when they are talking...AND we HAVE to pick up our toys when they say its clean up time!"

For some reason he didn't like to do the art project for a large part of the year. This surprised us quite a bit..because any time we would do some kind of craft at home he was excited about doing a project. Towards the end of the year, we had some conversations and tried to really encourage him to at least TRY the project. He started doing many more of them. The one that he learned to really love is the hot plate "melting crayon" pictures. It's kind of funny, since Grandpa H. is an artist and his paintings are made with melted wax.

It will be so fun to see what preschool brings for him next year!

Preschool program [2014]

This little man is nearing the end of his first year in preschool! They had a family night for parents/grandparents that included a potluck dinner and program. Christian did a good job :) It was SO cute to watch all of them sing...so cute.

I can't get the video to show up on here...so if you click on this link..you'll be able to watch a few of the songs they did. My personal favorite is the peanut train song..I just love his 'toot toot' that's high pitched.

Preschool Program 2014