Parent teacher conferences

Last week the boys had their conferences for school. They are both doing really well. They have mostly met all of the year end benchmarks. I worried a little about Torii since he barely made the cut off to get into kindergarten this year, but he is doing very good. He may get some help with his fine motor skills like Rion, but other than that he is doing great. Rion did go down in one area: he talks a little too much when he should be working. He has missed out on some things because he has to stay behind and complete his work first. Although he went down in this area, it's also a good thing. Rion takes after me a little too much and he was really quiet at the beginning of the year. He's come out of his shell a little so that's a good thing. Torii's teacher didn't have much to say since Torii is doing so well. She complimented me on our very well behaved boys. I just wish she could see them at home! Completely the opposite. I'm glad they behave at school. I guess we must be doing something right after all. The kids were with during conferences since Fred was at home not feeling good at all. Cordelia loved being in the classrooms. In the kindergarten class the boys showed her the reading corner and the puppets. I thought she was happily playing when I heard "ahhhhhhh". It was the kind of ahhhh you hear on pop commercials. Sure enough, there was Cordelia at the teacher's desk with the teacher's pop in her hands. At least the teacher thought it was funny.

Red light, green light

Our Torii is the best at giving Fred and I fits. We give Torii timeouts, take toys and privileges away and he still throws monstrous tantrums. We are both sick of Torii's attitude and really needed to do something about it, but really had no idea what to do next. Then over the weekend Torii, of all people, suggested we make a chart like they have in school. It looks like a stop light and on the side are clothes pins with each person's name on it. If your clothes pin is on green, you've been good. If it's on yellow you must have did something wrong. On red, you might as well go sit in your room and think about what you did. I made the chart mostly to humor Torii not thinking it would actually work, but it has. Torii and I have been playing checkers, but he is a rule breaker and a cheat. Now all I have to say is "you'll go to yellow if you don't play right," and the game continues without any more major disagreements. I think I should sit in with his class more often so I can learn more of the techniques they use to keep 15 kindergartners in check. I know "criss cross applesauce" and "marshmallows!" which is my personal favorite. I'm not sure how long this stop light chart will last, but everyday that is tantrum free is a good day.

The good old days

The other day I happened to pass the kids' school during lunch recess. It looked like it was the older kids that were outside at the time. As I passed I noticed all the boys were near the playground and having a lot of fun in the snow. Meanwhile, the girls were all huddled together in little groups near the school. Some things never change. But then I began to think about how much they really have changed. When I thought about recess in the sixth grade, I thought about huddling up with a group of girls and listening to music during recess. I must have gotten a Walkman for my birthday or Christmas because I remember bringing it to show off. And we had to bring the newest cassette single to listen to also. Or we would bring a mix tape of all the songs we got recorded from the radio over the weekend. Y93 used to be the best radio station in town. They played all the newest and hottest songs and on Saturdays they gave out a cassette every hour. I remember winning at least twice. I got the Billy Joel tape with "We didn't start the fire" and the Crash Test Dummies. So while I spent my Saturdays trying to win a new cassette I was also close to my tape player waiting to hit the record button when a good song came on. I suppose this is one of the things my kids will someday laugh at, as any music they could ever want can be instantly had at the click of the mouse. And the radio? Who listens to the radio anymore, mom? Rion still can't understand a childhood without a computer. When did my childhood get so nostalgic?

Another kindergartner

On Friday Cordelia and I were waiting as we usually are outside of Torii's classroom waiting for the final bell to ring. We got there a little early and the kids were still coming out in the hall to get their things. One of the girls wanted to show Cordelia the Valentines garland that was hanging down in the doorway. She showed Cordelia how to walk through it. When Cordelia walked through, she thought she was pretty hot stuff being in the classroom and then the girl continued to show her to the rug where they have their end of the day songs. The kids were singing Valentines song and when I peeked in the room, Cordelia was sitting right in the middle of the group and trying to sing along. She was singing pretty loud too. She sat there so nice with the kids. I think she really liked it. Torii used to sit in with the class almost every day last year when Rion was a kindergartner. Since I knew Torii's teacher, I knew she wouldn't care if Cordelia sat in with them either. I think she was impressed how well Cordelia sat there too.

Hockey game with the boys

Last night the boys and I went to the Bobcats game. They had gotten free tickets from school for last night's game. A lot of kids from school were there so the boys recognized a lot of people which was cool. The bad thing was they recognized a lot of people at the game. Therefore, Rion spent most of the game running around with another first grader even though he was told numerous times not to run and not to run off without telling me first. Rion did start off being really good. The boys were amazed at the Zamboni. The kids sat so nicely until the starting lineup was being announced, when Rion told me he had to use the bathroom. Of course we were on the other side of the ice from the bathrooms. He had all pregame to take care of that and he tells me just minutes before the game is going to start. Figures. Torii took in more of the game. He did hang out with some other kids for parts of the game, but he sat with me for a good part of it. I also told the boys before the game to watch out for flying pucks and sure enough one got out and came pretty close to us. The game was fun and ended in a shootout. Unfortunately the Bobcats were on the losing end. I'm sure there will be a lot of tired boys and girls in school today since it was late before anyone even got home. We also saw two of the boys' classmates at Walmart after the game. Like us they were there to pick up treats for the first grader's Valentines party today. Rion's teacher let us know yesterday that they needed treats. Sheesh.

Nancy Drew and the missing computer

I constantly remind everyone in the house to be careful on the computer and watch what they are clicking on. So when we did get a virus last week, guess who was responsible? Of course it was me. And of course it was right before the weekend and we didn't get our computer back until Tuesday. Poor Rion was without a computer the entire weekend. Not that I was much better. How did we ever manage before computers? Not that any of us really need to be on the computer as much as we are, but I wanted to do some things this weekend anyway. On Saturday we finally checked out the remodel at the library. It is very nice. Rion got in some computer time there and Torii and I played checkers. Cordelia ran around. We found some good books and checked out the movie "Nancy Drew". I'd like to say Rion is a Nancy Drew fan because of his love of books, but it's because he plays Nancy Drew computer games. I will admit he's really good at them and can figure them out by himself. When we got home we watched the movie. Rion didn't make it through the entire movie in one sitting because he had stop and play Nancy Drew. He eventually finished the movie and then continued to watch his favorite scenes over and over. On Sunday, Rion was pretending to be Nancy Drew. It lasted all day. He found clues, solved mysteries and oh, yah, insisted on being called Nancy Drew all day. I told him he should be Nathan Drew, but he liked Nancy Drew instead. After school on Monday, he noticed some old magazines I had on the table. I told him he could do whatever he wanted with them so he began cutting out "clues" from the magazines. He cut out some food which apparently was a huge clue. Tomorrow is show and tell and he wants to bring the Nancy Drew movie to school. He is still insisting we call him Nancy Drew at home and made a Nancy Drew Mii on the Wii today. He looked at the movie cover to reference what she looks like. Tomorrow he wants to bowl with her.

Church school

My Torii loves Sunday school. We find it ironic that our most devilish child is also the one who seems to be the most faithful as well. Since Christmas I've gotten to sit in on two of his classes. The parents were asked to come and talk about the Lord's Prayer with the kids. They are learning it this year and are going to say it as a group in church sometime soon. Torii knew most of it and when the teacher asked if they had said the prayer before Torii raised his hand and said we were just practicing it on the way to church school. I think the teacher liked that and asked him if we were practicing again the next week. On the second meeting the teacher was asking the kids questions about the prayer that they had learned the previous week. Each time Torii's hand shot up and he had the right answers.

Torii also loves singing in church school. When the music teacher can't decide what song to sing next, Torii always raises his hand and puts in a request. A couple of Sundays ago they learned a new song. Yesterday afternoon Torii was singing it, "Sing lasagna, sing lasagna, sing lasagna to the king of kings." I had to correct him, "no Torii, it's sing Hosanna."