School Days, Part Two

I promise to go back and post photos and updates from fall/winter/spring, but since I just posted about the beginning of the girls' school years, I thought it might make sense to post about their end-of-the-school-year events next.

Ramona's last day was June 6th.  At the annual moving-up ceremony, her class sang "This Little Light of Mine," and were super cute.

After the other classes sang their songs, the entire school sang the (preschool) song of the year: "Let It Go".  It was hysterical.  My apologies for the shakiness of the video, but I couldn't stop laughing!  I'm not sure which I liked best: the kids who were shouting the words at the tops of their lungs, or the kids who were covering their ears and cringing through the song.  It made for some darn good entertainment.

Oh, that little girl in the front middle making the exuberant arm gestures throughout the song is not Ramona, but another girl in the same dress!  Ramona is toward the back and the right. 

Ramona's last day of preschool -- June 6, 2014

The ceremony was followed-up with a lunch party back at school and lots of goodbye hugs. 




Ramona loves Miss Jessica!  We'll all miss her next year.

So glad that Ramona will be back there in the fall!

............................................................................................................................................................

At the other end of the date-of-the-last-day-of-school spectrum was Amelia, whose last day was just last Wednesday (June 25).  Don't feel too bad for her, though.  Her last two and a half weeks of school included: no homework and no spelling tests, not one but two field trips (one to the swan boats in the Public Garden and one to the zoo), field day, kindergarten graduation, a holiday (Bunker Hill Day), a school-wide talent show, a school dance (I am NOT kidding -- hers included the kindergarten through second grade students), and a couple of early dismissals. 

Field trip to Stone Zoo




Posing with some of her artwork and after her very first school dance!

Add a handful of birthday parties and other end-of-the-year get-togethers, and you've got yourself a pretty fun month of June!

I was happy that my start date for my new job was scheduled for the middle of June, because it allowed me to attend more of these activities than I might otherwise have been able to.  I had a great time chaperoning the field trip to the zoo -- it's so much fun to watch Amelia interact with her peers in situations I don't normally get to see -- and was very impressed by the kindergarten graduation program. 

Kindergarten graduation performance and ceremony

The kindergarten classes sang FOUR entire songs -- complete with hand gestures and including "Fifty Nifty United States" (which I remember 5th graders singing when I was in elementary school) -- and had worked very hard to learn them all.

I didn't get much of the last song... My phone ran out of storage, and I was frantically trying to delete things during the first part!  But here's the end:

The singing was followed by the distribution of their "diplomas," and then cake for all. 

So proud of our little kindergarten grad! 

Last day of kindergarten!  Where did the year go???

With her teachers, Mrs. K and Mrs. Quigg, and a picture she drew of them  :)

Or, as she likes to call herself now, our first-grader.  :)

School Days, Part One

As we wrap up the 2013-14 school year (Ramona has been on break for over two weeks, but Amelia's last day was yesterday -- ah, the difference between private and public school!), here are some pictures from the girls' respective first days of school...

 

All ready for KINDERGARTEN!

This was a BIG year for Amelia.  Kindergarten is so much more structured and academic than preschool is -- or than kindergarten used to be, for that matter.  They actually had weekly spelling tests during the second half of the year! 

Photo with her sisters, who seem less than thrilled...

At the beginning of the year, Amelia could identify all letters, and could write all of the uppercase letters, and most of the lowercase letters.  She could spell her name and a handful of common short words, and knew what sounds most of the letters made, but was just beginning to sound out simple three- and four-letter words.  She could identify most numbers between 1 and 20, but could only write a couple of them. 

On the long (two-and-a-half-block) walk to her new school

And now?

The girl can straight-up READ, and has been able to for at least six months.  She is undaunted by the length of words and the length of books, sounding out four- and five-syllable words with a speed that amazes me and tackling (picture) books of all lengths, from 20 pages to 60 pages.  And she WANTS to read.  All.  The.  Time.  (It's awesome.)    

Finding her nametag and meeting her teacher

She knows dozens of "sight words," and can indeed identify them instantly.  She can write complete sentences, including proper capitalization and correct punctuation (most of the time).  She knows the difference between long and short vowel sounds, and understands the role of the silent "e".   

Getting settled in her new classroom... with some old friends!

And her math skills!  Amelia can now count past one hundred -- by ones, by tens, by fives -- and can write out all of the numbers.  She can read a math problem and then solve it using pictures and numbers.  She can add one-digit numbers to one-digit numbers, to make either more one-digit numbers or (small) two-digit numbers.  She can also subtract one-digit numbers from other one-digit numbers and (small) two-digit numbers. 

It's seriously incredible.  Thank goodness for awesome teachers! 

Ramona has had a great school year, too. 

SO happy to be going to school!

At not quite four, she has another year of preschool after this one, so for this pre-pre-kindergarten year, we had her in school just three mornings a week.  She may have been happier going four or five mornings a week, though, since she was always bummed on the days that Amelia got to go to school but she didn't!  Next year.  :)

Note that everyone seems more cheerful for Ramona's first day than they were for Amelia's.

She has grown up so much this year.  Where she might have had difficulty transitioning between activities at the beginning of the year (read: moving from an activity she was enjoying to one that she was less enthusiastic about), by the end of the year she was cheerfully picking up with her friends and getting ready for the next task. 

 

Walking the Freedom Trail to school... and peeking in the window upon arrival

Ramona has also made some "academic" advances this year, moving from circling her name upon arriving at class, to filling in two or three missing letters in her name, to writing out her whole name.  She can also now identify most letters, write about half of her uppercase letters pretty successfully, and tell you what sounds most letters make.  She can count past 20, can identify several numbers, and can even write a few of them, but still needs help with identifying and writing most numbers.   

All signed in and ready to begin her day!

Ramona will be returning to the same preschool next year, moving up to the (pre-kindergarten) Sea Turtle class, along with a handful of her current classmates, to join several kids from other classrooms.  And she'll have the same teachers that Amelia had last year, which we are thrilled about because they are so wonderful. 

Looking at these pictures from their respective first days of school reminds me of just how different these two girls are...

Amelia was super excited about her first day of kindergarten, but she was also REALLY nervous, and cried a little bit as we were dropping her off.  (You'll notice that she's not really smiling in the pictures of her in her classroom.)  To be fair, it was kind of a zoo.  There were 22 kids in her class, plus 2 parents apiece for most of them, and many youngers siblings... Add in two teachers she didn't know and a new school, and it was just a little bit too much for my sensitive little girl!  After we got her set up with some familiar faces at her table and gave her a couple of hugs, she was completely fine -- in fact, at bedtime that night, she whispered to me that she couldn't wait to go back to school the next day -- but it's a pretty accurate depiction of how Amelia often reacts to something new: reserved, a bit cautious, and in need of gentle coaxing and reassurances.

Ramona, on the other hand... I don't think that shy will ever be a word used to describe her!  She trotted all the way to school on her first day, giggling the whole time, so pleased both to reconnect with old friends and to make new ones.  After she got all signed in, she hugged us goodbye, but never gave us a second glance as we left.  Again, to be fair, Ramona had attended the same school for a semester last year, and even had one of her old teachers again, but even so...  She has no problem asserting herself in a roomful of people she doesn't know, and will chat up anyone -- the crossing guard, the guy ahead of us in line at Dunkin Donuts, the kid on the neighboring swing at the playground -- about anything -- her current favorite toy, the book she read last night, what she ate for breakfast, her cats...  The possibilities are endless. 

They are definitely different kids, but they do share the same attitude toward school: both LOVE it, and I hope they continue to enjoy it for a long, long time... Though hopefully not on our dime after college!  :)

Good (Amelia) News

Amelia's second post-surgery follow-up appointment was last Monday.

Height, weight, blood pressure, and EKG were first.  Her height and weight alone were good indicators of how well she has recovered.  In the four weeks since her last appointment, she grew an inch and gained two pounds, putting her at 3'10" (99th percentile) and 49 pounds (95th percentile)!  Additionally, her blood pressure was normal and her EKG results were great, with p-waves "all over the place," according to her cardiologist.

The examination part of the appointment followed the data-collection part.  Amelia's cardiologist said that her scar looked good, but that we will have to be careful to keep it covered up as the weather gets warmer and sunnier, so that it doesn't darken.  In addition to looking good, things sounded good, too: post-surgery, Amelia's cardiology team could still hear what they were calling a "flow murmur," but it couldn't be heard on Monday.  

After meeting with the cardiologist it was time for another echo -- always the longest part of an appointment!  Definitely Amelia's favorite part, though, because she gets to watch TV... So she got to watch The Bee Movie while the sonographer clicked away, capturing image after image of her heart.  He got some great pictures, including several showing the actual repair in her heart.  We got a print-out of one to take with us:

See that bright half-circle on the upper right?  That's the repair!

More good news after the cardiologist examined the pictures: The pressure gradient in Amelia's SVC (at a 3-4 in the hospital and then a 7 at her first follow-up) was down to a 2!  This could be due to two different things: (1) there isn't as much narrowing of the SVC as we thought there might be, or (2) additional veins have opened up to help with drainage and have taken over part of the function of the SVC.  Either way, it's a good thing!

Amelia's next follow-up appointment has been scheduled for June.  In the meantime, she has to be on iron for about two more months.  The doctors aren't worried about the anemia, since it was caused only by the surgery itself, and are expecting that everything will be normal by then.  The only other continued effect of the surgery?  Amelia has to be on prophylactic antibiotics before dentist's appointments.  No big deal!

The last line of the summary report from Amelia's appointment is particularly fitting, given her activity level as of late: "There are no restrictions or limitations."  Hoping that this statement is true for years to come!

And if this wasn't enough good news for one week, we got some more happy, Amelia-related news yesterday.  She won the (literal, Boston Public Schools) lottery and will be attending kindergarten at the excellent school two and a half blocks away from our house.

For those of you thinking, "well, obviously..." let me fill you in on the craziness that is (or WAS -- it will change next year) the school assignment system for BPS.

BPS is divided into three zones.  There are roughly thirty schools in our zone, some about a 45-minute bus ride away.  Additionally, everyone has a "walk zone" within their zone, which includes all schools within a mile radius of your house.  We have three walk zone schools.  Instead of just attending the school closest to them, kids in the BPS system are entered into a lottery to determine which school they will attend.  When assigning children to schools, half of the spots at a given school are reserved for kids within the walk zone (minus the spots taken by siblings of current students).  The other half of the spots can go to any child within the larger zone (although walk zone kids can be considered for these spots, as well).  

In January, you begin the registration process for your future-kindergartner, bringing numerous documents to prove that you live in Boston.  You also bring a list in which you have ranked the schools in your "zone," from first choice to last.  After the first round of registration closes, everyone's preferences are run through a computer system, and children are matched with schools.  If everyone just ranked the schools closest to them, it would be no big deal.  But because some schools are better than others, or have special/desired programs, it doesn't work that way.  And, of course, we happen to live near three really great elementary schools, so getting into them can be kind of competitive.

Anyway, we ranked only four schools in our zone: our three walk zone schools, and one near-ish to my office downtown. (We figured that if Amelia didn't get into one of those, we would put her into private school or move to the suburbs... I definitely wasn't going to put my five-year-old on a bus to Dorchester every morning!)  As luck would have it, we got our first choice: A wonderful school that is literally just two and a half blocks from our house.  So -- BIG sigh of relief around here!

Assignment letter and mailing back the confirmation of attendance!

And that was our week!  Hope that you all enjoyed something green this St. Patrick's Day.  I leave you with a photo of our three little leprechauns...

Only 1/16th Irish, but enjoying the holiday, anyway!