Samantha's first blog

pamelamyers | March 30, 2017

Last night was the Jungle Jamboree at Sam’s school. It is the first grade event similar to the kindergarten pajama party she had last year. Almost all the kids wore animal print or animal clothing. Sam loves it mostly because she just loves any event at her school, but also because it is a nighttime activity and so she gets to stay up late! The kids move through the night from activity to activity depending on what class they are in, so Sam got to do things with her classmates, which is nice. The first activity was Bingo. She had fun sitting with her friends, Ella and Lydia, racing to get Bingo first.

Next stop was crafts. The kids made these little snakes from pipe cleaners and beads.

On to the photo booth (which wasn’t really a photo booth in that no actual pictures were given out!) The kids liked using the props and I think the photos will eventually be developed and displayed at school somewhere. It’s funny, I didn’t actually see one kid ask where their pics were. I think it was just about the fun for them.

The games were fun for the kids, but pretty easy. All in all though, they all had a blast. The room was so full of smiles.

Sam and a buddy. 🙂

Sam’s last activity was dance party and I was kind of glad. It was a great way for her to end the night. She loved dancing around with her friends, doing a conga line, and generally being a maniac. When it was over, she was so sad the night was done. She was having so much fun dancing with her friend, Teagan.  When we got home, it was hard to get her to bed because she was so worked up. School the next day was going to be interesting for the teachers, that’s for sure. Better them than me!

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pamelamyers | March 8, 2017

We had a spring conference with Sam’s teacher, Mrs. Hall, tonight. I will confess, when I saw that she requested the conference, I was a little worried. Last year, we were told that spring conferences were only if your child had issues or needed some intervention. But, when I read the form scheduling the conference, Mrs. Hall had written us a very nice note saying that Sam has made so much improvement since the fall conference, that she wanted us to come in so she could share Sam’s work and some updates.

Sam is meeting her reading level goals for this semester (she is at level I, whatever that means) and she is supposed to be at level J by the end of the year, so that is great. Her math abilities have also improved (thankfully, since math was a major source of stress for Sam). She is also apparently much more comfortable in the classroom in terms of speaking up, raising her hand, sharing with the class and things like that. Mrs. Hall actually told us that she has been found to be more chatty at her table, which is normally a bad thing, but Mrs. Hall is actually glad to see it since it means she is comfortable in class.

The only areas she needs to really work on are her spelling, the neatness of her handwriting, and staying focused in class. Unsurprisingly, Sam is a bit of a daydreamer. She’s always got something going on in her head, that’s for sure, she is very creative. The problem is keeping her focused on class. We’re working on it. How much luck we will have is anyone’s guess!

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pamelamyers | March 3, 2017

We just finished Dr. Seuss week at school. One of Sam’s favorite days is crazy hat day. Last year, I did such a rush job on her hat (she is lucky she had one) because we were all right in the middle of Joe being so sick. It was all I could do to get any hat at all put together. Sam liked it though, so no harm done, but this year, I wanted to make an extra effort to give her something she could really be happy about. I decided to make her something totally crazy that is all her. Bows, bows, and more bows! That is my Sam.

I don’t know how she was able to see out of that thing, but she says she could.

For stripes day, this is the outfit she picked out. Last year, she wanted stripes drawn on her face and I wondered if she would ask again this year. Yup! She did. And once again, she told me all her classmates wondered why she had “marker” on her face. Uncreative children…so sad. My girl is an original. 🙂

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pamelamyers | February 26, 2017

Yesterday was the Frostival at Scenic Hills Elementary, where Sam will be going to second grade. It is their big fundraising event held every February. I have known about it since she was in preschool at St. Matt’s and have always thought about taking her, but it never seemed to happen. This year, I thought we definitely should go since it would give us a chance to see the inside of the school. I have never been inside either elementary school in Springfield! Sam will be going to so many schools. First the SLC, then Scenic for 2-5, then another middle school, then high school! It seems so odd to me, a Catholic school girl, where there is only one school for grades 1-8 and then high school. Sam doesn’t seem phased by it at all though. She loves the SLC, but changing schools is just what she knows she will do. I was really curious to see inside. When Sam started at the SLC, the school was only five years old. It is beautiful and state of the art. The elementary schools, on the other hand, are older. Scenic was built in the 1950s, so I knew it would be nothing like the SLC.

When we got inside, it seemed pretty nice. A typical school that was built in the 1950s…lots of cinder block walls. Exactly what I was used to. But it seemed well maintained and all the classrooms had the latest whoozits and whatsits like the smart boards and computers. That is really the important thing. Sam didn’t comment at all about anything, so I am taking the lack of negative comments as a plus.

Our first stop was spin art. Sam loved the idea of swirling paint into the spinner and seeing how it turned out.

Next stop, face painting! I was expecting small things like a flower or a rainbow on a cheek. Nope. They were doing full face art. I don’t think they planned ahead too much. That was going to take forever for each kid, and it was the middle school students doing the painting so they were not exactly speedy! Sam picked this butterfly. I am glad she didn’t pick one that literally covered her whole face – some kids did!

After face painting, we moved into the music room in the basement to play some games. The kids won tickets that they could cash in for prizes, just like they do at the arcade. Sam was super excited to see the music room labelled, “Mrs. Matteo’s Music Room.” Mrs. Matteo is her music teacher at the SLC and she loves her! Sam doesn’t know that some of the specials teachers come from other schools, and she was really happy to know that she might have Mrs. Matteo again. We actually had fun roaming the halls looking for other teacher names she might know and we found her art teacher, Mrs. Kobylarz’s room too.

When we went back upstairs to get her prizes, we looked out the door and saw a surprising sight – Shelly the turtle! They have an ecology center at the school complete with a pond and some ducks (which we saw earlier) and apparently they have a turtle!

We moved on to mini golf, which wasn’t exactly difficult, but Sam liked it. It also gave us yet another hallway of classrooms to explore…

Sam says, come on, everyone! I guess my stopping to take a quick picture was taking too long.

We had a snack in the cafeteria, and a quick trip in the photo booth!

It was finally time to go. One last picture in front of Sam’s soon-to-be school.

We got home and about an hour later, Sam suddenly came bursting into the room telling me, “We forgot my art!!” I had no idea what she was talking about until she reminded me we didn’t take her spin art home. It was hanging to dry on a clothes line. We were supposed to go back to get it. Thankfully, the school is only minutes away and we went back to get it. Sam was so worried it wouldn’t be there. I told her it definitely would. We had quite a time looking at all the names on the back of the photos to find hers, but we did. She kept telling me, “It has a green dot in the middle!” It certainly does!

It is hard to believe that in a very short time, Sam will be a student here. She is growing so fast, I can’t even stand it!

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pamelamyers | February 18, 2017

For months now, Sam has been asking me when she can go play at the playground at school. I asked her why she wanted to early on and she explained to me that she can now reach the monkey bars (if you recall, the fact that she could not was a huge source of anxiety for her when school started). She wanted to surprise Mark by not telling him, but showing him, and in her words, she couldn’t keep it a secret much longer! We did wind up going, finally, today. She couldn’t wait to show off how very big she had become.

She takes a big jump and – she does it! She hangs on! She can’t go from one bar to the next yet (that takes some arm strength she just doesn’t have), but she is so proud that she can at least reach.

Mark goofed around with her by pretending to be stuck in one of the little entrance ways and Sam went right up to help him get out. She told us that is where she sometimes sits with her friends, Alyssa and Kate (her bus friends she also has recess with). I asked her what they play together and she looked at me like I had five heads and said (in a very annoyed 13 year old voice), “Mom…we have conversations. We CHAT.” Alrighty then.

Mark tried to help her move from bar to bar, but she wasn’t really having it. I think she doesn’t have the confidence yet to move along, but she is happy just doing what she can.

Right before we left, Sam wanted to go have a look off the deck of the outdoor classroom. I wasn’t going to walk over and I just decided to take this picture of them. I love how small they look in the big woods. It was clear they were looking at something, so I did eventually go over when they called me to see what the fuss was about. I only got  a fleeting glimpse of what they saw – 11 deer! All in a group together. How amazing! Right behind her school. I wish I had gone over earlier. It would have been quite the sight to see. We are really going to miss her school after this year. It’s a great place, both inside and out.

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