Archive for the 'School' Category

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My true identity revealed

Published on Wednesday, October 8, 2008 in Artwork, Claire, Photos and School. 5 Comments

I know I’ve said I’m going to remain relatively incognito on this site, but I just have to share what happened on Monday.  Claire had her Young Preschoolers Class, and she was SO excited to show me the picture she drew.  As soon as I walked in the door to sign her out, she screamed, “Momma!  I made a picture for you!  You have to see it!” and she ran to me, holding her piece of artwork proudly.

The teacher had written Claire’s name and the word “person” on the paper.  The task that day was to draw a person.  Claire was so proud when she told me that she’d drawn me.  She’d drawn a picture of Momma!

Click photo to enlarge.
Clicking a second time will show more detail.

Claire drew a picture of Momma!

Claire drew a picture of Momma!

So…here I am!  And, if you must know, it looks almost exactly like me.  It’s such a great rendition that I was afraid to post it in a public forum.  ;)

It’s a full-body portrait, from the tippy top of my (apparently messy?) hair to the bottom of my shoes.

And, now that my true identity has been revealed, the odds of being recognized out in public are so much greater than they were before.  So, if you see me walking around the lake, be sure to stop and say ‘hi.’  :)

Watch the time

Published on Wednesday, October 1, 2008 in Claire, Photos, Random Thoughts and School. 1 Comment

When Claire was 6-months old, I stopped wearing a watch.  She was heavily into teething, and I was tired of getting my watch all wet when she gnawed on my wrist.  I loved my watch; it was one of the first gifts my then-boyfriend-later-turned-hubby had given me.  I didn’t want anything bad to happen to it, so I stopped wearing it.  I thought for sure I’d go into withdrawals (being that I’m such a perfectionist and stickler for time), but the funniest thing happened.

Not only did I not go completely crazy, it made me calmer.  I didn’t worry so much about time anymore, and I still got everywhere on time.  In fact, we don’t have many clocks in our house.  (This actually drove my mother up a wall when she was here.)  We have a clock on the microwave and the stove in the kitchen, and there’s one on the wall above the cupboards.

And, we have a clock on the thermostat in the hallway, and on the heated-floor-sensor in the Master Bathroom, and we have an alarm clock by our bed.

That’s it.

My personal time-telling device is my cell phone, and of course, there is the time displayed on the laptop and other computer monitors…but those aren’t things that are easily seen or even available all the time.  My hubby doesn’t even wear a watch…in fact, in the almost-12-years we’ve been together, I’ve never seen him wear one.  Ever.

I could start wearing a watch again, but I just haven’t gotten around to it…  :)

Now, just because I don’t wear a watch doesn’t mean I don’t care about time.  One of my biggest pet peeves is being late for something important.  Claire’s Young Preschooler Class normally meets on Mondays from Noon to 1:30, but due to a scheduling issue, the class this week was to meet from 9:30 to 11am this time.

Our challenge with the Noon class was not being ready too early.  “Is it time to go now?  What about now?  Is it time to go yet?  What about now?”  (Imagine that on repeat for a few hours…)

The challenge with the 9:30 class is getting out the door on time.  We’re not early risers around here.  Claire is the Queen of the Dilliers and the Dalliers…and you can only push a young preschooler so fast.

But, we made it, and with a few minutes to spare.

This time, I barely got a “Bye, Momma!” out of her before she ran to play with her new friends.

*sniffle*

I signed her in, and took that as my cue to dash out the door.

The class is an hour and a half, so I’d planned on going to SuperTarget to get some odds and ends and groceries.  (If we’re going to that store, we just get whatever else is on the list, as well.)

By my calculations, I had a good hour to myself.
Alone.
I wasn’t quite sure that I’d know how to behave in public all by myself.  ;)

Last week’s class was the first class, so I stayed in the office to do paperwork and be on stand-by if I needed to comfort her…and I didn’t!  She did great! So, being as this was technically my first time in such a situation, I checked the time on my phone constantly, just to be sure it wasn’t time to head back yet.

And, speaking of time…SuperTarget is like Vegas in that there are no clocks.  The lighting is always the same regardless of the time of day, and the soft music lulls you into a timeless warp.

So, I get everything on my list in record time.

I check my cell phone.  I still have plenty of time.

So, I have time to go peruse the purses.  I wanted to get a new purse for the new season, and I found one that struck my fancy.  It’s kinda bold, but I liked it…and it was on sale!  Even better.  Claire helped me pick out my last purse, so hopefully she won’t be disappointed in my choice.

I check my phone again.

Still not time to go back.

I look over the items in my cart and try to think if there’s anything I’ve forgotten.  I just *know* that I’ll be starting a new list immediately when I’m putting these items away.  Isn’t that always the case?

No other items come to mind, and I look at my phone again.

It’s close enough…I could go check out now and not be too early.

I go through the check-out lane and get out to my car.

I look at the time on my dashboard.  It’s always off by 7-minutes, but even after doing the math, I’m still a little early.

I could switch my purses now, or I could do it there.  I decide to go back to the preschool parking lot and do it there…no sense rushing if I don’t have to, right?

Even though I’m not hurrying, I get to the preschool in record time.  I’m still a little early.

I love switching purses.  I love seeing how my things fit in a new purse.  This new purse is the same style as my old purse, but in a different color/pattern.  Still, everything fits better in this purse.  I love it!

I look at the time on my phone.  That took less than two minutes.

So, I decide to synchronize the time on my dashboard to the time on my phone.  For I-don’t-know-how-long the time on my dashboard has been 7-minutes fast…but that’s about to change!  I’ve got the time!  I’ll change it.  Now, I’ll have to remember that if my clock shows me as being late, I’m late!

Why can I never remember how to change the time on this thing?  Every car I’ve ever owned has been so simple when it comes to changing the time on the dashboard…but not this one.  I tried it a few different ways before getting frustrated.  This is why it’s been 7-minutes fast for so long.  It’s impossible to change without the decoder ring.

I look at the time.  I’m still early.

I dig out the Owner’s Manual.  I swear it says to do what I just did…but I’ll try it again.  Of course, this time it works!  I’ll be sure to remember how to do it for sure next time!  (Editor’s note:  I’ve already forgotten.  Ha.)

I decide to call a friend to chat.  She can’t talk now…she’s in the middle of something or other, so she’ll talk to me later.  I call another friend to chat and leave a message.

What to do…what to do?  I’m not used to having time to myself like this.  Next week, I’ll need to plan things a little better.

I look at my newly-the-correct-time clock on the dashboard and decide that it’s close enough to the right time, and I go to get Claire.

Just as I’m opening the door, my phone rings.  It’s 1967, and she’s telling me she wants her purse back. ;) I tell her she has the wrong number, and even if she didn’t, I paid a whole $4.98 (for real) for my stylin’ bag, so that’s just tough.

Click to enlarge.

Momma’s new purse met Claire’s approval!

What?  Something about it makes me smile.  And, Claire LOVED it, so that’s all that matters.  ;)

And, just like last week, Claire didn’t want to leave her Young Preschoolers Class.  I coaxed her out to the car with the promise that she could hold my old purse all the way home.

And, for some reason, the 3-minute drive home was off by 7-mintues…until I undid the math in my head.

;)

Getting our feet wet

Published on Monday, September 22, 2008 in Claire, Milestones and School. 4 Comments

Today is a milestone for Momma and Claire, and I just have to share!

Claire’s birthday is November 30th.  She will be three this year.  The cut-off date for school out here is October 1st.  She’ll miss it and will not be able to go to Kindergarten until she is almost 6-yrs old.  My husband and I have decided to wait on sending her to preschool…we’ll send her in a couple years to a Pre-K offered by a preschool in our neighborhood that has come highly recommended to us.

In the meantime, I’m already following her lead on things, and she is like a little sponge!  Her thirst for understanding the world around her is insatiable at times.  She knows her colors, numbers, letters, address, etc.  I’m not forcing this stuff on her…I answer her questions and ask her questions throughout the day, and it works for us.

As it turns out, one of the moms in the Moms’ Club sends her little girl to the preschool we’re going to send Claire to in a couple of years.  This year, they are offering a special class for “young preschoolers” who are or will be 2.5 by October 1st.  It meets one day a week for an hour and a half.  It’s just structured enough to count as “school” and yet meets for such a short time that it’s not really a full-on “preschool.”

I called them, and they have space!  (They keep the class size really small.)  Claire and I decided to give it a go.

Last night, we were talking about the “school” and Claire got very upset.  She started crying when she realized that I wouldn’t be in the class with her.  My heart broke into a million pieces, and a pit formed in my stomach.  Was this too soon?  This was my own fault, after all.  I wasn’t going to send her to any form of preschool yet, but I’d changed my mind. I’d justified it all in my head.  An hour-and-a-half a week wasn’t really school.  It’s just enough to get her used to being independent from me.  If she cries, that’s okay…right?  That’s why we’re doing this, right?

We got her calmed down last night, and I really wondered how today would go.

As soon as she woke up, she was begging to go to school.  Today’s class didn’t start until Noon, so she had a few hours to wait.  All morning, she begged to go to school.  Maybe this will go okay?  (Plus, we’ve left her with a sitter before, and she’s been fine…but this would be a little different.)  Already being excited to go has to be a good sign…right?

We went to the school and met the Director and then met Claire’s teacher, “Sandy.” (may or may not be her real name…)  Claire was a little clingy at first, which was to be expected.  She can be a little clingy even with people she knows, depending on her mood…so this wasn’t surprising.

Sandy said I could stay for a while if I wanted to get Claire more used to her surroundings, and I said, “Oh…no…that’s okay.  I have a lot of paperwork to fill out in the main office.  So, I think I’ll go do that while Claire gets to know you and her new friends.  Right, Claire?”

I was hoping that she would be able to get into her element faster if I wasn’t there.  I was hoping that she wouldn’t cry or be too upset.

“Okay, Momma!  See ya later!” she said as she took off across the room to check out the toys.

I took that as my cue and slipped out the door.

I *did* have a ton of paperwork to fill out, so I did that.  The Director and her assistant chatted with me as I filled out the paperwork, and I got a really good feeling from all of this, the program, them.  Claire hadn’t burst into tears (yet, that I knew of), and even if she did…that’s why we’re doing this now.  I want her to be able to learn to spread her wings and be independent from me…on a certain level.  But, not too much, because she’s still little.  But, enough that she’ll be an old pro at doing this when we do other classes in the future.  Her future dance-classmates will thank me for this.

Plus, Claire has been talking about school so much lately, that this would be the perfect “teachable moment” to introduce something of this caliber.

The Director peeked into the room to see how she was doing and reported back.  Claire was singing The Itsy Bitsy Spider and having a grand ol’ time.  I peeked out the window when she was playing outside, and she was running around like a crazy person and having a blast.

At 1:30, I went to pick her up, and Sandy said she did a wonderful job.  There were no problems.  No tears.  No gnashing of teeth.

And, Claire didn’t want to leave.
And, she can’t wait until next Monday.
And, she talked non-stop all the way home about everything she did and everyone she met.

Daddy will be happy to hear that there were no tears, and that Claire didn’t cry either!  ;)

I know that we may have some obstacles in the future, but so far, so good.  And, if we do, I’ll just remind myself that this is why we’re doing this now.  It’s not time for her to swim across the deep end by herself, but there’s nothing wrong with getting her feet wet.  ;)