SNOW!

Well, we have snow. We got an inch or so a few days ago and another inch or two this morning. As much as I hate the paraphernalia that goes with snow/winter (boots, coats, scarves, mittens, gloves, snow pants ...... etc) I do love the quiet that comes over my house when all the kids go outside to play outside in the white powdery fun. The hangers have come out and will perpetually have a hanging place in the kids bathroom as that's just about the only place for wet stuff to get hung once coming inside!

This last week was conference week at school. That means that the kids had half days Mon-Fri so I was picking them up by 12:10 each day. Next week is Thanksgiving so the kids only have school Monday and Tuesday.

Conferences went well. Micah is in 1st grade and is excelling in everything. He's solid academically but still needs to work on his handwriting. He's in a hurry too much. He's a huge community contributor and is excellent at helping, volunteering, and assisting others. He's also eager to share his thoughts .... so not interrupting others is an area he needs to work in. He's very self driven and is in competition with everyone.

Carissa is in 2nd grade this year and loves to write. She's her Mother's daughter. She is doing well with writing and reading and loves science. Her area of weakness academically is math. She is struggling a bit - but is making marked improvements as we continue to work on stuff at home more. She's the perfect little helper and student at school. She's got a great teacher this year and is happy to be in the same class with 2 of her best friends. She's making her reading goals for each month and is very proud of that.

Noah is in 4th grade and is also doing well academically. He's showing his strengths to continue to be in math. His weakness is in writing (grammar and mechanics and desire). He's a good speller, but even there has shown sloppiness a little bit. He's in a hurry and doesn't double check his answers. He's a smart one, so easily bores and fidgets as a result. It's always a challenged to encourage his BEST and be happy with that .... but not settle for mediocre work when we know he can do better... He's nearly 10 so we're starting that journey into the tween years soon and all that comes with that. He's recently learned some new words at school (swear words) and has been honest about how he's learned them. He knows them to be "bad words" so hasn't used them, but rather, asked questions about them. I'm thankful that he's feeling comfortable to ask us and not feel like it's too taboo to go there with us. It's partially saddening to know he's learning/hearing words and things that seem more mature than he is. We just hope to keep the channels of communication open... so we can continue to parent and teach him (as well as the others) what is good and pure and right.