Kinder and Second Grade Update

Samantha's DRAMATIC story of the ONE day I overslept and we were running late for school (my phone died which is also my alarm). Imagine if she actually received a tardy slip that morning, how much more DRAMATIC this story would have been?! 

"Dress as an Era" day at school. Samantha chose the 80's. I was impressed she had all these items in her closet already. 

With Mara, the flapper girl.

Lauren (Lolo), a fellow 80's gal. 

Sam had that finger-pose-thing down pat. 

Samantha's reading group was working on a lesson about shelter and one of the projects was to create your own hut. 

I loved the rock pathway and potted succulents. 

Even a hammock!

Samantha is taking an after school crocheting class for Winter quarter. 

The jury is still out on whether she will complete a hat to fit her American Girl Doll, one for herself or one for me ;)

Thatcher's favorite thing to do in class is "Explode the Code." Mr. Silva says even when he gives the kids free choice, Thatcher chooses to do this workbook. 

Getting a pizza making lesson from Chef Laurel. 

Thatcher finished up his after school art class and made this cool game board. We've been playing a lot of of Tic-Tac-Toe! 

For Winter, Thatcher is taking tennis.

And both kids are doing a bootcamp-style workout class called Playfit. 

I love the after school classes where they workout really hard and go to bed on time ;)

Samantha prepping for her upcoming Readers Theater performance. 

Samantha's math group is led by Monte known as "Math with Monte". I think I mentioned before that I had to buy the math book so that I could make sure not only Samantha was keeping up but so that I was keeping up too. We are about 100 days into school and the math group keeps getting smaller and smaller as kids get kicked out. Samantha's still hanging in there. 

 

Like Samantha did in Kindergarten, Thatcher had to disguise a turkey to be saved from Thanksgiving.

He decided to do a skateboarding turkey.

I should say THEY decided to do a skateboarding turkey.

There is a fundraiser at school where you receive a drawing from your child and then you can order all sorts of things to have it printed on like mugs, magnets, blankets etc. I took one look at Thatcher's family photo and threw away the order form. ;)

There's a behavior app that you can download on your phone and view throughout the day how your child is doing. Samantha had this in kindergarten too and I rarely looked. Each time I pushed the app for her, the circle would be green with some sort of positive note. With this kid, I push the app all day long and I never know what I am going to get. It's sometimes bad. 

Sometimes good. 

Sometimes kind of bad. Kind of good. 

We are working on getting more of these. 

You better believe I am texting Mr. Silva as soon as I see a red circle appear on my phone. 

One thing he is perfecting is his Spanish accent. 

Thatcher's progress report was straight G's (Good) and an S (Satisfactory) for "Uses Self Control" What the heck?! 

Mr. Silva kept reminding me in the parent/teacher conference that it would be boring if he got all 4's and E's. (I didn't think Samantha was that boring). He assured me that Thatcher was NOT headed towards Juvenile Hall and that he would still get into college. His behavior is silly and chatty not disrespectful or mean. His sometimes messy work is because he is rushing to get outside on the playground to play basketball or soccer. Which by the way, I finally got to the bottom of why he went from eating lunch in the cafeteria every single day to all of a sudden having me pack a lunch. The cafeteria takes longer to get through and cuts about 20 minutes off of recess time....

Thatcher IS doing really great at reading and math and he's keeping up with the highest group BUT I have to do weekly check-ins to make sure he is still in that group. Just the other day he told me he went to a different group. I followed up only to find out that he went to another group on his own. He told me that he, "just wanted to try it out." He walked out of the classroom like he was going to where he was supposed to be and headed into an English Learners class. The teacher, a friend of mine, said she thought it was strange Thatcher came to her class but he wanted to try it so she let him. Now I need a GPS system on him. 

But, what I love about Thatcher in kindergarten is how well-loved he is by all the other kids. When he walks into school in the morning, not only kindergarteners but ALL students are trying to get his attention. "What's up, Thatcher! Hi Thatcher! Hey Thatcher! Thatcher, HELLO!!! Lil' T!!!!" And Thatcher sort of smiles a little, flips his hair to the side and gives a nod. He plays it cool on the playground and we are trying to teach him to be cool in class, not the class clown.

And then there is Samantha who received a boring progress report. 

I'm really TRULY proud of both our kids. Such different personalities and it probably WOULD be boring if I didn't have Thatcher to keep me on my toes. ;) 

Samantha Piano - "Storms on Saturn"

End of Soccer Season

I should probably not say "End of Soccer Season" because we are realizing it has been a year-round thing for us whether it is pick-up games at the park or Spring leagues or Educo or Club training, our kids want to do more than AYSO. And we like it. It's great exercise, they are becoming more confident in the game and it's fun to watch. 

The Professionals, Thatcher's team, made a deal with the team they were to play on Halloween to have their game on Friday rather than that Saturday and to play at Shoreline Park. This way we didn't have to go anywhere near UCSB (which is notorious for being a zoo on Halloween). So, we had a happy hour soccer game with a killer view on an early Friday evening. It got me thinking that it would be nice to have some Friday games rather than taking up your entire Saturday with AYSO.

Another parent took these photos of Thatcher and sent them to me. 

Thatcher was always red-faced, aggressive and doing what he could to get the ball. Compared to the U8 girls, the U6 boys were A LOT rougher to watch. Most games looked like a mix of tackle football with a little soccer mixed in. ;)

Papa Ward and Dancing Grandma made it up to see both kids play one weekend.

Mateo and Thatcher were the stars of the team. 

When they had to sit out, they both would wait for any opportunity to get back in the game. Every once in while there would be a minor injury and a player from our team would want to sit out and they'd both fight for that open spot. 

Thatcher's team won 7 out of 10 games and Thatcher had 15 goals! 

The White Snow Tigers finished strong. They won 9 out of 10 of their games and Samantha had 16 goals! We gained a whole new soccer family with joining our new neighborhood team and we loved everything about it. 

Especially these ladies! We got to hang out every Friday at practice and then again cheering on our girls the next morning. I couldn't ask for a better Friday evening or Saturday morning! 

To celebrate the end of the season for Thatcher's team, we had a parents vs. kids game which ended up being a moms vs. kids and I have to say I was impressed by these ladies! 

Pizza party!

Coach Jethro deserved this gigantic bottle of Grey Goose for sure!

Samantha had her awards ceremony and pizza party at the park the same evening as Thatcher. I actually missed Coach Sam speak about Samantha but I heard he mentioned her goal scoring and how nice she is on the field. It's true. She seems to always be the one to accidentally kick a ball into an opponents head or trip them and she will stop mid-game and apologize. It's hard for her to recover after something like this happens but she is learning that it is part of the game. I've even seen her say sorry to someone when she steals the ball in basketball. A very sweet quality that's for sure ;)  

Like I said, the soccer is still continuing. Samantha and some of her teammates from AYSO are continuing on with Educo to keep up the training and learn more ball skills. This year, Samantha is old enough to join a club team if she is chosen. Right now, she has been asked to train with the current U9 team once a week. While that is a good sign that she may get a spot on the team, it is still not 100% so we are keeping an open mind on what to do going forward. We do know she wants to continue in some form so we will keep at it for sure. 

The best part about the soccer training is the car pool. I should have used the flash but I have two rows of sporty girls excited to be in the car together to and from soccer. There is lots of chit-chat, singing and more chit-chat and it is hysterical! While I love having a break from driving once in a while, I'd happily take this crew every week, they are that fun! 

Over Winter break, Samantha joined a few friends for the ONE soccer camp. 

It's an intense 2 -day camp and a long day of soccer. 

Samantha's coach at the camp was named Andy. He's from Uganda and played professionally. I wish I would have gotten one of him standing because he is giant. A gentle giant for sure. 

Thatcher just squeaked by with his age in getting into the camp. Actually, he wasn't quite old enough but we know the guy in charge and he gave the okay. 

Thatcher was THRILLED to be at the same camp as the Hasting boys. 

And that's all for now with soccer...