Week 114

Ryan is now a first grader!  On his last day of school we took him out for a special dinner and dessert to celebrate.  Not only did he have 100% attendance, but his 4th quarter report card was the best he's had so far!  He came home with his notebooks of work he did throughout the year.  I was happy to see how many times he drew pictures of, and wrote about our cat Helen.  I miss her so much and sometimes catch myself thinking that any moment she is going to jump on my lap.

During the week the school mailed Ryan a Perfect Attendance certificate.

Although it took Ryan some time in the beginning of the year to get into the swing of things, overall he made some great improvements with his writing, reading, and math (especially math which seems to be his top strength!)  Hmm....do you think with two math teachers as parents that he was destined to be a strong math student???

Here is one of the projects that Ryan came home with on his last day of school.  It says:

My name is Ryan and I look just like my mommy.  I am now finishing kindergarten and boy, am I good at math.  Do you know my parents are teachers?  I may do that when I grow up, but I really want to be a police officer.  I can't wait to eat lunch in 1st grade, but nothing will be as good as dad's chicken.  When I am in high school I am going to be great at reading, just like my mommy.  I am going to study hard and make everyone proud!  But for now I am going to enjoy vacation with my family, it's my favorite thing to do!

One of my students gave me a special gift this week.  It is a bracelet that was made by someone with autism and it is called the Lucas Works Autism Awareness Bracelet.  It has silver and pewter charms on it, and features beads of glass, moonstone, hematite and gold.  The charms stand for different things and it came with an explanation card describing what each part of the bracelet means to help spread awareness.

Children with autism (puzzle piece charm) are found all over the world (blue bead).  Here are some of the keys (key charm) to helping them:  Autistic children thrive on a schedule to keep their world ordered (1,2,3 charm) and calm (clear bead).  Visual cues (easel with picture on it) help them to navigate the waters of life (aqua bead) and the helping hands and loving hearts (hand charm with heart shape in center) of special teachers and therapists can mean the difference between night (black bead) and day (white bead) to them, along with a good (gold bead) school program (school bus charm).  And like all children, they need lots and lots of love! (double heart charm).

Here is a picture of the bracelet.  It is one of the most special gifts I've ever received and to receive it from one of my students was a truly touching moment.

Ryan attended his sister's dance recital this weekend.  Last year he barely made it five minutes before we gave in and let him play games on the Ipad because he was so bored and disruptive.  This year he played a game during intermission only; during the rest of the recital he sat and watched.  He was bored at times, but he made it through the whole thing!

Julia is tall for her age (almost 5), so this picture shows you how tall Ryan is compared to other 5/6 year old children.  It is difficult to believe that they are only 1 year apart. 

DC