What are they?  Eagle of the Month awards are given to students who have demonstrated growth in one or more of the Lifelong Learning Skills or achievement of a remarkable academic goal. *

What are Lifelong Learning Skills?  Lifelong Learning Skills are skills that help us navigate the social world and help us to be successful at home, at school and in the workplace.  Edmonds school District has identified six Lifelong Learning Skills essential to healthy social/emotional development. They are Respect, Responsibility, Cooperation, Problem-Solving/Decision Making, Reflection/Self Awareness and Independent Work Habits. Teachers not only evaluate student’s skills in these areas but they also explicitly teach and continue to provide opportunities for growth & practice of these skills. Each student’s progress in these areas is reflected on their report card.*

How are students nominated for Eagle of the Month Awards? Eagle of the Month awards will be awarded to those students who have shown outstanding effort and growth in these areas.  Please encourage discussions with your children at home about the meaning of these skills.*

Does every student get an EOM award by the end of the school year?  Not necessarily.  Students are recognized for making a concerted effort and for demonstrating marked improvement.  “Self-esteem is most likely to be fostered when children are esteemed and receive meaningful feedback in the form of appreciation rather than empty praise and flattery”*.  Therefore, teachers take great care to describe the specific ways in which students have progressed.  It is important to remember that classroom teachers also recognize students for positive feats in other ways.  Many are rewarded with trips to the classroom treasure box, are given Kool Kid awards, are reinforced for reaching personal goals as outlined on positive behavior charts, or are recognized and celebrated within their own classrooms.*

(*Quoted from the school counselor’s monthly newsletter)

Respect is defined as: “demonstrates empathy and kindness toward others; appreciates diversity; follows classroom and school rules; takes care of classroom and school environment.” 

Responsibility is defined as: “demonstrates self-control and self-management, handling frustration appropriately.  Reflects on and evaluates learning and behavior for the purpose improvement; sets goals”.

Here he is getting his award from the principal. (The awards are normally given out during the school assembly... which will be Thursday afternoon, but since he goes to am kindergarten, the principal came into his class.)

With his principal

With his teacher and the other nominated student from his class.

We are super proud of you Wesley!!!  Keep up the good work.

 

and it’s Wesley’s first day of school!

Hooray! I am a kindergartener now!!

So before school we had a big photo session:

Then we loaded into the car and drove to the school:

In the parking lot heading over to the school.

Waiting to cross the street.

Let's go in!

Waiting for their teacher in the lunch room.

At his cubby.

Unpacking his folder.

Yep...he has the top shelf cubby.

Working on a coloring page while everyone gets settled.

Joshua and Jillian watch from the other side of the room.

Joshua takes a picture with his phone.

Jillian comes over to see what Wesley is working on.

Then it is time to go to the carpet. The teacher asks them to stand up and push in their chairs. Maybe 1/4 of the class is able to follow that direction (way to go Wes).

They sit and listen to "The Night Before Kindergarten" by Natasha Wing.

At the end of the book the kids wave goodbye and give hugs to their families - so Wesley got to do the same.

Jillian was the 1st to get a hug.

Dad...

Then Me.

Joshua, Jillian and I then went home.  It was strange driving away thinking about him in that big school “all alone”.  A tear did come to my eye and it made me think about how fast he has grown up!

We had 2 hours at home before we had to go back and get him.  (He is in school 2 hours and 40 minutes.)

Joshua was awesome with Jillian - making her feel loved and special. Here they are reading - 11 books together (she had 21 more ready in a pile for him to read too). Before that they played games in her room and they even started a game of memory before we had to go.

We arrived early to pick up Wesley – good thing too, because they came out early. 

Waiting for his teacher to call his name to leave.

He was so excited to see us!

There he is - done with his 1st day of kindergarten!!!

Then we went to get lunch to celebrate…

And what would be the best way to finish off such a great day…. ice cream of course. 

And she did not want to miss a drop of that ice cream!

 

While I was there I got so excited when I found the Christmas card section.  I was in love with the designs with three or more pictures.  I take so many pictures that it is so hard to decide which one will go on the Christmas card.

And not only do I get to choose three or more pictures for the cover of the card – but I also get to choose one for the inside of the card too!

There are so many designs to choose from with Shutterfly’s 2010 holiday cards.  There are a lot of new ones this year too!

I won’t give a way which design I will be using this year – so you will be surprised when you get it in the mail in December. 

Here are some great links:

• holiday cards linked to http://www.shutterfly.com/
• greeting cards linked to http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery
• upload pictures to http://www.shutterfly.com/upload-pictures/

 

1. I was afraid to mess up the headlights worse than they already are.
2. I’m lazy. I figured it would take 2 hours or so for each headlight.

Last night I finally bit the bullet. And you know what? It worked. Of course it took 3 hours each, but we went from this:

to this:

Basically you just sand the heck out of the lights slowly moving through multiple grits of sand paper, plus some rubbing compound (all included in the kit). You attach them to your drill and then sand until your arms fall off.

We did a non scientific test by parking the car in the driveway and shining the lights on the garage door. The right side (which had been polished) was about twice as bright as the left side (which had not).  I’m guessing they won’t stay clear as long as they did the first time (10 years), but I’ll be happy if we get 2-3 out of the new polishing.

 

In 2009 we took 12,988.  The collages are a wonderful way for me to really remember these events and times of the year.

I am looking forward to all the collages that will need to be made in 2010!

 

So Mary Ann, Annalise and Nickolas came over early on Friday morning.  They gave a couple of birthday gifts which she opened right away.

Openingher new headband.

Wesley helping Jillian open her new playdough toys.

Then we were off to the pond:

On our way down to the pond.

Feeding the baby ducks together.

Making our way down the pond.

Here are the sweet little duckies.

He got so excited when the babies ate his bread!

She just loved watching them.

Hot and tired, but they love to be outside!

The girls rode in the stroller with me, and the boys walked with Mary Ann. What a great way to end our trip to the pond.

Then in the afternoon we got out the big tub of playdough toys.  Jillian sure did love the extruder!!!

Thank you Mary Ann for a fun day!

 

JI…

I know you don’t like to celebrate this very special day…but I do.   So, I will keep it simple for you today.  Thank you for sharing your life with me.  I am looking forward to the next 30 years!!

I love you with all of my heart.

AR…

 

I finally broke down and bought 11 different colors of tempra paint.  Then it sat, unused for a couple of weeks.  Last weekend when Joshua was taking a nap, I wanted to do something quiet….so we painted.

Two brushes at once!

Painting circles

And it worked out great.  They both got to paint at the same time.  Each kid got to pick 3 colors to paint with.  Wesley chose black, purple and blue.  Jillian chose yellow, orange and pink.

Just some of the masterpieces.

Now that I know how easy it was, we will be doing it more often!

Wesley's "Beetle": purple legs, blue antenna, blue eye with a black body.

Jillian's "Circles and Lines"

Wesley's "Feathers"

Jillian's "Wild"

 

Our new puppy.

On Saturday we drove to Brenham, Texas to pick up our new 3-4 month old puppy.

He is a great listener  and we think he is really trainable!

Having a puppy in the house is a bit stressful, but he really is a great dog – and we are lucky to have him.