Open House

We went to Open House @ Jackson's school on Monday night.

This is always one of my favorite evenings - we get to meet his teacher, see his room (and this year, his locker), buy books @ the book fair.

Here are some of the highlights:

Good habits are encouraged!

 Say please, say thank you, pray, smile, be respectful, listen, study!

Here it is - the entire reason Jackson loves 3rd grade - the locker!

Mrs. Stevens uses positive reinforcement in her classroom. Every kiddo gets and apple and if you keep your apple in the top of the tree, you can earn various levels of rewards.

She also had the kids work together to collect pebbles in a jar; once the jar is filled, the class gets to watch a movie and have a snack.



This is a view of the entire classroom. Jackson's seat is close to the back of the room.

This is Mrs. Stevens. I'm not sure how long she's been teaching @ St. Mike's but she's very good and seems to be totally in tune with the needs of 3rd-graders. Jackson's happy, we're happy, it's a good year!

Honestly, if we all followed this simple rule, wouldn't life be better?

Classroom rules.

My favorite is "Think before you speak."

It's hard to believe that we'll be visiting 2 classrooms next year!



Happy Birthday Jackson (1 week late)

OK, so I missed Jackson's birthday post by a week. But honestly, we've been partying for at least the past week.

We started last Monday, Labor Day, with lunch @ Panera, a trip to Barnes & Noble and Petco.

Then I made homemade granola bars to send into school on your special day.

We went to Italian Village Pizza for supper on your birthday evening.

On Friday, we celebrated, once again, with a little supper-party @ our house with family. Jackson wanted Subway, so that's what we had (and delicious homemade veggie soup from Grammy Linda). Grammy Linda also made Jackson his Mario Bros cake he wanted.

This is me putting together the locker that Aunt Dana & Uncle Nate sent for Jackson's birthday.

Jackson got quite a few gifts: DS game, books, Legos, remote control boat, just to name a few!

So, just in case you were scared that we missed Jackson's birthday, fear not - I'd say we maximized the celebrations :) And why not? He's an awesome 9 y-e-a-r  o-l-d! I can't believe he's starting his last year as a boy in the single digits! Wow!



A Rose and a Thorn

I had a meeting today @ work and the consultant-guy asked all of us to 'play' rose and thorn where we identified one thing about our job that we really love (rose) and one thing that we really thought was rough (thorn). I carried that game home this evening and as we sat @ the supper table (eating a delicious crock pot meal), I asked the boys to name a rose and a thorn from today.

Jackson: "My rose was coming home and seeing all of you guys. My thorn was doing language in school today."

Jude: "My favorite thing about today was shouting 'Good good' @ school today. The bad thing was when we had to leave school."

I didn't want to forget this conversation, so I had to blog it!