First Days of School...........finally!

School (for Janelle) actually started a month ago, oops! She started 1st grade at a new school (the charter school) this year and is doing great! She's made some good friends and I've already heard wonderful things about her from her teacher, the principal and secretary!

So far I am loving Janelle's new school. It is teeny tiny, so the class sizes are small and the principal pretty much knows all the kids by name! Parents are encouraged to visit their child's class at least once a semester to observe their child in a classroom setting, which I absolutely love. I went yesterday and it was so nice being able to watch her with her friends, how well she pays attention and how she interacts with her teacher. I also love all the positive reinforcement they give at her school. She comes home almost everyday with these little "Caught Being Good" cards. The teachers give them out when they see the students doing something exceptionally well or kind to others. At the end of the report card period all the kids count how many they've received and the winner of each class gets to eat pizza with the principal. One day Janelle came home with 3 cards, I was so proud. :)

The one thing I REALLY miss about her old school is being able to walk everyday! Her old school is a 10 minute (if that) walk from our house and a 2 minute drive. Her new school really isn't that far, but you definitely couldn't walk to it. Oh well, the sacrifices we make, right?
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Spencer's First Day of Preschool

This last week Spencer started preschool. Originally I'd planned on finding some people to do a co-op preschool with, but when all was said and done, there just wasn't enough interest this time around. I was kind of sad because Spencer really needed something like that, especially with a new baby coming, and sending him somewhere was pretty much out of the question financially with Kyle in grad school. A few weeks ago my mom told me one of the girls in her ward was starting an in-home preschool and sent me her website. My mom and sisters absolutely love her and said she would be an amazing preschool teacher. She was an art major at BYU and actually sells paintings around the world. It turns out her preschool was going to be art/play-based which sounded perfect for Spencer. I looked up her website thinking there was probably no way we could afford it, but to my surprise it was incredibly affordable. Kyle and I talked it over and finally decided that we'd do it. I'm so thankful that this opportunity came up for Spencer!!

Spencer started on Tuesday and L-O-V-E-S it! He goes Tuesdays/Thursdays, so when he woke up this morning and I told him there was no preschool today he was so sad! Poor guy.

Here's a shot of Spencer's Spiderman backpack.

Now if you know me at all, you know that I can't stand character apparel...no offense to those of you that like it! I just prefer things on the simpler side. Anyway, I had to get Spencer a new backpack because he was supposed to have one big enough to hold art projects and his binder, and he just had a small one. When I told him that we were going to go shopping for a new backpack, he insisted that it had to be a Spiderman one. Of course. I tried and tried to talk him into the cute little kid ones with an airplane or motorcycle on it, or a nice plain red one...but no, it had to be Spiderman. So when we finally came across this one and it was $5 on clearance, I realized he'd won the battle. How can you pass up $5? I have to admit though, it was totally worth it seeing his little smile on his face wearing that backpack around everywhere!