Ethan - Special Class Newsletter Recognition

We're so proud of Ethan!  Today in his class newsletter, we read the following:

"Mrs. Holden and Mrs. Marlowe are proud of Ethan!

This past week we began working on adding more details to our writing.  Details will give more information to the reader and add important information to our stories.  Mrs. Holden modeled how to do this in her writing and asked students to try it in their writing.

Ethan read to the class a story he was working on.  His story had three sentences and he is not finished writing!  All of his sentences made sense and he used correct punctuation.

Way to go Ethan!! "

It's nice to have your child recognized for good things at school especially!  For any of you that don't know, we've had our ups and downs with Ethan and his behavior during this first year of kindergarten.  Nothing too major, but not as smooth of a ride as we would've liked at times.  But to get a good note is extra special!  Good job Ethan!  We love you!

New Chore Charts

I decided to purchase some new chore charts for the boys.  I think I posted on here previously about the one I made for them a while back.  Well, it seemed we were outgrowing the "star" method, so we've moved up to the "token" method.  Plus this one has cards with pictures on it for each time of the day, Morning, Mid-day, After School, and Evening . . . and an Extra Category for anything you want, like weekly chores, or we use it for good behavior, manners, and no whining (which my boys still continue to do a lot, much to our disliking.)  It also puts the ball in their court to keep up with it (with some help still from us), but each time they do one of their chores, they take the chore card off the hook, and put it in the "I Did It" box.  Then at the end of the day, we go over the cards in their box and award a token for each chore card that they completed.  The tokens add up to different rewards they can earn.  We came up with a list of rewards that the boys contributed to of things they would like to do.  We already had some from the other system that they enjoyed, like "Movie Theater and Popcorn in our Living Room," but we've come up with a ton more.  It's been fun to come up with non-money rewards that they work just as hard for getting!  I like that they are getting old enough now that they can be involved in the system too.  (I know, I am still kind of a teacher nerd and like these type of things, but things really do run smoother in our house when we're following a chore/reward system like this!)  Even Caleb, 3 1/2 can do this, because the cards have pictures on it, so it's perfect for preschoolers.  To tell you how much I was looking forward to these coming in the mail and getting them set up, on the same day these came, I also received the two new blue tooth headsets I had ordered for Scott and I.  (Our old ones were not working anymore).  Well, when I got home and saw both packages had arrived, I opened the chore charts before the blue tooths and got the whole system and cards made before even looking at my blue tooth.  And I love technology!  Ha ha!

Back Yard = Star Wars Battle Ground

I love that we have really gotten our money's worth out of re-landscaping our backyard several years ago and making it flat and "playable" for our boys. It seems that many of the kids in the neighborhood enjoy it too. Our yard is known as the place to come when you want to play Star Wars. These are a few pics I got from the back door peering out at the boys and their friends playing Star Wars. It looks like a Battle Ground out there, doesn't it? Luckily, no one was hurt in the recording of these pictures . . . all for fun only! :-)