Anna's 2 year old conference

I have been meaning to add this to the blog. This was Anna's 2 year old conference notes from her 2 year old preschool teacher. I think that it is super cute and I am glad that she emailed it to me so I had it on file.

Sweet Anna.

For spring conferences, I looked at three basic groups of skills,social/emotional/behavioral, fine/gross motor, andspeech/language/cognitive, and evaluated each child on what they did welland what they needed work on in each category. Anna does great in all three categories (as I'm sure you already know, but sometimes it'sstill reassuring to hear!)

Some highlights of Anna's achievements are:

- Anna plays cooperatively with other children (meaning she engages with others in play that is meaningful and has a common purpose).

- Anna's social interactions are frequently positive. She enjoys playing with others and understands positive social behaviors like "sharing" and "waiting your turn".

Anna will also work cooperatively with others to complete a task such as building a tower or cleaning up.

- Both Anna's fine and gross motor skills are right on track!

- Anna has mastered self-help skills like hand-washing, pulling up underwear and pants, and putting on her jacket.

- Anna has a great vocabulary and good diction.

- Anna is able to communicate well about non-present situations (for example, telling a story about something that happened in the past.)

- Anna follows two-step directions well, and is working on following multi-step directions.

Some things to work with Anna on are:

- Finding her "assertive" voice. Like a lot of three-year-olds, Anna often uses a quiet, "whiny" voice to communicate wants and requests. Helping her find a voice that is loud enough to be heard and firm enough to be listened to is something we have been working on at school. A great way to encourage Anna to use an assertive tone is to model what the request would sound like in that tone and then have her repeat it back to you.

- Following two- and three-step directions. One way we encourage following multi-step directions at school is listing the steps and having the children repeat them back. for example, "First put your coats in your cubbies, second sit down on a lilly pad... What do you do first?.. And then?".

Anna is truly a delight to have in class. Whether it be cruising the playground on her favorite bike or breaking out her dance moves to "Five Little Monkeys", she never fails to make me smile. You should be proud ofyour amazing little girl - God has blessed you with someone very special.

Miss Rachael

First Day of Preschool!

Anna is so excited to go to Epworth for Preschool! She was able to get into a multi-age class. She will be with 3 and 4 year olds! She gets to do reading, writing, circle time and singing! We are so excited that she loves it so much. She even gets to have lunch every day at the school. Anna goes from 9-1 and is in heaven. We are so thankful that circumstances caused us to switch places. We love Epworth and look forward to a fantastic year!

Does it get any better then this?

Just a day in the life of the Alley friends.

This was our last day before school started. We wanted to make sure the children had a wonderful last day of summer. I think that it was a success.

We love our Alley Friends!

Backyard Fun

I love it when the weather breaks a bit and we get to go outside and enjoy! The kiddos LOVED pulling the paints and markers out so that they could get crafty on us! Well, Scott did Math and Anna painted a bunch of colors on paper. That is about as craft as we get.

I am not fat, I am big boned.

- Zack the cat

Time out or photo op?

They were fighting upstairs and I assumed the mother role by putting them in time out. As I walk down the steps and see them snuggling like this..I assume the role of photographer and proud mother.

They really do love each other! I have proof!

Safety first

I am not sure this even needs comments. This is Anna on any given day. It could be tutus or princess attire or even this incredibly safe way to push a stroller.

Does it get any better then this?
I love my life.

A day in the Village!

The kiddos and I felt that we needed to go up to Weaver Street and get ice cream for our yummy homemade cookies they helped me make. When we got up to Market, we noticed that the Farmer's Market was there and we were excited to walk through and see what they had. We were even more excited when we saw that one of the booths had birdhouses that we could paint! Scott and Anna spend so much time painting these gorgeous houses. This day was heaven! We had so much fun painting and playing with friends. I just love our neighborhood. Somedays I almost want to pinch myself because it is so perfect for our family at this time in our lives. We have friends all around and plenty of FUN things to do from parks, playdates, swimming, tennis and market!

Could this child be any cuter?

I don't think so!