Parent-Teacher Conference

Meredith and I had a Parent-Teacher Conference with her teacher, Mrs. Curtis today. My baby is doing very well, thank you. She has lots of friends and likes to learn. She read a few books to me (I'm thinking she had parts memorized, but she also sounded out a few words.) She is reading at almost a 1st grade reading level. She has to read one Level 3 book before the end of the year and her teacher thinks she'll probably do that before the end of this quarter.

Meredith showed me her writing folder. Apparently, she likes rainbows. She had one story that included Hayden and me as well as Meredith. It ended with she likes to play soccer. I liked that in her illustration, both she and I were wearing glasses.

She received a gift of a Fisher-Price Get Ready to Read set. I had actually bought a set of these books for Hayden when he was in Kindergarten and was just thinking the other day that I needed to get them out and start Meredith on them. According to her teacher, they are actually 1st-grade reading level so there will be some words she doesn't know yet. I'm glad she got her own set though - they have stickers so you can keep track of how many times you read them and in the back is a word list and they can color in the stars of the words she already knows. We read one book and did the word list at the back tonight.

I also talked to her Art and Music teachers and she is doing well in both of those classes as well. In music, she has a little boy stand next to her who is, apparently, always touching her and stuff and her teacher told me she was very impressed at how well Meredith handles him. She'll either ignore him or move away a little. I advised her teacher that she does have a younger brother and sister at home so she has practice at that!

Anyway, when we talked to Mrs. Curtis, she advised that Khai has a crush on Meredith so I'm sure that's partly to blame. And, yes, she still is best friends with Juwlien as well.

Meredith is also in a "try-on" differentiated reading and math program. That's what they call the advanced class. And its "try-on" just because they're seeing if these little kids are a fit for it. She won't get tested for "gifted" until 2nd or 3rd grade and they test all the kids in that grade anyway. So we'll see how this plays out. Right now I'm just loving her in Kindergarten - at this age, they LOVE to learn!

Haircut

See how cleverly I got both sides of her new haircut?

Yes, it looks like the last cut - that's what we were going for!

She's watching "Shark Tales" on the store's DVD player.

Camping In

Every once in a while, John will get the tent out. He and Hayden have spent a night outside in the backyard of my Grandmother's house that we lived in for awhile. They have also spent a night in our current living room.

Last night, they invited Meredith to join them in the camping in experience in the living room.

We had to wait until nearly 10pm to set up the tent. Because Stephanie and Philip weren't invited this time and we had to get them to bed first! Just as well, really, Steffi didn't take her nap and she fell asleep within minutes of lying down.

Daddy really got the ball rolling with the whole experience:

They pretended they were camping in Africa. Daddy told ghost stories. They read books. Daddy kept making a growling sound like an animal was outside. They discussed ManBearPig - half man, half bear, half pig (I kept asking Hayden how many halves make a whole, but apparently, the concept escaped him.)

Meredith had a really good time on her very first camping experience.

Young Frankenstein

Meredith is up now and she requested some orange juice, 2 granola bars, and wants to watch Young Frankenstein.

Sick

My poor baby is sick.

Steffi & Philip & I have been sick for awhile with colds but we seem to be over it now. It hung around for awhile but they don't have to go anywhere and can lay around on the couch or play quietly if they're not feeling well. Or whine incessently and demand to be held - which is usually what they choose to do.

Anyway, Meredith put herself to bed last night at 7:30. She got up a little later though and we all watched "Young Frankenstein." (We only had time to watch half of it before bed.) John put the kids to bed and she was asleep before I went in there for prayer. I took her temperature and it was just a touch high. This morning it was normal but she got out of bed, sat on the couch, and laid her head down on the arm. I asked if she wanted to go to school and she shook her head 'no.' I asked if she wanted to go back to bed and she shook her head 'yes.'

She's still sleeping. It's 11:00. And the little ones were in her room yelling at one point.

She must be sleeping pretty good too. She's not coughing anyway.