It's the end of the school year, which, along with the regular craziness and relief, is also bringing a bit of heartache. I signed the forms to withdraw my kids from their school today since they won't be going back next year; I guess this gives them permission to forward whatever is necessary to the new school...or something. It was just another nail in the coffin of this chapter of our life in Durham.
Sometimes it's hard to say goodbye, so I'm a little sad the year is ending. But at the same time I'm relieved that all the class parties will be over with (tomorrow!) and that we can kiss our alarm clocks goodbye. I'm also excited to see all the work the kids have been hiding at school.
Sure, 90% (or more) of it will end up in the recycling bin but there are some real gems in there, as well. Today Miriam brought home her writing folder.
Her most recent piece was about Memorial Day:
It was very warm for ten o'clock in the morning, and a good way to start Memorial day.
I pleaded to go outside, my mom didn't mind, she only cared if we finished our breakfast. So I went out with Rachel, Zoë, and Ben. I knew it was going to be a good day, because the day before we had set up a pop-up tent (it's actually a pop-up house) with furniture. So it was pretty fun!
Besides that, Ben wanted to be my dog. Like always Zoë wanted to be Rachel's dog, and cat, and monkey but later she wanted to only be a dog-monkey. We started to train our dogs and dog-monkeys. "Fetch," I said. Ben got the horse shoe. "Stay," "Roll over." This time I tried a new one... "Heel!" Ben followed. I was very surprised.
When we were playing, I asked everyone this, "Do you want to have lunch outside?" Immediately they said, "Yes," so we got ready. I got a mini table and some chairs, but Ben and Zoë did not need chairs, so we used them for the cook's chair and the guest chair. It was about 12:00, it was also time for lunch. My mom wanted us to eat outside also, so she started to cut watermelon wedges. The watermelon was only the side dish, and the main course was leftovers. I made three sandwiches, for me, ben, and Zoë. (Rachel didn't want one, because she had her own little "barbecue")!
After lunch, we kept playing. After awhile, we got thirsty. Our cups (water bottles!) were almost empty. So I went inside and got a pitcher,* by that it was never go empty. We got a little tired playing outside so we went in. Our mom wanted to take a nap. So we let her and had to watch Daniel Tiger. I did not like that part of the day!
That was one busy Memorial Day!!!
*not the one in baseball, a water pitcher!
Next up is an opinion piece she wrote on why her mom is the best, which I share here with every ounce of humility I can muster:
I believe my mom is the best mom in the world. One reason is she sings to me every night. While she is doing that she tickles my back and that feels good. It helps me fall asleep. If she does not I have a hard time falling asleep and I have bad dreams. Another reason is she is funny. When she wanted to annoy Zoë, she picked up Rachel and said, "This is my baby," and started to rock Rachel then fell over completely! When she can she jokes about anything! My last reason is she helps me bake cookies and they always turn out good! Once for a family night lesson we baked sugar cookies for Valentine's Day. My ingredients were nutmeg and baking soda. I got to take one of the cookie sheets out of the oven. For all these reasons my mom is the best.
In her opinion, however, her dad is also the best in the world (she's not wrong):
In my opinion my dad is the best dad in the world. One reason is he cooks really good meals. Ever since we got a deep fryer my dad has been crazy about it. He also makes good hamburgers. We have been doing everything restaurant style! My next reason is he is very, very funny. He jokes about him not joking when he is joking, and that is funny! At the daddy daughter dance he kept spinning me, I fell over. Also when the music got slow he tried to waltz with me! My last reason is he lets me go to his work. His work is awesome. Once he let me have lime Coke. Another time before that me and Rachel got apple cider. He also lets me play with LEGOS that he has. For all these reasons my dad is the best dad in the world.
I wish that instead of looseleaf all these thoughts of hers were in a lovely self-contained notebook. I'm so glad she enjoys writing and I hope she continues to write for the rest of her life because I love getting to look through this little window to her mind.
I'm not a very oral person. Miriam was trying to get me to help her with a math problem last night and insisted on reading me the question. She's in grade two so it wasn't a terribly tricky question but I had to actually read the question for myself before I could help her with it. She actually didn't end up needing any help at all; she read the question aloud, handed me the paper so I could read it, and literally said, "Oh, it's 45!" just like that. And it was. She figured it out on her own.
It would have been great if I could have just listened to her question and helped her, but I'm just the type of person who has to read something for myself to understand it. I have to write down what's going on in my mind to understand myself.
There's a huge part of my brain that craves the written word so when assignments like this come home I tend to swoon a bit.
Sometimes it's hard to say goodbye, so I'm a little sad the year is ending. But at the same time I'm relieved that all the class parties will be over with (tomorrow!) and that we can kiss our alarm clocks goodbye. I'm also excited to see all the work the kids have been hiding at school.
Sure, 90% (or more) of it will end up in the recycling bin but there are some real gems in there, as well. Today Miriam brought home her writing folder.
Her most recent piece was about Memorial Day:
It was very warm for ten o'clock in the morning, and a good way to start Memorial day.
I pleaded to go outside, my mom didn't mind, she only cared if we finished our breakfast. So I went out with Rachel, Zoë, and Ben. I knew it was going to be a good day, because the day before we had set up a pop-up tent (it's actually a pop-up house) with furniture. So it was pretty fun!
Besides that, Ben wanted to be my dog. Like always Zoë wanted to be Rachel's dog, and cat, and monkey but later she wanted to only be a dog-monkey. We started to train our dogs and dog-monkeys. "Fetch," I said. Ben got the horse shoe. "Stay," "Roll over." This time I tried a new one... "Heel!" Ben followed. I was very surprised.
When we were playing, I asked everyone this, "Do you want to have lunch outside?" Immediately they said, "Yes," so we got ready. I got a mini table and some chairs, but Ben and Zoë did not need chairs, so we used them for the cook's chair and the guest chair. It was about 12:00, it was also time for lunch. My mom wanted us to eat outside also, so she started to cut watermelon wedges. The watermelon was only the side dish, and the main course was leftovers. I made three sandwiches, for me, ben, and Zoë. (Rachel didn't want one, because she had her own little "barbecue")!
After lunch, we kept playing. After awhile, we got thirsty. Our cups (water bottles!) were almost empty. So I went inside and got a pitcher,* by that it was never go empty. We got a little tired playing outside so we went in. Our mom wanted to take a nap. So we let her and had to watch Daniel Tiger. I did not like that part of the day!
That was one busy Memorial Day!!!
*not the one in baseball, a water pitcher!
Next up is an opinion piece she wrote on why her mom is the best, which I share here with every ounce of humility I can muster:
I believe my mom is the best mom in the world. One reason is she sings to me every night. While she is doing that she tickles my back and that feels good. It helps me fall asleep. If she does not I have a hard time falling asleep and I have bad dreams. Another reason is she is funny. When she wanted to annoy Zoë, she picked up Rachel and said, "This is my baby," and started to rock Rachel then fell over completely! When she can she jokes about anything! My last reason is she helps me bake cookies and they always turn out good! Once for a family night lesson we baked sugar cookies for Valentine's Day. My ingredients were nutmeg and baking soda. I got to take one of the cookie sheets out of the oven. For all these reasons my mom is the best.
In her opinion, however, her dad is also the best in the world (she's not wrong):
In my opinion my dad is the best dad in the world. One reason is he cooks really good meals. Ever since we got a deep fryer my dad has been crazy about it. He also makes good hamburgers. We have been doing everything restaurant style! My next reason is he is very, very funny. He jokes about him not joking when he is joking, and that is funny! At the daddy daughter dance he kept spinning me, I fell over. Also when the music got slow he tried to waltz with me! My last reason is he lets me go to his work. His work is awesome. Once he let me have lime Coke. Another time before that me and Rachel got apple cider. He also lets me play with LEGOS that he has. For all these reasons my dad is the best dad in the world.
I wish that instead of looseleaf all these thoughts of hers were in a lovely self-contained notebook. I'm so glad she enjoys writing and I hope she continues to write for the rest of her life because I love getting to look through this little window to her mind.
I'm not a very oral person. Miriam was trying to get me to help her with a math problem last night and insisted on reading me the question. She's in grade two so it wasn't a terribly tricky question but I had to actually read the question for myself before I could help her with it. She actually didn't end up needing any help at all; she read the question aloud, handed me the paper so I could read it, and literally said, "Oh, it's 45!" just like that. And it was. She figured it out on her own.
It would have been great if I could have just listened to her question and helped her, but I'm just the type of person who has to read something for myself to understand it. I have to write down what's going on in my mind to understand myself.
There's a huge part of my brain that craves the written word so when assignments like this come home I tend to swoon a bit.
Me too! I am all about the written word. And I love all these words that Miriam wrote. Thank you for sharing them.
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