Over the past 4 months, I swear Ellie has grown like 5 feet. Ok, not really, but she is visibly taller, and more of a "big girl" then my baby girl. I am still getting used to that. Developmentally, she is exceeding and thriving, which I attribute to the wonderful school that both girls go to. She is reading (easy reader books) and is interested in learning to write and spell. She is a wonderful little girl, that just makes my day everyday. She is super helpful around the house, helps out her sister, and often times, surprises me with her extreme generosity towards her sister. I couldn't be more proud of her in any way.
Every couple of weeks, the teachers in her class pick a different student to be the "Super Star" for the week. They get to bring in pictures from home, and share them with the class. It was really fun to go into school the other day and watch her showing all of her friends her pictures.
Ellie's best friend at school is her buddy Aidan. They are "boyfriend and girlfriend". Whatever that means when you are 4. They have been going to school together since they were babies, and have always had some sort of connection to each other. It is fun to see the 2 of them interact and grow up together. They seem to always do better in class when they are together.
We recently started staggering the bedtimes for the girls. M goes down about 7pm, and E is 30 minutes later. This gives me 30 minutes of just time with Ellie. It has been something that I am really enjoying, as I get to see her and play with her. We play games, princesses, Wii, and Littlest Pet Shop mostly - whatever she chooses for the evening.
Since Ellie's birthday is after October 1st (the cut off date in our district), she will not begin Kindergarten until the fall of 2012. Part of me really thought she should go this fall, but then realized that is really my own issue, and she should go with the rest of the kids her age. From what I have heard, the elementary school that she will attend is really good at placing the kids where they need to be to really thrive. So I am putting my trust in the school system to do what is best for her. The main benefit to waiting until the fall of 2012 to start school, is that her little buddy Logan will be in the same class. I am super excited that she will already have a friend in school, and that they will go to all day Kindergarten together. This is a new option they are offering at this particular school. Based on the fact that Ellie already goes to an all day preschool, we thought why not give her all day kindergarten. She thrives when she is in this environment. If we find out that it isn't working for her, we can always change back to a more standard Kindergarten arrangement.
Ellie begins her second season of soccer in a couple of weeks, and is really looking forward to playing with kids that want to play. Last fall was a bit discouraging for her, as the other kids were younger, and didn't really grasp the concept of playing the game. So this spring, we moved her up to the next league, and hope that she will have a better time.
We have enrolled Ellie in different swimming lessons through a private company here in Parker. The rec center was great, but it was always a crap shoot on whether or not you would get in the class, how many kids were in the class, and in a 4 week lesson, whether or not they would really learn anything. So Ellie is taking swimming lessons through Swim Labs. She goes every week, and typically there is only one other girl in the class with her. She is becoming much more comfortable in the water, putting her face in, and trying new things.
Here are a few pictures of Ellie to tide you over....
1 comment:
Post a Comment