Sean asked Elizabeth "What did you learn today in school?"

Her answer: "You can write numbers as numbers, in a set, or as a word!" She was fascinated by the last. She told me later that two numbers start with f but she couldn't remember which ones. And then Wil piped up that he couldn't remember how to spell one. But I know they'll learn.

Wil's got a great new repertoire of songs from Kindergarten. Some of them are definitely geared towards 5-year-olds, like Food Fight, Herman the Worm, and one about a stinky diaper. He's also learned the days of the week in School is Cool and the months of the year. The one that makes me laugh the most is "Who let the Y out? Yuh, yuh, yuh, yuh, yuh."

Popcorn Words

"I see two popcorn words," the twins said, "'Will' and 'go'."

Elizabeth's teacher, Mrs. Hilton, sent a message home and the twins recognized those two words when we opened it up to read it. Elizabeth also knew 'we' and 'P.E.' as in "We will go to P.E. and Music today." They can read! It was a proud moment in the Meade household.

Elizabeth got a "Blue Ribbon" for solving the Alphabet Riddle today. She is so proud and we are very proud of her too. Sean and I went to lunch yesterday and her teacher told us Elizabeth is very good about volunteering to help, raising her hand when she wants to talk, and she always knows the correct answers. We watched her in class for a little bit after lunch. Sure enough when Mrs. Hilton asked a question, Elizabeth's hand was first in the air and she knew the answer.

Wil was so happy to have us come to lunch. His teacher asked if he would like to have someone sit with him. She meant one of the other students, but Wil pointed to us.

Stories from Days 3 & 4

When I dropped Wil and Elizabeth off at school on Monday morning, they didn't even turn around to say good-bye. That may have been because Wil was deep into a story he was making up about a stray dog we'd just seen. Elizabeth said the dog needed a leash. I suggested the dog had followed its owner to school, and Wil took up the story from there.

Yesterday I watched them go in. They didn't need help and headed straight to their classroom. They're so BIG!

According to the schedule, Wil's "Special Areas" yesterday were Spanish and Computer Lab. I asked him what he learned in Spanish. He said, "I raised my hand when I wanted to talk. I learned where to put my hands (in his lap) and where to put my feet (crisscross, not sticking out.) "Did you learn any Spanish words?" I asked. "No." What about Computer Lab? "We saw the computers, but then it was all talk, talk, talk."

Elizabeth got to play in the Kitchen Center yesterday with Brooke. She was thrilled! Brooke was wearing green and pink and had a green scrunchie in her hair.

Elizabeth's teacher taught them some Number Games. So we spent a lot of time last night writing numbers on each others' backs. Elizabeth would mimic her teacher, "You are so smart," except you know when Elizabeth says it it comes out, "You are so fart." She also says, "Round the tree, round the tree, that's the way we make a 3," and "Down and over and down once more, that's the way you make a 4."

This one is for my mom and sister: Wil said Max and Ruby were in the story about Jack and Jill. Check out your Rosemary Wells' Mother Goose books. The bunnies do look a lot like Max and Ruby. Elizabeth will, however, be quick to tell you all the ways they don't look like them. Wil told us the nursery rhyme this morning at breakfast with Max and Ruby in it. Then he went on to Shoo Fly, so they must have done that one yesterday too.

Day Two

Today was much better. They both said so. Elizabeth said, "I love you Leaphart," when we left this afternoon and was sad to learn that there was no school tomorrow. They got to play outside. They had their first day of Spanish. Wil made a book about his friends which included himself, Freckles the Dalmatian puppy, and LarryBoy. He also colored a picture of Angelina the Ballerina for Elizabeth. And he made a chart when he got home so our kitchen could be like Kindergarten. Elizabeth got to play with shells in the Science Center, although she was sad about not getting to play in the Kitchen Center because it was already full. She played with Brooke who sat beside her during Circle Time and was wearing pink today. As a follow-up to yesterday, Wil taught us a song about Herman the Worm at supper. He said, "Momma I learned a funny story at school. It's a song. You make sounds and it goes like this...." We probably sang it and some made-up verses for 30 minutes. So there were some good things about yesterday too.

In related news, I registered Elizabeth for ballet and tap at the community center. She starts in about a month. Tomorrow we'll register Wil for a Fall soccer clinic. It starts next Tuesday. Elizabeth brought home a flier about Girl Scouts today, so of course we'll look into that too!

First Day of School

Well, we all survived the first day of school pretty well. No one cried this morning. They had lots to do when I dropped them off in their classroom so that made things easier. Wil's teacher, Mrs. Wertz was taking a group of day care kids to their bus when I picked the twins up this afternoon. We didn't have time to talk but she said Wil had a very hard day. All Wil has told me is that he didn't get to play on the playground, (it stormed most of the day here,) it was too long, and he doesn't want to go back tomorrow. However, when we got home, the first thing he did was get out our "Gingerbread Man" book and tell himself the story. The Gingerbread Man was part of the theme this week and, I learned from Elizabeth, they read the story and made Gingerbread Man crafts. I also learned from her that she saw Aubrey 4 times, where and when, but they didn't get to play. In typical Elizabeth fashion, she told me a lot about the things they didn't do.