First Day of Kindergarten!

Our little girl is growing up! (in case you haven't noticed) On Monday last week Ruth started Kindergarten. She is no longer a preschooler (now do we call her a 'schooler'?)

She has a great teacher named Mrs. Wahlquist. So far Ruth seems to be really loving it. Here's what she thinks:

"My first day of school was awesome because I had a great time with my new friends. I got to meet my teacher Mrs. Wahlquist and I feel great that I have school.

I do recess quite early, and I also do recess inside too (just in case I can't play on the playground...cause there's bees). I also think it's quite cool at school. I think when others go to school, it feels really fun. I learn about the letters and I learn about all my favorite things. I even do a fun song called "Who Stole the Cookies From the Cookie Jar." That's all."

She Reads

I've been a bit hesitant about sitting down with Ruth to teach her how to read. Sometimes it seems she has a short attention span for doing things like that (for example: she rarely will sit down and color a picture..after about a minute she'll ask me to finish it for her). But as I noticed that she has somehow (without my help) learned all the sounds that each of the letters make I started thinking that maybe I should at least give it a try. THEN my mother sent Ruth all of my niece's old learn-to-read books for Christmas.

The other day Ruth and I sat down during Gareth's nap and gave it a try. I was shocked and amazed at how well she did! She understands the concept of putting the sounds of the letters together to make the word and she's very good at it. She was able to read the whole book in one sitting (it really wasn't that long, but I was amazed). This is an exciting breakthrough for us!

Ruth informed me today that her New Year's Resolution is to learn to read all by herself by the time she starts Kindergarten. We're excited to give it a try!

Corn Maze Pumpkin Pillow Girl

Ruth had a class field trip to the corn maze/pumpkin patch yesterday. She was nice enough to invite Gareth and I along. It was a bit cold but we had lots of fun. We started with a hay ride around the pumpkin patch where Ruth was proud to point out the "male flowers and the female flowers" on the growing pumpkin vines (she learned about how pumpkins grow from the female flowers by being pollinated from the male flowers just recently from a book we read). The trip through the corn maze was fun...they cheated though by following a trail of popcorn left behind by the cheating corn maze workers. I guess they don't want to lose any preschoolers. After lunch, Ruth got to pick out a pumpkin and she also got to pretend to BE a pumpkin. Too much fun for one day.


This morning when I woke up, I came out to the living room and found a little pillow girl watching TV. She was so cute. Until we turned off the tv...

First Day -- Ruth's Version

Ruth's First Day

Tuesday was Ruth's first day in Preschool! We've been very excited for this day to come and Ruth was not disappointed. She goes on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9am to 2:30pm. When I dropped her off I told her I had to go and she said "Ok, bye mom!" The whole day I sat thinking about what she was doing at that moment (I have a schedule) and imagined her saying "I want my mommy!" But apparently that did not happen. When I picked her up I asked her if she missed me and she said "No, not really". It made me a little sad, but I'm happy that she likes school. Gareth and I were able to hang out a lot. It was nice to be able to give him some one-on-one time. Since Ruth's preschool is in a church (South Plains Church of Christ) they spend a bit of time every day learning and singing songs about God. I'm happy that she can spend her first year of school learning all the bible stories and about how her Heavenly Father loves her.

Ruth wanted to tell you all about her day in her own words but the video wouldn't upload...I will try again later.

Homework...Or Not

So I'm supposed to be doing schoolwork right now. But the pages are taking so long to load! I could have been done an hour ago, but I'm not. This is a screen shot from my Film class. It's a very fun class. I get to watch movies (fun) and write about them (not-so-fun). And that's all I have to say about that. So....seen any good movies lately? Please recommend some in the comments section!