School Daze

The first trimester of school is already over, TJ has received his first report card, and yet, we have been in such a DAZE, we haven't had a chance to even post about his first day of kindergarten!

So... let's backup:

TJ's first day of kindergarten came way too fast.  I'm sure we'll say the same about that when Frankie goes to kindergarten.  But, seriously, despite all the preparation - the ordering of uniforms, the buying school supplies, the pumping ourselves up for the big day, the big day came really fast.  TJ was ready for it, but the rest of us?  Not so much.

TJ is in class with his best friend, Caleb.  The two were in Jr. Kindergarten together at PCK, and Mommy may have pulled a few strings to get them in the same class so the transition to GVA went smoothly.  It worked!  TJ was so excited to see Caleb and his family that he forgot to say goodbye to us as we went down the hall with his class.  He turned the corner, turned around smiled, waved and then he was gone.  Mommy and Daddy did pretty well.  It was Little Frankie who burst out in tears and yelled, "TJ no go!"  Broke my heart into pieces. 

TJ's school is Global Village Academy.  It's a brand new charter school that was finished being built days before the first day of school.  It's an immersion school that teaches Spanish, Mandarin and French.  TJ is in the Spanish village, which means he is immersed in Spanish 50% of the day -- that includes science, match, reading, everything!  Sra. de la Flor is his morning teacher.  She's from Peru, and she only speaks Spanish to the kiddos.  It's amazing to see how far he's come from the first day when he said, "I don't know what my teacher is saying," to him being able read Por Favor Sr. Panda all by himself! After lunch, he goes to Ms. Buck's class, where he works on reading and writing in English.  He loves them both, and he's really thriving at GVA.

TJ has several extracurricular activities.  At one point, between Tae Kwon Do, Faith Formation and Basketball he had something going on every day of the week!  We've toned it down for the winter so TJ can make it up to Monarch to snowboard as much as possible this season.  Right now, he attends a Lego class after school on Mondays.  Last quarter, the theme was energy, so they built solar panels, windmills, etc.  This time around, his class theme is space, so he's built a centrifuge, among other things.  TJ is excelling at Tae Kwon Do.  Master Lee is amazing, and it's been so wonderful to see TJ's confidence and strength grow.  He's earned a Blue Stripe, which means he only has one more (red) before receiving his Black Stripe and moving up to the full-belt classes.  TJ finished up Grid Iron Flag Football at the end of October.  He absolutely loved it - and it was the only way Mommy was ever going to cheer for the Patriots!  He scored a couple of touchdowns, learned the game, made new friends and had FUN! TJ is also taking Faith Formation classes at Ave Maria. He's really enjoying the classes, and I love having conversations with him about God and Jesus when he gets home from class on Sunday evenings.

Frankie is loving his school, too!  He still attends Merryhill, and right now, he's in Beginners II.  His teachers, Ms. Cara and Ms. Nachelle totally spoil him.  They say he's the sweetest kid in class - always playing nice with friends, sharing, cleaning up and listening well.  He loves to come home and sing the songs he learns in school.  Right now, his favorite is the bumblebee song.  He can count to 14 without any help, and he knows his ABCDs (that's what he calls them.) 

Frankie is also a busy boy.  He took part in Boom Basketball in October and absolutely loved it.  He was so cute out there, and Mommy was impressed with his dribbling and passing skills.  Frankie wants to play flag football, so we may try the Boom program with that once the holidays are over.  He also does gymnastics every Saturday, and boy, is he good at it!  He does an amazing job, and he doesn't need Mommy's help even though it's a parental involvement class.  Coach Brian has talked about moving Frankie up to the 3-year-old class soon because he's so advanced. 

Things really picked up at the start of the school year for both Mommy & Daddy.  A few weeks after school started, Mommy left her job at 7News for a new opportunity down the street at 9News.  She's having a great time learning the ropes at KUSA as the Morning Executive Producer.  The hours are tough, getting to work at 2:30 a.m., but it's the perfect schedule right now for the boys.  It also allows Daddy to have flexibility for his freelancing gigs.  He's also working at 9News right now in the sports department freelancing for preps, college and pro sports. 

Needless to say, it's been a whirlwind three months.  We'd say we're looking for it to slow down, but we know that's not going to happen -- It's almost Christmas!