Toothless in Tigard!

My full-smile girl has become...

...toothless in Tigard!

After many, many weeks of wiggling and coaxing, Camryn finally lost her first baby tooth today! In all reality, it really should have come out days ago, but was just hanging on by the finest thread, and Camryn was so paralyzed by the fear of potential pain, that she refused to just yank!

Rather intrigued by the idea of the tooth fairy however, she decided last night to investigate further, and wrote her a letter. In the night, somehow the tooth fairy magically knew to stop in and check on Camryn, and she left her a response, encouraging more wiggling!


So this morning, as the gums had finally pulled away from the tooth, and it lay sideways in her mouth, Brian convinced Camryn to wrap a string of dental floss around the tooth, and give it a final pull. It was actually somewhat anti-climactic, since there was no pain, and minimal blood, but I could tell she was scared by the new experience all the same. She didn't cry, but came over immediately for a reassuring hug.
After a few phone calls to some very important people who just *had* to know, she started to feel proud and excited, and is eagerly awaiting bedtime tonight, when the tooth fairy will make her appearance at our house (again!) ;)

Quote of the day

"You know Mom, even though the sight of underpants make people laugh, I am glad to have them there."
~Camryn

Fire station field trip

"I need you to keep your hands to yourself, please. Thank you."

That phrase must have exited my mouth at least fifty times today, for it was the much anticipated kindergarten field trip, and I was charged with the supervision of six wild, wiggly, giggly kindergarteners.

Camryn's class has been studying studying community helpers, and so Mrs. Doughty planned a visit to the post office and the fire station. It seemed like such a simple idea, yet with 24 kinders in tow...it was definitely somewhat chaotic.

The first stop was the post office, where we purchased a stamp for each student, and they were each able to mail the letter they wrote earlier this week. We also did a "number hunt" amongst the post office boxes, and managed to scare the you-know-what out of some unsuspecting patrons, as they innocently tried to get their mail amidst the confusion. As we exited the building, and the kids waved furiously at the security cameras, Mrs. Doughty and I had a good laugh about the folks on the other side of those monitors, who must've gotten an eyeful today. :)

Next stop: fire station! The kids got a tour of the living quarters: kitchen, family room, bunks, and even the bathroom, before we headed out to see the trucks! Do you know the difference between a fire truck and a fire engine? Apparently, a truck carries water and hose, while an engine carries a ladder. Who knew?

We wrapped up our visit with a walk-through of the inside of the truck (not engine), and then a demo of all the gear the firefighters must get on, in less than one minute, before responding to a fire call.

By the end of my three hours with the kinders, I was ready to head back to my self-sufficient fifth graders. How spoiled I felt as I returned and they were independently working in groups of 3 and 4, reading, and responding to their text. And so again, I made sure to thank Camryn's teacher for all that she does. Because it's a lot. And it's often. And it's exhausting. And I don't know how she does it day after day. She must be a saint.

My daughter, the genius

***BRAGGART ALERT***
If you are not a direct blood relative of my child, and/or do not wish to hear a Mommy's proud boasting regarding her offspring's remarkable academic talents, then read no further. If you are, or if you do, then read on...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We have known for awhile now, that reading is one of Camryn's greatest strengths in school. She has known her letters for years, has always had an interest in "what that (sign, storefront, book) says," and went to Kindergarten sounding out simple words.

With some direct, intentional instruction every day however, her reading has absolutely exploded this fall. Her beginning of the year assessment placed her at roughly a 1.8 reading level (near the end of first grade), and she blows through her kindergarten reading homework in minutes. Recently I've been catching her (when all seems too quiet), silently reading chapter books to herself on her bed(!) Um...yeah(!!!!!!!!)

And then, two weeks ago, we got her January identification and fluency scores from her teacher. These are scores that are normed against all of the other students her age in the district. Here's how she did:

• Initial Sound Fluency (Can she identify the initial sound in a word? For example, when read the word "cat," can she identify the first sound as /c/?) The benchmark is 25 initial sounds in one minute. Her score was 45.
• Letter Naming (Can she identify her letters, both lower case and upper case, when out of order?) The benchmark is 27. Her score was 79.
• Phoneme Segmentation (Can she break apart a word, and identify the individual sounds? For example, can she read the word "cat," as "/c/," "/a/," "/t/?") The benchmark is 18. Her score was 63.
• Nonsense Word Fluency (Can she break apart nonsense words-to avoid sight word recognition-and identify the sounds in words such as "pag," "tud," and "geb?" Words that aren't really words, and that have no meaning.) The benchmark is 13. Her score was 129.
• Words read correctly (Can she just plain-old-read?) The benchmark is 0 words correctly at this point in Kindergarten. Her score was 33.
  

In addition, her teacher noted that she is reading fluently with consistency, and is comprehending what she reads! Yahoo!!! I knew she was a smarty pants, but I guess I didn't have a concept as to where she truly fell on "the curve." Now I know that she's not even on the curve, because she blew it out of the water, and kept right on going. Which I guess shouldn't be that much of a surprise, since she does take after me. ;) My daughter, the genius.

I wanna 'nuggle wif you

One of Aubrey's most endearing qualities right now (and yes, at nearly 3 years old, some days there seem to be only a handful), is her inability (or choice not to...see previous comment) to correctly pronounce any word that begins with an 's' followed by another consonant. Somehow, she always manages to drop the 's,' leading to some hilarious pronunciations.

For example:
"snack" = 'nack
"stand" = 'tand
"star" = 'tar
"snake" = 'nake

But by far, the sweetest pronunciation of all is her use of the word, "nuggle." As in, "Mommy, I wanna 'nuggle wif you." I find it so hilarious that I often try to steer the conversation so that she will repeat it again and again. Kinda makes her "I am toddler, hear me roar" phase just a bit more bearable...

Star of the Week!

The first week back to school this January, Camryn was the Kindergarten Star of the Week! This means that she got to bring the "star bag" home for the ENTIRE winter break, and enjoy all of the goodies inside. This also means that each and every day, she got to share and enjoy something special with her class. (How do Kindergarten teachers come up with all of this stuff...?)


The first thing in the bag was the 'Star of the Week' chair cover that remained on Camryn's chair all through the holiday season...


The second, and possibly the most important thing, was Mr. Dolphin, who lived with us, and was played with every day...


Of course, Mr. Dolphin brought along all of his other dolphin friends as well. He's a true party animal...!

After two weeks with all the star goodies at home, we wrote about our adventures in Mr. Dolphin's star journal...


On Monday, the first day back to school, Camryn shared her star poster that we made together. She had a photo of our family, one of her and her sister, one of Maggie, one from our Disneyland trip, a baby photo, a dance photo, and a flower girl photo. She had a lot to share!

On Tuesday, she took one of her favorite picture books for Mrs. Doughty to read to the class. If you've never read "Love you Forever," make sure you have a tissue handy when you do. Luckily Mrs. Doughty made it through without crying...

On Wednesday, Camryn got to bring the sharing bag to school, filled with things about herself. She chose: her tap shoes, her ballet magnet game, a Ramona book, a Taylor Swift CD (go figure!), a Barbie doll, her Disneyland photo album, photos of her sports teams, a stuffed cat to represent Maggie, a harmonica(???), and a South Salem Saxons headband, to represent Daddy and his work. Somehow Aubrey and I didn't make the cut, but that's OK. I'm sure she had plenty to share already!

On Thursday, she got to bring her favorite snack. When asked what she wanted to bring, she responded with, "Chocolate!" I couldn't in good faith just send a ton of chocolate to school for the kids (that poor teacher), so we compromised with chocolate granola bars. Definitely a treat, either way!

On Friday, Camryn enjoyed her final day as the star, and brought home a certificate and some star glasses. What a fun way to go back to school and kick off January (the blah-est month by far, in my opinion)! Thank you, Mrs. Doughty, for making Camryn feel so special. :)

Xmas day misc