And Baby Makes Three: November 2011

Operation Christmas Child, Toys for Tots & Hat/Mitten Drive

I wanted to get Isabel in the spirit of giving and understand that there are other less fortunate than us and to give to them is a Christ-like thing to good and feels good. I admit, it is going to be a work-in-progress, but we a start. I did buy a scarf for her and one item. She was ok with buying loads of other items knowing that she got a couple new things too. She came shopping with me for a lot of the items and picked them out herself.

When she was picking out hat/mittens/scarves she wanted them all to match (relatively closely) and to give all three because she didn't want anyone to have anything cold. So, we purchased 3 sets of scarves, hats & mittens. I have not seen any signs yet for a Hat/Mitten/Scarf drive, but maybe those signs will start to pop up soon, otherwise we will deliver them to our county public health department for them to give to clients they need. They take in pretty much any donations that clients will need, at any time. Last year we went to Bath & Body works and bought a bunch of soaps & shampoos and donated it to them to pass out to clients during the holidays.

Toys for Tots boxes just started popping up this week, so we have several to choose from. Last year we didn't get our donation done very early and had to call around to find a place that the box was not picked up yet and luckily we had found one place that it was still there and their scheduled pick up was happening about an hour after we brought our items. This year I think I will take her out right way this weekend to make our donation.

Operation Christmas Child is a new one for us. The church we have been going to participates in this one and we asked for a box. With this one, Isabel can write a letter to the recipient and they may write her back (I won't tell her that just in case they don't). But because I paid for the postage online I get a reference number and we can follow the box online and see when it gets delivered and to what country. So, that will be a good lesson in geography for her.

We stuffed the box as full as we could including many of the suggested items (school supplies, toys, hygiene) that we could. In all we got in 20 items in the box and this weekend is the dropoff for those boxes. With OCC you get to pick a gender & age range of the child who will receive it, so we picked to have this box go to a girl who is 5-9. It was much easier for her to think of the things she likes and pack a box accordingly.

Usually the school will also put up a tree with tags on it for local children in need of Christmas presents. So, we will be keeping our eyes open for that and then I can take her shopping again.

1st Quarter of Kindergarten

Isabel had a really good first quarter of kindergarten. The quarter ended last week Friday and report cards came home on Wednesday. The grading system here is X = mastered it, D = developing skill, not yet mastered but showing improvement & N = needs work, little to no improvement shown. She got X's on all the areas that they were tested in for 1st quarter.

Also in her report card as a letter from the teacher asking that she participate in the AR (Accelerated Reader) program. I told her about the program and what it entails as a kindergartener in the program (she brings home an AR book and we read it to her once or more if needed, then she reads it to herself a couple times, then we ask her comprehension questions to prepare her to take a quiz on computer that consists of comprehension questions.) She is very excited to do this and yesterday was sent home with her first AR books (about bats - the animal, not the sports equipment.) She is only 1 of 4 kids in her classroom of 23 that are in the program. The other 2 kindergarten classes also have kids doing it.

And if that isn't enough to be proud of, she got an award/ribbon from her gym teacher for doing well and showing good effort. She said that he gives one out each month to a kid in each class, so she got one for October.

I am such a proud mama!

I've only bragged to a couple of friends who have kids who do not go to the same school as her and are not the same age because I don't want to be that braggy mom at our school. I know we have some friends whose children are still developing skills & some that did not agree with their teacher's assessment of their child's skill, so it's hard to mention how well Isabel did without coming across as braggy. I'll let the grandmas do that to their friends. :)