A week in the life of a 1st grader

The end of the school year is wrapping up nicely. I have to say that I truly enjoy the summer break because I totally love having my kids home with me. I love the sound of their laughter letting my daughter sleep in... fun time outside. Filling up swimming pools, sidewalk chalk, playing at the park, eating icecream and making sure I have popscicles all summer... all of it is good.

My daughter enjoys school and likes her teachers. As noted she talks about her faith at school which I am proud of and like to encourage her in that. She has a gift of teaching at a very young age. She really enjoys explaining things to Toby and processes and ways to do things so he can understand them. She recently taught him how to whistle. She can whistle and Toby was bothered he couldn't. On a drive into town one day she was giving him all of this instruction and by the end of the trip he was making a faint whistling noise with his mouth. She was satisfied. Anyway, my point is that she enjoys her school, but she is ready to be done and take a break.

I was just looking over her weekly "highlights" report for the week and all of the stuff they do in a day. Her teacher at the last conference told us that we would be amazed how quickly kids have to shift gears, learn new things, understand concepts and move to the next thing. She even advised me to let her rest when she got home because of what Grace is learning in a day is very busy.

Here is what they did last week:

1. Finished Dioramas
2. Filled in number chart to 110
3. Learned about food pyramid
4. Practiced fractions, money and place value in math
5. Went to Science Room learned about dirt, sand, fossils, rocks, compost, worms.
6. Made numbers out of place value cards
7. Obstacle course in PE
8. Challenging art techniques
9. Worked on math facts
10. Writers workshop and publishing writings
11. Finished reading book
12. Learned new vocabulary
13. Worked on paper Mache
14. Finished writer's workshop
15. Learned about May Day
16. Made May Day baskets
17. Practiced making the long "i"
18. Spelling sentences

and I bet this is the "short list" there is no room left on the paper to write so I am guessing the teacher ran out of room. To say the least I think after weeks of this pace of learning my daughter is ready for a break. I think I remember in 1st grade we used to eat Saltines and look at how words were spelled.

I plan to spend the summer finding ways to incorporate and apply her faith to her life. To work on daily devotions with her in the mornings. To talk to her about praying and journaling and mostly just spending time with my awesome little girl. It's going to be a good summer and one well deserved break for Grace Marie.