The Bestest Bug Christmas Pageant EVER!

Maggie’s school Christmas show was this past Thursday, December 15.  She was so excited as she got to be a Lightening Bug, dressed all in yellow (fun to try to find in December!) and got to carry a flashlight. The show was at the high school’s auditorium and she got to be backstage with her friend Ainslie before the show.  Rocky & I took turns entertaining, or trying to entertain, Jessie while we waited for the show to start.  Next year, we’re getting a babysitter for Jessie!

It was an adorable little program and very well done.  All of the kids were different kinds of bugs and ,if I followed the story correctly, the lightening bugs saved the day by  getting the Christmas tree to light after the Termites ate it.

It turned into a long evening and right after the Kindergartens big number, I think Maggie was done.  A big kid took her spot on the riser and she had to be in the front.  The show was at 6:30, and we only had a snack, not supper, before.  After, Maggie told us that she was kind of nervous and that’s why she was upset.  We told her it was okay to be nervous before a show and that Dad gets nervous sometimes before he has to teach a class.

We went to Applebee’s after and Maggie just barely made it through supper without falling asleep!

Parent Teacher Conferences Kindergarten Style

We had our first conference with Maggie's Kindergarten teacher earlier this week. They have conferences at the beginning of the semester to allow the teacher to ask us some questions and then later in the year to talk about how the teacher thinks Maggie is doing. I really like Mrs Rodacker. She seems to really like this age group, which I think is SO important.

We talked about Maggie's interests (music, coloring) and how we think she learns (listening). We are looking into getting her into Girl Scouts (COOKIES) which Mrs Rodacker thinks she'd really like.

We also got some great Maggie-isms:

Maggie took a sweatshirt to school the other day. When Mrs Rodacker told the kids to get their coats, Maggie was sure to say, each and every time, "I have a sweatshirt. "

One day at recess, Maggie sat next to Mrs Rodacker under a tree and said "Do you know what's the best part of summer? The best part of summer is sitting against a tree in the shade watching the clouds.... oh, and catching dragon flies!"

Mrs Rodacker told us how Maggie plays well with the other kids and even has a calming effect on one of the more rambunctious boys, who likes playing in Maggie's imagination games. There are some zoo animal toys Maggie plays with a lot, lining them up, moms & babies together.

Kindergarten really agrees with Maggie and I'm glad we didn't try to send her last year as I'm not sure the transition would have been aa smooth. I asked Maggie what she did at school and she told me "Oh, Mom, I just had so much fun I don't remember what we did!"

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"My First Day of Kindergarten" (in Maggie's words)

It was so fun & cool. Do you know what we use at nap time? Bean bags! There was a big rock for us to jump off of. Dad, lunch was really good and tomorrow I'm going to bring my own lunch. We carried lunch on a tray and the cafeteria was in the gym. We used the cafeteria of the old gym and I got to use my new shoes!

Two more friends sit at my table but I don't remember their name! At the end of the day Mrs Rodacker gave us a treat and I got an orange tootsie roll that tasted like a pumpkin! A pumpkin, Mom!!

At the end of the day we walked with a teacher to the bus! There were three other kids on the bus. The bus took me to swimming lessons. [Maggie is going to the YMCA for the after school program, which is where she had swimming lessons. She will get to swim there on Fridays.]

My favorite part of today was the playground! My second favorite was the treasure chest! My subject was toys! I liked science but we didn't really do science today.

Kindergarten was the best! I am looking forward to tomorrow!

[Maggie also told me how at recess they took a nature walk outside the playground and Mrs Rodacker took pictures of them. She was exhausted and hungry when I picked her up at the Y. I need to be sure to always have a snack & drink in my car for her! When bedtime rolled around, she went willingly and fell right asleep!]

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First Day of SCHOOL!!! (part 1)

We had a very very exited Maggie on our hands this morning.  We thought we would sleep in, but sleep habits do not break easy.  Rocky & I were up at our usual time, but Maggie woke up not too long after us.  She came and snuggled with me while Rocky showered and then with him while I showered.  Then she decided she wanted to shower (again, she took one last night).  We watched some “Sponge Bob.”  After her shower, we found her dress and Rocky got the camera out. He does a first day of school story every year with a Kindergartner and this year, of course, the story was with Maggie.

He got some video with her and then we went to the kitchen and I made pancakes (her favorite breakfast).  I even made a Mickey Mouse shaped pancake, which turned out pretty good!!  We had so much extra time, but it seems to fly by.  Rocky got more video and then Maggie could stand it no longer!  We decided to take Jessie to daycare first to kill some time.  And were almost late getting to school.  It turned out pretty good, actually as we were able to take Maggie right to her room.  She took her backpack right to her cubby and went directly to her chair (Ms Carol did a good job training her :).  I had to ask her for a high 5 and hug!  In a few minutes, I’m heading back to school to make sure she gets on the Y bus for the afterschool program as she decided she wants to go there today.

I cried, a little. Tears of happiness, tears of pride, and a few tears of sadness – my little girl is growing up.  I can’t wait to hear all about her first day at school!

Kiddie Lit -- revisited

There is a book fair at daycare this week. And even though we have enough books to start our own kiddie library, I'm always a sucker to buy more books for the girls. Jessie has hit that stage of wanting to literally devour books and Maggie is starting to ask for "just one more book" at night. I haven't gotten her into chapter books yet, but they have started some in Pre-K, so I'm really hoping that she's about ready to start the Little House series.

Here are a few books that we've gotten from the daycare book fairs

Shark vs. Train: who's tougher? who's smarter? Who wins a video competition? Well, neither because they don't have thumbs!
Dinosaurs Love Underpants: want to know the real reason dinosaurs went extinct? It was really because of their love of underpants!
Stop that Pickle!: A tale similar to the "Gingerbread Man" with a twist at the end. Maggie loves to join in with "Stop that Pickle!" in different voices that make Jessie giggle nonstop.
ABC Animal Jamboree (Rumble in the Jungle, Commotion in the Ocean) I'm planning to purchase this one for Jessie's first birthday. At Maggie's old daycare, they had the "Rumble in the Jungle" and "Commotion in the Ocean" which we would read in the mornings. Each page has a different animal with a different type of poem, some rhyming, some rhythmic, and a few limericks!

Albert the Bear visits the Dailey House

Albert is a bear that resides in Maggie’s Pre-K class and gets to go home with a student for a week. Albert came to our house last week. Maggie enjoyed having Albert hang out with us, even though he did have to guard the car a couple of times because Maggie wasn’t sure she wanted to share him with the other kids.

Preschool Graduation

Today, Maggie graduated from preschool. She will go for another year, not because she didn't 'graduate,' but because of her late birthday she won't be able to go to kindergarten until next year. It was really cute to see them all dressed in their graduation gowns.

Preschool Habitat Project

Well, it's that time of year again. Preschool habitat time! Last year, Maggie made a bird habitat. This year, she decided she wanted to make a jaguar habitat. So, we saved some toilet paper rolls to make trees, found an old box and then went shopping for more supplies. We found some green ribbons to make the tops of the trees, but were unable to find a toy jaguar. Sometimes your choices are limited when you are just shopping at Target :) We did find some white tigers and other animals we THINK live in the jungle (I certainly hope white tigers live in a jungle. At least these 2 will). I think Maggie was a little tired (she got to spend the night at cousin Christy's house and had a BLAST and probably went to bed late and got up early to play)and frustrated because she told me "Mom, I just don't think I need to make a habitat." I told her it is for school and she has to. To which she replied "Mom, I don't think I need to make a JAGUAR habitat. I can make a white TIGER habitat!"

Pictures can be found on Facebook and here is a video of her creating her "project".

Preschool Work

Maggie drew this picture of her family. “Mcone” (Wiconi) is in the corner, but she ran out of space before she could add Otis. You may notice that all 3 of us are wearing glasses.

Parent Teacher Conferences 2010

Another successful conference with Maggie's preschool teacher. She has a new teacher this year: Miss Amy was a caregiver in daycare prior to becoming the preschool teacher, so Maggie took no time at all to warm up to her. Miss Amy has recommended that Maggie try out the 3 day preschool class as she is more than academically ready. She is ahead of her peers in the 2 day class and Amy feels she will benefit from the 3 day class.

Amy told us she loves Maggie's enthusiasm, which is very apparent recently as she just LOVES everything and everything is the BEST THING EVER.

Amy went through the Kindergarten readiness checklist and showed us that Maggie is pretty much doing everything the schools expect as far as entering Kindergarten -- though she is still young and small and another year of preschool isn't going to hurt her. She did the same "test" with Maggie as was done last year and I will scan in Maggie's rainbow interpretation of herself and me and her handwriting. She is counting like she should and counted to ten for Amy (though she can count to about 23-25, still usually skipping 15). She could even give Amy 3, 5 and 8 items. She recognized capital and lower case letters, her colors and shapes.

Maggie got to feed the "preschool fish" last night and explained to us that you "can't feed them very much or they might DIE! And we don't want them to DIE! Because that would be sad."

It is very apparent that Maggie just loves preschool and I'm so happy we've been able to send her for the past 2 years. We do have her on the wait list for the Little Seeds Daycare, which is at our church. They have 5 day a week preschool and are right across the street from the Gazette. If we can move her, we wouldn't until September when the new "school year" would start. We also have the baby on the list over there. My only concern with Little Seeds is they don't have a big outdoor area, but the fact that it is closer to me and Rocky kind of outweighs that. I have missed having Maggie within walking distance. But the YWCA has been great for her and she has really learned a lot there, so if we don't get into Little Seeds I know both kids will be in wonderful hands.

You know, Jingle Bells!

Maggie's preschool Christmas program was last Thursday morning. Maggie did a great job singing and following directions. She doesn't look quite so small this year!! I think she enjoys being one of the "big kids." They sang 2 songs: "Jingle Bells" and "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer".

Field Trip!

One of my favorite parts of Maggie being in preschool is the field trips. This last week, they went on a field trip to Gainan's, a local nursery. The kids really enjoyed seeing all the pretty flowers. They got to touch cacti and a Venus Flytrap, which Maggie thought was really neat.

Planting a flower with Miss Suzanne

It was a little like herding kittens getting the class photo together.

After Gainan's there was time to go to the park. The kids really loved the merry-go-round!

There was a slight breeze in the afternoon, so we fixed Maggie's princess kite (it had broken in a high wind a few days earlier) and got it soaring!

It was really a beautiful day!

Preschool Homework

Yes, there is even homework in preschool. Maggie needed to make a "habitat" for preschool. We threw away the original instructions, so we winged it. Maggie decided she wanted to make a bird habitat, so we went to Hobby Lobby last weekend and Maggie picked out some birds, feathers and some brown streamers to make her nest. We put down some newspaper and got out the glue. She was very conservative with the glue (I was a bit surprised), so we'll see if her nest survives preschool. She carried it into daycare very carefully, and reluctantly handed it over to the janitor who offered to put it into the preschool room for her. She had wanted to keep it in daycare for all to see, but I have a feeling the little birds wouldn't have made it to preschool.

Maggie did a great job! She was very very proud.

Parent Teacher Conferences Part 2

Maggie writes her name:

Maggie draws her family:


Maggie's self portrait:

Parent-Teacher Conferences

We had our first Parent-Teacher Conference for Maggie at preschool today. It went very well. They really enjoy having Maggie in preschool. They did recommend keeping her in the 2 days a week next year as she is still small and a little less mature than the older kids in the class. She is about a head shorter than many of the kids and the majority of her class is already 4. However, they also told us that Maggie is very bright and probably could have passed the test they gave to the 3 day class. Her fine motor skills are very good -- though she won't try to write letters at home, she does love to draw on her "board" (art easel) and cut with her blue scissors.

Miss Kim and Miss Suzanne did an evaluation with her and I could just hear Maggie throughout. During the evaluation they asked Maggie her name and age. Maggie apparently doesn't know her last name -- even though when we were in Virginia she did, mostly because there was another Maggie in her class there. She also doesn't like to clean and tends to wander to another area during clean up time. I have NO idea where she get that from (couldn't possibly be me!). She counted to ten (on her fingers) and then to 20 for them, leaving out 15 as always. She could write her name following dots, but alone it was mostly circles, which she loves to draw. She answered all their questions very well, though forgot her dog at home Otis when asked about a pet and instead named her passed away goldfish "Orange." I will also have to scan in her drawings of us and her self-portrait.

They didn't seem too bothered by Maggie's poopy issues. And she did tell Miss Kim about the deal: if she poops on the potty 5 times, she gets a fish (and she will also tell you the fish is at the fish store). So far, we have 3 successes. I think it's all about control and stubborness. Again, I just don't know where she gets that from.

All in all, I'm very happy we did decide to send Maggie to preschool this year. She loves it and even has a song about her preschool art "I made it in preschoool; I made it in preschool."

Preschool Christmas

Maggie's class didn't have an official Christmas pagent, but did manage to sing a few songs for all the parents on Thursday:

The words are: Father Christmas, Father Christmas, he got stuck! He got stuck! Coming down the chimney, coming down the chimney. What bad luck! What bad luck!

They also sang "Three Sad Christmas Trees." I think most of the kids in Maggie's class are closer to 4 (or are already 4) and she looks so small in this video. Her teachers tell us that she is right there with the others as far as development.

Maggie in Preschool

Maggie's preschool class took a trip to the pumpkin patch on Tuesday and I was able to go along. 14-3 year olds, several parents and 2 teachers made for quite the interesting trip. One of her teachers, Miss Kim, rode with me and it was nice to get a chance to chat with her. Maggie goes directly to preschool from daycare, so we rarely get to see or talk with her teachers. Miss Kim told me that she sometimes has to remind herself that Maggie is a "young" 3. Maggie seems to enjoy preschool and will talk about her day. She will even occasionally tell them she needs to use the potty -- and use it!


The kids really had a fun time at the pumpkin patch. They have farm animals, a jungle gym and slide made from farm equipment and a corn maze. The kids loved going through the maze and picking up the corn that had fallen off the stock during the snow storm. They were quite muddy when all was said and done. Fortunately, they all wore their YWCA t-shirts, so their actual clothes did not get too bad. Every child did pick out a pumpkin and we had 2 wagons to haul them in. There were a few tears about who would get to pull the wagon until they remembered (were told) how to share pulling and pushing the wagon. They took the responsibility very seriously, until we got back to the jungle gym!

Nap time is apparently also a struggle at daycare. It is weird that it kind of makes me happy? Yesterday, when I picked Maggie up at daycare, she greeted me by telling me she had an "owie" and tried to explain what happened. Something about using her walking feet and her little friend Carmen. I wasn't concerned, until she fell asleep on the way home. And continued to sleep all night! Well, almost all night. I woke her up around 7:00 just to be sure she was all right. She fell back asleep until around 6:45 this morning! Fortunately, she woke up in a good mood. I asked the daycare director if Maggie had been hurt yesterday and whether or not she took a nap. Miss Sandy told me that Maggie is very good at pretending to take a nap! She will lay there very still until they think she is asleep and will then pop up! Fortunately, she is not distruptive. So it looks like Maggie is about ready to give up nap time, but not quiet time!