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There are, I imagine, countless ways to chart the growth of a child. There's the classic physical growth chart, hanging on a wall or a door, that a child backs up against while their mom or dad draws a line right above their noggin. We have a Madeline one shaped like the Eiffel Tower. Moving from diapers to pull-ups to underwear is also a big milestone, one I'm hoping the Mouse accomplishes shortly so I can cease spending $8 for 29 pull-ups once a week.
There is another sign of maturity/aging happening in my house today. Well, it's actually going to occur at school, in less than 2 hours. The Bear is buying her 1st school lunch this afternoon. It might seem pedestrian, the idea of not brown bagging it for 1 day, but for the entire month+ that she's been a kindergartner, she has carried her hummus and pitas/egg salad platters/PB&J cracker sandwiches/chicken salad wraps into school while, presumably, other children have ordered the "lunch of the day" or PB&J on white - the 2 daily options at the school cafeteria. All that changes today, and while it may very well mean nothing at all, something tells me this is a sizable step for her.
At some point this morning, she'll have had to announce her lunch intentions to her teacher. Around noontime, she'll use her PIN to pay for her meal - nervously punching up her number on the keypad while her classmates queue behind her. I love that 5-year-olds are learning to memorize and utilize a personal ID number. Considering the volume of passwords and PINs most of us carry around in our mental satchels - this might be the most important thing they'll learn all year.
The lunch of the day for this fine fall Friday is White Pizza, Salad w/ dressing, Pears and a Mini-Donut. Sounds pretty awesome. It's better than anything I'll consume today, that's for sure, but at least I won't have to recall a 5 digit code to pull my food from the fridge.
Say hello to Molly.
Molly is the Bear's bear. Not her favorite bear. Well, some days she is.
Molly has been at Grandmom's house for some time, at least the whole summer but probably longer than that.
On Monday night, Molly left Grandmom's house and came back to live with us. Grandmom was shaken. She cried when she saw Molly in our car. She admitted to crying poolside the next day.I guess it'd help if I fill in some of the blanks here.
Since the Bear was born nearly 5.5 years ago, she's been spending just about every other Friday with her Grandmom (known lovingly as Mom mom). The Bear loved these Fridays. Mom mom loved them as well. It was their time to bond, play, paint nails, swim, go ride a carousel or to the theater, dine out, hang out and snuggle. Great days.
Molly worked her way into this story the day she came to live at Mom mom's. While the Bear spent only 1 of 14 days there, Molly enjoyed the comforts of Mom mom's home every day. A life of leisure for sure. Uninterrupted sleep, long naps, days spent soaking up the breeze from the ceiling fan while reading a book in the rocking chair. A nice life.
This past weekend the Bear found Molly's straw hat. It'd been missing for a while. She discovered it buried inside a shoebox full of mismatched toy pieces, hidden deep within the Bear's closet.
Mom mom cried when Molly said goodbye. In Mom mom's eyes, a piece of the Bear's childhood was ending, as was a piece of her relationship with the Bear. You see, on Monday, August 17th the Bear begins full day, full week Kindergarten. The take-Molly-home move was seen as a symbol of the Bear's realization that those every-other-Fridays are finished. Best to pack up your stuff and move along.
In actuality, the Bear had remembered the recently-found-hat when she saw Molly this week. She brought her home to reunite Molly with the head piece. Such a simple act stirred so much emotion. I must admit, my girl is pretty bright but the I'm-not-going-to-be-back-here-during-the-week-ever-again-so-I'll-take-my-bear-home thing was a stretch.
Even so, the act made concrete the finality of a cherished tradition. Just another sign that childhood lasts only so long. While new traditions can and will be forged, and with them pleasant new memories created, some things can never be replaced or duplicated.
The Bear absolutely LOVES this puzzler deck! She's entering Kindergarten in less than 2 months and continues to be a sponge for knowledge. There are 75 double-sided puzzler cards here - if she were the nation's book czar there'd be 750! The World Almanac for Kids Kindergarten Skills deck is just as super handy for a summer vacation plane/car ride as it is for snuggling in bed (which is how we worked through 80% of the questions).With an age range of 3-5, some of the puzzlers are very basic for a girl about to enter kindergarten. At the same time others gave her pause and posed a bit of a challenge, especially for my daughter who is not nearly as proficient with time & money (just like mommy, who is always late and spending too much!) as she is in, say, spelling.
Puzzler topics range from basic spelling and vocab to spotting colors, vegetables and patterns to organizing letters alphabetically and digits numerically.
What I love most about these puzzler decks is the bright, playful hard-card format. Instead of a dependency on pencil and paper, a child is forced to work through the problems in their mind. Additionally, I was able to derive a couple more questions on just about each card. So really, we got closer to 200 pre-K/K appropriate questions out of this 75 card set.The Kindergarten skills set is just one of many in this series. There are a handful of World Almanac Puzzler Decks
for each age group (3-5, 5-7, 7-9, 9-11 and 11-13) covering the topics of Science, Math, Reading/Phonics, Geography/State/History and Vocabulary.
The World Almanac for Kids Puzzler Decks are a perfect way to make learning easy, fun and portable.
