1st Grade: Amelia's Perspective

Amelia hasn’t said much about how she likes first grade. When pressed, she will say her favorite thing is one of her block activities, usually the one she had that day (gym, art, music, computers or library). Sometimes she will say recess, sometimes lunch, but never something she did in her classroom. Her teacher this year is known as one of the tough but fair ones, and she was recommended by her kindergarten teacher who said she’d be good for Amelia both academically and for discipline. Amelia’s handwriting has improved drastically and she comes home with “excellent” behavior almost every day. (Two “good” days so far.) She also comes home a lot less messy than she did in kindergarten. She still seems shy interacting with her teacher. She gets all shy and won’t answer Ms. Melanie when asked if she is having a good day and Amelia seems reluctant for the interaction required to turn in her folder every morning. I don’t think teachers should be a child’s “best friend” so I am not yet too concerned about this long warm-up period, especially since Amelia seems to be doing well at school otherwise (100% on her first spelling test!).

Last night we got a little more of her reaction to first grade. At dinner she suddenly said, “I feel like school is my home during the week and I am just treating my house like it’s a hotel.” After expending energy trying really, really hard not to laugh and fall out of my chair, I said, “But at least I get to pick you up every afternoon and you can come home and play.” She reluctantly agreed that it helped, but she much preferred the weekends.

She is definitely a child who would play every day if she could, all day long. At night she often tells me that she can’t go to bed yet, there are still things she wants to do, and she isn’t just making excuses because she can tick them off, too! She clearly runs out of day before she runs out of ideas, and this was happening during summer break, too. Poor thing. I hope she always has such an enthusiasm for life and the things that interest her.

Fascinated with Adele

Amelia is in love with the Adele song “Rolling in the Deep”. A friend of mine had posted a youtube clip of an Air Force Band covering it and she heard it from her room where she was supposed to be falling asleep. She came running out to watch it and the next morning was singing "Coulda had it alllllll" at the top of her lungs when she awoke. This was in place of her normal routine of meowing to let me know there is an awake kitty in her bed. (I then have to come in and find the kitty who is hiding under the covers!) Since she seems to love the song so much, I showed her Adele’s video on youtube and then decided to print the lyrics to help us learn the words.

So far Amelia is still more interested in watching and listening to Adele, but it turns out she thinks lyrics is pronounced “lickereece”! I guess that’s what happens when you have an early reader!! It was really funny, though, when she was asking where the lickereece were and I had NO idea what she was talking about. I’ve been correcting her but it hasn’t stuck yet because apparently (like horz davorz and cha-hooa-hooa for me) lickereece has been in her head for a while. She matter-of-factly told me, “Mommy, I got that idea from the book that came with the Silly Songs CDs.” She used to say Wellbinks for Webkinz, too, but she has self-corrected that one. Hopefully lyrics is next!

Kitties & Babies

Aunt Meg brought Liza's Build-a-bear collection, complete with wardrobes, to Nana's house recently. Amelia is in heaven borrowing one or two at a time, dressing them in "pajamas" and regular clothes, playing with them, sleeping with them ... it's hilarious.

We're trying to teach Amelia to be nicer to the cats. She so badly wants to be able to pick them up and cuddle with them but we've been patiently explaining for years that they don't like that. We briefly considered a ragdoll breed, but they shed WAY too much. She is doing better lately with DeMarcus who sometimes can't get enough attention from any of us. Despite all that, Amelia says to me the other day, "Maybe I could hold a baby sometime since babies don't bite or scratch," and made a cradling motion with her arms. So sweet! Luckily, Tia Polly will have Isidora next month and Amelia will get her chance. Liza was afraid to hold Amelia as a baby because she was afraid of being drooled on! Amelia doesn't seem to realize that could be a problem. She did repeat what she heard at nursery last week though. The baby there spits up, but not out! hahaha

We had our shower tiled last week. It has a few scratches and cracks that need to be addressed. In the meantime, Amelia stood in the hallway and said, "From here, it looks like cardboard!" Yep, that's what we paid the big bucks for, little girl.

Her mind

She is definitely growing up. She now says chihuahua correctly instead of chi-wala.

I still love hearing how she thinks, though. The other day she said that Dodah didn't like how she doesn't name animals with real names but instead will call a cat "kitty", etc. She explained to me, "I need to read more books so I can learn more names. Dodah doesn't understand that I don't know enough names yet!" Her earnestness was so cute.

Dodah thought it would be cute to write the word "mind" on a piece of paper, hide it and let Amelia help her find her mind. It was funny that afternoon to hear Amelia say, "Dodah lost her mind but I helped her find it!" A few days later she said to me, "Mommy, I think I need a new mind." I thought she was going to go to her desk and just make one! She does sometimes say, "My brain is too tired. I just can't think." I already knew it goes a million miles an hour, so that just give me proof!

Second Tooth, First Grade!

What a fun, adventure-filled week we’re having! Monday evening Amelia finally lost her second tooth. It was pushed out so far from her new tooth growing up behind it, but it did not want to leave! For over two weeks I’ve been wiggling it every night, and pulling once or twice. Monday evening I had a firm grip for a third try at pulling and Amelia pushed my arm away – and out came the tooth! Talk about teamwork. Just like with the first tooth, it went from pain to proud in one moment! She had a huge smile on her face.

She put it in her Hello Kitty’s dress pocket and when the tooth fairy showed up later, she couldn’t find Hello Kitty! But apparently she persisted (with some help) and in the morning, Amelia had coins instead of a tooth! And just enough money to add to her chore money to buy her Trouble game that she’s been after. It’s good timing, too, because we already had plans to go to Wal-mart in the evening to buy schools supplies after “Meet the Teacher”.

Today was Amelia’s first day of school and she did so well going in, putting her things away in her cubby, finding a seat and getting started. I am so proud of her! I can’t wait to pick her up and hear about her day!