School Happenings

School started out well this year.  Jacob is excited to run into his classroom and loves his teachers.  We are told he is a good boy and we have seen that he is gentle with other kids.......we might be singing a different tune with Katie, but she is definitely more spirited.

Jacob came home from school in September and had three band aids on his hand/fingers.  According to him, there was an incident with some bikes on the playground.  One of the band aids came off on its own and there was no sign of an injury, but the other spots were signs of collision.

Here is some of the art or academics that Jacob mastered early on in the school year.  It is clear that Jacob should be in the advanced circle stamping class.  His work is top notch, but he might have trouble getting a job if coloring in the lines is the hiring criteria.
 

Jacob also has a new prayer partner.  The kids go to Mass each Friday and sit with their prayer partners.  Apparently Jacob's prayer partner has shown him how to follow the songs and readings in the book and Jacob loves this new development.  Jacob also knows a few prayers including the Our Father. 

Jacob had a parent-teacher conference and Jacob got glowing remarks for his ability to read and spell.  He definitely made learning to read easy on his parents since he just picked it up seamlessly.  We are hoping he teaches the rest of the Cole clan.  Jacob's penmanship could use a little help so we will be practicing. 

We had a little parental fail in that we missed the deadline to order school pictures so all we have is a proof, but Jacob sure is a photogenic 4 year old!

There was lots of practicing letters, colors, and shapes this year.  Jacob had some other awesome art as well.

One of Jacob's favorites was mixing colors to create a new color.  And of course there was movie day where the kids wore pajamas, ate pizza, and watched Monsters Inc.

Here is our little scholar with the rest of his class at a puppet show and picking out pumpkins!  Jacob is the one facing the puppets on the left  side of the picture and the one sneezing on this pumpkin in the center of the right hand side picture.

Preschool sure is fun.

Katie and Jacob

Jacob and Katie are busy, but mostly they are keeping us busy with all their demands.  Katie is our verbal/vocal little athletic risk taker while Jacob is our more academic, patient (with other kids), builder.

Katie talks all the time!  She walks around the house having pretend telephone conversations....lots of jibberish sprinkled with noises in the affirmative and an "ok bye bye" to wrap it up.  She likes to point and say "this" and will answer questions with an enthusiastic "yes" or a "no".  She is definitely a second child and will eagerly congratulate herself with a hearty "I did it!" 

Katie is also very physical.  She likes climbing on top of things.  As a matter of fact, the sit-n-spin as well as several stools have been temporarily put away due to certain little monkeys climbing or stacking and climbing to potentially arm breaking heights. 

Katie is a collector.  Her toddler hoarding tendencies mean that she has to be carrying something around and usually leaves Babcia's house with an item or five.  She especially likes marbles/bouncy balls or Lego men or small cars/trucks, but don't underestimate the power of a good plush animal (a Mama's arch nemesis).  And so far Katie is not showing much interest in baby dolls, but she does like pretend cooking and eating (very reflective of her real life love of eating).    

Katie is a huge helper and loves to throw things away......we might have lost a remote due to her love of being helpful. Katie's helpful streak extends to her brother, but he doesn't always see her as being so helpful (especially if he is working on building a train track layout or Lego item.  Katie likes to sidle up to Jacob and grab a Lego or toy (especially one that Jacob is playing with) and run for the safety of an adult as Jacob tries to get back his item back.  Luckily Jacob is very gentle with his sister.

And the following pictorial evidence will show that Katie has her Dada wrapped around her little finger.......please note that Katie is sitting in a doll stroller.

Jacob is still his contemplative self.  He has been learning little songs at school and came home doing a rap about the sounds each letter makes.  Dada is allowed to participate in songs, but it is immediately shut down when Mama tries to sing along.  There was also a days of the week song that Jacob jumped into when he noticed that they were printed on the WalMart optometrist's office.  Sounds like PreK is the year of the song.  And every once in a while Jacob comes home with a gem like this.

Jacob has been enjoying Thomas the train and spends hours playing trains.  We have new configurations of track laid out daily and Jacob is very adamant about doing it all himself.....with some ideas from YouTube.  Jacob also loves to build Legos.  While Jacob enjoys building the tracks in free form, he is a by the book builder when it comes to Legos.  Also, Jacob still loves puzzles and reading....we are hoping this academic side wears off on his siblings.