One of my goals for this summer was to help Grace get ready to start kindergarten in the fall. Since she didn't ever attend formal preschool I knew that it would be helpful to have some practice. The school system here has a great summer school program during the month of June that is open to elementary kids and children who will begin kindergarten in the fall. Its not what you would think of as traditional summer school(punishment or extra academic help for the next year). It is a little academics with a lot of fun thrown in. Grace loved it! It was a great chance for her to gain some familiarity with the building, eating meals at school, and being in a classroom with a teacher. God was so good to us in that she ended up being in Deanine Haynes' class, a personal friend. Her son, Austin, also helped in the classroom and he was in Jeremy's youth group. It was such a blessing to me to hand Grace over each morning to someone I knew loved Jesus and who I trusted completely. I know that won't always be a typical public school experience, but it was a great way to begin!
One of the things they worked on was a journal. Grace loved drawing/writing in her journal.
This one said "I'm playing in my Papa's yard with Faith."
Another one of her and Faith. :)
I was a bit nervous about getting into a good morning routine. I really wanted everyone dressed, fed, & had our morning Bible time before we left for school. We made "good morning boxes" to help with getting dressed each morning. Grace and Faith both had a box with a list of items to pack the night before. They were to pack shirt, shorts, shoes, hair accessory, and panties. Overall, this worked really well and we will definitely be using them when school starts again in August.
Grace on her first day of summer school. We walked to school almost every morning. She was too nervous to go inside alone so we would walk her to the auditorium before leaving.
Grace will only attend this building for one year. Next year a brand new school will be finished next door. Faith & Titus loved to walk down to look at the construction sight after we dropped Grace off each morning.
I am so grateful this was such a positive experience and helped to reassure me once again that we were making the right choice for our family by enrolling her in public school.
One of the exciting events our family got to be a part of in June was welcoming Baby Micah into our extended "family." The Whetstones have truly become like family to us and we were thrilled to be a part of Team Whetstone's birth plan. When Karen went into labor we got the privilege of keeping Wyatt & Logan with us. I'm not sure what the kids were more excited about the baby coming or getting to have a slumber party. It was a fun night and I loved getting a text saying baby BOY Whetstone had arrived at 2 in the morning. (I was sleeping with my phone under my pillow of course!) I also had the joy of taking the boys to meet their brother at the hopsital for the first time. My kids weren't allowed at the hospital so I enjoyed capturing this moment with my camera for them.
