First Day of School and a New Routine

I was feeling a bit overwhelmed starting this new school year. The kids were going to be in school 4 days a week, Roman had swimming twice a week, Capri had swimming once a week, and she had ballet once a week. Roman also has speech therapy once a week and both started a play group. CRAZY, right?! I have always been one to say simplify your life, and I may have to cut something in the future, but so far so good. I guess we all do well keeping ourselves occupied and if we need a break we take it!

The first day of South Jordan Montessori 2011-2012:
Karoline had to jump in for a picture as well!
I can't believe how well they have been doing this year already. Capri was working on her sounds, double sounds, and triple sounds all of last year where Roman was much more into numbers. I have to admit, I was getting a tad nervous that Roman would never take an interest in sounds and hit the reading with a late start. I was wrong! Roman has been in school for only a month and has passed off all of his sounds and moving right along. His speech therapist has been so pleased with his progress as well and is confident she can get him reading before Kindergarten.

Capri has continued to progress as well and now brings her "ring of words" home. These are words that she has written herself (following her teacher's example) with sounds that she blends together to make a word. She is so proud of herself and knows this is a pretty big deal. She has also started to read the Bob books.

Both of them love doing their "works," and in fact, Roman tells me he likes "playing works" because he really thinks he is playing for fun! Capri has brought home many paintings and Roman tells me about the fun "practical life" works he does. I got to see them in action for music time (they have Kindermusik at school once a week) and I was surprised how much they got into the music and dance. They love Miss Carol and Miss Maryanne and even more, they love playing with their friends. Who knew school could be so much fun?!

I just posted about the kids and their great new swimming skills and I am glad I did because the very next lesson was terrible! Capri was screaming and crying just about the entire time because she was so freaked out doing her floats and going without goggles. I was honestly thinking of taking her out completely but then I remembered my post. She has come such a long way and I don't want to quit now. She since has had a lesson we were all happy about and she got her 2 stamps (their reward each lesson.) Hooray! Roman has definitely had his days of not wanting to go and this was one of those days. It didn't help that I then smashed his toe with the door. Let's just say, it was a bad day at the pool for the Nielsons. Have you had such days? Fortunately, Roman has continued to swim with such confidence and he really gets excited when he learns something new...

Capri has officially started ballet at Little Lady Ballet with Miss Natalie. I cannot tell you how much she loves it. Just the other day, we arrived to class a bit early. She wanted to jump out right away but I told her she needed to wait for some of her other ballet friends to go in. As soon as she saw that first one headed in, she told me she needed to hurry on in. She then gave me a kiss and told me she loved me. Then she jumped out of the car, turned around, and told Roman and Karoline that she loved them. She ran up the hill, turned around a second time, and blew me a kiss and waved. I was beaming. Here was my timid Capri who used to make me come in the class with her sitting at my side for most of the time, and now she won't even let me walk her in to the pink benches...
She loves to take stuffed animals to leap over and she always tells me about the fun things they do in class. It's even better when she shows me her leaps and skips. It makes my heart happy.

It makes it even more fun to dance with her friend Mikayla, one of my best friend's daughter. Love it.

So yeah, we are busy. Had I known I was getting a new and somewhat intense calling in church, I may have planned differently, but I think we are going to make it. Wish us luck!