Teachers

Preschool Through High School - What we love about Emer's teachers...

PRESCHOOL - Mrs. Sorrells

Emer attended preschool at Boone Meadow Preschool in Zionsville. She went to school 2 half days a week for the first semester then we bumped it up to 3 full days for the second semester. We felt it would be a good transition to Kindergarten to ease her into school. Her class was mostly boys. Her teacher was Mrs. Sorrells. Mrs. Sorrells was Emer's soul mate, I think! Emer had a very hard time beginning preschool. She cried nearly every day at drop off and it was terrible to be on the drop off side of it all. She was all smiles and filled with stories about what happened that day at pick up (mostly stories about who was there and what they played with) which definitely helped. But those tears were hard. Mrs. Sorrells had a way of welcoming Emer and stopping the tears quickly. She shared with us that she, herself, cried nearly every day until about 2nd grade and she could empathize with Emer. This made me feel so much better about the whole situation. And I believe it's also why Emer loved Mrs. Sorrells so much :)

Thank you, Mrs. Sorrells, for being such a kind and caring first teacher for Emerson!

KINDERGARTEN - Mrs. Rogers

In February 2013 we applied for the year round school in our district. New Augusta South is right across the street from our neighborhood and we really wanted Emer to go there! We got in! And Emer got Mrs. Rogers for her teacher. Her class was mostly girls; an interesting twist from preschool. Drop off was no better than preschool. Having been a counselor at a K-2 school I knew Emer just needed a consistent person to meet her at the door and walk her to class for a while. But her school didn't have a counselor so we worked with what we had. I wasn't allowed to walk her to class so we spent the first 2 trimesters in tears. The music teacher was almost always at the front door, but not always. It was so hard to see Emer crying and walking away from me! Mrs. Rogers gave her a job in class so as soon as she hit the classroom she would stop crying. Mrs. Rogers was as kind as could be and really showed us a different side to Emer. Things she fought me over at home were easily done at school (reading, math practice, etc.) 

And, thanks to her, Emer learned a ton in Kindergarten, made lots of new friends, and qualified for the High Ability Program. :)

Unfortunately, the High Ability program meant Emer would have to change schools. We spent 2 of 3 trimesters in tears and she was finally not crying at drop off and excited for her friends to come to her birthday party. We talked at length with Mrs. Rogers; I met with assistant principals and principals at both schools. In the end, we decided to keep her in the Cluster Classroom at NAPAS (along with ALL of her friends who also qualified!)

Thank you, Mrs. Rogers, for being the supportive and caring person Emer needed throughout her first year at NAPAS!

1st GRADE - Mrs. Brimmer

Ah another year has come and gone...the years are flying by! First grade was spent at New Augusta South and was filled with lots of new loves. I am so thankful to Mrs. Brimmer for sharing her love of reading with Emer. We went into this year knowing what a struggle it was to get her interested in reading. She loves to draw and look at pictures, but the reading part was not fun.

Flash forward to mid-1st trimester, Emer was reading a book a night, sometimes starting 2 books! By the end of the year she was reading chapter books and loving them! So, thank you, Mrs. Brimmer, for showing Emer what a beautiful adventure lies in a book :)

Unfortunately Mrs. Brimmer was unable to finish the year with us. However, she did introduce Emer to multiplication and division and kept her working ahead of grade level. Towards the end of the year we were once again invited to the High Ability program. We declined...only to find out later everyone else was leaving for it! So, after much MORE research and debate, we finally decided this was the year we should move Emer. She will be attending Fishback Creek in the fall...I do believe Mrs. Brimmer did a fantastic job working with all ability levels in her classroom, therefore - 

Thank you, Mrs. Brimmer, for continuing to push Emer in both math and reading, and especially for her newfound LOVE of reading!

2nd GRADE - Mrs. Shade

This was Emer's first year at Fishback Creek Public Academy and I think it was a success! Moving her to a new school, after the tears we had each previous school year, was a bit nerve-racking for me and Emer. However, not ONE tear was shed! I hold Mrs. Shade responsible for a lot of this! She was a kind, soft-spoken, but firm teacher with years of experience teaching high ability. In fact, we were so lucky to have her in her last year of teaching!
Throughout the year, Emer was challenged in both reading and math. She really began to excel in reading and it's a beautiful thing to see your daughter sit and enjoy books you enjoyed as a kid (think Ramona Quimby, ha!) Emer will tell you her favorite thing about Mrs. Shade was that she helped her "love to read".  :)
I was thrilled with how easily Emer made new friends (including her first boyfriend!). It was as if she had been a part of this class all along. Everything about this year supported the fact that we made the right decision to move Emer into the high ability class at FCPA.
Before I conclude this blog entry I must share the funny story between Emer and Mrs. Shade. I got a call from Mrs. Shade that Emer was in tears over...her shoes! She had worn her indoor moccasins and Mrs. Shade had complimented how cute her little moccasins were. This brought Emer to tears b/c they weren't school uniform shoes and she thought she was going to be in trouble, plus she had gym that day! Mrs. Shade told her a story about a day she wore one black shoe and one brown shoe to work to help cheer her up. She was a very kind and caring teacher and for that we say,

Thank you, Mrs. Shade, for encouraging a love of reading, creating an environment of caring and kindness, and sharing your last year of teaching with our daughter!

3rd GRADE - Ms. Chambers

Sometimes it takes a little longer to get around to updating a blog. This, apparently, is one of those blogs. We really appreciate all of Emer's teachers and the years are going to quickly that I tend to forget to update the important events in her life. This does not mean we don';t reflect or think about everything that has happened with our Tiny.
So, that being said, this portion of the Teachers blog is dedicated to Ms. Chambers. She was new to our school but not new to teaching. She had come from the middle school and knew there would be challenges ahead as she transitioned to an elementary curriculum and the kids transitioned to a new grade. Emer was more excited than worried b/c the previous year had been so fantastic and she couldn't wait to see her friends again.
Ms. Chambers took this year to introduce the kids to some new things. She challenged Emer to read interesting books; she continued teaching multiplication and division and introduced algebra (in 3rd grade!) In particular, she invited the mom of one of Emer's friends to teach Swedish to the class. This was so wonderful! All of the kids seemed to pick up the language quickly and absorb the words and culture from Sweden. It was a great experience for the kids to learn about a new culture and begin to realize their language potential. If only they could have continued a bit longer than one year... 

Thank you, Ms. Chambers, for continuing to expose Emer to more challenges, good books, and fun in education!

4th GRADE - Mrs. Brokaw

Fishback continues to be the right place for Emer and her teachers continue to inspire and challenge her. This year Mrs. Brokaw not only taught the 4th grade standards and encouraged her students to do more, but she shared a very special personal matter with the kids as well - she adopted 2 children! The kids are close in age to Emer and of course attend Fishback so it's been really exciting to hear about the process and see how loving Mrs. Brokaw is and how it's all coming together for her new larger family.
Outside of the adoption, Mrs. Brokaw connected w/ Emer right away over sharing a birth month. From there she was declared "my favorite teacher!" by Emer. Emer was challenged to be more independent in her learning, including the Science Fair project where she got to finally see "Which Mint Explodes the Highest When Dropped in a Coke". I was quite proud of her work, including her explanation of why the mints explode.
My favorite thing about Mrs. Brokaw was when she told us parents that she had informed our students we had already taken math class and if we were helping them w/ their homework but teaching it differently, that was OK! She encouraged the kids to ask us for help and trust our methods b/c she understood that everyone learns differently and sometimes the students need something explained in a different manner. Yes! Thank you for allowing us to  use "regular, old" math or "new" math, whichever is easiest to help our kids! 
Fourth grade was another fantastic year for Emer!  :)

Thank you, Ms. Brokaw, for sharing your knowledge, allowing the students to be independent and creative, and best of luck with your new family!

5th GRADE - Mr. Cooper

Emer could not have had a better final year at Fishback and this is in large part due to Mr. Cooper. She was excited to have him as a teacher before 5th grade even started. I knew it was going to be a good year at Meet the Teacher Night when he explained how the kids would be playing Dungeons and Dragons, creating their own board games, and would be participating in a classroom economy.
Mr. Cooper had this amazing way of tying in fun games and interesting activities to the standard curriculum. As a weekly volunteer (which I was so happy to be able to do all year!!!) my main job was to help with badge testing and Cooper bucks banking. So I got a first hand look at the 5th grade economy. The kids would earn Cooper bucks by studying an enrichment of their choice then taking a badge quiz on it. They also earned money by doing a classroom job. Later in the year they could start businesses to earn money. BUT, they had to apply for the business in order to get a permit to run the business. There were classroom items they could buy or they could buy goods or services from their friends' businesses. See - classroom economy! It was so cool!
My second favorite part of Mr. Cooper's class was the end of year project the students got to do. Each student had to come up w/ something they were interested in learning about then draw up a proposal for a project related to that. Emer chose puppets. She had been into puppets for several years and had gotten a ventriloquist puppet for Christmas. So her project was on ventriloquism. Formerly shy, afraid-of-being-in-front-of-people Emer, researched the history of ventriloquism, learned how to be a ventriloquist, and did an act for her presentation. She got an A...and also a few more puppets! Mr. Cooper had 3 puppets in his classroom that he said no one used and he just loved her passion for this so much that he felt she would like them.
Emer has had a lot of great teachers but I'm not sure she's had one that made her feel so supported in her interests before. To be able to be 100% yourself is not easy as a 5th grader but Mr. Cooper ensured that everyone in his classroom had just that opportunity. 
You wwre the best final elementary teacher Emer ever could have had!  :)

Thank you, Mr. Cooper, for creative learning, supporting Emer's love of puppets, and continuing to build her confidence!

Illness and Health

Once again I'll start this blog post with an apology. But, an apology well-backed up by illness and health! I won't bore you with the details but let's just say between Emer and myself one of us has been sick since the end of Jan. :( There just hasn't been time to write a blog. We're almost out of the woods, I think!
During one of my wonderful illnesses we went to NYC. I am here to tell you that my city is every bit as fantastic when I'm sick as when I'm healthy. Although I can enjoy a lot more when I feel better, haha. A few really cool things happened in NYC. Take a look:
Gigee insisted we go to the American Girl Store. So we did. And we scheduled a hair appointment for Rachel. Didn't it turn out awesome?!

 Emer saw her 2nd Broadway show - Matilda. Here's me and Poppy enjoying the show!

 Gigee and Poppy suggested going to Herrod's Toy Store but Emer remembered how much more awesome Toy R Us is so we went there! And took a ride on the ferris wheel:

As usual we found a great park to play in! Swinging in a park I've forgotten the name of up on the far north side of Manhattan:

But the COOLEST thing that happened was at Rockefeller Plaza. My Tiny pulled her tooth - BY HERSELF! She was so excited she told everyone we saw!

So with Spring Break over and the illnesses hopefully ending, we are so excited for summer. Emer and I are going to my cousin Bret's wedding in South Carolina in May. We'll all be traveling out west somewhere in June. Emer will get to go to the beach with Gigee & Poppy and see the rest of the extended family in July. It should be a good summer! Assuming we can stay healthy :)

Lack of Posts Doesn't Mean Lack of Growth

I've reached that point in Emer's life where there just aren't as many growth/developmental stages happening as there were before. She's in school, has friends, homework, tennis, and is just living life as a regular kid. It's a joy! It's a lot of fun! It's crazy sometimes! It's nearly impossible sometimes! But it makes for very little blog inspiration.
I take a ton of pix sometimes and none other times. It should be easy to share these photos in a blog b/c I have an awesome Android phone that backs up my pix to my google account (which is connected to this blog). But I just don't think about it b/c I'm busy helping Emer with her homework, listening to her read, picking out her clothes while she gets ready for bed, making her lunch for school, driving her to tennis, and taking her on weekend adventures. Life is just moving on so fast!

So tonight I'll post a few pix. And after this I'll try to schedule one day a month to share something exciting we have done throughout the month. I can't promise I'll do it, but I can promise to try!

For my birthday we stayed downtown on the circle and watched the lighting of the Tree. It was so much fun again! The next day we went to the Historical Society to explore Indiana history. Emer got her picture taken, from back in the early 1900's:

Christmas was a lot of fun and very successful for Emer! We saw Santa at Lake Rudolph so she decided it would be easiest to write him a letter this year. She ended up getting almost all of her requests: Snackee & Puppet Theatre from Santa, American Girl doll from Gigee, & a Pat McAfee jersey from Mom :)

 Here she is playing a new game of Headbandz with Dad and showing off her sweet jersey!

In between Christmas and New Year's we had time for some adventures! Here she is exploring under the sea at the Children's Museum:

And finally, Happy New Year!!

 

Year Six Update - Just a bit late...

Dang time flies lately!  Last month Emer turned 6 - YES 6!!!  Then, at the end of the month, she had her 6-year Well Check with the doc.  So let's start with the stats:

Height = 3ft, 10in (60th percentile - what?!)
Weight = 45 lbs, 2 oz (40th percentile)
Car seat = moved  into a booster recently!
Academic Development = right on target!  She was selected for the High Ability program at the end of kindergarten and after a long debate we kept her at New Augusta South.  More on that later...
Behavior = right on target.  Independence is growing, as demonstrated by her exerting herself more at home.  It makes for some fun "discussions" over TV time and treats between me and her!

Moving onto friendship, Emer is a super friendly girl.  For her birthday she had a fun group of kids come over.  It was a freezing day (well, freezing for July!) but they all played on the Slip N Slide, threw water balloons, and had fun in the sprinklers. Here they are all enjoying cookie cake and getting ready to watch Emer open her pressies:

Speaking of gifts, the cards from the kids were priceless!  About half the kids made her a card and wrote the nicest notes in them.  I'm so proud of how friendly and caring she is!

The last month was super busy with a vacation to Great Wolf Lodge, Colts practice, and getting ready for school to start again.  Everyone loves pix so here are a couple from our fun summer adventures:

4th of July at the Lake!: 

Great Wolf Lodge!: 

Little Cowgirl hanging at Gigee's!: 

Colts are #1!: 

Towards the end of summer we invited Emer's best friends over.  Amia stayed the night (first sleepover!) and we walked Lharielle home after dinner.  Here they are posing in the backyard: 

First Grade,

was much easier than kindergarten!  She shed 3 tiny tears on the first day.  After that, it was all smiles and hopping out of the car!  There are quite a few kids from her kindergarten class in her first grade class.  Sadly her friend Amia moved and Lharielle is in a different class.  But I think about half her class was from kindergarten and half of those who weren't were friends she knew from recess last year.

We're 13 days into the new school year and she's so happy.  I think she's told me more stories about what's happening at school so far than all of last year.  She's willingly reading books to Steve and Poppy and I've even heard a couple of them!  At Meet the Teacher Night she heard Sunshine Math was coming back and she gave me a big smile!  It's definitely going to be a good year!

To summarize this blog...

---> I love that Tiny loves to learn.  

---> I love that she loves school.

---> I love that she is learning so much.

---> I JUST LOVE EMER!!!!

The Perfect Day

How often can you sit back and think, "today was a perfect day!"?  For me it's not very often.  Something always seems to be forgotten, misplaced, an argument ensues, or all chaos breaks out!  But today...well it was perfect.  Here's what a perfect day looks like for me:
I slept in...was woken up a little after 8:00 by my sweet Tiny quietly asking her Daddy if she could watch something on his Kindle.  She lay down in our bed and watched, as quietly as she could, "Scooby Doo".  About 9:00 we decided to head downstairs for breakfast.  No arguing, just peacefulness.  After breakfast I did dishes and Emer played.  I played with her a little after the dishes were done and then started to get some cleaning done.
Emer helped.  Without arguing!  This should have been my first clue it was going to be a perfect day.  Usually it's one big argument when I have to clean and can't play.  But today she tidied up all of her toys so I could sweep the floor.  Small victories!  :)
After this was finished it was nearly lunchtime.  So we played for about 10 minutes then I made lunch.  You guessed it - we still weren't dressed!  But it's all good b/c we had a plan for the day.
Following lunch we finally did put on some clothes - over our swimming suits  :)  A quick stop at the neighbors to feed and visit with their cats and then we were off to the pool!  We spent the entire afternoon there.  Emer swam 2 laps which were much more tough than usual (turns out the new pool is twice the size of the pool we usually swim in!), played with her dive toys and, and made a few new friends.  She would not take the swim test for the lifeguard, though, and therefore wasn't able to go down the new slide.  I was bummed and tried and tried to get her to take it, but no luck.  (BTW, she is perfectly capable of passing the test b/c she swam it and treaded water for me; just didn't want to do it for the lifeguard...)
When we got home Ems was so tired she did get a bit crabby.  But it was only about 5 minutes of impatience b/c she wouldn't help me get the snack together.  As soon as it was all set up, we ate and talked and all was fine again!
Our evening concluded with an early shower, playing, homework, and dinner outside.  As the evening came to a close we decided to make a few Vine videos then relax in the hammock learning Spanish until it was time to go up and read in bed.
As I figured, Tiny fell asleep within 2 minutes of me leaving her room.  A sweet, beautiful girl, sleeping away before she wakes up to her 5th to last day as a kindergartener...oh this year has gone so fast, and perfect days like this are such a wonderful memory to have!
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Time Capsule!

Last week we got a letter from Emer's teacher talking about the monthly home project.  This month it is a time capsule that we can open Emer's senior year of high school.  How fun!!!  We have to send in a shoe box and any items we want sealed inside by May 30th.

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Emer's first reaction: Steve asked if we had any shoe boxes.  I said we did not.  Emer simply said, "Well I guess we have to go buy shoes!" LOL!!!!!
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I thought it might be fun to include the blog posts I've written from her Kindergarten year of school.  So, of course I needed to write a new one catching us up on everything that had happened since the January post. I have had an absolute blast helping with Mrs. Roger's class and meeting Emer's friends.  I've gotten to go on every field trip, I went to the wedding of Q and U, I've been very involved with the PTO, and will be helping with Field Day soon!  We love her school.

I have to say that it's getting more and more difficult to write these blogs.  I have a new smart phone and am loving the pix I can take with it.  I have considered joining Instagram b/c I document Emer's life in pix so much!  (You actually can catch her on Vine if you want.)  So, without further ado, here are some of those pix:

We went to Hilton Head for Spring Break where Emer finally met my cousin Sarah.  Along with her daughter, Claire!

One night we all enjoyed S'Mores by the camp fires!

Here's a little photo editing my awesome new phone did with a cute pic of Emer and Hayden:

She's still going strong in gymnastics.  We have also added tennis but I don't have any pix to share right now.  She's just the cutest little thing, isn't she?!

What is this?!  Sunshine?  FINALLY!!

And here's me and my babies on Easter :)

Well look who outgrew her carseat and graduated to a booster!

She also outgrew her CARES so we have sent that to Sarah to use with her girls.  Ahhh, stop growing up!!!

Before I finish this this blog, I just want to share a few other tidbits and predictions:

Social = this year Emer has made so many new friends.  She has friends at gymnastics who have come and gone, friends at tennis, a new neighbor friend, and friends in her class.  I predict she will keep a couple of these friends from class through high school.  It will be fun to see who those are!

Academic = Emer qualified for the High Ability program this year!  This awesome discovery led to a struggle on my and Steve's part.  So many things would change for her and we weren't sure if those changes were for the best.  I did a ton of research, even going to visit the HA school and observing the classes.  In the end we decided to keep her at NAS b/c we love it there, 2 other kids who qualified were staying, and we felt it was the right decision for her, emotionally.  I predict she will end up in Honors or HA classes in middle school. Based on what she enjoys the most in homework right now, I predict she will excel in math.  She may even decide to go into science or math in college!

Sports = Emer goes back and forth with gymnastics.  Some weeks she is showing improvements and loves it.  Other weeks it seems she has lost skills and will never move up!  So we started tennis.  She is enjoying it and is kind of impressive with her forehand.  It's hard to help her, though, b/c she's a lefty!  Good thing she works hard on it  :)  And she continues to improve in swimming.  Get this - she did 4 somersaults in the water without taking a breath!!!  She can swim 25 yards free style and 25 yards back stroke.  I need to teach her side stroke and continue working on breast stroke.  Who knows, maybe she will torture me by being in a swim club, haha!  I predict she will find a sport she enjoys and it will be something we haven't even tried yet.

And that's it for now!  Stop back after the end of the school year for a final Kindergarten update!  (That will be in July.)

Happy 2014!!!

You never lose by loving. You always lose by holding back.

— Barbara DeAngelis

I subscribe to a Daily Inspirational Quote email and sometimes they are really good quotes.  The above was one that made me go, "yep!".  I have never been the "need a relationship" type of person.  But let me tell you, once you have loved a child, there is no going back!  I love this girl with everything I have!  This feeling of total love makes me think of my childhood and how I totally understand why my parents still love me, even after the sh** I put them through as a teen.  It makes me ready to deal with the terror that is coming in about 10 years.  But mostly, it gives me patience to deal with a Tiny who won't get dressed b/c she'd rather lay in bed, run around nudey, or play dress up in anything but her school clothes.  It gives me patience to keep trying to create behavior plans that might encourage her to take a quick bath and get to bed on time instead of soaking until the water is cold then throw a fit when it's time to wash and get out.  Yep, those are the main struggles in our lives right now  :)  Not too bad, really?  I know I am winning!  (But, trust me, I know what is coming!)