What do they all have in common? Over Spring Break Maddie spelled out her sticky snap words in all of them!  What I love about Maddie is that she knows what techie words to use and she’s only six!

“Mom?  Can I drop my voice on this picture in Pages please?”  I’m pretty sure that I didn’t speak like that when I was six years old!

She did drop her voice on the Pages document but if you don’t have Pages on your computer, you won’t be able to hear it so as Maddie says, “we took a screenshot!”

Sometimes I just have to pinch myself… where are we and how did we get here? I have a four year old daughter who goes to SCHOOL… Not a daycare – not a nursery school – not a preschool. I must be growing up.

Maddie’s report card came home last week which made me crack up for two years in a row. Every report card Maddie has received ALWAYS says something like “Maddie can count to 65…. WHEN SHE WANTS TO.” This little sweet child of mine is so her own person and everything has to be her idea most of the time. I love her for it…

The pic to the left is her thank you note to us for attending her conferences. As you can see, she copied Dear Mommy quite well, but what is even cooler is that she wrote rainbow under her paw there. Ms. Preeti sounded it out and Maddie wrote what she heard – R-A-N-B-O!

Not too shabby kiddo!!! Keep sliding on those rainbows and everything will be just fine!!!

On Maddie’s first full day of school back in August she sported her Fighting Illini orange dress that her Grandpa Bill had picked out for her. She had her pink Hello Kitty backpack, her Tevas, and she was really ready to go. We didn’t make a big deal out of going to school because she has been doing everyday and I really think that this helped her transition a bit better. I did catch her taking a few moments of quiet reflection though right before she entered the school gate. All of the other mom’s were dropping off their children as well and I could immediately tell that I was thankful that Maddie has grown up in schools. While others were sad that their mom and dad were dropping them off, Maddie gave us a kiss good-bye with just a bit of trepidation in her eyes, but let us go without incident. I’ll never forget her focusing her attention on Malin, who was sad that her mom was leaving. “It’s okay Malin-don’t cry…”, Maddie reassured her.

Ms. Preeti had us fill out a survey about what we wanted our child to learn during their very first school year. I wrote one item and one item only – I just wanted Maddie to love school. If she loves school then everything else will fall into place in its own time. As we reflect on the year, I can say with 100% satisfaction that Maddie loves school. She just happened to get a few bonus items throughout the year to make it even better! She knows her colors, her shapes, recognizes all the letters of her classmates – not to mention the social skills she is learning day in and day out. Mid-year Maddie learned how to write her name for the first time and has been practicing it ever since.

The last day of school was so much different that the first. Maddie is much more confident and won’t shy away when people talk with her. Maddie is much, much bigger now and even though she’s still the youngest in her class, she’s taller than many. Maddie can walk herself to her own classroom now (though there is NO WAY I would miss the opportunity to see those first few moments at school). She has gone from quietly entering the class, to mid-year announcing herself with a bark or a meow when she entered, and finally now runs in with the latest caterpillar or bug to share with Ms. Preeti and her classmates. She always has a story to share. She wore a new dress on her first day of school, but even her backpack had “grown up” to a Dora bag with wheels!

What a wonderful year for Miss Maddie with so much love and support from her SAS community family!