24 March, 2009

Report Card Time

Our school division does not give our quarterly report cards like they did when I was a kid. Now a childs progress is shown in a portfolio of work the teacher collects. Examples of all subjects are shown. The idea I am told, is to minimize comparing children to each other and I guess that is supposed to eliminate competition or something. I am not sure I understand exatcly what they are doing. I would understand letter grades much better. 

Our parent teacher interview was tonight, so we 3 Bears went to the school to look over the portfolio. Baby Bear is doing very well in school. Her teacher says the only real area she needs to improve would be less talking during work time, and being better at counting by 5's. Well the talking thing, if anyone has ever met her you will know what I am talking about. The teacher pointed out, that Baby Bear still completes her work, and does it well. My biggest concern is her talking disrupting other students. We can work on that.
 
We were told over and over how amazed the teachers is by Baby Bear's reading level,
 and her comprehension is equally as good. That I like to brag about a little bit. She is a super reader, and like me (I hope), can read a whole chapter book in an afternoon. Granted the books Baby Bear reads are about 120 - 150 pages, but I still think that is pretty good for a newly 7 year old bear. As a reward for such a great report, we visited the book fair that school was having, and bought 2 new books. I was happy when Baby Bear passed by the begining reader books and the character books to select a slightly harder chapter book. Good Job Baby Bear!

20 March, 2009

GIVE AWAY!

HAND MADE GIVE AWAY!
 
You could get an original creation from
 The 3 Bears!

It is very easy, and quite painless to enter. This is how it works, the first three people to comment on this post will get something hand made by me. 

I love creating, making hair bows, sewing, quilting, card making and scrap booking, so your "prize" could be something from any of those categories. Some of the things I have made in the past are pictured below. 

Good Luck!

17 March, 2009

Life goes on here at the Bear house! We are anxious for spring to get here, Mother Nature has been teasing us with 1 nice day with sunshine then we get a few cloudy and cold days. Papa Bear is busy, busy, working from sun up to sun down! He has really been able to bring out his creativity in the floors he worked on the past couple of weeks. The picture below is a few examples of what he has done & believe me, this photograph does not do it justice. We are sure proud of him and his amazing talents! He is such a hard worker.
Papa Bear & I are working towards a major purchase in the near future too! We are negotiating the purchase of the company he is currently working for. It is an exciting time for us, and we are looking forward to the challange of owning a company and we are excited about making some changes too.

10 March, 2009

Better Late Than Never!

Time flies when you are having fun! I wanted to post a picture of Baby Bear singing in the festival. It is kind of fuzzy, I couldn't see Baby Bear from where I was sitting so I had to rely on a friend to take a photo. The children did an excellent job, they didn't make any mistakes that I could tell. They were very proud that they got second place! No one had the heart to tell them that there were only 2 entries in our division. We took the certificate to Church and put it up on the bulletin board, so everyone could see it. I am already looking forward to next year, I hope they enter again

04 March, 2009

The music festival is all this week in our town. The Primary music director decided to enter our Primary kids in it! I am not sure about the rest of the children, but I know Baby Bear is really excited! This will be her first experience with a music performance outside of church events. Baby Bear has faithfully attended the practices, and will perform with the choir tonight. I am not sure if photos are allowed, but if they are I will try and snap a few. 

02 March, 2009

Baby Bear is an excellent reader, she learned very quickly how to read over Christmas break 2007. She was in Kindergarten then, and I was amazed at how fast she picked it up. Now after being about to read for more than a year Baby Bear has moved on from simple stories and prefers longer stories or even chapter books like the Junie B. Jones series. She has also said on occasion, after reading a story: "Nah! That was too easy, we need to give this book away."
One thing that is constantly frustrating to Baby Bear is that words are often not spelled like they sound. Words like: Station she pronounces stat-ee-on because who would think that "tion" sounds like: "shun". City becomes kitty. It is confusing when sometimes a "C" makes a hard sound, but other times it sounds like and "S". Over all Baby Bear does amazingly well and catches on quickly when I offer her assistance.  I love that she wants a challenge too, trying to sound out 4 or 5 syllable words without help. I have always wanted her to love reading, and I am very glad it has come naturally for her, she is often happy to sit and read for an hour or 2.