Where are my babes?

I have been really terrible about getting my camera into my school bag so that I could take pictures at school.  So since I have nothing new in the way of pictures to share with you today, I decided to go back to the beginning of school and share a picture from our first few weeks together.  While poking through the files, the only thing that comes to mind is, “Where have my babes gone?”  When you work with them every day you don’t always realize how fast they are growing and changing.  I knew they were growing and getting stronger in all areas, but when you look back at pictures from September you realize just how much they have changed in the last 9 months.

Throughout the fall those who could mastered the monkey bars, this spring a new crop of monkey bar jockeys have joined the ranks!  Teeth have begun to wiggle and some have even fallen out!  Pants and sneakers have been outgrown and now we have students able to reach things on top of the cubbies!

They have all grown in so many ways.  One student was sharing at lunch how they taught themselves to spell their last name.  “Well, my last name was written on a ball in our car, and in the morning I looked at the ball and learned how to spell my last name.”  How brilliant!  I asked this student if they realized that on the first day of school they might not have even known what all those letters were.  They said, “Yes, I have gotten really smart.”  And so they all have.  Gotten really smart! 

It warmed my heart this morning when one student came in and said to me, “Let’s do some work together.”  I said, “Sure, what do you want to do?”  “Read.”  Reading is not always this student’s favorite thing to do, but when we sat down and they held my hand as I pointed to each word. . . . Well let’s just say it made everything just perfect.  A great way to return after April vacation.