Wednesday, October 8, 2014

Stories from First Grade

The other night, Olivia was full of energy and sass.

She’d had quite a day at school and seemed eager to tell us all about it.

“Today we had some third graders in our class,” she said. “One of them was crying and so the rest of us went to the sensory room to have a snack.”

“Did you guys leave the third grader alone in the classroom?” I asked.

“No,” she said, reaching for a pen with which to doodle. She tells some of her best stories while she doodles. “A teacher stayed with the third grader. I think the third grader was throwing a fit.”

“That poor third grader,” I commented. “She must have been having a bad day.”

“A really bad day,” Olivia agreed.

Olivia’s teacher is the special education teacher and is certified to work with kindergarteners through third graders. I love this teacher and hope that Olivia gets to work with her for as long as O needs to do so, up to and including third grade. Mrs. A has brought Olivia so far already this year.

Late that evening, Olivia asked me, “Do you know the Macarena?”

I smiled and said that I did know the Macarena.

She asked me to do it with her, but to a new song.

So as she sang the months of the year, we danced the Macarena together. It was awesome.

She informed me, “We can also do the Macarena while singing the days of the week.”

Good to know.

The sponge that is Olivia’s brain is soaking everything in these days. Her handwriting has improved immensely from last year to this year. It’s like she’s grown three years in just a couple of months.

This is the year we actually get to hear stories from Olivia herself about what happens during the school day. She tells us about what her teacher wore that day, to which students might have talked to her. She laughs at jokes she heard during the day and retells when she gets home.

Last night as I was washing dishes after dinner, I heard Alyssa and Olivia in the living room. Olivia was reading a book to Alyssa. Yes, that’s not a typo. OLIVIA was reading to Alyssa. It was so, so great. She put emotion into the words she was reading aloud to her sister. They giggled and shared glances as Olivia read the story.

It was a beautiful moment, one out of so many we get to enjoy these days.

Like Olivia, I’m soaking it all in, marveling at how lucky we truly are to all have each other in this moment in time.

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