The Newest Kindergartener

My niece, Marissa, is 5 years old and is the daughter of Matthew's sister and her husband.

Marissa is in Mrs. C.'s Kindergarten class. (Mrs. C. has also taught both my girls so she is very very important to our family.)

Mrs. C. has an intern, Miss T. of whom Hannah also had when she was in Kindergarten. She enjoys being with all the kids.

The first thing Mrs. C. said about Marissa to me (after the first day of school) was "She definitely is not like her cousins." Meaning that she is definitely more outgoing, friendly and warm to others while my girls take a while to warm up to others whether it's adults or children.

Yes, Marissa is definitely more extroverted than my girls. But Mrs. C. says that she is most like her cousins in the areas of academics: being on task, getting her work done on time and completing it neatly and correctly.

I am very proud of my niece. This is the first time she has been in school everyday for the whole day. That's a huge change from preschool. Plus this is a new school for her. She attended preschool elsewhere. I also worried about her being able to communicate effectively in English. You see, she is fluent in Chinese (Cantonese). That is her first language. But she expresses herself extremely well in English and Chinese. She has one over on her cousins. They are not bilingual.

She is also very active. Her teacher says she has great upper body strength.

She also loves seeing her Biu-Jehs (older cousins) every day too!

I am very blessed to be able to see her everyday at school. It's really nice to see family on a regular basis. Who knows.. I may even get the opportunity to be her substitute teacher. I wonder how that will be?

First Day of School! First Day of School!

UPDATE: We're getting closer and closer to the winner! Will it be you?

Yes, it's the First Day of School and everyone had to get up very early.

Emily heads into 5th grade which is part of the Middle School at KHA (formerly called CCS). She has four different teachers and rotates in and out of their classrooms throughout the day. Her day also starts earlier (8:15am) but since she is part of the Safety Patrol (helping students get out of their cars as they are being dropped off) she actually needs to be at school at 7:55am. So she is dropped off by her father every morning since her sister is not ready to go to school yet.

She rushed out of the house so quickly I didn't get the chance to take my annual 'first day of school picture' in front of our house. Thankfully, her Daddy took a picture with her at school in her 'work uniform'.

Ready at work.. no cars yet..

Hannah enters 2nd grade this year at KHA. She has a brand new backpack and lunch box along with her special blanket buttoned within her sweater to comfort her as she goes to school.

 

Unfortunately it didn't work that well since she started to cry hysterically when she lined up with her class to do the morning pledges.

Thankfully she eventually stopped crying as she entered the classroom, found her desk and got settled into the class routine. Mrs. A. is a very seasoned teacher at KHA and is very familiar with Hannah's anxiety regarding separating from me and attending school. I had the privilege of subbing for Mrs. A. many times in the past few years and got to know her as a colleague and friend. Hannah was given the job as line leader and was thrilled to get 100% on her spelling pretest. Yes, she had a very good first day even though the morning was hard.

A new student at KHA was my niece, Marissa. She started Kindergarten and her teacher was.. hummmm... this lady sure looks very familiar..

... Ah yes... she is Mrs. C. and she taught Hannah in Kindergarten too...

.. AND First Grade...

...AND she taught Emily in First Grade also!

We can officially call Mrs. C. our 'family teacher'. Maybe Marissa will get her for first grade too..

Marissa was very excited to see her big cousins at school. Whenever her parents drive by KHA, she always points out to them that this is my cousin's school. Now she can say this is her school too.