Grateful Nov 14

I'm grateful for Ben's school. I know I say this a lot, but we cringe to think what school would have been like had the transfer not worked out. He LOVES school. He is so excited on Sunday nights because he knows he gets to go to school. Here are some fun things that his school does that we love. I know some of these are standard for a lot of schools and are nothing special, but hey, we're first time school parents so we think it's awesome:

• Hill U – 6-week long extracurricular courses taught on fun subjects like frisbee golf, cake decorating, Legos, etc. For $35 Ben got to stay an hour later every Tuesday for 6 weeks and play Legos and make new friends. This morning was the first Tuesday since the classes ended and he told me he was going to be sad after school because he'll be remembering how fun Legos was.

• Reading Buddies – Each Kindergartner is paired with a 3rd grader and once a week they get to read together. Ben LOVES his reading buddy!

• Highlander Bucks – Teachers, hall monitors, staff and the administrators all carry around little Highlander dollars and hand them out to kids who are doing good things or behaving when they're supposed to. Once you get to a certain number you get special privileges. Ben has like 25 of these and has already gotten to have 10 minutes of extra recess. I love incentives to help kids focus!

• Specials – I know all schools have specials. But I think Ben's school is different in some ways because Kindergartners get to do all of the ones some other schools don't allow. So every week Ben gets to go to Computers (his favorite), PE, Spanish, Art and Music.

• Peanuts and Popcorn – Every Thursday after school they sell popcorn and candy outside the school for 75cents. All of it goes to the PTA. Ben gets to do it if he hasn't gotten his binder signed all week. Okay so he's never had to have his binder signed so I guess we'll be eating lots of popcorn (and it's quite obvious if you look at the state of my car!)

• Parents Night Out – In December the PTA is doing a night where you bring your kids and for 4 hours you get to go out and do whatever you want! I can't remember how much it costs, but we might do it to celebrate our birthdays.

Anyway. We love this little school. Ben told me the other day that he doesn't want to move until May so he can go to Hill until May. We can't guarantee what will happen, but we're glad he loves school!