parent information night

the plan was for me to go to parent information night at the school while matt took madelyn to her first night of swimming lessons. but after some back and forth about whether or not madelyn was going (she had an awful headache and we have been watching her for strep), i wasn't thinking and took the van. with all of the carseats (except mason's which was still in matt's car from me taking him to the doctor earlier in the day). matt was stranded at home with all of the kids. thankfully, our neighbor across the street had stopped by this afternoon to let us know that her daughter was having surgery in matt's department next week and after chatting for a bit offered to take madelyn to swimming since matt was sick. instead, matt ran over to ask her to watch the boys since manning was passed out on the couch (his second nap of the day - we are watching him too) while he took madelyn to swimming. but i was blissfully unaware of any of this because i was sitting at madelyn's desk listening to her teacher.

i learned that madelyn's teacher (who she just loves) is relatively new to teaching (this is his fourth year). he started as a part-time student (working full-time at the university) and worked on his degree off and on as his schedule would allow. when his wife completed her master degree, she worked full-time and he went to school full-time to finish his degree. he joked that it took him 10 years and he should be a doctor or something by now! i think it works for him though. he is fresh, but with more life experience (his own daughter just started kindergarten). he has more incentive programs running than i could even keep track of (individual, table group, class) and believes in rewarding good behavior. he also said that the kids have to earn the rewards. he does not believe in giving something just because there might be one or two kids who have never received the reward. i can see why madelyn loves him. he has clear rules but is fun too. she often comes home saying that her "bucket is so full, it is overflowing" because of the compliments she gets from her teacher.

they are a "bucket filling school." this is based on a book (have you filled a bucket today?) and gives a visual to building others up. all of the kids have a 'bucket' in the back of the room which gets filled as they do good deeds for others. they are also encouraged to nominate each other for filling buckets (the nominator gets a pom-pom and the nominee gets two). he said the kids get really into it and the bulletin board fills up over the year. there were about 10 back there already and madelyn was one who had been nominated! 

i always love parent night because i love information! :) it was nice to meet some of the other parents too (and see a few familiar faces). the parents were given note cards to leave a note for our child inside their desk. 

once i left, i got a call from matt filling me in on stranding him and that i needed to get home and relieve our neighbor! oh well. i do make mistakes sometime... love.