2011-12: Hyrum

Thanks to my technical adviser, Kara, who resurrected my pictures from certain death. I can't say THANKS enough!

 I've blogged about Hyrum's preschool teacher before. She is unbelievably good at what she does.

Mrs. M puts on two full programs in May--one for Mother's Day and one for graduation.

Hyrum was a purple pansy--and the state of his petals describes what kind of pansy he was--a little bit rambunctious, if you can picture that!

He tried hard to be good and listen and follow directions, but there were friends in his class that distracted him (if you believe that one, you don't know Mr. Distraction).

Many of the reasons I love Mrs. M revolve around her philosophy of teaching them responsibility/love for school.  The most important thing Hyrum learned this year is that school is fun--a place where he can love learning new things--even if he only gave Mrs. M one hug all year long, he knew she loved him.  He also learned that the fun of school brings responsibility along with it--he had homework that wasn't graded beyond writing his name and making a mark on the paper, but he knew it was his job to complete those sheets every day.

My favorite thing about Mrs. M's preschool is watching the light bulb of reading turn on in their minds.  By teaching them songs and sounds for each letter, she teaches them to read without them even realizing it.

I love sitting with Hyrum and listen to him sound out unfamiliar words and then watch when his mind registers what that word says.  Hyrum read 125 beginner books this year--he and the other Hyrum (who would have thought there'd be two Hyrums in his class!) each got a big blue pin on their chests and these special graduation bears for reading the most.

Preschool is one of my favorite stages of development, and I completely enjoyed watching Hyrum grow up a little bit this year.