I know, totally lame and obvious title, but you know it’s true! I have always loved to read and from birth, both Zachary and Jonah have been surrounded by books. It seems to be working—Jonah drags books around like a security blanket, proclaiming “moose,” or “butterfly!” depending on what book he has latched on to.

Zachary was the same way—he’s always loved books and has been reading them with me from the age of 2. Now he’s in kindergarten and learning to really read, not just memorize the words. I’ll tell you this, there is nothing else quite like listening to your child read to you for the first time. Watching the reading process unfold in a child is amazing. Now I can’t find new books fast enough. Luckily, I have the internet to help in my search. If I wasn’t online, I wouldn’t have come across Frecklebox and their personalized books.

First, I don’t know who loves getting mail more, me or Zachary. When I told him he had a package in the mail he about ran me over in his attempt to get to the door. The surprise was unexpected—I didn’t tell him about the book. I think I picked a winner, because the book “Zachary Goes to the Zoo” was an instant hit. He thinks having a book with his name on every page is, and I quote, “awesome!“.

I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the book. It was a little more expensive than an average soft-bound book, however, being personalized on every page and not just the title page made it worth the extra expense. And I was able to add my own dedication. 🙂

The quality of the images is impressive. Very sharp and colorful. ((Even Chris mentioned this, which is surprising since he doesn’t usually notice things like this.)) There are just enough pages to hold Zachary’s interest, but not so many that he gets bored. Hiding his name within every picture for him to find just added to the fun.

I’m so happy with this book I’ve decided to get one of the Personalized coloring books for Jonah. ((Coloring is his favorite thing in the word right now.)) Maybe if I have enough of them, he’ll stop coloring on himself. 😉

Yep, that’s right. Zachary started kindergarten today. While I’m really excited for him, I can’t help but be a little sad, too. Kindergarten actually means s-c-h-o-o-l. Which actually means he’s not a little boy anymore (sniff).

We are very fortunate that he has the opportunity to attend FLEC (Forest Lake Education Center). FLEC is a private, Christian school with an exceptional curriculum. Of course, in my biased opinion, any private curriculum has to be better than the FLA public school’s curriculum. Add to that the fact that Orange county cut $70 million from this year’s school budget, which means:

• fewer teachers;
• the non-reappointment of hundreds of annual contract teachers (translation: art, music and PE teachers);
• the cutting of programs like environmental education and united arts;

just to note a few of the highlights (or lowlights).

Then there’s the actual quality of the education public students receive. The school we are zoned for, Apopka Elementary, does not inspire much confidence in me—it is ranked #1287 out of #1818 for the state of Florida. Sure, that means there are 531 schools ranking worse—but that also means there are 1286 schools that rank better. While FLEC doesn’t list a ranking since it’s private, I’m going to make a bold assumption and assume it would be ranked MUCH higher than #1287.

Okay, I’m off my soapbox. 🙂 This post is about Zachary, who is in big-kid school now. His teacher is Mrs. Schonert and he already has a friend in class—Mike and Angela’s daughter, Kai. I’m not sure exacly how many students are in his class, but it looks to be approximately 15. That’s a pretty good student/teacher equation. We’ve also heard nothing but great things about Mrs. Schonert, so we’re excited for Zachary. I can’t wait to pick him up this afternoon and hear all about his day.

If there were no schools to take the children away from home part of the time, the insane asylums would be filled with mothers. -Edgar W. Howe

To read about Zachary’s week before kindergarten, check out “the Goose.”