This is my final post about Georgia, and it's LONG!
It has been great being home but there is so much we miss about Saint Simons Island. Most of all is Brighton's school. I was amazed at how he progressed there. He started school in mid-October just at the cusp of starting to read. He now reads at the 2nd grade level. His teacher, Miss Chitty, saw promise in him and took the time to help him excel, rather than allow him to stagnate and get bored. She gave him the end of the year Kindergarten assessment before he left and he placed at a very satisfactory first grade level. I thought it was great she even bothered to give it to him since it wasn't the end of the year anyway, but she wanted me to know where he was at so I could ensure to keep him progressing.
Brighton really felt loved by her and really all the staff at that school. I can't tell you how many staff members personally said goodbye to Brighton and told him how much they'd miss him when I picked him up his last day of school. All the Kindergarten teachers and office staff said goodbye to him and told me how wonderful he is, as well as the principal and school counselor. I could walk into the front office without Brighton and they would recognize me as his mom, and we'd only been there 5 months! I almost feel guilty having him back at Basha, where they have three times as many students at the school, and his teacher has at least 6-7 more children in her class and does not have an aide like Miss Chitty's class. I worry because now never comes home with homework (he had simply homework daily in GA) and I wonder if he'll fall behind on his progression since it's got to be really difficult giving any individual attention to one student when you have 26 of them by yourself! I'm going to get first/second grade materials and continue to tutor him on my own.
EVERY day after school there were at least a dozen parents who stayed to let there kids burn off some energy on the playground. The great thing was that even the playground had a canopy of huge oak trees shading it.
On the playground after school with one of Brighton's buddies from class.
Needless to say I loved the small town feel of the old school (just under 400 students) compared to the anonymity of Basha (800-900 students).I wish I could have somehow taken my house to Georgia so I could enjoy it and keep Brighton in school there through 5th grade.
We also miss Adaira's school. Adaira is EXTREMELY shy around strangers, yet loud and sometimes very obnoxious at home! It was a great experience for her to get used to going somewhere around other adults without me. Check out these million dollar smiles (these are amazing because most of the time she scowls at me when I take her picture)!
On the left is Adaira's teacher, Miss Marguerite. She was so sweet and always called Adaira her "sweet girl" because she was so quiet at school. On the right is the program coordinator, Miss Pam. She helped out in class sometimes and was also one of what Adaira referred to as "The Get Out Girls," or ladies that helped her get out of the car in the morning at the preschool drive-through. They both talked with the thick Southern drawl and Adaira would sometimes ask me to pretend I was Miss Marguerite and I'd say "Oh Kay Miss Adair-a, what shall we dew to-day" and she'd get a kick out of it.
Our last Saturday there we went bowling with Daddy. The kids just love bowling and thankfully this alley had those kiddie tracks where the kids could put their ball on top and just roll it down so it would have some speed to it (instead of going 1mph down the lane and stop in the middle). For some reason they had all the lights out and had the black-lights going when we went and we thought that was pretty cool too. What was NOT cool, though, is how much I suck at bowling! I used to be alright but seriously I think the last time I really played was before I was married! I think my final score was like 74, and I know Brighton beat me and I think Adaira did too (they had bumpers!). Justin kept giving me a hard time but I don't think he even broke 100. We all did pretty bad but ME especially... Next time I'll leave the bowling to the kiddos.
Brighton has said that bowling is his favorite activity now.
Ahhhh....Adaira and her scowls for the camera. That girl has priss and sass covered!
It has been great being home but there is so much we miss about Saint Simons Island. Most of all is Brighton's school. I was amazed at how he progressed there. He started school in mid-October just at the cusp of starting to read. He now reads at the 2nd grade level. His teacher, Miss Chitty, saw promise in him and took the time to help him excel, rather than allow him to stagnate and get bored. She gave him the end of the year Kindergarten assessment before he left and he placed at a very satisfactory first grade level. I thought it was great she even bothered to give it to him since it wasn't the end of the year anyway, but she wanted me to know where he was at so I could ensure to keep him progressing.
Brighton really felt loved by her and really all the staff at that school. I can't tell you how many staff members personally said goodbye to Brighton and told him how much they'd miss him when I picked him up his last day of school. All the Kindergarten teachers and office staff said goodbye to him and told me how wonderful he is, as well as the principal and school counselor. I could walk into the front office without Brighton and they would recognize me as his mom, and we'd only been there 5 months! I almost feel guilty having him back at Basha, where they have three times as many students at the school, and his teacher has at least 6-7 more children in her class and does not have an aide like Miss Chitty's class. I worry because now never comes home with homework (he had simply homework daily in GA) and I wonder if he'll fall behind on his progression since it's got to be really difficult giving any individual attention to one student when you have 26 of them by yourself! I'm going to get first/second grade materials and continue to tutor him on my own.
Needless to say I loved the small town feel of the old school (just under 400 students) compared to the anonymity of Basha (800-900 students).I wish I could have somehow taken my house to Georgia so I could enjoy it and keep Brighton in school there through 5th grade.
We also miss Adaira's school. Adaira is EXTREMELY shy around strangers, yet loud and sometimes very obnoxious at home! It was a great experience for her to get used to going somewhere around other adults without me. Check out these million dollar smiles (these are amazing because most of the time she scowls at me when I take her picture)!
On the left is Adaira's teacher, Miss Marguerite. She was so sweet and always called Adaira her "sweet girl" because she was so quiet at school. On the right is the program coordinator, Miss Pam. She helped out in class sometimes and was also one of what Adaira referred to as "The Get Out Girls," or ladies that helped her get out of the car in the morning at the preschool drive-through. They both talked with the thick Southern drawl and Adaira would sometimes ask me to pretend I was Miss Marguerite and I'd say "Oh Kay Miss Adair-a, what shall we dew to-day" and she'd get a kick out of it.
Our last Saturday there we went bowling with Daddy. The kids just love bowling and thankfully this alley had those kiddie tracks where the kids could put their ball on top and just roll it down so it would have some speed to it (instead of going 1mph down the lane and stop in the middle). For some reason they had all the lights out and had the black-lights going when we went and we thought that was pretty cool too. What was NOT cool, though, is how much I suck at bowling! I used to be alright but seriously I think the last time I really played was before I was married! I think my final score was like 74, and I know Brighton beat me and I think Adaira did too (they had bumpers!). Justin kept giving me a hard time but I don't think he even broke 100. We all did pretty bad but ME especially... Next time I'll leave the bowling to the kiddos.
See Justin's magnificent bowling technique below (he's on the left)
Ahhhh....Adaira and her scowls for the camera. That girl has priss and sass covered!
Totally unexpected was having my favorite BBQ place burn down the day before we came home! This was Southern Soul BBQ, my personal favorite out of all the ones we tried while in GA (and they have BBQ joints on almost every corner!) Thank goodness I got my fix the night before when we stopped by and picked up dinner to eat on our way out to Jekyll Island.
This place is so good it Guy Fieri from "Diners, Drive-ins and Dives" on the Food Network Channel actually visited and filmed there in February (it hasn't shown on TV yet). This building is was over 50 years old and was a staple feature in the middle of St. Simons Island. It wasn't much to look at even before it burned, but that was part of it character.
And to end this post (or Marathon post as my friend Carolyn might call it) I have a few pictures of my favorite memories of the island. First would be our street, Druid Oaks Ln. How much fun our kids had playing on this street, and how much we enjoyed our walks in the shade of the oak trees (remember, we could walk a mile under the oak trees and end up at the beach!)
Druid Oaks Ln. (taken from my care while driving)
Below is Demere Rd (a main road on the island that connected to our street). We took Demere Rd. every day as it led to Brighton & Adaira's schools. Demere is so narrow because they didn't want to cut down the old oak trees, and if you look closely you can see that several of them are a mere 6in from the white line. They have many battle scars from cars brushing against them when this used to be the only main road through this part of the island!
Many parts of the island have a canopy of oak branches hovering over the road just like this. It was just beautiful! That's Spanish Moss hanging down off the branches (they make the trees look like weeping willows in my opinion).
Below are the kids at our favorite park right next the library, the pier, village, and the beach! (All of which are lined up along the beach...Okay just about everything there was across from the beach, Brighton's school, Adaira's school-hers was just around the corner from this park). We went to this park probably once a week or more. One morning I dropped Adaira off at school and took Dale to the library next to this park. The library was lined with white rocking chairs outside for people to sit and just look out across the lawn at the ocean. Dale and I sat on one of those white rocking chairs one peaceful and quiet morning for an hour and all I could hear was the waves hitting the beach and me singing softly to Dale. It's one of my best memories and I wish I had taken a picture of the back of the library to show you what I'm talking about, but I didn't and the best I could do was find this picture online. If you were standing directly behind where the photographer took this picture, you'd be just in front of the ocean, and usually the walkway and steps you see there that run along the building behind the flagpole have white rocking chairs for anyone to use.
It is such a beautiful view that the lawn is often used for wedding ceremonies, which is what is going on in this picture.
Here's the park anyway. On one angle you can see the ocean, and on the angle you can see the historic lighthouse next to the park.
What a great place and we loved it and miss it! I do admit I'd rather face an AZ summer than the humid GA summer, but nonetheless I wish I could pluck all the wonderful things about this place and keep them in our lives forever!
And that folks, concludes our family's adventure in Georgia.
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