So a while back I was writing about getting excited about Jacob heading to Kindergarten and I honestly didn’t know what to expect. He has his new clothes, new school supplies and his super cool lunch box.  He gets dropped off in the morning and feels like a big kid at the end of the day because he and his “best bud” get to sit in the very first seat on the bus together.

Life is good.

What’s even better is the new trend I’m seeing at his school.  Not just in his classroom but from what all my neighbors are saying, it’s happening throughout the school!

I know we’re always talking about the kids trends, like the silly bandz craze that swept the nation or those beanie babies that were filling the back of people’s cars does anyone else remember that?).  This year, I’m seeing a trend not with the students, but with the teachers.

And I’m loving it.

I don’t know if this is an ongoing thing or new to this teaching year but the teachers at my sons school have all decided to have a daily journal.  They bought multi-colored markers and daily notebooks and have set a standard in which they expect their students to adhere to.

Each day, my son is sent home with his notebook and around the day there will be one of four colors – blue, green, yellow or red.

Green is what is expected of our children.  You have to really go above and beyond to get a blue circle.  Yellow is for when they’re pushing it and red get’s them a time out.

Instead of having to take my kids word for it when I ask him how his day was or wonder if there was a note sent home that I “might have missed”, I get to look in his daily journal to see what color his day was.  Day one?

Yellow.

“Jacob talked out of turn and when adults were speaking.  Didn’t follow rules today.”

Yep.  That’s my boy!

I guarantee if this new trend to send our children home with a daily notebook telling us how their day was, we wouldn’t have the entire story when we would ask “How was your day?”.

With this new system in place, the teacher will circle the day with each color and the parent has to initial it daily to show that we are seeing how our children progress throughout the year.

Not only are they doing that, but they have another notebook for “100 books in 100 days” to help encourage reading.  Each night, Jacob picks out a book for us to read and we write the name of the book and sign and date it.  He’s memorizing some of the books and when we take him out to the Target to pick out new books to read, he is enthusiastic to see what new and exciting things the world has to offer.

He’s learning how to read, how to write and we’re seeing his progress.  His teacher even has her own website where she tells us what each day’s lesson plan is and what she is expecting from our children.

So while trends might come and go throughout the ages with our children, I’m thrilled to see the teachers of today starting trends of their own helping to connect both parent and child to the classroom environment!

This post has been sponsored by Target – Expect More. Pay Less.