First Days of School

Aubree:

September 3rd was the first official day of school here.  Months ago, Aubree wrote that date on a note and taped it to her bed, but when asked if she was excited, she would alternate between a firm "yes," and a noncommittal shrug of the shoulders.  

We were so busy in the days leading up to the start of school, none of us had much time to contemplate the changes ahead.  The night before, Aubree asked for the standard pre-first day curlers, and all the kids received Father's Blessings, which probably do more to soothe my soul than theirs.

And all too soon, September 3rd arrived.  The school district "strongly encouraged" all parents to send their children on the bus the first day (mostly because 3 out of the 4 elementary schools in the district are ranked in the top 10 largest in the State).  That didn't bother Aubree.  She was excited and anxious to go.

Before school

Obviously, I spent a lot of time and energy making the decision to send her to public school, and thought I'd worked through all the associated emotions.  I expected to handle the transition in a calm and collected fashion.  But when my first born climbed alone onto the school bus, I quickly realized I was completely wrong.

I spent the rest of the morning in tears, my stomach a jumble of nerves.  Granted, a large portion of my worry stemmed from the need for Aubree to switch school buses at the neighborhood school, en route to her final destination.  I didn't understand how that process would work, and the emotions of the moment left me imagining her stranded and confused.

More than that, though, I felt like I understood to a small degree what parents must experience as they send their child off to college.  "Is she ready for this? Have I taught her all she needs to know?  How will this change her, for good and for bad?"

By afternoon, I was more in control, and when I saw her come bouncing safely off the bus, chattering about how "awesome" everything was, most of the rest of my worries evaporated.

After school

Two weeks into school, Aubree still loves it.  She insists that recesses are the very best part of school and looks forward to playing with her new friends.  There are some things she misses: ample time to read, playing with our homeschooled neighbors, Story of the World, doing fun things during the day with us ("you went to IKEA without me??")...but for the most part, she's having a fabulous time.

After the first week, it started to sink in to me that this was long-term.  Aubree had been gone for a week or so before (i.e. farm school or violin camp), but at the end of that she always came home.  Sending her back to school after the first weekend was hard for me.  I miss having her around.  I don't like that she's gone for seven hours and only home (awake) for five.  That just doesn't seem fair.  But, I will admit it does free up my time to do some other things, like school with Bryce and Thane.

Bryce:

Bryce is in kindergarten this year, which is just SO exciting!  This boy loves to learn.  

As part of the plan for the year, we signed him up for two days at the homeschool school (part of the local school district).  Each day consists of a three hour block of classes (science/writing/art and history/writing/music).  Originally, I'd planned to only enroll him for one day, but when I asked his opinion on the matter, he thought for a minute, then said, "I think I should do two days, that way if I ever go to regular school like Aubree I'll be better prepared."

He really enjoyed those two days and came home brimming with fun facts and stories to tell.  He also came home exhausted!  I quickly realized that I had over-planned curriculum and activities for him and needed to revamp and pare down.

So, we will still do Five in A Row (which we've already started and are loving), but will only "row" one book every two weeks.  

Lentil lapbook

In addition, for math we will do Math U See Alpha at his pace along with Dreambox Online (and a [not so] quick aside about Dreambox... in February Bryce's math skills were not great because we hadn't spent much time working on them.  He could count to maybe 13 without mistakes and couldn't recognize the numbers.  I signed him up for Dreambox and he started playing a little everyday.  Within 6 weeks he had completed the entire kindergarten curriculum!  He could count to 100+, recognize all his numbers, and do fairly complicated addition and subtraction problems.  He started waking up every morning with a new math problem he'd thought of to tell me, "Mom! Three threes and one more make ten!" Turns out he's really got a knack for math.)

building a city like Lentil's 

For reading, we will work on reading books.  Both me reading aloud and him working through beginning books building skill and confidence.  We still have access to Reading Eggs online, and when we have time he will play that.  He will also use Handwriting Without Tears for handwriting.

Thane:

All summer, Thane has been telling anyone that would listen that he was starting preschool.  Like I did for Aubree and Bryce, I helped coordinate a mommy co-op preschool once a week.

  

I was a little worried about how it would go for Thane; he's a home-body and generally doesn't like to be left (be it nursery or at a friend's house).  

So far, though, he's done great!  It helps that the first few weeks are being held at his favorite friend, Finley's, just a few houses down the street. 

 I like that it's really fun and low key, yet organized and exciting.

I love this silly little weather graph I made

Last week they learned the letter "B" is for body.  I was impressed at how well Thane was able to follow instructions to draw his own person.

At home we've started doing our own letter of the week curriculum.  And again, I've been impressed at how quickly he's picked up on concepts.  Here is his first exposure to patterning:

 I think he's really enjoying the extra focus and attention and feeling like he's a part of the big kid stuff.  "What else can me do?" he asks regularly.  And Yeah.  Maybe I should put, "work on proper pronoun usage," at the top of our "to-learn" list.