Back to School

School started on Monday.  Some of us were excited.  Some of us were not.  Mostly Rex and I were not excited.  Alice was bouncing off the ceiling.  I really like having my kids at home and not having a strict schedule but following a fluid routine.  I guess I could homeschool my kids, but so far, I think the local public school is doing a better job than I would.  It's not a perfect school and there are definitely things I would change, but I think my kids are getting decent educations, and we'd be hard-pressed to find something in our financial and time budget that would suit us better (there are some charter schools I like but it's a 20 minute commute one way, which isn't worth it to me).

So school started.  Alice was excited.  Rex was a mess.  He was moody, not eating, yelling at the other kids.  I thought something was seriously wrong with him.  He was really just anxious about school.  Third grade is when kids start getting letter grades and have to take end of year tests and he was worried about his teacher being mean.  I told him to not even think about end of year testing because he could pass them right now and that grades are the least important thing about school (for now).  We also found out he again has one of the best teachers in the school and he really likes her.  My silly, playful, thoughtful inquisitive boy returned.  I should probably worry about his school anxiety, but I think I'll wait until grades start counting.

 

 Meanwhile at home, we had a pretty rough day.  Mondays I clean the house, but Henry was out of playmates.  All day long he begged me to play with him, but because of the eclipse and being out of town for a month, the house really needed to be cleaned.  It was rough.

Henry could not have been happier to see Alice Monday afternoon.  They are best friends.  It's going to be a rough year without her around.  Alice didn't have school Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday and I thought to myself, "This is why little boys were sent to school back in the day and little girls weren't.  Little girls are helpful and little boys are annoying."  Not that I don't love my boys, but they demand to be played with while Alice is actually really helpful.

 Tuesday Henry started Peaceful Preschool with me.  He was not at all interested.  I thought that once we got started and he realized that preschool time meant one-on-one time with Mom he'd be all over it.  He was not.  He did not want to do the activities planned but instead kept asking if we could just play cars instead.  He lasted about an hour, which meant we read some books and did one of the art projects.

We tried again on Thursday with similar results.  I'm a little bummed because I bought a really awesome curriculum that is basically what I did with Alice but already planned out for me.

I've gone back to the drawing board and am looking for other children to join Henry.  So far one family wants to but she doesn't have a car and lives miles away.  Hmmmm....We'll work something out.  It's still the first week.

Henry insisted on taking his 1st day of preschool picture next to the neighbor's car while crying.

And then he was done.