1st Day of School

Today was the first day of school in the city where I live. I wasn't sure how I would feel today when all the children around us started school and mine didn't, but as David slept until 7:30 am this morning (a rare thing!), I breathed a sigh of relief. One of the worse things about sending the boys to school was dragging them out of bed in the morning. The same children who woke up with glee at 6:15 on weekends would not budge at 6:30 on school days. There were protests and whining. It just wasn't pretty. I was generally exhausted by the time we got out the door at 7:15 am. I will not miss that this year. Now they can sleep until 7:30 if they so choose and still be ready for our 8:00 am start time.

We started our homeschooling year last Monday so that we can be done earlier in June. To everyone who has asked, I have told them that we survived the first week, which is an accurate assessment. This is new for all of us and we are still working out the kinks. The curriculum I chose is very writing intensive which isn't ideal for two young boys who hate writing, so I make sure that they do some writing every day and then we do the rest orally. I don't want them to hate all their subjects when what they really hate is the physical task of writing. They like to learn. They just don't like to write. I've requested some books from the library on teaching children to write. I'm hoping that will give me some good ideas. I also took my friend's advice and put up an incentive chart where they get a sticker for co-operating with their lessons for that day. I had done one for David last year when school had become a real struggle for him and it helped. It helped today as well. Hopefully, that will continue.

We actually had a really good day today. We did about 1 1/2 hours of science which they both enjoy. We collected leaves from all the plants around our house and compared and sorted them and then did crayon rubbings of them. We also planted some apple seeds to see how many germinate. We also did our daily allotment of phonics, reading, math, and spelling, and went to our local library.

We have a meeting with our homeschooling group on Friday and we start going to a co-op on Monday.

I think that we are going to be OK. After all, I didn't learn how to be a mother in one day, or one week. In fact, I'm still learning with every new stage that comes along. This is just another one of those stages and I need to give myself (and them) time to learn.

On a somewhat unrelated note, the public schools in my city have a mandatory uniform policy in place this year. Every school has its own colors. It was amazing to see all the schoolchildren looking alike! They did look very neat and clean. Hopefully, it will help eliminate some of the distractions in the classroom and lessen the gang activity in our schools.