Back to School!

    In my house I have a little curio cabinet above my kitchen sink. I change the objects in it to reflect the seasons, yesterday with some sadness I took down my ceramic flip-flops and cheerful flamingos sipping tropical beverages and replaced them with a glass apple, a wooden cat on a stack of books and a little red school house.

Wonderful ladies at Cody,s preschool

   Yes it is that time of year again time for the kiddos to head off to school, this year I will have a first grader and a kindergartner.I should be less nervous more assured, since Cody will have the same teacher that Colton had last year and I am not a new parent at school any more.I already know the drills and such but somehow this year I seem to more be nervous than last year.

SpongeBob  never to be duplicated

   Part of it is my trepidation about Cody, as smart and lively a child he is I worry about him in a whole day setting. What happens at nap time when he does not have his exact sleep requirements met? (Jack Skellington doll, complete dark and absolutely no noise). He tends to only want to do his school work on a magna doodle, on his magna doodle he is a genius he writes things and draws mini-masterpieces but with paper and pencil he draws three lines and declares it is too hard.
    Then I worry about Colton as hard as I tried to work with him during the summer I worry he has lost a lot of what he learned. I had to work mush more than I expected in July. I had hoped to keep my easy schedule of 25 hours a week and ended up working more like 40. I lost so much of what I had scheduled to do to get him ready for first grade.
  Sometimes I wish I could do what a few of my friends are doing and home school them, but I think I lack a few of the essential things for a set up like that to work. First off my work schedule is unpredictable some weeks I have the best schedule I work three days a week 9-2:30 which would afford me plenty of time to work with them so maybe we had school a little later in the day or we worked more on my days off. But some weeks I work a full 40 hours and have no time do do my basic household chores let alone balance a curriculum.I also think that I lack the patience and fortitude required in a home schooling mother. I would worry that they were not as far along as there peers who attend regular school.
    I also think Colton would miss going to regular school he really enjoyed the whole school experience. He made friends, he loved his teacher, I even think he enjoyed leaving the house for the day for a change of scenery he got truly upset on the two occasions he had to miss school due to illness. In reality I really wish I could home school Cody, he has so many amazing little quirks and unique things about him I do want some kids stamping the quirk out of his spirit. Maybe some kids won,t understand a kid who loves Halloween all year long. Or who tends to use big words like "ebullient" to describe how he is feeling. I know I was the weird kid and I wish sometimes my mom had home schooled so that I did not have to worry about mean kids singing "Big Girls Don't Cry " to me.


    But maybe I am over reacting, I stressed about Colton because he only had my home preschool and to in class experience and he did just fine. I just hope that they do well and are happy in school this year
 

First day of school last year