Kindergarten: Six Weeks In

Kindergarten is here!  We are six weeks into the school year and I can't believe how well it has been going.  Samantha LOVES it!  She loves riding the bus, learning new things, and going to all her different "classes".  They have a rotating schedule that includes art, music, two days of PE, and rotating technology/library.  Samantha likes them all equally it seems though I love hearing about art and music the most.  She has brought home a few art projects that are just adorable.  I don't know how I will ever choose which ones to save at the end of the school year.  Definitely plan on at least photographing or scanning them all in just so that we can remember them all, even if we can't save each one.  She has a folder she brings home every day with all of her school work which is great since I love seeing everything they're working on.  Currently it seems like they're working on learning the days of the week.  The teacher must be a fan of old movies & shows because Sam has two songs about the days of the week that she tries to sing that go to the tune of the theme songs to The Adams Family and Happy Days!!  So funny!  I am blown away by how quickly Samantha is learning things.  She knows sight works and is starting to spell basic words and sound them out.  I can't even tell you how many times we started Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons and couldn't get past like 14 lessons because she couldn't grasp it.  Granted she's still not at the point of the book, but she is picking up things super fast.  I'm so proud of her!

As we expected, she is having difficulty making friends.  She is just so shy.  The husband and I had a good laugh at Back to School Night when he asked the teacher a question about how all the kids were getting along and the teacher told that most were doing great but there were some students who always politely said "no thank you" when asked by others to play.  We knew immediately that she was talking about Samantha!!  She did come home one day saying she had 3 new best friends but then had about a week where she would come home upset saying they didn't want to play with her.  We've been working on ways to interact with them and talk/ask questions.  The other day she came home and said she "did her homework" of asking the girls what they were being for Halloween.  Hopefully it's something she will continue to work on and eventually we can have some friends over to our house to get to know them better.

Overall, I'm thrilled by how well things are going.  We go for parent teacher conferences sometime in November where we'll get a more in depth view of how she's doing in school and I can't wait to really learn how she's doing.  It's amazing how far she's come in six short weeks and I'm honestly looking forward to see what is in store for the remainder of the year.

Kindergarten Jitters...Still

The first day of kindergarten is all too quickly creeping up on us.  We have just two weeks left until the first day of school and I am still nowhere near ready.  Over the past week, first day of school pictures have been flooding my facebook newsfeed and each time I see one my anxiety creeps just a little bit higher with the thought that soon enough, that will be us.  Cliche as it is, it really does seem like just yesterday I was in the hospital giving birth and now here we are, off to school.  Where have the past 5 years gone?!

I think one of the biggest (though certainly not the biggest) contributing factors to my anxiety is the lack of being able to plan.  School is two weeks away...TWO weeks, and we have yet to learn who her teacher is.  We don't know what bus she will ride or what time she needs to be at the bus stop.  I don't know if I'm allowed to pack peanut butter sandwiches in her lunch box.  I just feel so under prepared.  When it comes to mentally preparing for things, especially when it has to do with my kids, I like to have everything laid out for me.  Here, it simply isn't there.  I am hoping the assignments come this week so that we can start talking about her teacher and remembering his or her name and start getting excited.

Next week we have Kindergarten Orientation.  I am not sure what all that entails but I'm excited to go.  I know we get to meet the teacher and see the classroom.  It will be nice to hopefully meet some other parents and start making friends.  I went out on a limb a few weeks ago and sent a facebook message to a mom I saw on our schools facebook page.  She had commented on a post that she was sending her son to kindergarten and upon visiting her profile I saw that she has 3 young boys.  Perfect right?  Unfortunately she read my message but never did reply. :'(  Hopefully that isn't a foreshadowing of how our making school friends is going to go.  As far as I know, there are no other kindergartners in our neighborhood so I really do hope that we are both able to make some friends at school.

As far as us, all we have left to do is finish school supply shopping.  We've purchased 5 (FIVE!!!) pairs of new shoes.  I don't think she has ever owned that many pairs of shoes in one size in her life.  Plus she has 2 other pairs that we got earlier, but not specifically for school.  We've gone clothes shopping and gotten her an entire new wardrobe.  She picked out her first day of school dress all by herself (sort of)!  We have a backpack and lunch box.  I can't think of any other things that we need.

If you have a child that has already gone to kindergarten, what advice would you give to a mom that is sending her child to school for the first time?  Seriously, the first time.  We have done 3 summers of VBS (one week, 3 hours a day) but other than that, she has never done a school, class, camp or ANYTHING where we have been apart so this is going to be a huge huge huge adjustment for us both!

The Kindergarten Jitters

The year I have been dreading is finally here.  2016.  My oldest girl is going to be turning 5 this spring.  You know what that means?  This fall she is going to go to school.  :'(  For the past few years we've done our own little version of homeschooling and I've half had it in me that once kindergarten came we would continue our homeschool journey.  However as the time draws nearer it has become more apparent that homeschooling just isn't a good fit for us.

Days are stressful around here.  With three kids 4 and under things get hectic fast and it's hard to give your undivided attention to just one child at a time, especially with something so important as their education.  We try to keep some sort of schedule but more often than not, we just go with the flow and get things done when we can.  Last year for Christmas, my Aunt gifted the kids a subscription to ABC Mouse.  This website has been great and the kids love playing on it.  I aim to get them each on it for 20 minutes a day but that's a stretch because Samantha thinks the iPad is just for youtube videos!!  I'm also a huge fan of workbooks and have acquired quite the collection.  Each day I choose 2-3 worksheets each for Samantha and Zach to complete but sitting quietly one at a time is nearly impossible.  Someone else is bound to be crying or demanding of my attention.  Each evening before bed Samantha and I do a reading lesson from our favorite book, Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons.  I won't get into the book too much because that isn't the point of this post but it has been a great tool for teaching Samantha how to read.  We are only 12 lessons in so far because the first two times we tried, I felt she wasn't ready yet.  However, I think the 3rd time is the charm because she has been doing great!  Between these three things and other various apps and videos I think they have a good foundation, however, I know I could still be doing better.  I would absolutely love to be the one in charge of my children's education but it would be doing them a disservice to keep them home when I can't give them 100%.

Back to school though, I can't get over how quickly the past 5 years have flown by.  The thing that pulls my heartstrings the most is how much time our children spend in school.  I know it's what is required and needed but they're gone for over 7 hours a day!!  Starting this fall, Samantha will be spending more time with her teacher than she will with her own mother.  This is it, 13 years of school at home and then she's off to college.  In 7 months, my days of spending all my time with her is over for the rest of her life.  How heartbreaking is that?  For the past 4 years and 9 months I have spent every day with her.  The only times we've really been apart is when I've been in the hospital giving birth to her younger siblings and even then I saw her every day.  She's done a one week long Vacation Bible School camp for the past 2 summers where she is in the care of others for 3 hours a day, but besides that, she's never been in a school setting before (where I am not there with her as is the case with our weekly church class).  I pray we get a teacher we love which I know will help us both feel much more comfortable.  Last week I took an unofficial tour of the school she will be attending which did help me to feel better, but once we learn who her teacher will be and get to meet her/him I think (or rather HOPE!) that I will feel more confident in our decision to send her to public school.  For now though, I will just enjoy every moment we have together, plan lots of fun things for us to do, and try not to think too much about the tears that will no doubt be falling on that first day of school.

Has your oldest child gone off to kindergarten yet?  Send me some of your favorite tips for making this most difficult transition!!