August 17, 2006: Back to School

We started back yesterday, a week earlier than usual but with longer breaks scheduled in throughout the year. Ahhh, if only the whole year could go like the first two days! But as I enter year seven and add child #3, I have no illusions (well, maybe just a few). Our first day is, as Jesse calls it, "educational orientation" (how did he learn to speak puplic-schoolese, anyway?). Our first act of each new year is to measure and weigh the kids. Duncan and Jesse grew a whopping 4 inches this past year, and Princess Laurel continued with her regular 2 inches. Then we go through our "Big Box of Books," which is, incidentally, a big box filled with books. These are books of all sorts--stapled, taped, tied with yarn, and what-not-- that the kids have made through the years. Our focus, though, is looking at the previous years' "All About Me" books. I print these out at Enchanted Learning (which I find to be well-worth the $20/year fee). I love going through these every year--seeing how their handwriting and drawing has changed, etc. Jesse rejected these a few years ago but I still make him write out a "This is Me Now" page. The rest of our day was basically just organizational, although Laurel did want to do a page in her reading comprehension book, and Duncan had his first lesson in Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. Duncan's report on his first day of kindergarten was that it was great!
Today was another excellent day. We started back in full swing and actually got "everything done" (in other words, we accomplished what I'd hoped to accomplish)! The kids were great, and the biggest news is that Duncan wrote his name by himself for the first time! We were all very proud of him. I am amazed that my little party guy, who is all about having a good time, is actually buckling down and focusing.

Tonight we have our support group's Welcome Back picnic, which gives this whole week even more of an "official" feeling. I'm glad we're back to the books. My cabinets aren't totally organized and I still have summer projects to complete (or start), but we were all ready to start again.