Monday, September 30, 2013

Back to School 2013

I'm not going to lie.  By the time summer break was coming to an end, I was really ready to send the kids back to school.  Don't get me wrong, our summer break was great.  We had a lot of fun even though we didn't do something amazing every week.  But by the end, the kids (Maddie and Ian) had had enough of each other and I had had more than enough of their constant bickering/fighting.  So, when the first day of school came I felt like this:
This mom's kids seem to be sad about going to back to school, but not mine!  They were pretty excited.  Just not quite as excited as me. 
 
 
Alayna started preschool going to the same teacher Ian had when he was 3.  She goes twice a week for three hours each time.  I love her teacher and her little school.  I think their curriculum is fabulous and I expect Alayna will learn a lot this year.  I'm sure you're wondering how she is liking it.  I'd say she feels so-so about it.  Part of her loves to be a big girl who wears a back pack and goes to school, but she's also a real mama's girl and would love to be with me every minute of every day.  Plus, she has to follow rules at school and she's very determined to do what she wants to do when she wants to do it.  So she's got some adjusting to do, but I'm sure she'll do just fine.  In fact I know she's already improved over these past 5 weeks of being there.  Having her in school has given me the opportunity to volunteer at the older kids' school which I haven't really been able to do before now.

 
Maddie is in fourth grade now, which at her school equals big man on campus.  (Our elementary schools are K-4.)  One of her teachers from last year moved up to teach fourth grade this year and she was really hoping to be in that class, but she was disappointed on that one.  She's not too upset over it though.  She really likes her teacher and I just had a parent-teacher conference with her teacher who thinks "Maddie is just fantastic!"  A direct quote. Maddie is not a morning person so each day is met with grumbling about getting up and going to school, but all in all she likes it.  Soon she'll start volunteering in the library once a week and singing in the school choir as well.

 
Ian is rocking and rolling in first grade.  He also seems to like his teacher and he's made friends with the kids in his class, so school is going great for him too.  Last week I helped in his class doing reading with small groups of students.  Here I'll brag for a moment: Ian is so far ahead of the other kids in reading.  Even in his group made up of the top readers in class, he was obviously the strongest.  He is just quite a smarty pants so I'm interested to see how his teacher plans to keep him challenged throughout the year.  Ian is anxiously looking forward to his 7th birthday in just two weeks. :)   

1 comments:

Unknown said...

The kids look great and I'm glad the school year's off to a good start for the Rands family! Hugs to those cool kids from their Aunt Angela 8)