First Day of School

Wow. I'm having a hard time believing that our summer is over and school is already up and going. I love summer. I love having the kids all to myself, doing what we want to do when we want to do it. Our school district is on a modified year-around schedule, which means our summer break is only about 7 weeks long. Not long enough. And I'm not quite ready to give them up yet. But ready or not. . .

They all had a good day, except for Taylor. He came home saying it was the worst day ever. Apparently, he was supposed to bring two big binders to school on the first day. And the class spent a lot of their time organizing their binders under the teacher's direction. He was one of only two kids in the class who didn't show up with the binders and felt dumb during that time. Then at lunch, a few kids teased him about his lunch box.

"What's wrong with your lunch box?" I asked.
His response was that it is old and crusty.

"Does it work?" I asked.

"Well, yea. I guess it works just fine." was his response.

This lead into a great discussion about peer pressure and being resourceful and frugal. My guess is that a few other kids had brand-new lunch boxes; compared to theirs, Taylor's box looked a little used. Great teaching moment.

Here's the two left overs. Emma Claire smiled for the picture, but as soon as the big kids drove off to school, she broke down into sobs. We wiped away the tears and found her a workbook, pencil box, and a folder to keep her "homework" in. Today she asked me to sign her homework, like I do with all the other kids. So far, so good.

Andersen, on the other hand, cried the whole time as the big kids got ready to leave. He kept saying, "I go. . . I go. . . " Then as soon as they drove off, he found a few footballs lying around and turned those frowns into smiles. Gotta love those balls.

As for me, I missed my kids while they were gone and was glad to pick them up at 2:55 that afternoon. I love having them all to myself!