1st Day of School 2010-2011

Today was the first day of school for this school year. Meg is in 3rd grade and Kylie is in 1st. We're very excited about the teachers they got. Kylie has Mrs. Brauer, who seems very nice. Her quote on her classroom webpage is "a day without laughter is a day wasted". We think she'll be a really good teacher for Kylie and we've heard a lot of good things about her :) Megan has two teachers this year - one for science and math and one for english and history (I think). Her science and math teacher, Mrs. Williams, is her official teacher. We were worried about her getting a good teacher after last year, but Mrs. Williams seems awesome! She was teacher of the year last year and her webpage says her mission is to "center on educating the whole child by modeling and setting high expectations for life and high academic achievement". I asked a friend who has older kids if she knew anything about her. My friend said that a couple years ago there was an autistic boy going into the grade she taught. She asked that he be assigned to her class and he excelled that year. Any teacher that cares that much about each student is a good teacher in my book! Mrs. Williams will be out for the first six weeks though as she's having a baby any day now.

Rob went with the girls on Friday night to "meet the teacher" night and dropped off all their school supplies. This morning we all woke up early. I have to admit that although I really miss my kids when they are at school, I enjoy the structure that school adds to our schedule. I even went downstairs this morning to help get them off on time :) All four kids had breakfast and Meg, Kylie and Rob were out the door by 7:40am. The girls picked out their own outfits yesterday and backpacks were packed with snacks and water bottles and homework, so it wasn't quite as crazy as it might have been.

After Megs and Kylie left, Jack and Beth parked themselves in front of the tv, so I started working on homework. That didn't last long. The first few weeks of school are always a bit difficult for everyone to adjust to. The kids who go to school are always tired out by the time they get home and the kids that stay at home always require much more attention than normal. Today was no exception as about 10 mins after the girls left, Jack was climbing all over me. I sent him downstairs to bring up some blocks and Jack, Beth and I spent a bit of time building towers and spelling names with the blocks. Jack surprised me by knowing that "frog" starts with "f"! :)

A friend messaged me to let me know that she watched Meg and Kylie as they got to school this morning. Megan helped Kylie find her locker and then got Kylie to her classroom before setting off to find her own locker :) I love my kids!

A few pictures from the last few days ~

Meg and Kylie with Susie before Sus headed off for college ~


Self portrait of Megan with her earrings ~


A few days ago, Megan gave me and herself a pedicure ~


This morning, heading off to school for their first day ~


Playing blocks on my bed (Beth was there too, but backed off when I took out the camera. You can see her legs, wrapped in her Nona quilt) ~