General update and first week of school...
Warning, long update ahead...
The first week of school has come and gone for the kids, and in many ways, it feels like going up the first hill on a roller coaster. I know that from here on out it will be hectic.
Brenna loves 4th grade so far. Of course this week has all been about review, getting back into the routine, and there hasn't been any homework yet, so what's not to love? lol They have a Kindergarten "buddy" class - where each Kinder is paired with a 4th grader, and they act as mentors to the younger ones. Seems like it wasn't too long ago that Brenna was in K and had a 4th grade buddy. Time flies. We still haven't decided when we're going to start up Girl Scout meetings again. This year, as Junior Girl scouts, the girls will be more self-governing and are supposed to handle a lot of the meeting planning and deciding on which badges to work on, activities to attend, etc. I guess we'll see how that goes. The week after next is when things really kick into gear - dance starts up (she'll be taking tap, acro, and ballet), also the gifted program starts up. She'll be out of class and in with the gifted teacher and other 4th grade gifted students every Wednesday. For this program, they have work/projects that they have to complete, and they get a whole separate grade for it on their report card.
Ada also loves school so far. I was wondering if there would be an adjustment period now that she's in Kindergarten, but there hasn't been one. I thought that going longer and going every day would tire her out, but it hasn't seemed to do that at all! If anything it seems to me that she was more than ready to start K. I'm glad I found a place that would take her despite the fact that she misses the cut off (Sept. 1) by a little over 3 weeks. This school takes kids for K as long as they're 5 by Sept. 30. She loves her teacher, already has new friends (the new school thankfully hasn't phased her at all). I love that her class only has 11 kids in it! I think it will be a great start for her. Also, I was really worried about how we were going to afford sending both her and Grant (it was going to be expensive - he goes to preschool there). Upon a friend's recommendation, we applied for a scholarship for her. There's a non-profit group that does scholarships for many Christian schools in Phoenix and Tucson. AZ has a law that allows people to donate money and take it as a tax credit off their state taxes. This organization takes these donations and distributes scholarships. I found out on the first day of school that we got a scholarship which paid for a little over half of Ada's tuition for this year. I was not even going to apply, because I figured with our income we'd be out of luck, but I guess income is not the only deciding factor. Much of it depends on how many apply and how much money they have to distribute. I am totally thrilled! We're now paying less for her Kindergarten than we did for preschool last year.
Grant hasn't really been as thrilled to start school as his sisters have. lol He goes MWF 9am-12pm. The first day, he cried when I left, but I didn't dwell on it. They had said just to say our goodbyes and leave, so I did. They said he cried off and on throughout the time he was there. The second day (Wed.), I knew I was in trouble. As I left he was gearing up for a full on screaming fit. Sure enough, about 10:30am, his teacher called me. She mostly wanted my input as to what was going on and how they were handling it. They would try to comfort him, but if he got to full on screaming, they took him out of class (with one of the teachers of course). I totally agreed with them, because I didn't want him to be a disruption (Grant is unfortunately the loudest of all my kids). Leave it to my kid to be the one to cry for over an hour. The teacher told me that she felt if I came and picked him up it wouldn't accomplish anything, and I agreed. I guess shortly after she got off the phone with me, he decided to paint with the rest of the class and became much more cooperative. He also finally opened up and started talking to the teacher. Unfortunately, I think part of this was because we started going to church, and when he throws a fit in the childcare at church, they just page me to come get him. So he figured if he yelled loud enough, they'd call me to come get him. Yesterday in order to prepare him for going back to school, we did some role play, where he was the mom while I was Grant. I think it helped some. We got there today, and he did start to cry as I left, but not the screaming tantrum, just the pathetic, quiet, whimpering. Today when I picked him up, the teacher said he did cry but eventually told her, and I quote, "I not cry anymore." lol She said he was like a different kid, cuddly and sweet, which is more of his real self. :) I hope this means that he's getting used to it and that Monday will be easier! He is academically way ahead of where the girls were at this age in many ways. He can't write very well at all yet, but he knows his letters and letter sounds. He knows numbers 1-10. The other day when I wrote down small words (cat, sun, dog), he could sound them out. He can't put the sounds together and recognize the word, but I was impressed. He's only 3 and 3 months.
As to the general update, let's just say this week was really awful for me. Starting exactly a week ago, my parents were visiting, and we decided to hire a sitter and go walking. We did 6 miles on an indoor track that's about 20-25 minutes from the house. On the way home, we're on the freeway, I'm driving, and we have a tire blowout. I've never had one this bad - the tire actually suddenly shredded. So here we are, 1pm in the afternoon, it's about 106 degrees out. We're on the side of the freeway with people whizzing by. We called AAA, but it took about 40 minutes for them to come help us change the tire. We had A/C, but it's not as cool when you're not moving. It was NOT fun. A sheriff deputy did stop and make sure we were OK, had water and A/C. Then 2 days later, last Sunday afternoon, I go to answer the door (was expecting someone) and stubbed my toe on my husband's bleeping guitar case that was laying right in the middle of the hallway. I broke my little toe. It hurt SO much! I couldn't walk on it for the rest of the evening. I laid on the couch and stressed out over how much I had to do but couldn't accomplish (pack lunches, snacks, Grant's extra clothes for preschool, etc.). Thursday I woke up to a minivan with a dead battery. I mean, so dead that it laughed at our attempts to jump start it. We ended up getting the kids to school, then I had to drive dh to work. I come home, take Grant to Costco for a new battery, go pick the girls up from school, and that night was open house at Brenna's school. They do open house a couple days after school starts, and the teachers go over policies, etc. and meet everyone. This year they were doing presentations by grade level in the cafeteria (lovely, sounds great, doesn't it? sitting in chairs listening to a presentation with my 3 and 4 year old?). I managed to beg her teacher for the handout they were going to discuss (I can read, thankyouverymuch), because Grant would NOT have sat through another presentation (we had gone to the Gifted teacher's presentation earlier). He didn't really sit through that one, either. Plus we still had to go across town and pick up my husband from work. We went and picked him up (kids bickering the whole way - I hate how they all sit next to each other in the truck and hate getting them in and out also), then came home and got the new battery in the van.
Whew. Lastly, things are going well for dh and his job. He works on the virtual towers (project management, etc.), which may be featured on 60 minutes soon. They've been out to the tower sites a couple of times now. He has been playing bass and guitar in a band at a local church during the service a couple times a month. One of his friends has a job there and plays drums, so that's how he got involved.
And I think that novella about sums it up. :)
The first week of school has come and gone for the kids, and in many ways, it feels like going up the first hill on a roller coaster. I know that from here on out it will be hectic.
Brenna loves 4th grade so far. Of course this week has all been about review, getting back into the routine, and there hasn't been any homework yet, so what's not to love? lol They have a Kindergarten "buddy" class - where each Kinder is paired with a 4th grader, and they act as mentors to the younger ones. Seems like it wasn't too long ago that Brenna was in K and had a 4th grade buddy. Time flies. We still haven't decided when we're going to start up Girl Scout meetings again. This year, as Junior Girl scouts, the girls will be more self-governing and are supposed to handle a lot of the meeting planning and deciding on which badges to work on, activities to attend, etc. I guess we'll see how that goes. The week after next is when things really kick into gear - dance starts up (she'll be taking tap, acro, and ballet), also the gifted program starts up. She'll be out of class and in with the gifted teacher and other 4th grade gifted students every Wednesday. For this program, they have work/projects that they have to complete, and they get a whole separate grade for it on their report card.
Ada also loves school so far. I was wondering if there would be an adjustment period now that she's in Kindergarten, but there hasn't been one. I thought that going longer and going every day would tire her out, but it hasn't seemed to do that at all! If anything it seems to me that she was more than ready to start K. I'm glad I found a place that would take her despite the fact that she misses the cut off (Sept. 1) by a little over 3 weeks. This school takes kids for K as long as they're 5 by Sept. 30. She loves her teacher, already has new friends (the new school thankfully hasn't phased her at all). I love that her class only has 11 kids in it! I think it will be a great start for her. Also, I was really worried about how we were going to afford sending both her and Grant (it was going to be expensive - he goes to preschool there). Upon a friend's recommendation, we applied for a scholarship for her. There's a non-profit group that does scholarships for many Christian schools in Phoenix and Tucson. AZ has a law that allows people to donate money and take it as a tax credit off their state taxes. This organization takes these donations and distributes scholarships. I found out on the first day of school that we got a scholarship which paid for a little over half of Ada's tuition for this year. I was not even going to apply, because I figured with our income we'd be out of luck, but I guess income is not the only deciding factor. Much of it depends on how many apply and how much money they have to distribute. I am totally thrilled! We're now paying less for her Kindergarten than we did for preschool last year.
Grant hasn't really been as thrilled to start school as his sisters have. lol He goes MWF 9am-12pm. The first day, he cried when I left, but I didn't dwell on it. They had said just to say our goodbyes and leave, so I did. They said he cried off and on throughout the time he was there. The second day (Wed.), I knew I was in trouble. As I left he was gearing up for a full on screaming fit. Sure enough, about 10:30am, his teacher called me. She mostly wanted my input as to what was going on and how they were handling it. They would try to comfort him, but if he got to full on screaming, they took him out of class (with one of the teachers of course). I totally agreed with them, because I didn't want him to be a disruption (Grant is unfortunately the loudest of all my kids). Leave it to my kid to be the one to cry for over an hour. The teacher told me that she felt if I came and picked him up it wouldn't accomplish anything, and I agreed. I guess shortly after she got off the phone with me, he decided to paint with the rest of the class and became much more cooperative. He also finally opened up and started talking to the teacher. Unfortunately, I think part of this was because we started going to church, and when he throws a fit in the childcare at church, they just page me to come get him. So he figured if he yelled loud enough, they'd call me to come get him. Yesterday in order to prepare him for going back to school, we did some role play, where he was the mom while I was Grant. I think it helped some. We got there today, and he did start to cry as I left, but not the screaming tantrum, just the pathetic, quiet, whimpering. Today when I picked him up, the teacher said he did cry but eventually told her, and I quote, "I not cry anymore." lol She said he was like a different kid, cuddly and sweet, which is more of his real self. :) I hope this means that he's getting used to it and that Monday will be easier! He is academically way ahead of where the girls were at this age in many ways. He can't write very well at all yet, but he knows his letters and letter sounds. He knows numbers 1-10. The other day when I wrote down small words (cat, sun, dog), he could sound them out. He can't put the sounds together and recognize the word, but I was impressed. He's only 3 and 3 months.
As to the general update, let's just say this week was really awful for me. Starting exactly a week ago, my parents were visiting, and we decided to hire a sitter and go walking. We did 6 miles on an indoor track that's about 20-25 minutes from the house. On the way home, we're on the freeway, I'm driving, and we have a tire blowout. I've never had one this bad - the tire actually suddenly shredded. So here we are, 1pm in the afternoon, it's about 106 degrees out. We're on the side of the freeway with people whizzing by. We called AAA, but it took about 40 minutes for them to come help us change the tire. We had A/C, but it's not as cool when you're not moving. It was NOT fun. A sheriff deputy did stop and make sure we were OK, had water and A/C. Then 2 days later, last Sunday afternoon, I go to answer the door (was expecting someone) and stubbed my toe on my husband's bleeping guitar case that was laying right in the middle of the hallway. I broke my little toe. It hurt SO much! I couldn't walk on it for the rest of the evening. I laid on the couch and stressed out over how much I had to do but couldn't accomplish (pack lunches, snacks, Grant's extra clothes for preschool, etc.). Thursday I woke up to a minivan with a dead battery. I mean, so dead that it laughed at our attempts to jump start it. We ended up getting the kids to school, then I had to drive dh to work. I come home, take Grant to Costco for a new battery, go pick the girls up from school, and that night was open house at Brenna's school. They do open house a couple days after school starts, and the teachers go over policies, etc. and meet everyone. This year they were doing presentations by grade level in the cafeteria (lovely, sounds great, doesn't it? sitting in chairs listening to a presentation with my 3 and 4 year old?). I managed to beg her teacher for the handout they were going to discuss (I can read, thankyouverymuch), because Grant would NOT have sat through another presentation (we had gone to the Gifted teacher's presentation earlier). He didn't really sit through that one, either. Plus we still had to go across town and pick up my husband from work. We went and picked him up (kids bickering the whole way - I hate how they all sit next to each other in the truck and hate getting them in and out also), then came home and got the new battery in the van.
Whew. Lastly, things are going well for dh and his job. He works on the virtual towers (project management, etc.), which may be featured on 60 minutes soon. They've been out to the tower sites a couple of times now. He has been playing bass and guitar in a band at a local church during the service a couple times a month. One of his friends has a job there and plays drums, so that's how he got involved.
And I think that novella about sums it up. :)