Another school year. I was not ready! I wanted at least another three months of summer break. I did not want to turn my boys over to the school district for ten months. I want them to be mine. But, I also want them to learn and be successful so another first day of school . . . here we go.
I have four boys going to school. Four boys who leave at four different times, take four different routes in four different vehicles and get home at four different times. After doing the schedule for a couple of weeks now, I find that I actually like it this way. It gives me personal time with each boy as he gets home from school to really focus on him, his feelings, his homework, and his day.
Derek chose to do early morning seminary (not early-morning like real early-morning seminary, but zero hour) so that he could get more credits in and take the Environment Solutions class that he wanted.
So, Derek warms up the teenager car and leaves at 7am.
As a junior this year he is excited about the new changes. He drives, he dates, he has great friends, he loves his tough classes, he jams on the cello, he quotes scripture from seminary and he just seems really confident and happy with this school year. After doing two weeks of school he came home on a Friday and whined, "why do I have to wait two whole days before I can go back?" I just stared at him. I had no comeback for that.
Justin is not as thrilled about 8th grade as Derek is about high school but he was still happy to return to school. Mostly for the social life and the fact that it meant a daily gymnastics schedule to go with it. He does well in school, he just doesn't love it. He's always quick to get his assignments done and it comes fairly easy to him and he maintains good grades but
his passion is at the gym.
He leaves at 8:15, taking the bus. Some mornings he finds it quite unfair that he has to be up at 6:15 for scriptures but he doesn't complain about it when he is dishing up his breakfast or when he gets to go back to bed for another thirty minutes, which still gives him enough time to do his violin and shower before school.
Doing a handstand while waiting for the bus.
Nathan spent most of the summer counting down the days until first grade by marking off the days on his calendar. He couldn't wait to go all day and have lunch at the school and ride the bus to and from school.
Our neighborhood has a back-to-school breakfast where each family contributes food, drinks or paper products (based on which street we live on) so that all the kids can meet up for breakfast and then get on the bus together. Nathan wasn't quite awake for it and was a bit emotional simply from being up so early. His spark of excitement for first grade and the boys that he ate with got him through that first morning.
He wouldn't let me take any individual pictures of him so I did my best to sneak a couple of breakfast shots.
The only thing Nathan wasn't quite ready for was the early hour that his day would have to start. We tried getting him up for scriptures for a few days but it just didn't work well for him. Just like Levi, he has to have his sleep. He would cry at nearly everything, missed a day in the second week and slept almost the whole day. His emotions are just all over the place when he gets that tired. Levi struggled in a similar way so it wasn't hard to notice.
On Friday, the third morning of Nathan crying through the morning prayer, I gave him a big hug and offered to again walk him to the bus stop. After we hugged he looked at me with big tears in his beautiful blue eyes and said, "do you remember the blessing dad gave me last year before I started school? Maybe that would help me again this year". I couldn't believe that we had let that slip this year. We were so focused on getting the stuff ready for Erika's wedding party in the back yard and we were somewhat frazzled as a family after the trip to Colorado with the rush of school starting and playing catch-up with work that we had not even thought about our usual back to school traditions. Before he went back to school on the following Monday, LeRoy gave him a father's blessing. The things that were said in the blessing prompted us to make a few changes. I do scriptures with the little boys in the evening, letting Nathan sleep in as long as possible without making the morning too hectic. We also moved his bedtime to 7:30 and that seems to have helped. In his own prayers he asks that he will be "awake enough to learn and be happy". Now that we are a month into school I can say that he loves first grade and he loves his teacher.
Most of all he loves reading. Really reading, all by himself.
Nathan refuses to eat school lunch. We got a lunch calendar so that he could choose which days he wanted to eat school lunch and which days he would take a lunch but every day he wants a cold lunch. He probably has the oddest lunches in the whole school but he packs them himself (or at least tells me what he wants and I pack it). Even on pizza day (he loves pizza!) he will take his own lunch. Since I'm not overly fond of what the schools serve for lunch, I'm happy to send him a lunch from home and I'm happy that it is so healthy. He usually has tomatoes or cucumbers or celery, peaches or pears or applesauce, a cheese stick, a sandwich or quesadilla and always water. He informed me (and I got a note from the teacher) about one of his classmates who has a severe peanut allergy. Nathan always checks to make sure there is nothing with peanuts in his lunch. No peanut butter sandwich, peanut butter crackers peanut butter on celery and not even trail mix. He is afraid that it will kill his friend. I'm so proud of him for being thoughtful about it instead of complaining that he can't take some of his favorites for lunch.
Hyrum was ready for preschool two years ago when Nathan had it. Well, he was ready to go, not necessarily ready. He started a week after the other kids started school and it about drove him (and me) crazy. He would lay his clothes out each night just like Nathan did. He would be up, eat his breakfast, get dressed without being told, brush his teeth and be ready to leave at the same time Nathan was. And then he would pout and sometimes cry when he didn't get to go. FINALLY, the first day of preschool came! He was all smiles and so happy to go again the next day. Really big, sobbing tears came when I told him that he only had school on Mondays and Fridays. Life is just not fair when you are four!
We were so excited for Hyrum to learn the alphabet!
He came home singing the entire alphabet song after two and a half hours of preschool. I asked him how he learned it so fast because he would NEVER sing it for us, wouldn't even try, would start saying numbers instead of letters. His reply? "I always knewd it, I just like trickin' ya". Little Stinker!
He still loves to spend time doing his own hair and I could not refuse him on a school morning. He was so proud of his mohawk and yes, I let him wear it to school. Not only did his hair stay up for school but it stayed up the entire day. I have no idea what product he used on it since there is only gel and hair spray in that bathroom but whatever the combination (or amount), it worked.
1 comment:
Such handsome boys!
Love Justin's black & white handstand picture.
Glad to hear Nathan is doing better. Last we talked he had just asked for the blessing. Guess we didn't talk about the results of it.
Your little Hyrum is so sweet. His smile! And his voice. I mean it in a totally good way when I say that he seems younger than Max somehow. He seems to still have a bit of that baby that makes me just want to cuddle him.
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