Back to School!

Random thought about the back-to-school scene: * First grade can be a hard transition. Last year, Joey had a particularly tough time, and this year it's Michael. Going from half-days to all-days at school is hard; it's physically and mentally demanding. * I love not having a kindergartner this year! Two years in a row were enough. That 11:30 pick-up is just a pain; I have four preschoolers this year but feel so free not being tied to that schedule. I took them all up to Salt Lake to the Tracy Aviary on Thursday, mostly just because I could. Trips last year had to be well-timed because of that darn 11:30 pick-up. * There's something about having all one gender at home during the day. I'm still so excited about having four little girls in a row. * I am totally not cut out for the yearbook committee chair position, mostly because I feel so self-conscious snapping pictures all over the school. I feel like I should really apologize and ask permission before I just go snapping that camera in a teacher's face. But I snap away anyway and mumble something about "just getting some pictures for the yearbook" as I beat a hasty retreat. * At least I'm not the sole chair this year; my friend Wendy is co-chair with me. Considering she has a lot more talent and patience for creating the pages than I do, I think it's a great fit. * Our school expanded its time by 15 minutes, getting out this year at 3:15 instead of 3:00. There better be a really good reason they are taking my children for an extra 15 minutes. Luckily, we live close by and the kids get home by 3:30, but still, by the time they get home, do their homework and chores, have dinner and do whatever other activities there might be, there's not a lot of time left to just be a kid. * Which makes me feel guilty about making the kids do chores in addition to going to school. But not guilty enough that they get to stop doing them. * I was looking through Michael's scholastic book order and a group of "Biscuit" books caught my eye. They were easy readers and reasonably priced and I was thinking about buying them until I read the sample page they presented. The words on the page were: "Biscuit wants to go to school. Woof, woof!" I guess I'm a book snob, but I refuse to buy any books that include the words, "woof, woof" in them. * The best way to get homework done and out of the way is to make the kids do it right when they get home. Luckily, it's second nature for my kids; they get home and head to the kitchen table, dropping shoes, coats, belts, backpacks, and lunch bags along the way. Seriously, even though the front door is just steps from the mud room, it would probably take too much time and effort to actually walk in there and put those things away. Then again, the trail they make to the kitchen table is probably serving some psychological Hansel-and-Gretel-bread-crumbs-type-need, because it would be pretty sad if they couldn't find their way to the front door again; maybe they'd be stuck at that kitchen table doing homework forever. * My child's teacher sends home notes telling us that their book report must be "at there level." Her weekly newsletters are similarly full of grammer and spelling errors. DH says I should correct the mistakes and send the notes back to school. Somehow, I don't think that would be the perfect way to develop a great parent-teacher relationship! * The lists of supplies my children were requested to bring to school was a mile long this year. I filled up each of their backpacks with things we had on hand, but as a silent protest, I refused to go out and buy dry erase markers.

Comments

Good for you! Our first graders teacher wanted 2 dry erase markers per month of school. That's 16 markers for the year, multiplied by 25 kids is 400 dry erase markers! Is it just me, or is that more than enough for the WHOLE SCHOOL??? I sent two. That was my protest. :)
Wendy said…
Hey Christina, I hear you on all those points, just about. I especially am quite puzzled about the "book report" -- my 4th grader isn't as good at reading as most of the other kids -- but yeah, what the heck kind of report ruberic is that?? I still think I'm not cut out for the whole "yearbook thing" I'm thinking that I just might not do it next year. Who knows?? We'll see what kind of "CRAP" we get this year huh?? I think I too.. look forward to the first days of school but then the whole routine that comes with it -- I could rather do without. This just sparked an entry I think I'll post on my own blog. Well at least you don't have a Kinder this year.