2nd Grade with Mom

 

Teachers BIG helper!

Cooking her own eggs, with out help!

This past week I have seen several posts and blogs about their children’s first day back to school.  My heart has ached with each Mom as they send off their child to school.  I remember that feeling when I sent my oldest to Kindergarten.  I was so proud that she was old enough to be going to school; she walked in with no problems.  I had the problems, I left her and cried, and I couldn’t wait to pick her up again.  I worried if the teacher would love her, if she would make friends, if she would do well on her work.  Throughout the school year each day was easier…until she broke her leg and I felt like I was starting over. Would she be accepted in a wheelchair, who would help her to the bathroom (thankfully Kindergarten was short), would her friends still play with her?  Thankfully I trusted the teacher, and she became very popular with all the kids, they all wanted to push her around.   As her leg healed and her cast got shorter she was getting in and out of her wheelchair and getting around by herself.  Watching her walk again after 9 weeks of being in a wheel chair reminded me of her first steps, I was so proud of her.  Those were some tough weeks; she went for being totally independent to totally dependant on me.  I LOVED spending more time with her, taking care of her and then watching her gain her independence again was bitter sweet.

That was my turning point, when I realized that I wanted more time with my child.  Even though I helped every Friday for 2 hrs in her class and served on the PTA (a little) I didn’t know what she was learning, I didn’t feel a part of her education.  The teacher and Mom inside me became the same person. (That is a whole different story.)

We homeschooled first grade and LOVED it.  Sam is an A type of person, she LOVES school, loves doing worksheets, playing games and doing crafts (she didn’t get that from me, I do not do crafts).  We had good days and bad days; we had easy days and hard days.  She went on field trips, mostly with her cousin, thank you Celest, because I was teaching every day.  We did school before preschool, at lunchtime, after pres-school, on weekends, & holidays, whenever we could.  Some days we didn’t even do school (gasp!).   She helped me in the preschool and learned how to talk softly to the children.  It doesn’t surprise me that she wants to be a teacher when she grows up, though she can’t decide if she’ll be a dance teacher, a swim teacher or maybe a singing teacher.

This year as I read the posts I am grateful for being called to home school my children.  I know that my children will be loved by their teacher, I know what they are doing in school, how to help them & what to teach them.  I don’t have all the answers but I know with the Lord’s help I can do it.  Homeschooling isn’t for everyone, but I’m grateful it’s for me.

First Day of Preschool

 

"I didn't do it!

"Honest Mom, I am telling the truth."

My Little Man is hopefully going to do preschool this year, we’ll see. Last year he was my worst student, if I could’ve kicked him out, I would’ve. He interrupted me during story time, he does not sit on the floor with the kids, and he rarely did any type of coloring, cutting or project. He wanted to play with the toys instead of do his work. He did like play time & snack time. Honestly most days I would have him watch Letter Factory or one of the other great Leap Frog videos. Thankfully he played with his favorite friend Turner a lot, so he would only be around for 1 preschool class (THANK YOU JENNY). I LOVE him, but he is a little boy who is very active, loud, silly, mischievous, curious, short tempered, short attention span (unless he’s playing with something that has wheels). Thankfully he is GREAT at church (if I’m not around) and at friend’s houses. T.J. is also so loveable and so sweet. His favorite part of the nighttime routine is cuddling. It is not enough to read a story, he wants to cuddle, sing and just be together. When we watch a movie together he wants to be on my lap, at church he sits on my lap, at soccer games, he sits on my lap. He did great when we did a little homeschooling during the summer. He LOVED sitting on my lap while we practiced the letters and sounds. Ask him what the 5 vowels are and he’ll start singing them. I learned this summer he LOVES music, he is always singing, even in time out he’ll be singing about it. He can cut and do worksheets but would much rather play. He is smart and is learning, but he is more of a hands-on, movement person. The few times he did sing with us during preschool he was standing behind the kids dancing while singing. I didn’t realized he liked dancing, I learned that this Summer when his sister taught a beginners dance/movement class (another great story). He is NOT a sit down, be quite type of student. Is that bad? Would a teacher accept him for who he is? Would he always be in trouble at school? I don’t know, but I do know that he will do great at home, even if he pushes my patience to the limit. This year I don’t know if he’ll attend preschool or not, does it matter? The teacher in me says YES, the Mom in me says NO. If he were going to public school I would push him to conform to help him with the school system. But why should he conform, he’s staying home with me and he’ll be learning while sitting on my lap, what teacher has the time to do that? Thankfully I am planning on doing just that and I will love the closeness, because I am sure someday he will no longer want to sit on my lap *I wrote the above before preschool started and I must admit he did well on his first day of preschool. He actually sat on the floor, of course he HAD to sit by his friend and his cousin but he actually sat on the floor and was with us the whole afternoon. He did disappear for a little while near the end of preschool, I think he wandered upstairs and watched T.V. for a couple min. but he wasn’t gone for long. I was very proud of him and I’m hopeful this will last, but expect we will continue to have good and bad moments.