School Daze

So obviously with the kids in school, things have been a little hectic as evidenced by my lack of blogging. This is what I have to say about our new schedule and how the kids are doing:

Jake - Jake really seems to like kindergarten.He has implied that it is a lot of go to school for 5 hours a day 5 days a week, sometimes asking how many more days he has before he gets a day off but he gets up and ready without a problem and has not whined or complained in the morning when I drop him off. It is a little hard to get information from him about what he does at school, which makes it even more important that I volunteer in the classroom to get an idea of his day, his teacher and his classmates. I have already been told that Jake is far advanced in mathematics and he earns goldfish crackers as a reward for successfully completing math sentences in class. They are also working on emerging reading skills including recognizing words that rhythm and this seems to give Jake a little bit of a harder time but when I catch him at the right time of day, he is open to my help and eager to learn. I think it is pretty normal for a boy of his age to prefer math and struggle a little with reading.

Other than that, I know that he usually plays with blocks and shapes during free exploration time, rarely choosing the computer games (which surprised me) and that his favorite activity during recess is riding the tricycles around the track. He gets real excited when he finds the one that supposedly goes faster than the others so he can zoom around and around. I also know that he has been eating his lunch really well (he does save one of the cookies for Jadyn every day) and using the bathroom by himself without a problem. It just makes him seem so grown up!

I also get a daily report about which kids have caused trouble. He has nicknamed one classmate "the bad girl" and tells me exactly how many times she had to sit off by herself on any given day. I have made sure to learn her name so I can correct Jake when he calls her "the bad girl" at home but secretly I have to giggle because it is kind of funny. On more than one occasion Jake has came home and said some phrases that I do not personally find acceptable. I have learned to react calmly, tell him why I don't like the particular phrase and offer him an alternative but none of them have been flat out curse words.

Jadyn - My little girl cracks me up! Here I thought that she was going to have trouble adjusting and she has just flourished at preschool. She is so excited on the days she has school and has insisted on bringing in her backpack every day (even though there is nothing in it). When I pick her up she is bright and sunshiny and ready to tell me about the pictures she colored and what she did while at school. Unlike Jake who had a stock answer of "I play, I color, I eat snack, I sing, I dance", Jadyn rattles off every little detail about her day she can remember including what toys she played (her favorite is the Little People farm) and with whom (Hayden and Sariah seem to be her closest buddies), which teacher pushed her on the swing at recces, which songs she loves to dance to (the train song) and which ones she doesn't like to sing (Itsy Bitsy spider) and what she ate for snack that day (loves oranges but not apples).

Me - I love that we fallen into a routine and find that our days are much more structured and productive but I secretly wish I had just a little more time to myself. In the end, if I volunteer in Jake's class on Tuesdays then I get about 2 1/2 hours to myself on Thursdays, which I have used to take on more work and have almost been able to double my paychecks. While that is great, I really wanted more time to do personal projects like working on blog books and scrapbooking. On Mon/Wed/Fri after we take Jake to school, Jadyn and I go to the park and after my 3 mile walk, she plays for awhile. It has been awesome to have a consistent routine for working out and a great way to ensure quality time with Jadyn. She has been so good about helping out, whether I am grocery shopping, doing laundry or emptying the dishwasher. I am very proud of her. After we pick up Jake, a typical afternoon consists of quiet time (Jake decompresses with some video game time), a board game or two, time outside, homework while I prepare dinner, bath and bedtime routine. The days go by so fast!

I was originally kind of bummed that our city has a much shorter soccer season than the neighboring town but honestly, now I am kind of glad because I am not sure I would have wanted to be going back and forth to the park for practices and games while adjusting to the new school routine too. This Saturday is Jake's meet the team and scrimmage to kick off the season and I can only hope he doesn't have all 8am games like he did last year because then Sunday will officially become our only day to sleep in (not that I ever do but I like the idea of staying in my PJs and being kind of lazy).

Well, there you have it. I have talking about doing a post like this and now that I have, it seems kind of boring but I guess it will be good to have it written down for posterity sake later on. We had a few days this week where the mornings were nice and cool and it was a nice preview of what is to come with fall around the corner. But wait, there is something we did not see much of this summer....... Can you guess what it is?