Big School

This week I have sent two of my children to "big school" for the first time. Amelia has started kindergarten and Lane has started pre-K at Williams Elementary School. You may remember my quandry about public vs. private/home school earlier in the year. My heart was feeling a peace about sending Amelia to public school for some unexplainable reason-I had been leaning against public school for the few previous years. Thank goodness my heart went that way because the other school option ended up falling through anyway, at least for this year.

So everyone asked me, "did you cry to send her to kindergarten?" and with that answer being a big fat "no" came so many emotions. Why didn't I feel sad? What's wrong with me? Where is that mommy gene? But honestly, Amelia was so excited. She was jumping up and down the night before singing, "I am so excited I get to go to kindergarten tomorrow!" The morning of, she was up, fed, and dressed by 7:15 and we didn't need to leave until 8. I was so filled with excitment for her. I quieted that guilty voice inside me that wants to make me feel like less of a mom because I didn't cry by explaining that I wasn't void of emotion or sentiment-I was just feeling the excitement she felt.

Lane is another story. Most of the time I feel really confident about my decision to send him to school this year. I weighed all the options heavily and felt like I made the best decision for him and for our family. Initially, I was just going to send him to a regular preschool three mornings a week, like I did with Amelia at this age. After last year, I wasn't sure how I was going to juggle this with his speech therapy schedule. He would have needed to be up at the elementary school three times a week for outpatient therapy. By the time you add that with three days of preschool and kindergarten pick up and drop off, I may as well have never gotten out of my car all day. I just felt like that wasn't the best time spent with any child. Sending Lane to Williams, allows him to be in a preschool program where he will be getting his speech therapy at the same time. Not to mention it's free. And that makes the time I have with Owen at home each day valuable rather than a non-stop taxi ride. There were other things I weighed also, like knowing that Lane's teacher is absolutely fabulous. That voice does creep in a couple times a day, "I can't believe you are sending your 3 year old to school for a full day!" But for now I have to go with the decision I made and try to keep that voice at bay.

The last three days of school have already proven to be eventful. Amelia has already gotten her behavior clip moved from green to yellow. I guess we didn't even have a honeymoon period. It seems she has already become infatuated with this little boy Nicholas, who she wants to marry, and is found not following directions from the teacher because she is too busy vying for his attention. Mom does not find this cute or humorous, but very irritating that she is drawn to the people in class that are less than mild mannered. Why doesn't she come home talking about the sweet little Briley in her class that I'm sure wouldn't dare do anything to get her clip moved? Let's just hope this is a bumpy start and not a sign of what's to come!

I would post pictures of the first days of school but my Mac is down right now and it has all my pictures on it. I'll post some in a few days.