Back to School 2011

Here comes trouble! They are so cute!

First full day for Lily. Erik's an old pro at this school thing.

This year all our kids are attending the same school. Erik started 2nd grade on Monday, August 15. Lily started kindergarten on Wednesday, August 17, but only went for half of the day. Her first full day of school was Thursday the 18th. They both love their teachers, eating hot lunch and riding the bus. We qualified for reduced lunch again so it makes it nice and easy in the mornings since I don't have to pack lunches.

Mrs. O'Hara's class waiting to go in on the first day.

Lily is going to kindergarten full days, so she comes home a bit tired and cranky. We have implemented a 20 minute quiet time for both kids when they get home. This seems to help them calm down and not be quite so grumpy. Erik's teacher told me he's doing great. Lily has already been in trouble for spitting and grabbing other kids. She had to sit on the wall at recess and miss choice time. Her teacher told me she was pretty upset. I hope she doesn't have this happen too many times before her behavior changes. These are the kinds of behaviors we are trying to eliminate at home as well....we just haven't had a lot of luck figuring out how. We've tried many different reward and consequence systems. Still using trial and error to find one that works. Lily's teacher did tell me she is so bright and she's hoping she'll realize she doesn't need to act the way she is, but can just use her words. We're crossing our fingers that will work too.

Drew started preschool the day after he turned 3. There are only 6 kids in his class, and 3 teachers. I like that ratio! He was a bit unsure the first day and I had to stay for about 30 minutes until they had free play. The next couple days he didn't need me to stay at all! He loves school!! He works with the speech therapist twice a week for a bit. We are hoping that being around peers his age will help him learn to talk more quickly than if he were just around us all day. He's already trying to say quite a few new words....a lot of them just sound the same. He likes to leave off beginning and end consonants, so we get a lot of vowel sounds. Luckily he has started using hand motions and gestures to help us know what he wants.

Drew's first day of preschool.

We're hoping all the kids continue to enjoy school and their teachers as well as learn new things, both academically and socially. They are growing up so fast!