Wednesday, August 27, 2008

first day of school

Well, the highly anticipated first day of school went fairly well for just about all of us!

Sarah was thrilled last week to find out that she had gotten the teacher that she wanted, Mr. Lohmeier. She had such a bad year in 1st grade that she went from loving school to hating it. Now that she has Mr. Lohmeier, the excitement for school has returned. She took him in a gift (coffee mug & Starbucks card). She reported back that he was pleased with the gift and gave her a big hug. I received a thank you email from the teacher later last night. In the email he commented on Sarah's humor and remarked that she needed to remember to raise her hand and not talk to friends. Let's hope she gets that in check soon so that she doesn't get in trouble the first week of school!

Megan (Pat reported) was pleasant and easy getting ready in the morning. All things changed when it was time to actually go in the building. Ever since Emma was born (and probably for a few months before) Megan has been telling us that she hates school. To be honest, I don't blame her a whole lot. She has had a revolving door of teachers and the substitutes have not been very pleasant. I often wonder why these people got into the profession of preschool teacher if they don't like kids? Well, Pat had to literally push her through the doors of the daycare and he left her crying. When I picked her up in the afternoon, she was fine (of course). I also had a chance to meet the new teacher that was hired as as a permanent fixture in the classroom for the 10:30 -6:30 shift. This woman actually has a BA in education and 20 yrs experience in childcare. Lets hope that she can get Megan back on track at school!

Emma did well for Pat on his first "gotta get out of the house on time" day. She fussed a little but was calmed down by sitting in her car seat with Sarah on the front porch. I hope she settles down before the weather turns cold!

The afternoon was a different story. We were all tired and cranky. Sarah was exhausted and Emma was recovering from her latest round of vaccinations. Pat had to work late, and it nearly killed me! My poor parents arrived at our house to drop off Megan's booster seat at 7pm and I still hadn't gotten dinner on the table, Emma was fussing, and the house looked like a disaster area!

I guess it will take us all a while to settle into a good routine. I just hope it doesn't kill me in the process!!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh, it wasn't that long ago that I was trying to get out the door with 3 little ones in the morning. It gets easier! Mine are now 3rd grade, kindergarten and preschool, and it's MUCH more reasonable, but I remember well the kinder, young preschool, and BABY days.

And I was a counselor for years too (re: your twitter comment) so I know their job...but I think it makes me even LESS patient, because I KNOW they know what they are doing when they put the 37th (for real!) student in my inclusion class on Friday. At the high school where I worked as a counselor for years we had a cap on our software where we COULDN'T put more than 30 students in a class - the computer literally wouldn't let us. Apparently there is no such cap here. sigh.

Sue said...

THankfully (for me), my husband has the job of trying to get out the door everymorning. My duty time starts at 7:10. It is good to know that it does get easier!

My school uses a computer program that caps classes at 32. English is sacred and gets capped at 28, inclusion is supposed to be smaller than that. What kills me is that we have the same problems every year that you are having (maybe not so extreme), but it is because the administrator that created the master schedule made an error that gives us no choice but to overload a class. It is very frustrating!