The End of School and the Start of School

I kind of forgot all about our poor, little blog this summer.  Now it’s catch-up time yet again.

The new school year has started and I haven’t even posted about the end of the last year.  Here we go.

During kindergarten Caroline got this piggy hat at the dentist.  The day before picture day.  She was determined to wear it to school for her picture:

I did not allow that to happen.

Last day of second grade for Brooke:

Last day of kindergarten for Caroline:

Caroline’s class had a graduation performance that we got to see.  Caroline with her cute teacher:

Our future kindergarten graduate:

Before we knew it, school was starting again!  The Saturday before school started Brooke got in a panic because we hadn’t been shopping for new clothes.  I took her to Target and she fell in love with this shirt because “it will give me ideas about science experiments to do.”

A couple of days before school started I had a little chat with Brooke.  Last year she complained that she never got to decide what to do; I always dictated every moment of her days telling her when to do homework and when to do chores and when to go to bed.  Over the summer I started giving Brooke piano lessons so that’s one more thing to add into our day.  I told Brooke I wanted her to feel like she has control over her day so she can decide when to do certain things.  I asked her when she wanted to practice the piano.  We talked about how she could do it before school but that would mean she would have to practice before playing in the morning.  She decided she liked that idea.  Then I said that now we needed to figure out a good time to do homework.  She sighed, looked up at me with somber eyes and said, “You’re really serious about this, aren’t you.”

I’m pleased to report she practiced the piano before school every day last week.  Homework starts this week, so we’ll see if she works that into her routine just as seamlessly.

As summer was wrapping up Caroline would occasionally express concern about having to go to school ALL day because “I’ll have to be quiet and listen for SO LONG!”  Funny how my kid who is so good at being quiet and listening would be nervous about that when guaranteed the kids who NEED to be worried about listening aren’t.

Last year I used to pick up Caroline at lunch time after kindergarten.  This year we talked about how Caroline would now finish at the same time as Brooke so we arranged a place at the school where they could meet up to scooter home together.  Brooke usually speeds home as quickly as possible and is always the first kid I see coming home.  Some of the other kids on our street don’t straggle home until a full thirty minutes after Brooke has made it here.  Just as I expected, Brooke did not like the idea of having to wait for Caroline.  I proposed that they wait for each other by the crossing guard before crossing the street.  Brooke said, “How about this.  I’ll just meet up with Caroline at home.”

Spencer and Madison and I walked/scootered/strollered to school with the big girls:

While the girls are away, Spencer will secretly play with their forbidden Legos:

I think Brooke and Caroline have had a good start to the year.  They seem to like their teachers though Brooke has said, “I can’t really understand my French teacher so I just stopped listening to him.”  Granted, her teacher speaks French with a different accent than her other French teachers have had (I think he’s from New Guinea as opposed to France) so there is good reason she’s having a harder time understanding him…but I hope she learns to tune him back in soon…

Spencer, Madison, and I are enjoying ourselves as well.  I almost look forward to grocery shopping now that I only have to take half my kids.  Poor Spencer has lost all his playmates, though.  The neighborhood boys he plays with are all older and in school so he’s stuck at home all day with boring old me.  Luckily he starts joy school next week.  I hope that will be a good diversion for him.