First Day of School

School started on August 20th and this year it seemed like it came way too fast. In some ways I was ready for the kids to go back but mostly I wasn't! Now that they've been in for 2 weeks, though, I'm glad they're back! My house stays cleaner for longer, its easier to run errands and bedtime is back to being at a normal hour! Here are Jack and Natalie on their first day! Brady didn't start until a week after the older kids!

Even though Brady could've started Kindergarten this year we decided to hold him back and have him do 1 more year of pre-school. His birthday is only a week before the cut off date so we thought it best that he be held back! We were able to get him enrolled in the pre-school through the elementary school the older kids go to, which at the time I enrolled him turned into a fight with the district. They didn't want him in because he could technically start Kindergarten and advised me to put him in Kindergarten and then hold him back to do another year if necessary. I said NO WAY, fought them on it and WON! Since the time I was notified that he would be allowed into pre-school at the elementary school last spring, we've been telling him that he would go to pre-school there every time we passed it. We even went twice before school started to meet his teacher and then have a more personal "get to know you" meeting with his teacher. Basically he knew that he would be going to school there! That's why it came as a surprise to me on the first day when he FREAKED OUT!

When we pulled up in the Van he started to cry and tell me that he was too little to go to the big school, that he wanted to go back to his little boy pre-school and that he wanted to be with Rylie (his cousin) and Amy (my cousin who taught him last year in pre-school). I, in turn, explained very patiently that he did not have a choice and that he would get out of the car and come with me into the school! I then had to literally drag him into the foyer of the school and listen to him wail and cry while all the other little pre-schoolers were perfectly excited and happy! He then told me that he was only a 5 boy and he wasn't big enough to go to school at the big school! This is when I peeled him off my leg, handed him to the teachers aid and sent him on his way crying! I figured he'd calm down faster once I was out of sight!

When I picked him up after school his teacher told me that it took him about 20 minutes to settle down and really start having fun. But he did tell her that he was feeling nervous and scared on the first day of school. Poor little guy!

And the district advised me in the midst of our fight last spring to start him in Kindergarten. HA!