school things...

School stuff is out at Target already, and I refuse to go to that corner of the store.  Seems WAY too early!  Although I know the rest of the summer will fly faster than I am ready for.  So maybe I should post about a few school things from last year before the new one creeps up on me...

OK, for posterity, I have to tell you how a PBS show that saved my sanity this past year.  With G going to school every day, and having a bit more homework, we had to figure out how to squeeze play, homework (for first grade homework every week G had spelling words, memory verse and then just needed to read read read), and normal daily life into those few hours from after we get home from school until bed.

We first said no tv during the week.  At least take that out of the mix.  We then said no to errand running/visiting other people's houses as we found a few times that we tried to go to someone's house after school (or a big Target run), we wouldn't get school things done and everyone would be overtired and bedtime would be crazy awful.  (an aside, after we settled into somewhat of a routine, this no going anywhere "fun" during the week got everyone crabby so we started Fun Fridays, which is a whole 'nother post in and of itself)

We knew we wanted to make sure schoolwork was done, so at first we tried doing homework right away after getting home from school.  That didn't work - G needed to unwind and play right after school otherwise the tears and frustration came out way too early.  So then we tried letting them all play until supper and then doing homework afterwards.  This did not work on my end as there were too many times that supper got delayed for whatever reason and then we were frantically trying to do schoolwork before bed and tears and frustration came out from everyone at that time of the day.  So then we tried letting them play for a while after school and sitting down to do homework before supper.  This brought out fussing and more fussing because who wants to stop playing to do school stuff when she had already been at school all day!  There were many days in these trial shots that we would all get frustrated and I would throw my hands up and set them in front of a video just to reset everyone, including me.

I then read a book called Steady Days which talks a lot about being an enthusiastic mom at home and also routines.  They had example routines in an appendix and I was just going to flip by them because as much as I know routines are good, I sometimes feel defensive and cramped in when told to make or follow them.  But the routine I flipped by happened to have a school aged child and a toddler so I looked.  And low and behold after school there was 30 minutes of tv time.  GASP!  These kind of books never have tv time in them!  Good mothers don't let their kids watch tv!  GASP GASP!  (OK, by the way I don't believe that at all, we regularly watch kids shows and videos in moderation, but most "mothering" books that I have read seem to believe that screens are evil.)  But that got me thinking that maybe the only reason we said no to the tv was because someone else said that is what we should do and maybe we needed re-evaluate.  Thus we came to the "routine" that worked for us:

• we came home from school, G unpacked her bag and took care of her things and I got a snack for everyone
• the kids played or did whatever until 5:00pm
• at 5 they could watch the PBS kids show "Wild Kratts" (we liked this because they never complained about stopping play to watch tv, and this show has a lot of animal information and the kids actually learned a lot, plus it gave me a half hour to take care of H or start on supper)
• at 5:30 they turned the tv off, NO FUSSING (if they fussed, they couldn't watch tv tomorrow)
• then it was chore and homework time (I would have the boys pick up some toys, and G would sit at the island in the kitchen and read out loud to me, or look at her spelling words, or her memory verse, while I finished up supper) with the same NO FUSSING rule
• we then ate supper and could relax afterwards before bed

The PBS show provided the relaxing fun downtime the kids needed, and provided a great demarcation line for playing and getting homework and daily chores done without all the fussing and drama.  Who knows if the same routine will work this year with W being in school too (PBS is known to change their schedule, I don't know if I can help 2 kids with homework and make supper in a decent amount of time so we are not eating at 8, and there is still C&H to help and take care of too!), but I know that we'll figure out something that will work for us, and hopefully quicker and with less tears than we did last year!

That right there is probably enough for a blog post in and of itself, but during the month of May and the last week of school in June we had the opportunity to do a lot of things with G school-related so I am going to share those here too.
 

G's class had a Family Afternoon where we could come and see some of the things they had been working hard on all year.  We got to visit the library where G read us one of her favorite classroom books. 

We also got to spend a lot of time in the classroom and listen to Mrs. H talk about their year and things they had learned as well as play some math games and look at their animal projects.  Fun afternoon for all of us!

I also got the opportunity to go on a field trip with G's class in May to the Bell History Museum.  It was a short afternoon trip so our neighbor Mrs. L helped me out and watched all the boys so I could go (Thanks!!!)

May also brought the end of the year music program which Mrs. L was able to attend with us. (hear a song here!)

Then during the last week, the school had a field day where they split up into teams, played all sorts of games, had fun with some bouncy castles, got pizza for lunch and popsicles (the fancy kind!) at the end of the day.  W and I (and H =) got to go too as they invited next year's kindergartener's to come and play in the bouncy castles and watch the field games.

One of the teachers told me a story about G from that day.  The teams also had to come up with cheers, and G was on the pink team.  They were trying to think of some rhymes with pink and one of the 8th graders said "pink pink we are pink you all stink" and G looked at her and said "we shouldn't say you stink, that isn't very nice"  And the 8th grader looked surprised, said ok, and they changed it.  The teacher was touched by G's ability to stand up to an 8th grader and voice what she thought was right.  She told me that she hoped G would be able to continue that as she meets more challenges in life.  I sure hope so too!!!  They had beautiful weather and a great time together as a student body outside of the classroom.  These are the days that they are going to remember when they grow up...