Back to School!

It's the beginning of August and I have both of my big boys back to school now!!

 

Ethan started kindergarten (!!!!) back in July at a nearby year-round "school of choice." It's a math and science signature school - perfect for our little future engineer! We were extremely lucky that he was picked in the lottery for one of just 18 slots (from a field of ~300+ applicants). He has been loving his classes, which makes us happy, too! It's been an adjustment for all of us moving their schedule and going all day without a nap for him (as you can see in the pic below - some days he needs to catch some winks on the drive home)! ;) It's definitely a commitment with the commute to school, but it hasn't been too bad. Before the other schools were back in session, it was a pretty easy drive. With the increased traffic now, we've had to take an alternate back-roads route which has added some time to the commute, but it's a 25+ minutes well-spent.

Ethan has been busy at school learning all kinds of new things already, including Chinese (!!!), all about the 5 senses, handwriting, reading/recognizing and spelling words, working on the computers, about being responsible and respectful, and the pledge of allegiance... :)

He also really likes Fridays. He gets to do his "show and tell" every week on Fridays, along with buy an ice cream treat in the cafeteria. ;) He's always sure to remind me when it's Friday, so I remember to put his money in his lunchbox! LOL! It should be a fun year of school for him and we're excited to see how much he'll learn and grow this year as a kindergartener! We've already attended his open house where we were able to meet all of his teachers and see some of what he's been doing already this year!

Kindergarten open house (showing us his handwriting book, picture he painted, bulletin board pic of him working on engineering project, pic with the school sign, and his pictionary book)

Noah started preschool on Thursday. This is his 2nd year going to a local church preschool program for two days/week. He had a good time last year and was very excited to be returning this year. :) This year the school is offering extended care, during which time they can take a nap, have a snack and play a little longer with their friends. We decided to do this since it would work better with our new schedule this year. Instead of being done at 1:30 like last year, he'll stay until 3:30 pm. Since I have to pick Ethan up at 3, I didn't want to have to try to kill 1.5 hours with Amos and (most likely) a very tired Noah. This also allows Amos to get a full nap at the house, too, instead of needing to wake him up early to be able to pick Noah up! So, I'd call that a win-win-win! :) So, Noah is supposed to take his nap at school, which unfortunately didn't happen his first day, as he passed out nearly immediately in the car. Haha! Hopefully this week he will nap without a problem, once he gets used to it all.

He has grown so much since last year, when he still clung to me, and didn't always want to leave the van in the morning. This year, he's ready to play, and has no problems leaving me! :/ It's crazy how fast they grow up and are ready to go out into the world!! Sigh. I hope he'll be able to make some good friends this year and enjoy his time playing with other kids his age. The downside to having an older brother is that he is normally taking orders from Ethan all the time at home, so I hope he'll get a chance to do some of the leading at school for a change! ;)

"You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any directions you choose." -- Dr. Seuss