Reality and Schedule Are Setting In

You guys will be so proud of me.  After my whiny post last week about not being ready for school to start again, I've put on my big girl panties and actually faced reality!  My calendar is updated, my email inbox is cleaned out for the first time in probably 8 or 9 months, and I've even rolled out of bed a couple times this week before 8am!!  But still, nobody point out the reality that I have to pack 15 lunches next week.  I'll do it and perhaps even include a lunchbox note complete with a joke, let's just not think too much about it, mkay?

_________________________

 

Our 4 year old Little Girl is playing on a soccer team for the first time this fall.  She had her first practice this week.  I walked her up to her coach to introduce her, after we'd told the coach her name and he told her his, I said to Little Girl, "He's going to teach you how to play soccer."  To which she loudly, confidently replied to me and her coach, "I already know how to play soccer!"

Overconfident, much?

Here she is in all her humbleness:

('course she's not wearing the soccer shirt she really wanted!)

She ran and kicked and ran some more for the 1 hour practice (they had 6 or 7 water breaks during that 1 hour) and when the practice was over and the coach told the kids they could go, she ran over to me and asked loudly, "Do I get a trophy?!!"  I'm thinking maybe somewhere along the way in our talking about soccer she missed that it was more than one event, but rather a season that lasted a couple months?!!  Anyway, she puts in 60 minutes of practice and is like, "Where is my trophy?"!  To her question, "Do I get a trophy?"  I was like, "Um, not for that!  But, at the end of the season after several practices and games, then you will get a trophy."  You gotta work for it Big Stuff!

_________________________

Today we had Meet-the-Teacher at the elementary school and once again we are so blessed that all 3 of my elementary aged kids have phenomenal teachers!  One was even a finalist for teacher of the year for our entire super large school district last year!  I realize my "Letter To My Children As They Head Back to School" post from yesterday may make it sound like I send my kids to a minefield every day and in many ways elementary school today is a minefield of sorts.  But, I am so thankful for the tremendous teachers and leadership at our particular public elementary school and they work very hard to make the school atmosphere pretty great!

_________________________

Speaking of schooling, this article on "Homeschooling Your Public School Kids" is a good read.  It describes a concept that we strive for in our home with our kids who go to public school.

_________________________

My poor 3rd child is six and between Mother's Day Out when he was two and then 2 years of preschool and kindergarten, so 4 different years of school, he's ALWAYS had a teacher that either his older brother or older sister or both had.  

I thought this year, his 1st grade year, was the year he would finally not have a teacher one of his siblings had because the 1st grade teacher my older son had retired and so did the 1st grade teacher my daughter had.  

But, today when we went up to see the class lists we were surprised to see that the teacher my older son had for 3rd grade had moved to 1st grade and she is going to be my younger son's teacher!  I am thrilled!  She is a great, very sweet teacher and is actually one of my older son's favorite teachers ever.  Thankfully my 3rd child doesn't seem to care that he's living in the shadow of his older siblings, and as I've told him before, "Be glad your big brother and big sister are good kids that teachers like so they don't start you off with a bad reputation just by being their little brother!"

_________________________

 Happy Friday Friends!  I am celebrating our last official day of summer break by taking all 4 kids to the dentist for cleanings -- fun times!!  Try to contain your jealousy!

Find more Friday Fragments here.