School Update!

Lydia and I are really enjoying preschool!  It is so nice to look forward to "working".  I was fortunate to work with really great families when I was watching extra kids but I never really looked forward to having more kids to look after.  But I do look forward to our next preschool day.  We have been in school for 2 weeks so we have had 4 classes and its gone really smoothly. The kids are fun and get along really well so far.  They love the silly songs I sing and I have enjoyed preparing projects, and circle time lessons. I feel like my schedule is working well and am so excited for all the fun activities I have planned. I read a lot of preschool blogs to get ready to teach and a lot of them said to not bother with real cutesy themes the first weeks, but to focus on routines so I have but next week we are starting apples and we will then do more and more Fall stuff.  I can't wait.  We are just meeting on Tuesdays and Thursdays and at least twice a week Lydia asks if "today is a preschool day?" and is always disappointed when I tell her it is not. I am so glad she is enjoying it and that we can do it together.

Here are our first day of school pictures:

She was so cute! And looks so grown up.  I am so glad she is enjoying preschool.

 Jared seems to be doing fine at school. I don't think he loves it but he doesn't dread it either. Most day are a 7 or above when I ask him to rate it so that is good.  I think it is still just an adjustment for him. He likes his teacher, enjoys his specials and Free choice time. I think he talks the most about PE. I typically wait outside on a bench after school and his teacher walks him over with the other kids whose parents are waiting there. There have been 2 times that she has mentioned him having a hard time getting his work done.  He also has a hard time keeping his glasses on. I want him to do his work but I also get that school is long and a big adjustment for him. He has told me that he gets distracted by the kids at his table and thinks he could get his work done faster if he sat alone. I have tired to figure out if the work is too hard for him but I don't think it is. I think it is just more than he is used to doing. It is a lot of coloring! Mrs. Franklin said that he gets along well with all the kids and they seem to like him which is nice.  He had 2 breakdowns the other day, one when he didn't get to do what wanted for Academic choice.  He wanted to do Brown Bear but his name stick didn't called in time so 4 other kids got to do it. And the other when he didn't get free choice time because he didn't finish his work.  She said he turned it around pretty quick which gives me hope because he has always been sensitive and prone to what seems like an overreaction to me. I want him to respect his teacher and understand he needs to do his work so while I was sad for him that he missed free choice time I do hope it helps him get it done in time. He seems to really enjoy PE and feels pretty cool that he is one of the few kids in his class that can tie his shoes by himself. They often run races in PE and he is often the first or second one to finish and is always so proud of himself when he is first.  I think this is in part to the races we have done at UVA. It is fun to see him excited about things at school. I went to Back To School Night this week and it was nice to be in his classroom for a bit. He spends so much time there its weird to not be a part of it.  I wrote down that I was willing to volunteer (they don't really start it till October when kids are tested and used to the routines) and hope I can soon.

I have struggled trying to figure out the best use of our time after school.  Do we go on outings, have friends over, have down time, do learning time, have alone time? I just don't know! It feels like when we walk in the door he and Lydia just start fighting with each other which I don't want to be around.  I am happy to go out on outings but feel limited in what we can do because Jared still needs to wear his eyepatch for 2+ hours each day so we have to be home by 4:30 and our house is just farther away from a lot of things than it used to be.  We had an eye appointment this week and his eyesight has improved which is encouraging.  At his first appointment his left eye was 20/300 so he basically couldn't see anything.  This week he was at 20/100.  It feels like it is going so slow.  The Dr. wants him to keep wearing the patch as much as possible and we will see him again in January.  That is still 4 more months of wearing it every day! I just have a hard time knowing what to plan. What would be best for him and Lydia too.  Maybe I will ask his teacher what she has noticed he struggles with certain things and try to incorporate them in fun ways. I miss our little one on one learning times.  And I have seen so many fun Fall ones! I just need to find a balance and make a plan. Maybe him not knowing what we are going to do is affecting his attitude since his whole life has been pretty routine up till now or maybe he is just tired!! I hope we can get it figured out soon.

We did a fun sight word scavenger hunt the other day. It was so easy to do so I will have to plan more like this. I wrote the words on Apple post its (I found them on sale for .88 cents!) and then wrote them on a blank piece of paper. I hid them around the house (I did numbers for Lydia) and had him read the word then match it to the paper. It was fun especially while wearing a Pirate costume since they hunt for treasure.