School Daze

So far, I am loving Clayton's little school! The drive is, by far, the biggest drawback. It takes me 25-35 minutes each way. That means about 2 hours in the car on the days that he is on campus. No bueno! It is a pretty drive, at least, and I don't have to go through a single school zone to get there or back home. It's just going to take some getting used to, I guess.

His school is very structured, which I appreciate. Mrs. Lane sends home an assignment sheet in his folder on Mondays and it has all of the material that they will cover in class in one column and the material that we are to cover at home in another column. I have had LOTS of questions, which Mrs. Lane has been very kind to answer via email. There has been some education jargon that I have had to learn, but I am muddling through. :)

I am from a long line of teachers, Wade has lots of family members that are teachers, and some of my dearest friends are teachers. I love teachers! I have always had the utmost respect for teachers. But, I'm here to tell you, that after a few weeks of homeschooling my own kid part time, I have an even deeper respect for educators. It's a tough job!

I spend lots of time researching and planning out our days (using Mrs. Lane's assignment sheet as my guide). And don't get me started on trying keep that little monkey on task! I tried to just plow through all of our work on the first day by taking minimal breaks. Big mistake! Clayton kept saying, "My hand is hurting, Mommy. I just can't color anymore." Maybe I pushed him a little too hard... :)

I've learned from that, and now we spread out our day a little better. Rookie mistake, I guess. I'm also trying hard not to project my perfectionistic tendencies onto the little lad. Clayton hates to color - he always has. He has trouble staying inside the lines and colors the entire picture with one color. It makes me twitch a little to watch him color. :) But, he is a Kindergartener and he's a boy, for Pete's sake. I gotta let it go...

Here's a few pictures of our school days at home...

Clayton on our first at home day (8/24/10)

Working hard...

Keeping Drew engaged in his own "school" stuff is always my biggest challenge.

Our School Room (aka the back portion of the playroom)

This is definitely a new experience for all of us, and so far I am enjoying it very much. It challenges me in a whole new way... I am selfish and impatient. Teaching Clayton has definitely brought out those flaws. It has been a huge adjustment and required sacrifices from all 4 of us. I just pray that it will continue to be a positive experience.

One last story, that will illustrate my ignorance, but is too funny not to share. Last week, Clayton brought home a worksheet where he had written lots of lowercase o's under a picture of an octopus. I noticed that he had put what appeared to be a small u above each o. I thought in my head, "Poor baby. Learning vowels vs. consonants has confused him and he mixed up o's and u's." So, I questioned him, "What is this above the o?"

He replied, "Mom, that's a breve. It means that the o is a short vowel in the word octopus."

Um, yeah, I totally knew that. ;)

I told Wade later, "I knew that Clayton would be smarter than me one day, but he has already lapped me and it is only the second week of Kindergarten. I'm doomed!" Ha ha!