First Days of School

Here we are, in our third week of school—third grade for Elsa, and kindergarten for Aveline. We are starting to get back into a routine, which feels nice, but mornings can still be a bear. Elsa takes after her daddy, and could sleep until 10:00 most mornings, and I often have to wake Avie up too, even though she tends to be an early bird. And then just keeping them on track to get breakfast eaten, get dressed, brush teeth and hair, etc., all while I'm trying to make lunches and snacks and make sure all the signed paperwork gets into backpacks... well, it can feel like herding cats sometimes, for sure. But we make it. And, so far, the girls are doing great.

Elsa is in Mrs. Tobin's class this year, with Mrs. Murray as the EC assistant. Mrs. Tobin seems super sweet, and Elsa took to her immediately. She uses stability balls in her class as chairs, just like Ms. Hager did last year, which is wonderful, and her classroom just seems happy, which I love. Mrs. Tobin is expecting her first child at the end of December, so that will bring some excitement after the holidays with, most likely, a long-term substitute through March. I'm praying they are able to get someone great in there for that span of time, as third grade brings with it a lot of changes, in terms of it being the first year of beginning-of-year and end-of-year standardized testing. Knowing the school, the principal, and all of the staff, though, I am fairly certain it will all be okay.

Aveline is in Mrs. Vitarelli's class, with Mrs. Fuquay as the assistant. They have been teaching kindergarten for years and years, and you can tell. Their classroom just feels like a kindergarten classroom, in the best way possible. Their classroom theme is the "bee hive," so there are a lot of bee and buzzing references, which is super cute. I get the feeling after these first couple of weeks of school that Avie is nearly silent during the school days. I don't think she wants to risk getting her clip moved at all on the behavior chart, so she chooses to stay quiet and follow all of the rules. But, what that means, is that when she gets home, she lets loose! I have had to remind myself over and over again to just let her go for it, that she is being loud and crazy at home because she feels safe at home. But she has also started being a little more bossy and grumpy, also probably from reigning it in all day and just being tired from the long days, so that has been a little challenging too. Overall, though, I think she is enjoying being at Claxton. She always says she wants to stay home and doesn't want to go to school in the mornings, but once we are out the door and on our way, she seems totally fine.

Tonight is Open House at the school, so it will be interesting to go into the classrooms without the girls there and hear what the teachers have to say about how the beginning of the year is going. I think it is going to be a fantastic year!!!