THE HAPPY ONES: The First Day of School!

Yippee! School is finally here! Lazing around all summer was fun, but it's also fun to get back to the books. I'm soooo excited about Lukas and Konrad's curriculum for this year, and excited to see everything they will learn. AND Natalie is going to first grade, so she has an all-day schedule now (something else for the rest of us to get used to...especially Dominik, whose nap is cut very short to pick up Natalie.)

So without further ado, here's the photo story of the day's events:

Konrad's unsure look comes from not knowing the word "school". We obviously need to work on that word! But it's not in the first 91 lessons of Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons...contrary to my intentions, we didn't finish the book over the summer, so finishing the book will be part of his first few weeks of Kindergarten.

Breakfast, just like every morning! Natalie got a bath this morning since we forgot to do baths last night (playing outside on the last day of summer vacation helped us forget baths).

I'm glad Tom took this candid shot of us getting ready for the shot below...we're not as crazy and disorganized and running after children as we used to be. Doesn't it look calm and organized? Amazing!

But it still took eleven shots to get all four children looking at the camera. We had Lukas and Konrad pose with their backpacks, even though their first day of one-day-a-week homeschool co-op is next Tuesday. Dominik insists on a backpack too, so he's holding Konrad's lunch bag...need to get the boy his own backpack.

Tom stayed home from work this morning so I could take Natalie to school without the boys...thank you Tom! It worked so great, since the first day is so crazy. And I love this shot of us walking off to school together. Natalie carried her backpack about half the way to school, and I took it for the rest of the way.

Something happened while I was at school....something about a tree trimmer for a neighbor's tree.

Back after dropping Natalie off, school at home starts! There's Konrad all set up at his little desk. He did great on his first day of Kindergarten! The assignments for the first day were a little light, so he's filling in with his summer activity of Draw Write Now.

And here's Lukas in third grade! He was excited to see how familiar curriculum changes each year (he's all about noticing something that changes) and did a great job of staying focused and finishing his work.

And there's my bashful preschooler. I even lesson-planned Dominik's activities so he doesn't do the same thing every day. Keeping him quiet for 60-90 minutes is VITAL to the success of our homeschool. He spends about 30 minutes in his crib reading books every morning, then he plays in his room with a variety of other toys for an hour. Today was train tracks, shapes, Mr. Potato Head, then coloring at the table. He did such a great job of playing independently. Tuesdays, when Lukas and Konrad go to the co-op school, I'll be able to spend more one-on-one time with Dominik. But even today I got to spend individual time with him, with the shapes. He showed me how well he knows his colors (looks like all three boys dodged the color-blindness gene that my father had) and he's learning the names of shapes.

And back to Natalie! We took our morning recess to walk/scooter back to school so I could put money on her lunch account for milk and/or lunches, and happened to see Natalie going in from her recess. Here she is at the end of the day, posing with her wonderful teacher. I was ecstatic to note that she's wearing the same pants that she went to school in...no accidents! Way to go Natalie!

Natalie was very excited to see that her favorite friend from Kindergarten, Joshua, is in her first grade class. I know she loved seeing all her friends from last year, her aide (praise God, the same fabulous aide as last year) and meeting her new teacher. When I asked her if she had a fun day, she said, "Yes!" We all walked home and she ran into the house to use the toilet (that's new!) and did not take a nap, which I half expected her to do after such a new experience of all-day school.

Then for dinner it was off to our favorite Mexican restaurant to celebrate the first day of school, and over to Downtown Disney for a quick visit to the Lego store. We thought we weren't going to buy anything, but...we were wrong. Here's Natalie enjoying her favorite Lego creation: can you see her bouncing on her toes? That's what she does when she's super excited.