My Tax Dollars At Work

The kids started school a few weeks ago, and I've got to say, we're loving it!! Everyone is happy with their teacher, and I am loving the schedule and structure that school time brings. London just happened to be the most excited kid on the planet to start kindergarten. She's been asking daily when she gets to go to the "big school" for at least a year and a half. This might be partly our fault for moving right across the street from said "big school." So for four years, she has watched the kids come and go and be out at recess playing and having fun. Yep, she was ready, and off she went.

Don't mind the strained look on Austin and Jackson's faces. They're just excited about school ....

So, here's my confession ... I'm not one of those mom's that cries and gets all emotional when their kids head off to school for the first time. (Now, I do have one more to go, and he is my baby, so we'll see if that holds true.) Before you think I'm a bad mom, let me explain. My emotions are kept at bay by the simple understanding that I think school is SO good for kids. In so many ways - socially, emotionally, mentally, psychologically, etc. There are things that kids learn at school that they really don't learn anywhere else, so I'm a big fan.

The whole learning thing is awesome. I love it when they come home with some new interesting thing they have learned and can't wait to share it with me (i.e., Austin's knowledge of composers, the Beatles, and John Williams that he picked up in his music class that far surpasses anything I know about any of those things). I just love how excited they get about field trips and assemblies and fun little things they are working on in class, and how they admire their teachers and look up to them (i.e. Jackson's teacher grew up in Japan and knows about Pokemon and other neat stuff, and according to Jackson, she just could not be any cooler).

So the other thing is, when they are gone, I can get HUGE amounts of stuff done that they would just really not like to be involved in (i.e., laundry, cleaning, painting, my work, naps, grocery shopping, etc.), and then when they get home, I'm all theirs. We sit on the swing on the front porch and talk about their day and then we read and work on homework and sometimes go for a bike ride or to the library, and I don't have to keep saying "hang on, hang on, hang on."

So my "handsome" started preschool this year with Miss Jenny (London's teacher for the last two years). Even with how clingy and "mama's boy" he is, he marched right into his little classroom and turned and waved bye to me. He was all happy about being at school. He calls it "London's little school." He loves preschool and he loves Miss Jenny (of course). Could he look any cuter with that backpack on?

I have to say Dave and I are so grateful to live so close to such a nice new school. We have had a wonderful experience with Eagle Valley Elementary so far, and I'm sure this year will be no different. We've had great teachers and I have enjoyed working in each of their classrooms, helping with the take home reading library, running the book fairs, making dinner for the teachers during SEPs, going on field trips, helping with class parties, etc. We love being part of such a small close knit community. I love sitting on my porch and knowing most of the people that walk by taking their kids to school. I might even laugh at these same people when they start driving their kids two blocks to school as soon as the temperature goes below 50. Ha ha!

So basically I'd say we're off to a pretty good start. Or as Austin would say, "Two weeks down, 34 more to go."