Andy starts school next week. REAL school. I am psyched, and not just because I won't have to pay $200 a week in daycare. I am psyched for him to be going to a real school and starting to read and all the fun stuff that comes from elementary school. The whole thing seems a little surreal. I went by to register him and I swear it even smelled like an elementary school. Good thing I have good memories of elementary school. Middle school, well, not so much, but I really did love elementary school. When I wasn't crying and wailing about being forced to go, that is.
The downside of this will be now school is mandatory. Before, we could just blow off a week for vacation or skip a day because I was off and wanted to play. Now it will be harder, plus I'll need to set the example that school isn't optional, it's really important. It's also going to be different because unlike daycare where you can quit if you don't like it, public school isn't really like that. Plus, he'll have to be at school at an exact time every day. Punctuality isn't especially my strong suit.
Any tips on helping make the transition easier for all of us?
First, it was so great to see you and Bjorn and meet the kids. They are completely adorable and I am NOT just saying that. They are, seriously, cute and adorable. Yes, too short of a visit but we will be returning to the Dallas area (w/ all of us!) for the state fair late Sept (the 23rd or 24th or ?), so hopefully, we can connect on a more planned out basis.
ReplyDeleteWhat I did last year (I read this in a magazine last year) was get his input on time to wake up and made a list of things that had to happen prior to leaving the house w/ a place beside it to record a checkmark. I even put a few things on there that were total wish list things such as make the bed and brush his teeth in the morning (we rock at night but alas on the morning). Things like 1. go potty, 2. eat breakfast, 3. get dressed, 4. pack backpack (which was usually done prior but was on morning list), 5. (this depends on what you guys are doing for lunch) lunch box and water bottle (we were supposed to send one for the recess time- the fountain was kind of gross). There were a few other things but I am blanking on them. We decorated the list and then went to office depot and got it laminated. Put it on the island and used dry erase markers to check them off every morning. We did this for about two or three weeks and then we were in the zone. It stayed on the island but we didn't really use it as much.
Also, we (together) made a rule (I asked him how he could get more done in the morning and what would help) that NO video games in the morning at all and no TV until he got several things done (he had to be sitting down to eat before I turned it on or he would argue w/ me about coming to table). Then we made a leave the house time and looked at a clock to see what that looked like. that time was about 4-5 minutes before the actual need to be driving away time. He knew that 7:35 was the leave the house time (w/ a younger sibling, that is why the lag time involved as getting them BOTH good to go is harder.). School started at 8, and they were militant about tardies (several friends got to visit the principal for the talk during the year). George also wanted me to walk him in most of the time, though if we ran late, drive through drop off was happening and that was actually incentive for him to get moving. (that was another reason we left kind of on the early side)
Figure out how much time you need in the morning to achieve your list/ goals and add some chill time for Andy and get Margaret ready time. That will be your wake up time to start from. George really needed a little zone time/ veg time but always w/ the understanding that when it was time, it was time.
We are completely out of the routine as this summer has been so lovely for no routine but for my sanity, we need routine on school mornings. BIG routine.
Also, (be afraid for me here), maybe practice it on Friday? I think we practiced the home part on the day prior to school w/o leaving.
There were still PLENTY of mornings where I had to - well, how should I put this gently? I used my outside voice at times to get things moving.
How many kinder classes are at your school?