School update

After a full month of school, we are settling into a routine.  Here is what a typical day looks like for us...

6:45 am  - alarm goes off, press snooze a couple times because I hate getting up to an alarm!

7:00 drag myself out of bed, brush my hair and my teeth, because otherwise I simply cannot function! Then start waking everyone up - so far not too many issues with grumpy kids.

7:15 everybody is out of bed and busy:
1. having a quick breakfast (they get breakfast at school so I don't give them too much),
2. getting dressed (on Sunday they pick out all clothes for the week, makes it quick!),
3. brushing teeth
4. getting on socks, shoes, and backpacks

7:40 out the door and getting buckled in the van

7:48 have to be driving out of the driveway to get there on time

8:00 arrive at school, sign in and stop at the bathroom

8:05 bell rings and we can head to classrooms.  Usually we drop Sam off first and then walk to the complete other side of the school to the preschool classrooms.

8:20 I am done with school and head off to tackle my very long to-do lists.  The day flies by and I never seem to get as much done as I had planned to, but certainly I finally feel like I am gaining on the disaster of this house!

2:40 get ready to go to the school to pick them up

3:00 usually Ben &Carlee come out first and Sam a few minutes later.  The absolute best part of the day is when their faces light up the moment they see me and they yell "Mommy or Mama" and come for big hugs.

3:10 or so we are piling into the van and all the good behavior they have had all day has come to a very abrupt halt and they start fighting and crying and whining and complaining.

3:30 after school we have a snack and the bad behavior usually is starting to mostly wear off.  I often have to send someone to lay down on my bed until they can have a better attitude, which usually doesn't take long.

3:45 after a quick snack we go through their backpacks and I ask questions about their day.  Sam has homework everyday except Friday that he has to complete so I also have Ben & Carlee do some kind of homework as well.  Homework usually doesn't take more than 15 or 20 minutes.

the rest of the evening is spent playing, eating supper, doing a Bible study (which we have not been very diligent at doing), and maybe watching a bit of tv

7 pm start getting ready for bed!  The days are flying by!!

Sam and Carlee's teachers use an apple system for behavior.  If they have had good behavior all day their apple stays green - they have both had green apples every day.  One day when we were going through backpacks Carlee sheepishly said, with tears pooling in her eyes "Mama, I almost got a yellow apple today because I was playing too much at lunch."  I love this apple system and have started to tell them that if they are bad at home I can tell their teachers to change their apple the next day.  It works!

Ben's teacher uses a fish system and if they have good behavior the fish stays at the bottom of the tank.  Then at the end of the day, both Ben & Carlee's teachers put a sticker on their calendar that comes home to let me know that they had a good day.  Ben had two days that he did not have a sticker.  One was because he was at home with a fever and the other was because he kept throwing his stuffed animal at naptime even after being told not to.  I have told them that if they get into trouble at school then they will get into even more trouble at home.  Well, he had a long time to think about it on the bench and then we made his teacher a sorry card. I told him that he had to say sorry and make it right.  The best part was that when he came home from school that day, his teacher had put two stickers on his calendar!  It was perfect - I was able to tell him that because he did something nice by making her a card to say he was sorry that he made it right and then so did she by putting a sticker on that day!