Today is the second day of school for the boys and the first day in a long while that the house has been empty and quiet. I just woke up from a nap (my favorite afternoon activity) and am gearing up to accomplish something before it's time to pick the boys up from school. After I dropped them off this morning I went to Home Depot to pick up paint for the bathroom, returned some school clothes that didn't fit and made it through Wal-Mart for groceries and such. My plan to start painting as soon as I got home was revised into TV, lunch and a nap!
The boys' first day went so much better than I had hoped. This is the first year that I didn't have everything laid out and ready the night before (even though I've taken them on the first day every single year). So bright and early in the morning we were choosing outfits (favorite shorts still in the dryer, oops!), ironing, going through school supplies, putting labels on some things, eating breakfast and blow drying hair. Boys at this age worry about their hair more than girls I think!
I was open to completely messed up schedules and much frustration, but that was not the case at all. Of course dropping them off in the morning was a challenge - the first day of school is always crazy (Debi, I should have warned you), but they made it in plenty of time. I went back home and scrubbed down the kitchen with bleach, vacuumed and mopped the floor and did laundry. After my shower I went to a couple of stores in search of more shorts for the boys. They had a growth spurt over the summer and are in need of a few more things.
I picked the boys up after school, dropped off some equipment in the band hall that the band director had loaned us over the summer and the boys and I headed to the shoe store in the rain. They had a good day, everything went smoothly and they are in all of the correct classes. They have the same Language Arts teacher from last year (they knew that they would) and she was their 1st period class. Because they are in Tier 4 classes and in band, they have basically been grouped with the same kids since elementary school. This year they get 3 electives and they were placed in different ones for 2 of them (the 3rd is band). Ryan has Spanish and something else that I've already forgotten! Something to do with engineering and building things (?) - I'll ask him again for a more detailed explanation. Justin has Health (a requirement) and a computer class (forgot the name of that one too). The electives are not what they had signed up for last year, but they each think that they will be happy with what they are given. I told them to figure out for certain by today so that if I need to call we can get it done quickly. I've learned after last year not to be shy when it comes to not being in right class - too many reasons to post.
After driving in the rain to several stores and not finding the shoes Justin wants, we returned home, ate leftovers for dinner, ordered the shoes on the Internet and I filled out their usual packet of forms. The homeroom with the most turned in by Friday gets a pizza party for lunch one day. Their homeroom is, as usual, the more organized, intellectual students (they don't like me to say "geeky") so they have a good chance of winning. I think they did last year. We fixed up their band binders from last year, filled out the permission slip for the band party at Incredible Pizza and a miracle occurred when I discovered just the right amount of cash in my wallet to cover the pizza and game card!
We then picked out outfits for today - this requires my assistance because they own similar outfits, don't want to "matc
h" or wear the same color on the same day. They do have many identical shirts (band camp, flute camp, school sports, etc.) and if Ryan wore his red Flute Fire shirt today and Justin wore his tomorrow many students and teachers may become confused and think that Justin is Ryan. So, you can see in the picture from yesterday that Justin wore a polo style shirt with blue shorts and Ryan wore a layered look with khaki shorts and they have different colored shoes. They do share clothes (Ryan wore an outfit today that Justin had picked out at the store) but Ryan is opposed to striped polo style shirts unless they meet certain criteria (one background color, one color stripes and they must be skinny stripes). Gone are the days I just bring home a bag of clothes and they simply wear them! You'll hear more about this as the year progresses.
More later, dirty dishes and clothes are calling me ...
The boys' first day went so much better than I had hoped. This is the first year that I didn't have everything laid out and ready the night before (even though I've taken them on the first day every single year). So bright and early in the morning we were choosing outfits (favorite shorts still in the dryer, oops!), ironing, going through school supplies, putting labels on some things, eating breakfast and blow drying hair. Boys at this age worry about their hair more than girls I think!
I was open to completely messed up schedules and much frustration, but that was not the case at all. Of course dropping them off in the morning was a challenge - the first day of school is always crazy (Debi, I should have warned you), but they made it in plenty of time. I went back home and scrubbed down the kitchen with bleach, vacuumed and mopped the floor and did laundry. After my shower I went to a couple of stores in search of more shorts for the boys. They had a growth spurt over the summer and are in need of a few more things.
I picked the boys up after school, dropped off some equipment in the band hall that the band director had loaned us over the summer and the boys and I headed to the shoe store in the rain. They had a good day, everything went smoothly and they are in all of the correct classes. They have the same Language Arts teacher from last year (they knew that they would) and she was their 1st period class. Because they are in Tier 4 classes and in band, they have basically been grouped with the same kids since elementary school. This year they get 3 electives and they were placed in different ones for 2 of them (the 3rd is band). Ryan has Spanish and something else that I've already forgotten! Something to do with engineering and building things (?) - I'll ask him again for a more detailed explanation. Justin has Health (a requirement) and a computer class (forgot the name of that one too). The electives are not what they had signed up for last year, but they each think that they will be happy with what they are given. I told them to figure out for certain by today so that if I need to call we can get it done quickly. I've learned after last year not to be shy when it comes to not being in right class - too many reasons to post.
After driving in the rain to several stores and not finding the shoes Justin wants, we returned home, ate leftovers for dinner, ordered the shoes on the Internet and I filled out their usual packet of forms. The homeroom with the most turned in by Friday gets a pizza party for lunch one day. Their homeroom is, as usual, the more organized, intellectual students (they don't like me to say "geeky") so they have a good chance of winning. I think they did last year. We fixed up their band binders from last year, filled out the permission slip for the band party at Incredible Pizza and a miracle occurred when I discovered just the right amount of cash in my wallet to cover the pizza and game card!
We then picked out outfits for today - this requires my assistance because they own similar outfits, don't want to "matc
h" or wear the same color on the same day. They do have many identical shirts (band camp, flute camp, school sports, etc.) and if Ryan wore his red Flute Fire shirt today and Justin wore his tomorrow many students and teachers may become confused and think that Justin is Ryan. So, you can see in the picture from yesterday that Justin wore a polo style shirt with blue shorts and Ryan wore a layered look with khaki shorts and they have different colored shoes. They do share clothes (Ryan wore an outfit today that Justin had picked out at the store) but Ryan is opposed to striped polo style shirts unless they meet certain criteria (one background color, one color stripes and they must be skinny stripes). Gone are the days I just bring home a bag of clothes and they simply wear them! You'll hear more about this as the year progresses.More later, dirty dishes and clothes are calling me ...
1 comment:
Sounds like the boys had a good first day. I hope the week is going just as well. I am looking forward to the boys updating their blogs and giving their view of school this year. I know my kids haven't done that either. We are all adjusting to the crazy schedule of school all day and then homework.
We will be out that way this weekend (Friday night until Monday). Maybe we can manage to get together then.
~~Debi~~
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