First Day of School

We have had two first days of school this year! One in Oregon and one in Charlotte!

The first day of school in Oregon seems like a life time ago!
This year I had kids at three different schools. Preschool, Elementary, and Jr. High!!
Raegan started 5th grade, Ryan is in 3rd and Janie is in 1st.
Here they are in all their darling first day glory

And Dalyn started 7th grade!

Now I need to explain his outfit . . .

I have a hard time sending my kids to school every year. I LOVE having them home. So why don't I home school?

Ooooh, do I even dare get on this box right now????

No, No I won't. Just know Terry and I are very anti-homeschool for most/almost all cases, but that said it is a very personal and family decision.

The short story is that we decided to homeschool him for Jr. High only . . . it wasn't the right choice for him, a couple days later he started at the Jr. High down the street from us.

SO for a couple blissful days we worked out together in the morning and did the school routine at home. I LOVED it, and felt incredibly guilty and selfish the whole time!

 It was just so boring for him! No peers to talk to, no class or teachers to interact with.  Here Dalyn read this web site, watch this video of a math lesson then do it, do this worksheet after you read this page . . .BORING! Dalyn thrives on class interaction! He loves the lecture and the variety teachers bring in. He loves the impute of the class and group work. I think home school is the right answer for some kids in some situation (not usually though) but for Dalyn it became very apparent, very quickly it was not the right road for him. SO a couple days later we actually started Jr. High at the school down the street from our house. He LOVED it!

He is doing great and LOVES school! He is still a great kid! Very intelectual and spiritual! Even here in Charlotte ( he prefers his Oregon school, but likes this one too) 

FIRST DAY IN CHARLOTTE

SO the kids started back to school after Christmas in Charlotte. What a difference in schools from the west coast to the east coast! At least from the school we came from to this one!

I have to say, I prefer the Oregon schools (the elementary school anyway)! 

Academically these schools are WAY ahead of where we were. I would have thought I would prefer that but when I see what has to be sacrificed to achieve these things, I don't know it is worth it!

The kids here only get ONE recess! In 7 hours these little 5, 6, 7, 8 year old kids only get 20 minutes of play time! and they only get that IF their teacher feels like taking them outside! AND there is no "play things" like balls or jump ropes, unless the teacher has them for her individual classroom. I am a huge believer that kids NEED to play!

Lunch is another problem . . .assigned seating! No socializing, and sitting by friends, swallow your food and get out, not to recess either, they don't have recess after lunch, they have more class time!

 Don't these people remember elementary school?? It's supposed to be fun!

I really shouldn't complain. In the county bordering ours the kids have to walk along a yellow line in the halls with one shoulder touching the wall at all times and absolutely NO talking. It's eerie being in the halls! NO elementary school should be that quiet!

Janie is adjusting to their military style better then Raegan and Ryan, but they are learning to work with it.

I just want learning to be fun and something they love and look forward to doing for all their lives! The teachers in Oregon (at least at our school) were so engaging and creative with how they presented lessons. They were relaxed and realized they were dealing with little kids, who are loud and fidgety sometimes.  These teachers (I'm sure not all of them) are more concentrated on getting through their check list and reaching those milestones and having the kids score the highest test scores, and maintaining absolute control at all times, it's stressful for the kids and not enjoyable. 

I'm not sure the love of learning and fun that should be associated with school is possible here?  

 SO we are considering home school for them (Raegan, Ryan and Janie) next year. Still praying hard about it . . . we will see . . . probably not, but maybe!

Sorry about all the gab, it's what we are dealing with around here! One of the things I am having a hard time with :) . . . Here are their first day pics

Janie and Dalyn started school the next day. I actually didn't get pictures of them on the day they started but Dalyn wears a uniform so he looks the same everyday :)

Sometimes he looks like this . . .

And sometimes he looks like this. . .

And sometimes he has a green shirt, but that's it.

I just snapped a picture of Janie a couple days ago. Her new thing lately is that I let her "make" her own hair. This day was one of those days. . .

She's adorable!

January was an interesting month here. For the first few weeks we didn't have a normal school week. The tempertures were below freezing the first week so there was a two hour delay three days that week. The second week there was a THREAT of snow so they called a half day. Then is snowed 2 inches, TWO and they canclled school for two days and called a two hour delay on the third day.

We all loved having days off from school and we all had a great laugh at how wimpy Charlotte is when it comes to weather!

Here is a picture of the snow that shut schools down for two and a half days . . .

SO that is our first month of school in Charlotte. The adjustment has been difficult but we are all adjusting!