First Day of School

From January 12th

Friday was the first day of school for the kids.  I chose Friday because it would give them a taste before getting into a long week.  It was also an early release day as most Fridays will be.
I wasn't concerned about Nyla at all.  I dropped her off first and said very little to her teacher.  Nyla is highly adaptable and as long as she stays in a good mood everything will be fine. 

A few weeks ago we realized the kids didn't know the Pledge of Allegiance.  We started with Bohdin and told him that he would need to stand up and place his hands over his heart.  We went over the words and he felt frustrated that he didn't memorize it immediately.  We called Nyla over and went over the same thing with her.  As we started reciting the pledge Nyla echoed us a half second off with most of it mumbled except for the last few words which were clear.  We laughed and said she would do fine.  Nyla does not have the perfection tendencies like Bohdin so just appearing to know it was good enough.  She did awesome faking it. 


I talked to Bohdin's teacber for several minutes because he is poorly suited for public school.  I explained his perfectionism and how it would impact his time in the classroom.  He buckles under time pressure.  He has a tough time with handwriting.  He does poorly with open ended questions.  He deals with concrete.  He doesn't like getting things wrong.  That will come into play during writing assignments because he spells like a second grader but expresses himself at a higher level.  It was really hard to leave and I cried once I left.  The teacher found me at the end of the day and said he was just as I described.  He cried a bit and balked at taking a practice spelling test.  He struggled with the writing because he ran out of room and decided the best thing was to erase the entire thing and start over.  He didn't like how poorly he did at kickball during recess.  I know it will take him time to adjust.  I just hope that they don't make school a negative experience.  I have a lot of faith in this school and if they can't do it then nobody could at this point in his life.  Buddy hopes he learns something but that might be asking for too much.