Elli's Going to First Grade!
Scott and I attended our school district's first grade transition meeting last night. They talked about basics like number of classes, class size, schedule, and what a typical first grade day looks like. They talked about the general subjects our first graders will be studying. And they talked about the new building we're moving into for next year.I never, ever, in a thousand years, would have thought that having a child enter the first grade would be intimidating. I mean, come on! It's first grade! I'm a four-year college grad! I always did well in school!
But I have to confess. I'm intimidated.
I guess it's because my first child to enter first grade faces so many challenges just to get through a typical day at home. Throw academic learning and communicating with a classroom full of peers into the mix, and I suppose I'm normal to feel a little overwhelmed.
(By the way, I have SO much respect for the teachers and support personnel who work in our schools and take on 25-30+ kids with wide-ranging physical, social, academic, whatever else abilities! God bless our teachers. I would be cowering in the hallway, scared spitless. But put me in front of a room-full of adults and I'm fine. Isn't that weird?)
Anyway, it may sound like the meeting wasn't that great. It actually was. We are in one of the best school districts in our state (tied for 6th place), and it showed last night. The administration, at least at this lowest elementary school level, is awesome. They are real people who have worked very hard to craft a program that educates every child, no matter what their personal challenges.
I know they miss some stuff - we're all human beings and nothing is perfect. No system is perfect and can perfectly address everything. But they do their best. And that's saying a LOT. We have friends who live in other school districts where they don't try at all. Big... no... astronomical difference.
So we were very excited to see the details of the new building. It's completely ADA compliant, down to the playground. They thought long and hard about how to get kids in wheelchairs out into the mix during recess. There are no stairs in the entire place. The hallways are wide, the drinking fountains low, and offices for support personnel (like occupational, physical, and speech therapy and the special ed teachers) are right there with the classrooms. They've thought carefully about traffic flow and parking for visitors. They've got outdoor courtyards, garden areas, access to those outdoor areas from both art and science rooms, a media center with all sorts of child-friendly furniture and natural light... It is going to be amazing.
So why again am I intimdated?
It's the academics being taught in first grade. They are going to continue work in language arts - advancing reading skills, writing, spelling, comprehension, etc. They are going to start addition and subtraction, fractional parts, sorting, time, and lots more in math. They begin to work on science and actually have a science lab for the kids to explore things hands-on. They also begin social studies and history and geography. These are the things that start to get me nervous.
How is Elli going to learn all this? I want her to learn it - don't get me wrong. She needs to learn as much as she is able to in order to live independently and thrive as an adult. But everything takes her so long - I mean we're still working on the concept of words with her. She knows letters and numbers, but how do you communicate the concept of grouping letters together to form a word, a symbolic representation of an object or a concept or an action. When you break it down like that, learning to read is a tremendously complex skill.
I believe reading is the single most important academic skill for Elli to learn. Without reading and writing, she will be completely reliant on others her entire life. If she read for herself and write, she will be able to speak to others in her own voice, even if it through her computer.
I guess the complexity of the task before us is something I shouldn't dwell too much on. The teachers and special educators working with Elli are the best. They are working hard to break things down into manageable pieces and we are seeing progress. I need to look at school differently with her than I did for myself or than I will with the other kids - everything is going to take longer. She may not master every single thing, but we can still expose her to as much as possible.
Sam's Going to Preschool!
My little boy will be four this September. We've talked about it and think that sending him to preschool will be a wonderful thing for him. He's so interested in school already since his big sister goes, and he's very eager to get out of the house, meet other kids, and make friends. I think he'll do well getting introduced to a structured setting and spending a couple short hours under the teaching of other adults. Having preschool classes will really help him get through the long cold winter indoors, too. If this winter hadn't been so warm, we'd have been going bonkers by the end of January! It was bad enough since we had so many germs in our house!We've almost settled on the school for him. I go tour it tomorrow afternoon, and if I like it, I'll register him then. It's run by a church just a couple miles from us and they have openings for a 3-day afternoon program. They also follow our school district's calendar, which will be really helpful for planning. I was hoping to send him to a 2-day a week program, but I didn't get started early enough (apparently, January is the crucial month). We can still wait-list him for that, but one more day will be fine. Kindergarten is 5 days, so it'll be a good introduction.
At first, I wasn't sure at all that I wanted to send him. My boy is my buddy, my right-hand-man, at least when Scott is at work! We do almost everything together and that mother-son thing is totally real. But what's the long-term goal with our children, anyway? We're supposed to prepare them to be godly, responsible adults who can function in the real world. I'm supposed to launch him out there as an independent person, who will ultimately (gulp) hopefully find a godly wife and start his own family.
So keeping him with me his entire life isn't going to prepare him real well, is it? He has to learn to get along with other people, even ones who are totally different and even may disagree with him. He has to learn to face difficulty, injustice, and mean people in a way that honors God. He has to learn that God has given us other authority figures besides our parents, and we are to respect and obey them (as long as they don't tell us to sin). Going to school will certainly provide ample opportunities to practice and learn these skills.
This may sound like I am anti-home-schooling. I'm not. I'm a graduate of home-schooling; in fact, I studied at home from third grade through high school, back before it was very popular. I got a great education that more than prepared me for the rigors of college study. I was able to focus on academics without being nearly as distracted by the social and philosophical stuff that goes on at school.
However, I'm still not sure I was well-prepared for the real world - for office politics, egos, peace-making, not just getting along but working well with people antagonistic to my way of life... Perhaps my 18-year-old self would have had the same arrogant, blunt unteachableness if I'd gone to school - I don't know and probably won't ever know. I certainly lacked street smarts and the inter-personal savvy that my husband has. But I also learned many skills and a strength of character I might not have if I'd been constantly battered by the negative social pressure in school. It's hard to know what to attribute to personality and what developed (or didn't develop) during my childhood.
So, just like any other form of education, home-schooling works for some people and isn't so great for others. That includes both parents and children - some parents are better home-educators than others, just like some teachers or school districts are better than others. Some children do well in that environment and some do not, just like some children do well in public, some do better in private, some do better in large classes or smaller ones, etc. This is not a moral right or wrong issue. It's a matter of wisdom - what is the best for your child and for your family? It may even vary with each child within the same family and vary some years.
In our case, right now, in this school district, it is best for Elli to be in school. I have thought about home-schooling for brief moments. Those moments are always cut short by the reality of life in our home. It is impossible for me to home-school Elli successfully with her younger siblings at home! She cannot do anything independently, so her education requires 100% hands-on assistance from an adult. She also needs resources and knowledge not readily available to me due to her physical and communication challenges. We haven't ruled anything out, particularly for the younger kids. We just know what appears to be best right now. That's the best anyone can do!
Anna's Turning One!
I can hardly believe that an entire year has gone by. We will celebrate Anna's first birthday in less than 2 weeks! She is at such a fun stage. She can entertain herself for brief periods of time, extended if Sam is playing with her. She loves to chase him and be chased, play with dolls, and try to do whatever Sam is doing. She has 4 teeth now and keeps chewing her hands like she's working on more.I successfully weaned her from formula this week. Well, it's actually been a 3-4 week process. I tried giving her cow's milk a month ago, and she turned her nose up at it. So I have been gradually changing the proportion of formula to cow's milk in her bottles and sippee cups. Today I tried 100% cow's milk again and she took it without blinking! I'm not going to totally quit the formula yet - I still have to use up a container. Plus I'm still trying to figure out the whole balanced diet for a baby thing! And I'm still not completely sold on cow's milk - it made Sam really constipated. So any opinions/experience/etc on alternatives to getting calcium into a baby's diet would be appreciated!
On the diet topic, Anna seems to be really sensitive to tomatoes. Every time I give her something with tomato in it, like spaghetti, she gets this horrible diaper rash that takes 3 or 4 days to clear up. It's just agonizing, more for her than me, I'm sure. It took me awhile to narrow it down to tomato, but I'm going to have to cut it from her diet, even though she loves it. I guess once she's potty-trained, it won't be an issue. I'm not sure if she's got sensitive skin or if she's just more sensitive to the acid in tomatoes.
Wow. This ended up being way longer than I expected. I have to get going. I have a knitting prize to bake and dinner to prepare!
