Back to School

We're being eased into back-to-school this year. Janna started last week, Heather starts this week, and Kelly starts next week. Lucky you, I have stories about each of them!

Janna
She makes me so proud!

At Back-to-School night, I met the parents of two new kids in Janna's class. Her school is small, which means her class is close-knit and (in my opinion) harder for new kids to penetrate. My sister and I got to be the "new kids" several times, due to moving or changing schools. It's no fun. One of the two new students, Claudia, has been homeschooled until this year, and her mom commented that Claudia is nervous about coming to Eden because of that. So the next day, when I was telling Janna who was going to be in her class this year, I mentioned the two new kids and told her that Claudia was nervous and could Janna be freindly to her the first day to help her feel more comfortable.

Let me tell you, Janna is the most compassionate, thoughtful child I've ever known. When we picked her up from her mom's the following Monday (the day before school started), she brought two envelopes with her. She had made notes for each of the two new students, to welcome them to Eden and to invite them to sit with her at lunch. This was completely her idea. And it does my heart good to see her being to kind to other kids.

And God is blessing her for it! Remember when I said that Janna never had a "best friend" last year? Well, Fred (the other new student) sat with Janna at lunch a couple of days, and then I guess he made some friends and sits with them now. But Claudia? She and Janna have sat together at lunch every single day. They've played together at recess every single day. They both like horses, so Claudia gave Janna some horse stickers for her backpack and lunchbox. And Janna used her allowance to buy Claudia a horse Italian charm as a belated birthday gift (Claudia's birthday was before school started).

Yes, it's only the first week of school, so there's a lot of time for things to change. But so far it seems like God has answered all of our prayers and brought someone to be Janna's new "best friend." Praise Him!

Heather
Heather got to go to school for one day last week. Their preschool phase-in process consists of three steps: First, a small group of the class goes for one hour with their parents. Then, a larger group goes for two hours without their parents. And then, finally the whole class goes for the whole time. Tomorrow is Heather's second day, and then on Wednesday the whole class will be there. Heather seems to be disgruntled that I had to go with her on her first day.

She was quite a character, as usual. During the free play time, she kept making plates of pretend food and delivering them to the teachers and other parents. And during circle time, the teacher joked about praying for the kindergarten class because she was worried about them, and Heather dramatically slapped her forehead, laid backwards on the ground, and threw her feet up into the air. Hm, no more dresses for her!

She also made a new friend the first day of school. There are two kids in her class that she already knows, but she met someone new the first day. I asked Heather if she made friends with anyone and she said, "no, but that little girl made friends with me." She's very eager to get back to school.

Kelly
This process has been a trial from the start. I'm glad Kelly will be going to school, but I'm frustrated with the process it has taken to get her there. Indulge me while I vent.

Kelly is due to start school next Monday. So on Friday, I was understandably concerned about the fact that I still did not know what school she was going to be at or when the bus would come to pick her up and drop her off. (We will have to coordinate that with Heather's schedule.) So I started making calls. In less than two hours, I had talked to nine different people, not one of whom was helpful OR friendly. I did find out what school she would be at ... but then I was told that she couldn't start until she turned three. When I said that she was already enrolled, they told me, "All that means is that once she turns three, if there's still a spot then she can come."

Whoa! So I went from thinking that Kelly was starting school in ten days ... to wondering if she would be going to school at all! Talk about frustrating! Not to mention that her therapy would be stopping on her birthday, so if she didn't go to school, then she wouldn't get any therapy for a year. Can I tell you how frustrated I was? I was getting conflicting information about whether or not Kelly could even go to the school, no one was being friendly to me, and everyone was sloughing me off to someone else. I had the feeling that no one wanted the bother of getting me answers. I understand now why parents become such aggressive advocates -- it's the only way to get your child what they need.

On Tuesday, I finally got to talk to someone in the public-school system who was friendly. She told me Kelly's teacher's name, and she let me know of a meet-the-teacher soiree the following day at the school. I got to show Kelly her classroom, introduce her to the teacher, and chat with the teacher for a few minutes. It was very reassuring for me. I feel great about the teacher, and I can't wait to see how much Kelly blossoms once she starts going there. They will send home a "what I did today" checklist most days, to let me know which activities Kelly engaged in, whether she ate her snack, etc. It's comforting.

To sum it all up ... as of today, I am excited about all of the girls' school years! We'll see how I feel next week once I put Kelly on that bus.

And on another completely unrelated note: I don't usually get too emotional when celebrities or athletes pass away. But I am very, very sad about Steve Irwin's death.