Settling into a New Routine

The past week found us adjusting to our new routines. (Well, it's really Anna and me that have a new routine. Kevin and Mason have the same routine they had all summer.) I drop Anna off at school of the morning, go home and work around the house or run errands, then pick Anna up when school gets out. I always take a snack for her to eat on the way home and she enjoys this. Some mornings she will say "Don't forget my snack this afternoon."

Anna had a great week at school. Every day the teacher sends home a sheet (calendar) that shows how Anna behaved. She either gets a smiley face or it tells how many cups her stick got moved. (They use a cup & stick method. Each time the child's stick gets moved to a cup the greater the discipline. Cup One results in not receiving a penny at the end of the day. The last cup, Cup Six, results in a trip to the Principal's Office.) Anna got a smiley face all five days. Because of this she got to pick a toy out of the treasure box on Friday. She picked a Baby Shrek that makes noise. She also earned more Bear Bucks this week and was excited about that. She just doesn't know when she gets to use them to buy things. I believe her Bear Bucks are burning a whole in her pocket!

I can't get Anna to give many details about her day. I don't know if she doesn't remember because it's all still overwhelming, or if she is too tired to remember, or just doesn't want to tell me. The best I can tell, she has a special class every day. It's either PE, art, music or computer class. She seems to be making new friends and also playing with her old friends. She always updates me on Cole's behavior (and it must be about the same as at PreK). I think he gets a lot of stick moving. But every afternoon she says that she had a good day. We didn't have any tears at drop off this week. The only negative thing she said was Sunday night. She said that she wished she could stay home with me. (That broke my heart. Part of me wishes she could too.)

Mason received a timeout at daycare this week for standing in his chair. Apparently he thinks his chair is for his FEET. We had a long talk about the situation and he said he would do better the next day. Wrong! He got in trouble again. I think his new teacher is learning how stubborn he can be at times. Friday afternoon she told me that she thought she made Mason "upset" by getting on to him. This seemed to really bother her (she is SO sweet). I told her not to worry about it, that he does get upset when he's told no. We've had another talk about chair rules. We'll see if that helps this week.

Saturday evening we were invited over to our friends, the Jernigan's. They had invited another family that we did not know that live fairly close. We had a nice evening, enjoyed meeting our neighbors (in the country definition of neighbors- they live within a few miles), and enjoyed the best homemade lasagna. The other family has a daughter in 2nd grade so Anna enjoyed playing with her. Anna was so excited that another little girl lives close and can't wait to have her over to play.

Now we are gearing up for the coming week. Time to back the backpack with snacks, naptime blanket, lunch money and all the essentials. One & a half weeks down...how many more to go????