School Days - Bus

When we first moved to North Carolina we decided that our children would never have to ride the bus. After all, that is one of the benefits of a mom that stays at home, right? Well, when we discovered that I had to change Audrey's nap schedule and have both girls sitting in the car for around 45 minutes each day to make it home after the bus had been through our neighborhood, we decided to give the bus a try.

School dismisses at 2:30, the buses roll out around 2:40 and Nathan is home by 2:45. He gets off at the second stop (first one is also in our neighborhood). I just love this picture, it captures just how excited he is when he sees me standing at the bus stop each day!

The Debate selfISH vs selFISH

Last night Nathan was rambling about animals as he so often does. We talk about animals so much that I often stop paying attention while he states fact after fact (I know bad mommy). I happened to catch him talking about selFISH. I told him that there isn't an animal called a selFISH but that the word he was referring to is actually selfISH - meaning caring about one's self more than another. Nathan then informed me that a selFISH looks like a sword fish, it eats great whites, and that I should just trust him.

Wonder how many of you are going to google the word selfish...

School Days

We were still wavering even a week before school started as to whether we were going to put Nathan into first grade or kindergarten. His reading really exploded during the summer and he is truly a great reader. For this reason we actually called the school and talked to the principal. It was her professional recommendation to give Nathan another year in kindergarten and let him have the opportunity to grow socially and emotionally while refining his other skills. (Those are all my words, she wasn't nearly as eloquent in her statement).

Nathan and Miss Cody

The first day of school went off without a hitch. He had a great time. He was called up to the front of the class to read something off the board - he reported that he knew every word. When we asked him how his day was he began his report of who was good, who was bad, who took a nap, etc. To my surprise he actually came home knowing the names of three other kids - though he refers to one of the little boys as "the whiner." In kindergarten they do a staggered entrance meaning half of the class go in on Tuesday and the other half of the class go in on Wednesday. Today the entire class is together.

We have it worked out that Ryan brings Nathan to school in the morning and then heads off to work. I pick him up in the afternoon. Though next week we are going to try Nathan riding the bus and see how that goes. He is excited to try riding the bus. He also wants to buy lunch on chicken nugget and pizza day.

This morning as he was leaving for school he became very sad. I asked him what was wrong and he said that he wanted me to take him to school. Immediately I knew exactly what was going on and why he was sad. A few nights ago after putting Nathan to bed he came down very sad. When questioned why he came down and was so upset he said, "I felt like you were in Jacksonville again." Jacksonville - I often think of as the darkest time in our family. Yes, it was hard for all of us when Audrey was diagnosed with cancer but we were still together as a family. Jacksonville took that away from us. I try not to even think about that time or I become extremely emotional so I knew exactly what Nathan was referring to. This morning he had another glimpse of that fear and sadness. I know this is something that will follow him through his entire life and if he remembers nothing else about Audrey's cancer situation he will always remember how Jacksonville made him feel.

Church and Short Sentences

Lately Nathan claims to be an author. He has been spending time writing animal books. Each page has the name of an animal and his illustration of the animal below. I am grateful that he is practicing his writing. I decided I needed to encourage him to expand his writing and really be an author. So I suggested he write a short sentence on each page. At first this seemed to be too difficult a task - as Nathan thought it was taking too long. Now he enjoys it - the pages now consist of the animal name and what that animal eats, i.e. The american bison eats grass.

At church today the final speaker was giving a talk and trying to include the younger children in the congregation - his topic focused on animals. The talk went on for about 20 minutes. When the man finished Nathan asked if it was a long talk. I quietly nodded in agreement. Then he blurted out, "Those were not short sentences!" If you know our ward's high council representative, you know exactly what Nathan was talking about!