Five Flukes "The Young Years": First Days of School

The first days of school for my kids this year were a lot less eventful than last year. This is a good thing. They started on different days cause Gabe's school randomly started on a Thursday which I think it silly. The boys have preschool Mondays and Wednesdays so they didn't start until the next week. So Gabe kind of had her own first day of school. Which is ok, cause some next year she'll always share her first day with her brother who will finally be in Kindergarten. She was so sad she is dropped off first. She just wants to be able to help drop off her brothers and make sure that they're ok going. She's such a good big sister.

We drove over to her school a few days before it started to go to her class room and see where I'd drop her off and pick her up. She is in the portable trailers outside this year, and probably next year. We went to get out of the car to see where she would go and she told me she knew and that we didn't need to. I was a little sad by that. She was ready. I'm happy she was ready but it made me realize how big she is. Even though her first day I still walked her cause I wanted to see her class and her teachers. She was happy with that. I left Daddy in the car with the boys. He tries to come with us on the first day to drop kids off. Cause he can, so we bring him.

She just had to make sure that she had some new dresses to wear this year.

Wang Laoshi (Mrs. Wang) or Xiaoou Wang is her name. This is actually her second year teaching. She wanted to do it another year.

Mrs. Copeland. This is her first year as an English teacher with the Chinese program, so there is a lot of adjusting to do. Honestly neither teacher is bad, but I wasn't impressed by either. They just seem super unorganized compared to her last year ones. Which is understandable they have some kinks to work out, I just hate it's when Gabe is in there. Hopefully it'll start flowing more throughout the year.

This is Gabe's Chinese name. Every year her Chinese teacher gives her a Chinese name. Hers is

Fung jow Bae. I think that Fung is her surname (meaning Fluckiger) so she'll probably always have that in her Chinese name, with different things. I guess we'll see. It took her a week to to remember the whole thing, but she's got it down now. Heck, so do I. :) Every one in her class has one, and it's what the teacher calls them. Right now they are just reviewing most of last years stuff. She's getting their pronunciation better, and encouraging them to communicate and answer in full sentences and not one word answers. She is good enough that she qualifies for Chinese take home books so we'll see how that goes when they start coming. Further into the year she'll have to start doing work on the computer for Chinese and some work books. We'll see how it goes.

Our tradition is to get a giant cookie on their first day of school when they come home. Then they come home, eat it with milk and talk about their first day with mom and cookie at the table.

I didn't get a pic with Briana the first day, but got one day two.

Ollie was so mad he couldn't start school when Gabe did, and gets so annoyed he can't go every day. He's just ready to. But I guess if any of our kids are gonna have a late birthday and have to be one of the oldest ones in their class, it should be Ollie cause he's our most shy, anxious one and we're hoping it'll make him more confident. Although this year he ROCKED it as we would say. He did so awesome going to his school and jumping right in. He was ready. It probably helped that one of his good buddies Truman is in his class. Originally when we signed up, there was only room in the afternoon session. I didn't want him and Milo to go together in the same class, cause I didn't want either of them used to that. So Milo goes in the morning somewhere else and I put Ollie on the waiting list for mornings hoping I'd get him in so my day wouldn't be so hectic. About a month until school started, I emailed and asked if there was openings. They got back to me and at first told me no, but then a few days later texted me and said they had one. SOOOO he got moved to the morning and Truman and Embrie were there so we were happy about it. The afternoon had some kids he knew too, but not kids that I want him to be best buddies with. Not that I'd tell their moms that.

I swear in the last few months Ollie has grown like mad too, so he's so big and tall. Being one of the oldest makes him seem so much bigger than everyone in his class.

I haven't sent any of my kids at 3 to preschool. With Gabe we were moving around too much and honestly I didn't even consider it until she was four. Ollie is going two years, and he was 3 when he started last year, but turned 4 a month later. I feel like Milo is sooo young to go to school. He just turned 3. Honestly I wouldn't have sent him even though parents do and that's great. But he's my baby, and he seems so little. This summer so many times Adam and I looked at each other and said, why are we sending him to school? He seems so young. But he BEGGED and BEGGED to go to school and be a big boy like his brother and sister. SO we signed him up. And he went the first day nervous, but happy to be there. It still makes him nervous some days, but once he's there he's happy about it. I drop off Gabe and Ollie whose schools both start at 9. Milo's start at 9:15 so we have to wait a few minutes until we drop him off. It's just down the street from Ollie's so it doesn't take us long to get there. Usually when we sit there he gets bored and asks if we can just go home and not go to school today. So some days I still get to pep talk him into it. But we make it and so far so good.

"First day" drive in the car. It wasn't her first day, but that's ok.

This is Mrs Sutton and she actually used to be Ollie's nursery leader when we first moved to Hurricane and she remembers him which is cute. She starts Happy Day preschool years ago and her 3 daughters have all helped her since. The main daughter that does it was Elizabeth who took this year off to go to Tonga. So Rebecca, her other daughter is helping. It made some people not want to come this year, but they have done great and Mrs Sutton is the one that helps Ollie most days cause he's already reading so she helps him at his level. Now all the people that didn't sign up and are doing other places are all trying ti sign up late. It's kinda funny to see. Either way we are glad he is there.

His buddy Truman with the giant Happy Day bear.

Milo's "lava" path on the way back to his preschool.

Ms Lori his teacher. This is a new preschool for our family. We had some neighbors that went here and loved it. I think at far as a creative teacher, she by far does the BEST stuff. He comes home with the funnest stuff. They made mini pizzas to learn about circles, and paint and craft, and will go on field trips which no other school has. She doesn't do crazy academic stuff, but does fun crafty stuff no other one has. I am impressed so far.