First Day of School

Today was Corban's first day of kindergarten. Whew, let's take a moment and let that sink in a little. This little guy who really was "just born yesterday" is officially in school. (Not according to the state, mind you, because we don't have to actually let the state know anything about his schooling until August 2010! Ahhh, the benefits of having an October birthday. Not to worry, next year I do plan on declaring him homeschooled...but for kindergarten, it doesn't matter anyways.) It's hard to wrap my mind around the fact that he's growing up so fast.

I've been trying to get him excited about it, but not too successfully. He's not thrilled about reading or sitting still for much. And since he is still only four, after all, I don't feel it necessary to force him into long periods of arduous study. But he is very smart and definitely ready to learn.

We cracked open his new workbooks this morning and he was delighted to see that it was extremely easy.....much easier than what he was doing at the end of his PreK curriculum.
Having a brand new box of crayons helped the situation as well.

The only problem was little Annika, who was determined to crawl over to his desk and pester him no matter how I tried to distract her. I'm thinking we might have to employ the use of the good old Pack and Play to contain her for awhile during school time.

Marissa is also thrilled to have her own workbooks, a three-year-old curriculum by Abeka that is very cute. She'll be learning the letters and numbers 1-15 this year.

We started school early because I wanted to get into a good routine before we got into the busyness of the coming year, including MOPS every other week, field trips with other homeschoolers, visits from family, gymnastics classes, hopefully swim lessons, and who knows what else! Plus, when kids are this young, I think that year-round schooling is best anyways, because they forget stuff so quickly.
I'm ashamed to admit that I was neglectful about keeping Corban practicing reading this summer. We did a few things, but not nearly often enough. I can tell he's forgotten a bit. I'm hoping he'll pick it up again quickly.

I think it will be a fun year, and certainly a very busy year.