Will’s First Day…

Well, yesterday was Will’s first day at Loris Elementary’s 4-year-old program. He had previously been going to Kingston Elementary which is about 20 minutes away - Unless you go by bus, and then it’s about an hour. That was one of the main reasons for us moving him to Loris(The program was full ,but a spot had recently opened up). Will was having to get up at an insane hour just to get to Loris Elementary in time to catch the hour-long bus drive to Kingston… and he is not allowed to nap on the bus. We were noticing some extreme changes in his behavior. He was cranky ALL the time. This is no sleight on any of the teachers over at Kingston. They were wonderful and Will liked all of them.

Now that he has moved to Loris, Will’s demeanor is much more bearable. He still whines alot as it gets closer to bedtime, but it is nothing like the temper-tantrumed terror that he was. He also has a couple of kids that he knew from his old day-care that are in the program as well. So, I get home Monday night and Will is at the kitchen table doing homework! What?! Yup, he was happily sitting there practicing his letters and giving examples of words that start with each letter. Now, I’ve known he could do that for quite some time, but this is the first time I’ve seen him doing it as actual school work. Kinda makes me proud….

Brian has been zooming through first-grade. The kid is a whirlwind, I tell ya. He is constantly doing something and he almost always pursues it with a ton of enthusiasm. Brian’s teacher says that his reading skills are improving rapidly, and he is constantly finding ways to implement his newly acquired math skills. Being a middle-child myself, I cannot begin to tell you how worried I am of him that he doesn’t slide into that middle-child syndrome. Brian has a ton of potential and, at least in these early stages, he is really striving to reach it.

I do catch myself often feeling concerned about them and their education. I always find myself comparing their abilities to what I could do at their age. I have to remind myself that my children are not me, and though there is nothing wrong with a little push, nothing good comes from a hard shove.

Victoria still amazes me. I think we have kept her the busiest this year over any of the previous years and she just plugs away. She is keeping good grades despite having to fill in as a surrogate parent as often as she has had to lately. Most of her friends are very well put-together, and her boyfriend, despite my initial misgivings about him, has been very supportive. I guess all Dad’s are wired to be extra wary of their daughter’s boyfriend, and I still am… but I cannot deny that he’s done everything that we have asked of him.

As I’ve always stated before, I can take no credit for how well Victoria has turned out. Amy did a wonderful job in raising her. However, I do take some pride in her quick-wit and sometimes over-sharp tongue. It adds so much to her charm!