School

Sometimes it is hard for me to keep up with blogs, especially having two. I often have trouble these days deciding between posting here or at the family blog. I wrote about the kids' first day of school on the family blog, because Max and Lauren started together, and Max wasn't exactly great about letting me take pictures. So, if anyone is interested, click here to read about their first day.

Max seems to be really loving school. As many people know, we really agonized about what to do this year. He loved preschool last year and did well, but they recommended we have him do another year of preschool rather than move him into kindergarten, mainly for social reasons. He was still having difficulty waiting his turn to speak and listening and following directions in groups. For someone who was the center of attention for so long, this wasn't that surprising, and he definitely has difficulty waiting patiently for one of us to finish a conversation or talk on the phone when he wants us. However, he has been working to teach himself to read and has a real interest in math and science stuff and I worried that another year of preschool would bore him. We decided to send him to a private kindergarten this year because the ratio there is 13 students to 2 teachers, similar to last year, but the curriculum will be more advanced. Maybe this won't help him survive in the big public school next year, but hopefully it will work out. They do have a pre-first option at the public school, so if he isnt' ready for first grade, we have that option, too. However, he seems to be doing really well. I haven't had a chance to ask the teachers about how he is listening, but he is definitely absorbing like a sponge. The first evening, he called me into his room to show me "how we hold a pencil in my new school" and was holding his pencil perfectly, no more just grasping it. I have been encouraging him to do this off and on for months. He had his first Spanish class on the third day and greeted me with "Hola" and when we got home said "Gracias for picking me up, Mommy" which was both cool about the Spanish and nice to be thanked. :) Today, he was playing a game and I heard him counting in Spanish even though the game was in English. Late last week, after a week of school, he brought home a worksheet. They had been working on the letters in their names. (Well, I assume all the kids were not working on M, A, and X, though A was the letter of the week and M is the letter next week.) His sheet contained Ms, A, Xs and Ts. They were all neatly written. And, his X's looked like X's, not T's. I assume they had him doing both for comparison. This is another thing I have tried to get him to work on, though again, without pushing. I have been trying to get him to make X's that didn't look like Ts. This weekend, he was writing a book about Wall-E and had written the title out - WALL-E. His W, A and Ls were beautiful. His E still looks like it used to, but I was still amazed. This was not on line paper, either. It was just free form. I know this is a little thing, but it just showed me that this is working for him. And most importantly, he really seems to be enjoying it.

I have thought a lot about homeschooling. I did some when Max was not able to go to school, though how much "schooling" does a 3 and 4 YO really need, but I was prepared to do it as long as I needed to, and I have considered, if the school system in our town really doesn't work for him, homeschooling later on, though it would pain me to pay so much in taxes and not utilize the public schools (well, I guess we are doing that now). However, watching him absorb so much so quickly when I was unable to come up with a pleasant way to get those things across all summer makes me question whether I would be able to be effective. I suppose if I took it seriously, I would, or at least I hope I would. I know a lot of unschoolers as compared to homeschoolers would scoff at the idea that knowing the "right" way to hold a pencil or making neat letters even matters, especially at this age, but obviously it mattered to me, or I wouldn't have cared that much. Every time Max signed his name to something, I knew that the X wasn't a T but as his written language expands, it will be helpful to tell the difference. Anyway, it just got me thinking.

Being Creative is Such Hard Work

I have posted before that Max likes to create books. Sometimes, he makes up stories (like The Two Lobsters, still my favorite), and sometimes he just paraphrases movies that he has seen (Tonight it was Wall-E), but he will illustrate them and tells us what he wants them to say and we write the words. Then, I bind them with a hole punch and yarn. This evening, he was working on a long one and sent me away to finish his illustrations, but was very clear that he wanted the story "stringed" when he got up. However, it didn't get finished. When I went in to check on him, this is what I found. The book will have to wait for another day.

CBC - 09/02/2008

I can't believe the summer is "over" already and we only had to go to MGH once. Max had his two month checkup today. We drove in with friends from North Carolina who were visiting with plans to go to the Museum of Science beforehand, but got a late start, so dropped them off with Lauren (they are on my favorite friends list for taking her) and headed over. It was really backed up today. I should have known better than to go the day after a holiday weekend, but I don't think that sunk in when I booked it. Anyway, we waited for close to two hours before we got to see Dr. Ebb today, and the blood draw was after we were done with him, so we left right after they finished the draw. Dr. Ebb said he looked great and we booked an appt for early November. Then, we took the T to the Museum stop, met our friends (Mike had Lauren on his back and really appreciated why we wear her now), took the T back to North Station, and went to the North End for pastry at Maria's. Then we grabbed some pizza for me and Max as we hadn't eaten lunch yet (it was around 4:30 by this point), took the T back to the hospital, send our friends off to the airport, and drove home. Phew, what a day. The kids really enjoyed it. I guess Lauren had a blast at the MOS. Max had fun at the hospital as usual. He didn't seem to mind the wait at all.

I got a call from Dr. Ebb around 6:30 with the counts. They did a retic count but he didn't have them yet. Here is what he gave me. (I miss my printout. What will I file? ;) )

WBC: 5.8
PLT: 178
HGB: 13.1
HCT: 35.4
ANC: 1890

I think these are down a bit from last month (I suppose I could just check the blog) but they are in the normal range so all is good.

This evening, I went to the parent orientation/meet the teachers thing at Max's school. He starts kindergarten tomorrow. I got a bit teary eyed when I realized this was the third orientation in three years that I have attended, but the first one where I know for sure that he will get to start school. The first time, he wasn't expected to start (then ended up going the first week before his counts totally tanked and he got pulled out for the rest of the year). Last year, it took until Jan to start. Baring any unforseen illness tonight, he will be starting school tomorrow. That makes me smile.