Truant

Is it still considered truant if the kids in question are being taken out of school by their parents? So far this school year, our kids have missed over three weeks of school. Not here a day, there a day, but two weeks here, another week there, and soon to be, another three weeks all over the place.

Good thing it's just preschool, right?

In the fall when Megan starts kindergarten, we won't be doing this. That is what we keep telling ourselves, anyway. We missed those first two weeks because I really missed my family in Texas, in particular, my sister. We went for two weeks, because one week just really isn't enough time to make the airfare worth it. Then, last week we went to Salt Lake City. I had a writing conference (which will be in a different post) in Provo and my in-laws were wonderful enough to host us until that started and saintly enough to watch my kids while I was at the conference. Now we will be heading back to Salt Lake for my sister in-law's wedding. It's Nathan's youngest sibling getting married and of course we have to be there. Plus, his other sister will have just had a baby--bonus!

So, pictures will be coming soon. Because I'm lazy like that. The camera is upstairs and I'm downstairs and I have to go get Megan from school (she actually attending this week!) in a few minutes.

Preschool Bliss

Preschool is a wonderful thing. I am one of those people that hates being late, so we arrived at the school about 15 minutes early the first couple days (even earlier today so the kids could play on the playground for a while before going in). By the time Jeremy's teacher opened his classroom door, he was so ready to get in there and play he just ran right in without ever looking back. He wanted to be in school just like Megan. He didn't realize, or maybe didn't care, that I couldn't follow him into the classroom. Megan was the only one who was sad. As we were walking away she told me, "I'm sad for Jeremy because he doesn't have a sister in there to play with." Cute. But I don't think he's worried about that right now.

A friend picked him up from school (we're carpooling with a friend) and according to her, Jeremy's teacher said he did great. No problems.

Same thing happened with Megan. By the time her classroom door opened she was ready and just ran her little butt in there. Jeremy was a little sad and wanted to go in with her, mostly because of the sandbox in her classroom that keeps calling out to him, "Jerrrrremy! Come get dirty! Come throw my sand all over the classroom floor, Jerrrrremy!"

So far my kids are loving it, they are doing well, and they are happy. But the best part of preschool, other than having someone who knows how to teach, teaching them is, the first day after dropping Jeremy off I came home with the idea to clean the house. Megan wanted watermelon and I told her I didn't want to make a mess in the kitchen until the whole house was clean. She went downstairs, I thought to watch PBS (we finally sprang the $8 for basic cable). About ten minutes later she called to me, "Mom! Come see what I did!" I walked downstairs to the basement and found it completely clean. Every toy was picked up and placed exactly where it goes. It was cleaned the way I would have cleaned it. I was so excited I immediately began asking her, "Do you want any fruit snacks? Chocolate milk? Candy? Let me get you whatever your little heart desires." Then she helped me clean up the kitchen. Then she picked up every single toy in the living room and put them away. Bliss. Absolute bliss.

Preschool does wonderful things. Jeremy is even learning how to clean up. Jeremy does not clean. Unless it's his hands, the boy won't do it. You can beg, threaten, or try to move his hands and fingers to grasp toys and put them away, but he will not do it. He got a stamp on his hand yesterday--for CLEANING UP THE TOYS. Who knew? I'll cover his hand with stamps if the kid will do it here at home.

Preschool!

Yesterday was the last day of summer vacation for Megan and Jeremy. Preschool orientation was everything I expected and nothing that the kids expected. I figured we'd walk in, get the kids introduced to their teachers and maybe a couple other kids, have them see what stations are in their room, check out the playground and have the teachers pass out all the boring literature I'm supposed to read and the papers I have to fill out.

That's basically what happened, with the exceptions that Megan's teachers had prepared a game to help them find all the stations in the classroom, Jeremy's teachers didn't take us to the playground, and Emma ate sand.

Jeremy was disappointed he didn't get to play with everything he wanted to, Megan didn't want to leave the housekeeping station, and Emma wanted to read all the books she could reach. Yep, those are my kids.

All in all it was good and I'm excited for tomorrow when I can just drop Jeremy off in the morning and Megan off in the afternoon and I'll have a little more free time with fewer kids. I'm also curious as to how Jeremy is going to do. He isn't as social as Megan and stuck next to me through much of his orientation and seemed glued to Megan during hers.


ps, I'll post pictures tomorrow after the real first day.

The Most Tramatic Thing to Happen To Jeremy Since his Hip Caught a Cold

Today it happened.
I sent my first born into the wilderness.


Today was Megan's first day of school.

Jeremy cried.
A lot.
Nathan walked out with Megan and Jeremy wailed out,
"They left me! WAAAAAAH!"

He cried for his backpack so he could go to school, too. I found it for him. And his pirate map. We put the map in the front pocket of the backpack so he could be like Dora.
This cheered him up a little.

But mostly he just looked like this----->

Megan however, looked like this----->
and this