First Day of Public School

To Every Thing There is a Season

Ecc 3: 1-8

1To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:

2A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;

3A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;

4A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;

5A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

6A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;

7A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;

8A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.

After A LOT of prayer, consideration, thinking, and going back-and-forth, we have decided not to homeschool this year.

When we started this journey, it was never our intention to graduate the boys through homeschool. We always took our decision making year by year. It took a long time to be at peace with this decision, but I am finally there. I agree with Jeff that this will be the perfect year to give the school system a try.

This school year, Will is entering 5th grade so this will give him an opportunity to be a "big fish" in a "little pond". It will also give him an opportunity to make friends before moving up to middle school (assuming he continues in the public school system).

Nathan is entering 2nd. Witt will be repeating Kindergarten (only because he's a little young).

All three will be attending the same elementary school - which will be very nice. Easy for me to drop off/pick up and comforting for them to know that their brothers are in the same building.

The boys all took the news remarkably well.  We asked them what they thought about it several months ago. Then we would ask them again from time to time.  We allowed them to "overhear" conversations about the decision-making process. When if finally came time to tell them that the decision was made, they were all ok with it.

Will said he thought he would have a great school year. Nathan came back about a week later saying he wanted to homeschool instead, but it was just a brief little comment and he never brought it up again. Witt is fine with it, knowing that his brothers will be in the same building.

I took them up to the elementary school when I registered them and we were allowed to walk around and take our own personal tour of the building. Will remembered a lot of it, since he attended there in Kindergarten.  We saw the library, the art room, the music room, the cafeteria, the nurse's office, and the classrooms.  The boys were pretty excited after the tour. :)

And what if the public school system turns out to be horrendous? Well, I know I can pull them out and immediately begin to homeschool. Our cover school has agreed to keep our family "on hold" just in case. I'd need to order a bit of curriculum, but that's easy. :)

As for me, I won't be returning to an out-of-the-house job until at least after Christmas.  Jeff and I think it will be best for me to remain at home to help with the transition as much as possible.  I may even do some substitute teaching after Christmas so I can work only the days I want to and still be available for school activities.

Our family life is about to change substantially really soon. I think it will be good overall. Although, a few extra prayers couldn't hurt! (Please only leave encouraging comments)

Speaking Their Language

Our oldest, Will, is a train lover. (understatement there, btw) When he was younger, I was always excited when we ran into someone that "spoke Thomas the Train" - the kids that knew which tenders and coaches went with which engines; the kids that knew which ones worked in the slate yard and which ones worked in at the quarry.  It just made the playtime easier.

As Will has grown, some "train talk" has stuck with us as a part of our daily conversation. 

When the boys are slowing down on a chore, I may tell them to "Keep chugging along!"

When Will gets upset, he may refer to "letting off some steam."

When it's time to leave the house, sometimes I'll say, "Let's boogy-woogy choo-choo train!"

Nathan and Wittman are more into video games.  For awhile everything was Super Mario Brothers.  One of the super powers is called a "Star Power" and it makes the player go really, really fast and nothing can get in it's way. 

Sometimes I would tell Witt to clean up his room with Star Power and he'd get a big smile and run around really fast cleaning up.

They are all also very familiar with pausing a video game or movie. I have recently incorporated "Pause" into our life.

Pause the lego building, it's time to go to the store.

Pause your thought process, I'm in the middle of a conversation.

Pause all screens, let's do chores.

Using the word "Pause" has really helped with transitioning between activities. They know that "Pause" means it will still be there - just as they left it - when they return. 


Do you have any words or phrases that are special to your family?