First Day of School

This year Mason is in first grade. He was excited for school this year, especially the chance to ride the bus home and have lunch at school.

His first few weeks of school were a little more stressful than I had anticipated. I was surprised when Mason came home each day very discouraged and unhappy. Mason loved school last year and I was sad that he wasn't loving things this year. Thursday on the first full week of school he got on the wrong bus to come home. Mason was quickly located, but there were a nervous few minutes where I wondered anxiously why no one had been looking out for my child. Friday I visited the school at the end of the day and felt further discouraged about Mason's classroom. On Monday after spending some time observing his classroom and praying for some direction on the matter I felt strongly that I needed to ask the principal for a class change. It was a fairly drawn out and stressful process, but eventually the change was made and Mason has enjoyed his new class so much. All of this drama happened while Shane was in Poland. I had to be the primary parent dealing with this problem. It was challenging and it made me really appreciate and miss having Shane for support.

Max's first day was about two weeks later. He is going to this wonderful little preschool in the neighborhood, and Miss Karla is his teacher. He was excited and a little bit nervous on the first day, but so far is absolutely loving preschool.


This last picture has nothing to do with school but I took it while Shane was still out of town. I told the kids that we could go out to dinner twice while Shane was gone. One time Mason could choose the destination, and one time it would be Max's choice. Mason had first choice, but this night it was Max's choice. I snapped this picture because I thought the boys were being so sweet to each other, but upon further inspection I discovered that Mason was trying to talk Max into choosing the restaurant that he wanted that night.