Off to School

I'm not sure quite how it happened, but I now have two children off to school. And the answer to the question everyone asks: I have thirty minutes to myself, walking from dropping off one kid to pick up the other.


Here's Maren on the first day, meeting the teacher. She is settling in to French Immersion and is quite proud of her fledgling vocabulary, although she's just been thrown the curveball of her class being combined into a grade 1/2 split. (Yuck!) So we're back to thirty minutes of homework every night and behaviour charts and... oh my. Sometimes I have to remind myself that she'll probably still be a well-adjusted adult at the end of her school career, and if she isn't, something worse than a heavy homework load is probably responsible.


Malcolm had his first day of preschool yesterday. He was okay once he got there, although his arrival was preceded by nearly an hour of tears. (Yes, I am the world's cruelest mother for making my son wear underwear and socks. Alert the authorities.) More than learning phonics and whatnot, it will be a challenge for him to be with a group of high-energy kids his own age. He got stuck in the bathroom without toilet paper yesterday, and I suspect that his willingness to sit there and sing until someone noticed may have been his way of taking a break!