First week of school complete!!

We had some ups and downs the first week of public school. Mostly we ended on an "up" note. It did not help that Sissy had a cold the first and second day of school. She really hates blowing her nose around other people, and last time she got a cold, it ended in her being sick, really sick, for a long time. It turned into a sinus infection. Gladly, her sickness was short lived. It hit me like a mack truck, however. In my blog, Enjoy Your Day, I discuss why this happened and then list three things that I should have done right away had I known it was a cold.

I have such a peaceful, good feeling about their school. I can only say that it's a mixture of the happy faces on the faculty, the general organized, clean feeling of the school itself, and the philosophy of both of their teachers. On parent night they both stressed the idea that not everything should be about striving for the highest grade or score. Awesome. Some activities will be solely for exploring and learning, for learning's sake. Great!! And as far as them being challenged, Math has changed so much since I was a kid!! Now, kids progress at basically their own rate. For math activities, the school is using a Math curriculum developed at a Chicago university that makes math more real-life and relate-able. More manipulatives, less drills, more story problems, more talking through the problems. As far as the practice worksheets, they progress at their own level by only moving on when they master the sheet before. It's going to be great for DS who is already doing mental math in his head. I was worried that the picture addition wasn't going to be challenging enough, but with the customized worksheet drills, he'll get challenged.

I did great on packing lunches this week. I used to loathe the idea, but really, the school lunch thing is not going to happen this year. Two reasons: sodium and nitrates. Bugh!! We talked about what they wanted to eat, because I know that I would hate to eat the same thing every day. We made sure they had a cool lunch box that they liked, too.

Monday: Pasta salad, yogurt, juice (in re-usable stainless)
Tuesday: Peanut Butter and yogurt
Wednesday: Appples and grapes, ham and salami sandwhich (Hormel Natural Choice, no nitrates), red pepper
Thursday: Pumpernick. sub, chips, juice
Friday: ham and cheese wrap, chips, juice or water