School daze

The first thing that I realized this morning when I woke up at 6:00 was that while I slept I dreamed about my kids going back to school. I have been anxious about this day for about a week. It is a year of lots of change. Analee is in 8th grade at Bowman Middle School and of the three kids she is the one I thought would be fine. In reality, she is the one who couldn't eat breakfast this morning. The school provides free breakfast to all the kids every morning so she said she would just try to eat at school. Well, apparently the school doesn't provide breakfast on the first day of school because they are busy getting the kids in their right places. She was really hungry by the time she got to eat lunch, which came after her fifth period class. Poor girl. I think eating breakfast will not be a problem from now on. She had a good day and her biggest problem when she came home was deciding whether or not to take voice lessons this year in choir. I am trying to encourage her to do it.

Jacob started 6th grade today at Bowman Middle School. He and Analee go to the same school so they now ride the bus together. They did not sit together. Jacob sat up front and was able to sit with a friend and Analee sat in the back with the other cool 8th graders. Jacob had no problem eating breakfast this morning and he had lunch after 4th period. He came home happy and said he had a good day. He was able to navigate his way around the school and find all his classes. All the 6th graders eat lunch at the same time so he was able to eat with friends. Later, after he had been home for a while, he started to get sullen and became angry over small things. I think he was tired and just trying to come down from the day. At least I hope that's all it was. I don't relish trying to find out what is going on if this continues.

Now Sam. He is the one that I expected to not be able to eat breakfast. He ate two waffles and two pieces of toast. Kyle walked with us to the bus stop for the older two and then on to the elementary school for Sam. Kyle took Sam to his class because I had other duties to take care of. More about that in a minute. Kyle said Sam went to his class just fine and put his things in his locker and sat at his desk. Everything to indicate it was going to be a good day. Alas, at the end, it was a different story. Back to me. I am the new crossing guard for McCall Elementary. I am at my corner from 7:15-7:45 in the morning which is why I couldn't take Sam to class. In the afternoon, I'm at the corner from 2:45-3:15 which is where I was when Sam came up the hill and I could tell from his face that he was upset. I asked him what had happened and he said he got mad and ripped up his Science notebook and now a teacher was chasing him. Of course, that wasn't the actual story but in his mind she was after him. All she was doing was making sure that he got to me. To make a long story short, one of the Autism specialist teachers came out and asked if I could come back to the school when I had time. I talked with his teacher, his Autism specialist and the teacher who was "chasing" him. We came up with some ideas to help him have a better second day and hopefully that would extend to the rest of the year. Poor kid. He doesn't have his brother or sister in the school with him. Fourth grade is the time when school really starts to count and the homework and responsibility is increased. It will take a lot of adjustment for him and it's kind of scary to think about.

Along with being the new crossing guard, I am also the library coordinator which means I help to get volunteers to help the librarian who is all by herself this year. I am in charge of the Book Fair this year which is coming up on September 21, right around the corner. And Kyle was just called to be the second counselor in the bishopric.