Week One Assessment

Fall is here, hear the yell
Back to school, ring the bell
Brand new shoes, walking blues
Climb the fence, books and pens
I can tell that we are going to be friends
Yes I can tell that we are going to be friends

This week brought many new things into our world. We began the week excited to wake up, and by Friday we were being dragged out of bed. Not one nap for Louie, and poor Charlie and Benny slept when they could, but never made it to their beds for an official nap.

Louie had his first homework assignment. His teacher has a "mystery box" where there are three clues and the students have to figure out what it is in it based on the clues. Louie figured it out on the first day (scissors) and was to bring it home to come up with a new object and clues.

Here are the clues:

1. It is long.
2. You write with it.
3. It has an eraser on one end.
   

He's had music, gym, art, and library, and out of all these his favorite is still recess.

From the sound of it, the boys on the playground play "superheroes" every day. This must be a popular thing for school-aged kids. Everything from backpacks to underwear are covered in the graphics. They're leaving behind Elmo, Thomas and even SpongeBob (to an extent). SpongeBob is cool, but you don't act out the stories like you would SpiderMan and Batman, apparently.

Each day, a piece of paper with a calendar on each side comes home in Louie's folder. On one side, his teacher puts a number 1-5 in the day's box. Each student starts the day with five stars and if he or she breaks a classroom rule a star is lost. Louie had five stars each day and for that got to pick a prize out of a basket. On the other side of the paper we're supposed to write in the time we spent that evening reading books. This is really the only nightly homework they have.

Louie's friend's mom has been walking the boys to their classroom each morning. She is hoping to get to the point where she drops them off and they walk in by themselves. This school has Pre-K through grade 6 and apparently on a couple of the day the bigger kids were knocking into the boys. In turn, the boys are a bit nervous to go on their own. I'll keep you posted on how this develops.

Overall, it was a great week. The hardest thing was the lack of sleep by all involved. Today, Louie got up almost at the same time as he has to during the week, though a little bit later. I thought for sure he'd take a nap by Friday, which is what his friend told us he was going to do when we dropped him off after school. As a result, he is whining and doing his baby talk, which is a sure-fire sign of a desperate need for sleep. He is in denial. I am not sure what to do with Ben and Charlie. Charlie starts to fall asleep right before it's time to pick Louie up from school. Benny ends up crashing on the carpet for about an hour after we get back. They both have been pretty cranky lately because of it. What will help is that Louie has another friend who we will pick up in the afternoons. I will trade off weeks to pick the boys up with his mom, so every other week Ben and Char will have naps! Louie is enjoying school, though, and that is the most important thing. Be assured that I will be posting on all the new and exciting things kids are doing in school these days!