Being a Michigan native, you get used to the weather changing. But, the summer heat and sunshine over the weekend makes it hard to believe we are now in October.
Not only in a new month, but school has been going one for at least a month. How is the new school year treating you? Have you gotten back into the swing of drop offs, pick ups, bus stops, homework due, and so on.
For our household, seven-year-old Jonathan is enjoying second grade and his classroom. At least once a week he mentions what books his teacher has in her classroom. The collection is quite an array of shelves and bins – it was one of the first things I noticed when we went to Meet the Teacher back in August. A bonus is Jonathan’s homework is to read at least 20 minutes a day. Some days it’s not hard to get him to read, but on those tough days it is nice to point out it is his homework.
He is in his second year of being a Cub Scout as well – a Wolf.
He really enjoyed his first year. He had a good mix of adventures with his fellow Tigers last year – den meetings, camping, bowling, walking in a Memorial Day parade. A few experiences stand out more.
I went on a few adventures. One was to the Sloan Museum of Discovery in Flint for the Cub Scout Workshop Good Knights. Jonathan learned about knights and how they are connected to scouts. Then, all of the scouts created a shield and a castle out of recycled materials with some adult help. He designed it and I helped with the glue gun portions. Together we add some embellishments. He was drawing on scrap pieces of cardboard so we just added them on.
He left happy – he learned a little bit – though he didn’t know it. Plus, he was introduced to the museum – he really enjoyed the Great Lakes Water Table. If it’s water or dirt – he is definitely happy. I left wondering how is it possible I do not own a hot glue gun.
Now if you ask him what he learned or remembers for his first year, it will probably (definitely) be Scout Night at Jimmy John’s Field in Utica. Now, don’t ask him what teams played or what the ending score was – he doesn’t know. What he can tell you is what he ate and what time he finally fell asleep. The cliff note mom version is he tried Dippin’ Dots, ate a lot of food, got to run around the whole stadium when it was just the scouts, and his friends and him finally went to bed at 1:30 a.m.
There will be more experiences this year and pretty soon he will be counting down the days to camping.
As for four-year-old Oliver, he is officially in preschool. The first day drop off went…easy. Maybe too easy. Oliver ran into his preschool classroom as soon as the door opened. By the time I finished signing him in, he had already hung up his nap time bag and backpack and was sitting at one of the tables getting right to the activity sitting there.
I waved goodbye and he just looked up, acknowledged me with a toddler nod, and that was it. No tears from anyone – even me. I received a few text messages the first day asking if I was okay. I was. We were both fine. We were both ready for preschool to begin.
Now, pick up on the first day was not easy. During the last recess for the day, right before pick up, Oliver had left his Transformers water bottle out on the playground. He was upset. It was like he left his most beloved stuffed animal or toy on the playground. He wanted his water bottle – right then. It didn’t help when we left his school we went the opposite direction. He wanted to go home right then. Time for him to be upset about something else. Then, I broke the news to him, as cheerfully as I could, he was coming with me to go to Lake Orion High School for cross country because brother and dad had Cub Scouts.
Oh yes, he did not like the news at all. He got over it – eventually.
The next morning, I wanted to be prepared if his teachers weren’t able to find his water bottle.
I began looking online for the water bottle. I could not find the Transformers water bottle online. It was sold out at the store where I bought it. It wasn’t showing up anyplace else, not even good old Amazon.
I began getting really worried. Oliver worked hard to get that water bottle. He earned it. During potty training the big goal was the Transformers bottle. I prepared myself on the quick drive to school for the worst case scenario, how to ease the five-minute pain. The door opened to his classroom and right in his cubby above his hooks the water bottle was there. Whew….
He didn’t take the water bottle for the rest of the week or the following week. Last week he did take it.
I understand. I have more coffee mugs than a person really needs – but there is always a favorite. Maybe a coffee mug which holds half a pot of coffee. Why yes, I only had one cup of coffee. Now amount of ounces…