Back to School Parade and Meet the Teacher Night

It's the week before school starts here. We have been practicing getting up early and following a set routine with visual and verbal reminders. In making the visual schedule, I searched images to match and was surprised to find naked women pop up on one or two.  How those pictures are in anyway related to what I was searching is beyond me but there they were and, sadly, with my 7-year-old daughter right beside me.  In my astonishment, I said, "Whoa! Hang on a minute." while I tried to get the image away from us.  My daughter was spacing out and never saw the pictures but as my "Whoa!" she was asking what happened.  This was actually great because she didn't see the garbage and we were able to discuss what types of images are inappropriate and what to do when they pop up.  I know it's a when and not an if these days.  I hope she'll follow my example the day it happens to her.

We also had our special Family Home Evening this past Monday.  It is our tradition to 1.) discuss the importance of learning both spiritual and temporal, 2.) read The Kissing Hand, so they know their family loves them no matter what as they go off, and 3.) have Neal give them a priesthood blessing so they know their Heavenly Father's love for them and his will for them.  We end the evening with hand shaped sugar cookies with a chocolate Hershey's kiss in the palm.  I freeze two so I can also slip one into their lunchbox the first day of school so they know we are thinking of them.

This year marks the inaugural Back to School Parade for our local elementary.  The teachers piled into cars and with a police escort meandered through the school boundaries to be cheered by students, neighbors, and families.

Sophie received her postcard in the mail this week to find Mrs. Steele is her second grade teacher!  I like her.  She is super friendly.  We'll see how Sophie and Mrs. Steele's chemistry works this year but until I see otherwise, we are expecting the best.  Mrs. Steele is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, we have found through conversation and attending church activities.

Rhys will have to wait to find out who his official kindergarten teacher will be.  At Story, they sort of take note of the kids and expose them to all the kinder teachers the first week.  Then they find if they remain with their homeroom teacher or a new kindergarten teacher.  It hopefully (fingers crossed) makes for more balanced classes.  For my kids, I see this as great.  For more timid or delicate kids, this may be more difficult.  We will see.

Back to the parade.  So we prepared for the parade.  We made our posters, collected noise makers, loaded the wagon with lawn chairs, and picked out our tied-dyed shirts.  Since we live on a circle, the parade route was one street over, so we knocked on our neighbor's door and asked if we could make a ruckus that morning in front of her house.  She was very obliging.

Packed the wagon the night before and on schedule we were ready as the parade arrived!  The teachers and staff at our elementary school did great decorating cars, making signs, and cheering their heads off.  We rose to the occasion as well.  It was great, tons of fun, and short in duration.

 

 

After spending the morning swimming with friends, we made our way over to the school that late afternoon for Meet the Teacher Night.  We filled out yet more forms for our kinder kid, PTA, and volunteer opportunities, happily unloaded our children's school supplies, and checked out their new rooms.  Sophie and Rhys are in the same hall this year.

We all were glad to have a good start so we celebrated with In-N-Out because I forgot to defrost an ingredient and purchase another for dinner. Oh well!