First Weeks of School

These first weeks of school have actually gone pretty smoothly.  I must admit that the biggest change since last year is that now I wake up earlier than the kids wake up.  Every morning the alarm wakes me at 5:55am.  This gives me enough time to start the coffeemaker (which is key!) and breakfast for the kids.  Last year, I just had Eulee so every morning was a struggle and a haze.  Now I have lots of extra time in the morning.  I'm not rushing kids, not raising my voice, and I even get to drink (AND enjoy) most of my coffee!  It's tough waking up in the mornings, but I like that I'm more relaxed and more pleasant in the morning now.

The other big change has been a new routine chart for the kids.  Before summer ended, each kid painted their own wooden door hanger.  Then I wrote down chores and tasks on individual clothespins.  The left side of the hanger lists the "to do" tasks.  After the task is completed, the clothespin is flipped over and clipped onto the right side of the hanger.

Evie's is modified since she can't read yet.  

The beauty of the hanger is that it's small and transportable.  So the kids can carry it with them from the dining room down to their bedrooms and back upstairs again.  And wherever they go, they find a doorknob or a hook to hang it on so they can always refer to it.  The chart helps Elina remember what needs to be done.  I mean, she's old enough to know, but she likes having the reminder.  On the other hand, this has been a miracle worker for my forgetful and easily distracted Eli.  In the past, I have given him explicit directions whenever he goes downstairs to his room..."brush your teeth and get dressed."  Fifteen minutes later, I would go down to check on him, and he'd be reading a book on his bedroom floor or playing with water in the bathroom sink.  It was enough to drive me insane!  Nowadays, he takes the chart downstairs with him and after 15 minutes he comes back upstairs, fully dressed, teeth brushed, and bed made!  It's amazing!  Now I can trust him to be downstairs actually taking care of himself ALL BY HIMSELF!  I can go to my room and get myself ready and not have to worry about him, shout down orders, or nag him anymore!  Life is definitely more pleasant these days!  I am loving this new chart!  This is only the third week it's been in the works, but so far we are all loving it.  I hope it lasts!  The beauty of the chart is that I can always add clothespins when I think of extra tasks that I missed.  I can also switch out the clothespins depending on the time of day.  I have a set of after-school tasks and bedtime tasks, too.

The final addition to our routine has been built-in clean-up time every night.  Every night we set the timer and do a Personal Pick-Up.  We all go through every room and find things that don't belong there.  It's "personal" because you're supposed to pick up things you personally left out.  But with Eulee around we know that we all have to chip in no matter what.  Sometimes the kids split up the rooms...other times they all work together on bigger messes.  I think the kids just like beating the timer.  It's as simple as that.  Not sure how long this will last, but it's been a nice change...not cleaning up toys after the kids go to bed and not cleaning up constantly during the day.  I've just learned to live with Personal Pick-Up time as the official clean-up time.  I don't need it to be clean all day...I just need the kids to learn to be responsible enough to clean things up themselves.  I love that even Evie will say, "Ok, guys, it's Personal Pick-Up!"

These little changes have really made a difference in how things have been flowing the last few weeks.  I'm less ornery and more alert.  And I'm definitely more proud of my kids these days...not that I WASN'T proud before, but you know what I mean!

So how did the first day of school go?  It was pretty great.  The kids had their own back-to-school sugary cereals.  Elina chose Frosted Flakes and Eli had Cocoa Puffs.

Don't you love how Eulee is trying to get into the picture with Elina in the picture below??  SO cute!

At Elina's Open House, we got the sense that Elina's new teacher is going to be pretty great for her.  She's more fun-loving and enthusiastic than Elina's 2nd grade teacher.  And so far she's been great at keeping the parents in the loop.  Elina really likes her and so do I!  I'm hopeful that this will be a wonderful year for Elina!

Eli's teacher and teacher assistant are amazing as well.  Eli's teacher assistant, Mrs. K, was actually Elina's kindergarten teacher assistant, too.  So we already know her and love her!  Eli only has 9 other kids in his class...and with the 2 great teachers, Eli's going to have an awesome year as well.

It's been really fun packing lunches for Eli.  That boy will eat almost anything and he is STARVING by the time lunch rolls around.

Things are going really well, but I still feel like I'm short on time during the day.  Eli is gone for 5 hours, but I just can't seem to get much done during that time.  This baby definitely keeps me preoccupied!  And we also scheduled our after-school activities only on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays.  It's been feeling a little busy to me, but I hope we'll hit our groove and I'll get used to the busy beginning of the week.  This is going to be a fun semester!