School begins

Tuesday is the big day. I'm off on a cleaning fit. I have to laugh. I went into the girls corner where they store their stuff. We obviously had not been there at least in part since school ended this last year. I went into my 7 year olds back pack and found some really interesting food stuffs. She had chips and they were in the original bag but they looked more like a candy bar. One big lumpy square of brown. EWWWW! Then my older daughter had something in a baggy in her dance bag. It was as well brown and fairly uniform but seriously unrecognizable. There were a couple water bottles that leaked in their bags so I'm thinking that whatever was going on was some metamorphosis related to the combining of water and whatever.

So laundry day here. I'm going to be getting them ready for school in the morning. Then we will be going off to the library. There is a school open house tonite. My older daughter will have an open house later I know but they usually ask that we not come as a family which bugs me. One of us stays home with the kiddos. Tim went last year so I think I will go this year if possible. I guess I can understand with this being a big school they don't want everyone to bring their siblings and grandmothers but why would we get a baby sitter (why would everyone want to get a baby sitter?!) just for a couple hours of school activity.

Another week gone. I spent the beginning of this one getting our ducks in a row for when school begins; getting new clothes, supplies and marking the calendar with open house dates and times. Also learned that our oldest will be taking 4 hours of dance a week. I was upset at first about this, it was more than I thought she would be doing. It made sense though when I read the paperwork for her classes. She auditioned for a competitive dance team and they sent us the required classes. She will be taking two hours related to her "home group" which is the group level she is involved in. As well she will be taking two hours of dance related to Tap and Jazz. the two areas of competition. It's actually going to work out fine. It is going to cost a bit more than I had planned on spending for dance but it is worth every penny. Good exercise, a disciplined learning experience with some challenge (but not too much) and she will derive a sense of confidence from this as well. This is her focus right now for extracurricular activity and something she enjoys. Our younger daughter will take one tap class. She is excited about it and it is something new to her. While she was involved in dance at the Theatre Academy last year this is a much more focused discipline for her and something she looks forward to. She can decide from there if she wants to get involved with a team or take on more dance as time goes on. She will be able to build on this experience. I also have a dance class one night a week. Took this class last year and enjoyed it. Hopefully I will again. While I'm not thrilled with the idea of a recital in the Spring I will endure.

I also put some dates on the Calender for the boys. Our youngest will be evaluated the first week in September to see if he needs any help with developmental skills. As he turns 3 in November they will be transitioning him to a classes outside the house if he does need services. I'm going to guess he will not need any additional services and can join a regular pre-school when the time comes w/o extra therapies. Our foster son was evaluated and they are sending him to Head Start this year. He will be in two years of HS before going to a regular kindergarten class room. Although he does not meet the 25% delay criteria for special therapies he is seen to be at risk for developmental and behavioral problems due to his being in the foster care system. It is not so much him as it is the fact that children who are in foster care have extra stressors and challenges. With head start we will have an open house early in September so he can meet his teachers and get acquainted with the classroom and then we also have meetings in our home. I'm not quite sure what the home meetings are about but we will find out.

I'm in the process now of listening to some audio tapes in the car. Love and Logic -- www.loveandlogic.com --. I was given these CD's about a month ago. I tossed them aside after hearing a brief summation of this parenting style. Sounded too simplistic and I didn't need it at the time. Suddenly this last week I realized our foster son and our son are becoming a bit more challenging as they time goes on. I needed something fresh to inspire. I thought it couldn't hurt to listen to the tapes and see if there is something that will be helpful to this developmental stage. Well what I've heard so far in the first 45 minutes is wonderful and I will elaborate more in another post about it. I highly recommend this study.... it takes a great deal of stress out of parenting and gives a good focus for helping kids to learn and grow. Really it is nothing new although their tactics go a bit farther than I'm used to going with allowing my kids find natural consequences to their behaviors. The tapes did give me a sense that I'm on the right track. It is support and inspiration on the road to loving these boys.

Summer... woooosh!

Our summer is going well... we have had so many new things to see and so many places to go. I cannot believe that the school year is about to start even though we have had such a full summer. I get a little sad about it. We get so into enjoying the summer ease and go-when-and-where-we-want schedule that the change to a ritual time and place oriented school year feels like sandpaper grating on my mind. Summer as well just went so fast. The Summer last year seemed to go on forever. I wonder if it had to do with the fact we were involved heavily in theatre events for the girls and somehow I buried myself in the newness of life in PA. Only our first full summer in PA. Wooosh... there went this summer.

Some of the things we did:

Some dance classes and auditions for a dance group
"Bama" was here for 28 days. The kids had a great fill of Grandma time.
Visited Hershey Park and on another day Chocolate World and Museaum
Strasburg Train Ride
Gettysburg Battle field tour
A couple picnic dinners
Dinners with a couple friends that were great fun
Science Center at the Maryland Inner Harbour
Shopping in Lancaster (Amish area)
All you can eat Crab dinner (whoa... this was new for us!)
A couple Farmer's Market visits
Ikea
Trader Joe's

Some wonderful points of passage for the kiddos:

Graduating from Speech Therapy for our 2 year old son!
and Potty training (we are not quite "there" yet)
Our 7 year old finally mastering her 2 wheel bike (woo hoo!!!!)
Our foster son was evaluated and is not needing special services
(He will go into head start in the fall and is excited about it)
We had 2 extra kids this summer for 19 days which made us a family
of 8!!!
Our older daughter auditioning for a dance troupe and making the decision to
move on form her theatre studio to focus on dance.

I know it's not over yet and we are still making discovery and doing fun new things. I just feel as though my time to post is fleeting so I wanted to update before we start school. School begins on the 26th which is so close at hand. I will finalize my summer vacation post after that...