A typical school day

We are a few weeks into our first ever school year, and we are starting to get the hang of it. It certainly is very different going from several years of your baby's internal schedule determining your day to the alarm clock deciding when you, and the baby, wake up! It is much harder... and there is a lot more waiting around... and a lot more driving... and I miss my oldest baby (Southern) daily!

Our school days start the night before with me picking out Southern's clothes and putting them on top of his dresser. It's pretty easy since he has a uniform. He wears the school polo with Parker brand khaki shorts or pants (pants are required on Fridays which is the day they attend Mass), solid white or black socks, black belt, and black shoes (no emblems showing). Boys are allowed a non-flashy watch and a religious necklace (if worn under the shirt). That's it! I just have to make sure I have enough of everything washed and ready to go.

Then I fix his lunch. The school serves four different things each day - a healthy meal (turkey BBQ sandwich, grilled chicken, etc), a typical kid meal (chicken nuggets, cheeseburger, etc), a sandwich meal, or a salad. They have five of each meal - the choices rotate daily and repeat weekly. We went over the menu for the month, and Southern has decided that he wants me to pack his lunch every day except for Thursdays which are pizza days. On Thursdays, he gets a slice of pizza, some spaghetti, a salad, and fruit. During this month, they are offering a free beverage as well, so he gets chocolate milk. I send him with a reusable water bottle every day, and he says they get water breaks throughout the day during class. His bottle is usually more than half empty at the end of the day, if not close to empty.

On the days that I pack his lunch, I send him with a sandwich along with a combination of two or three of the following: grapes, cantaloupe, watermelon, a pear, pretzels, yogurt, a cheese stick, popcorn, chex mix, wheat thins, a granola bar, cheese nips, etc. I didn't think he would be so excited to bring his lunch, but he is. It's nice to see how much he ate. (He only ate half of his lunch during his first day of school because he ran out of time with talking.) I helped in his lunchroom one day, and I was super happy to see how fresh and healthy everything looked. I was impressed.

So in the mornings, everything is ready to go. I get up first, get dressed, and wake Southern up. Southern gets dressed while I work on breakfast. Usually I scramble some eggs, and he will eat them while I get the other boys up. (We have started just leaving them in their pajamas for drop off since nothing much is open that early anyway. We usually just come straight home from dropping Southern off, and I can dress them then.) Then I have some biscuits, waffles, etc for all three boys to snack on during the drive over to the school. It takes us 10-15 minutes depending on traffic and stop lights so we aim to leave at 7:30am.

We do the drop off car line so I don't have to get the others out. They have 5-6 teachers/parent volunteers standing along the sidewalk in the parking lot. We drive around the back of the church in line with the other cars, and swing into the parking lot. Then when we get up to the adults, they open the car door for the kids. Southern will hop out, turn to wave to his brothers and me, and walk on into the gate. They have it open with the principal standing nearby during this time. He goes to the gym from there and will line up with his class to walk to his classroom. (The older kids are on the playground until school starts.) The line moves fairly quickly in the mornings though I have noticed that it takes longer/is busier closer to the tardy bell time.

The little boys and I come home, eat, finish dressing, and get ready for our play date or activity of the day. We normally have something lined up every day though today Remington told me that he didn't want to go to storytime at The Purple Chair like we had planned. He said he just wanted to stay home. I guess we've had too much running around lately. So we are at home until we leave to go take Daddy out to lunch for his birthday.

Southern has all of the typical classes (he says he loves P.E.) plus music class, Spanish class, and religion class and recess. He has lunch at 11am. He gets out of school at 3:15pm. If we do the car pickup line (which we normally do since Baylor usually naps at this time), we have to get there at 2:45 if we want to be one of the first cars in line. If we get there closer to 3pm, we are usually 7-8 cars back. I have found that if we do the walk-up line, it takes just as long if not longer to get him - the only difference is that I have to get the other two in and out of the car plus we wait in the sun instead of in the car with A/C!

Then Southern likes to do something after school before coming home. Due to this, I usually plan on doing one errand after we pick him up. We will go to the library, go to the park, or do some shopping. I save the big grocery shopping trip for when he's in school though since HEB is less crowded then. We come home, start on homework, I give the boys a light snack, and then I make supper while the boys play. We eat with Dustin when he gets home, and then it's usually time to start baths. Bedtime is now at 7:30 since we are getting up so early. And they normally fall asleep right away! Baylor is usually the last one to go down anytime between 8-11pm depending on how long and when his nap was during the day.

And then we start it all over again! This will be our life until Baylor, the ONE YEAR OLD, is out of school, and I'm sure it will only get crazier as the boys get older and get involved in more stuff. Whew!

Southern puts his backpack in his cubby each morning. Each student is assigned a number based on their last name (Southern is 19 since Wyatt is at the end of the alphabet), so their spots are labeled with their numbers.

Each child turns in their folder at the beginning of class. This folder was given to them by their teacher, and it comes home with them every day. It has a calendar in it as well as any papers the teacher needs to send home to the parents (or notes that we can send to her) and their homework. The calendar has someone's name on each day (this indicates which day the child will bring in the group snack - we're last on that as well!), and before the folder is packed up and sent home, that day will either get a stamp in green ink or will have a yellow, orange, or red colored dot followed by a teacher comment if the child got in trouble that day.

They start out in circle time on the floor each morning.

A close-up of the bulletin board outside of Mrs. Smith's door

Here is Southern dressed for school on his first spirit day. He was excited to wear his "super cool" socks. Once a month, the students are given a free dress day where they are allowed to wear "normal" clothes (within good taste and no flip flops, short shorts, etc) so long as their shirt is a SPP shirt or other appropriate religious shirt.