Ethan's First Day of Public School

Most of you know that I home school my boys. It's not that I don't have faith in the public school system, I just wanted to teach them the first couple years. I wanted to spend some time character building and I really wanted to teach them to read.

This year has been rough with Ethan though. I don't know why, but we've been really frustrated with each other druing school time over the last several months. There was one day that was the last straw. We ended the schoolday with both of us in tears. You can imagine how productive that was!

I decided he needed to go to school. I wasn't willing to be that stressed out about home schooling when I could easily send him to a school that would teach him just as well as I would. (If not better.)

The next day I took Ethan down to the school and registered him. I chatted with the principal about when he should start and we decided right after the Thanksgiving break would be ideal. *insert sigh of relief*

Ethan got to meet his teacher and even got some homework, to be done over the Thanksgiving holiday. (A reading log, some spelling worksheets and a page of math problems.) He was thrilled! He also got a new backpack, lunch box, books and new school clothes for his birthday, which was a week before his first day.

He counted down the days until his first day at school anxiously... as did I. When it finally came, we decided to walk to school because it was a pretty nice day. We waited outside for the bell to ring and I walked him into his classroom. I gave him a quick hug and left in a hurry because I was starting to get choked up. I got myself under control on the walk home.

All day I thought about him and prayed for him. I hoped that he was having fun and didn't get lost or made fun of.

When it was time for the bus to drop him off at home, my sister, nieces and other sons went out to the driveway to see him get off the bus. I was ready with my camera, of course. Finally we heard the squeak of the school bus breaks and it stopped in front of our house. He got off and ran up to us smilling from ear to ear! YEA!

I asked how his day went and he replied in a very serious tone, "Good, but Mama, I have some bad news. The fire alarm went off at school today and we had to go outside. There wasn't a real fire though, it was just pretend."

We all laughed! Apparently I had forgotten to tell him about having fire drills. My bad.

It sounds like he had a good first day on the whole. He's really seemed to get into a routine this week and he really likes his teacher and classmates. WHEW!