Change

Change has always been a hard thing for me.  I am a girl of routine and structure.  I tend to get comfortable in different areas of my life.  If they are working well, I stick with them.  I am also a people pleaser.  I like when others around me are happy, even if I'm not.  I don't like conflict and I don't always like to deal with difficult situations.  I am the girl who keeps it all in....in order to avoid confrontations.  These are not always good traits to have.  It's never good to get comfortable in life. 

This school year has started off with a lot of change.  On Monday...about 3 hours before we were supposed to attend "Meet The Teacher" at our home school, I received a call from another school that we had put our kids on the waiting list for, saying they could get all three of our kids in for the upcoming school year.  I was in shock.  Complete panic rushed through me.  I had always been interested in this other school because of their structure and use of Spalding Phonics.  When I taught school, I used the Spalding Phonics program and had great success with it.  However, when my kids started attending school, I quickly realized that Spalding was not part of the curriculum.  When I went to observe at this new school last year, both Jeremy and I were very impressed with the teachers and the curriculum.  We truly never realized that our kids would get in due to the extremely long wait list.  So when I got the call, I was in shock.  How would I have the courage to pull my upcoming second and fourth graders from the school that they have been attending since kindergarten.  Not only that, how would I tell my 5 year old that now he was going to be attending kindergarten?  I was a mess!  I called Jeremy and asked him what he thought we should do.  He was worried like I was.  What if we pulled our kids from their home school and they hated the new school?  What if they didn't make lots of friends like they did at the home school?  What if they couldn't keep up academically because they didn't start at this new school?  What if they got horrible teachers? Jeremy came home early that day so we could sit our kids down and talk to them.  By this time, we were set to Meet The Teacher in an hour.  We explained to our kids about the phone call we had received that day.  We told them why we thought this new school would be a good fit for them.  We went through all the friends they already knew at this new school and explained how they would meet tons more because the new school was merging with another school and everyone there would be in the same boat as them.  You can imagine how upset they were.  They cried, they begged, they pleaded with us to keep them at their home school.  We explained to them that we really wanted to try this new school and asked them to please give it a chance.  And then we made a huge mistake.  We told them that if they didn't like the school, they could go back to the home school in 9 weeks.  We mainly just wanted them to stay for 9 weeks to see how they adjusted and we hoped that they would like it by then.  They agreed to give it a try but the tears kept flowing. I felt terrible.  I doubted my decision and wondered why I would do something like this.  But deep down, I felt really good about trying this new school.  It felt right in a strange way.   

 Ledger is thrilled to be going to Kindergarten.  It all happened so fast but he is fine with it.  2 days ago he was all set to go to preschool and now he is attending all day kindergarten at a new school. he couldn't be happier.

 Case is having the hardest time with moving to a new school.  He has cried a ton and begged to go back to his old school.  Because we made the mistake of telling him he only had to stay for 9 weeks, he has told all his friends, "I'm only going to be at this new school for 9 weeks."  It's like he has a count down going until he gets to go back.

 I was most worried about Brody and how he would feel about moving.  After all, he has been at his school since kindergarten. Surprisingly he was the most willing to give the new school a try.  He has been hesitant but really has had a positive attitude about it all.  I'm sure it's cause he thinks he's going back to the other school in 9 weeks too!

 Ledger and Dad!  This boy is so happy to be in kindergarten.

 Thankfully we drove our cute neighbor Mallorie to school on the first day.  This really helped to ease the stress level on the drive over.  When we arrived at the school, the boys were not sure what to do.  They sat against the wall and looked for someone they might know.  It was heartbreaking to me as the mom.  I felt so guilty.  It was overwhelming.

In an effort to find someone they knew,  they headed out to the playground in search for a friend.

 Case headed back first with no luck.  He was so sad.

Brody came in next and said, "Mom, no one knows us here."  That's when my tears came back.

 Phewwwww...finally....someone we know!

Brody and his cute friend Kaden. 

While I was helping Brody and Case, Ledger was over on the kindergarten playground searching for his friends and playing on the slides.  He was having the time of his life!

 When the bell rang, we found his teacher and waited to go inside. Suddenly my little 5 year old seemed to little to be going to kindergarten!

Luckily he could get help if needed!

 In he went.  Out came more tears...mom tears!

Ledger went right in, found his desk, and waited for directions.  His new teacher is going to love him! I really hope this school year will turn out to be a good one for these kids.  Last night our home teacher Pete gave them the best back to school blessings.  He said everything I was hoping for.  As I listened to him I felt so much peace. My hope is that my boys felt the same thing and that they listened to what he said.