Back to School

The boys started school Monday. We had orientations for all of them last week. Seems like they all have pretty good teachers this year.

Caleb is in the fifth grade. His homeroom teacher (he has one teacher half the day and then changes classrooms and has another teacher the other half) is from Arkansas and misses a lot of the same things we do! She was also a GT teacher. Since Caleb did not make it in the GT program here (although his test scores were REALLY high), I was really glad to hear it. I was telling her that he gets in trouble when he gets bored and that if she has to give him extra work to keep him busy than to do it. She told us she used to teach it and she knew what to watch for and would let him do research or other work. If she sees that the work they are doing is too easy she will get his work from a sixth grade book.

She also has some very neat incentives for her students. For one thing, the kids get paid weekly. They get $5 a week (with the oppurtunity to make more money) every week. They each have a checkbook and are responsible for keeping it balanced (after she teaches them HOW to keep it balanced). If they lose a letter grade in conduct, they lose a dollar each letter. If they get an F in conduct, they don't get paid. They earn extra money by doing odd jobs around the class. The first nine weeks, Caleb will make $7 a week (assuming he keeps an A in conduct). He is the pet lover (the room is a pirate theme) this nine weeks so he is responsible for taking care of the animals (they have a gecko and two fire belly frogs). He loves this!

All and all he is excited about school this year - which was much needed!

Isaac is in second grade. He, too, will have one teacher for half the day and then change to another teacher the second half. He seems to have very nice teachers as well. I hope they are able to continue his love for school and can strengthen his reading!

Bryce is in first grade. He has the same teacher Isaac had last year. The only downside, she is on maternity leave until JANUARY! This could be interesting. The teacher that is teaching until January is BRAND NEW!! I don't really have a problem with that, teachers have to get their start at some point. We joked last year that Bryce was the reason his teacher retired (not to him though). Now we joke that he will make or break this teacher. Realistically, there are students MUCH worse than he is, so if she can't handle him.....

He got his sight word list the first day of school. They start with list A and get a new list every week. I guess she tested them Monday on the lists to see how far they could go. Bryce is on list D, but knew all the words on that list when he came home on Monday.

All three boys are at different schools this year. Two of them start school at the same time and get out at the same time. You are not allowed to drop them off until 20 minutes before school starts. With the lines these schools usually have to drop off and pick up kids, I don't think I would be able to take them to school and have them there in time. They wanted me to take them this year, but I don't think that is going to work!