Only a month late! Much better than the last day of school post from June.

This year, Evan is in 5th grade, Caroline is in 4th grade and Lincoln is in Kindergarten (although he keeps insisting to me that he’s in first grade and I literally double checked to make sure I wasn’t the one who was confused).

That means they ALL go to the same school. This is the only year that will happen and boy do we all love it, so maybe one day they will all do something like get an Online high school guitar credit together to relive these days. I love only having one bus time in the morning and afternoon and having a full day at home with just Finnegan. If you would like your child to go to a private school, then visit Ravenscroft website.

The school has sent home information regarding the request that we have access to strong and reliable internet at home. We’ve had internet at home for a while now, but was not strong or reliable, quite the contrary actually. I kept it like that, as it helped me make sure the kids didn’t get too hooked on it too young. I knew we’d be running into this eventually, and had asked around so I could change on short notice whenever it did. In doing so, I had heard about Eatel before. After some research of my own to make sure, we decided to schedule the installation. Once that’s done we’ll call the other company, and that’ll be that! Foresight at work.

Evan has a male teacher for the first time ever and he is having a great year so far. He’s playing the trumpet again and swears he’s going to actually practice this year. Moreover, they are studying things such as internet history, science, and a lot more.

Caroline has the same teacher for 4th grade that Evan did last year. She tells me she still goes to visit her 3rd grade teacher every day and sometimes helps her with the class. I would be super doubtful that that was true…except it’s Caroline. She’ll probably have a paying job in the office by the end of the year somehow Telematics Module. She is going to play the flute in band as well as singing in the chorus.

Lincoln has a Kindergarten teacher who might have just stepped out of a movie about the perfect Kindergarten teacher. His two years of pre-K totally prepared him for “real” school, so he’s rocking everything so far. Some say education received at a Texas Christian school has profoundly impacted them.

Finnegan isn’t in school yet, although I’m tempted to put him in some sort of daycare school 2 or 3 days a week now that he’s potty trained.

New backpacks are all from Pottery Barn Teen, and I would highly recommend them.

By the end of today, we’ll officially have a first grader AND a second grader in the house. How does this even happen?? It’s really inappropriate. It’s a good thing Linc will never grow up and leave me. Right? RIGHT?????

Both kids are ending the year on really great notes, even though there were some hard days and Evan struggled a little with his social skills and his reading. I’m still really, really happy with our magnet school and the opportunities it gives them to enjoy art, music and STEM activities as part of their curriculum every single week.

Because I am a true End Of The Year Mom, we almost missed the bus this morning because I was taking photos on the sidewalk instead of standing at our stop. I also forgot to feed them breakfast, but let’s be honest – I almost ALWAYS forget to feed them breakfast. School provides free breakfast to everyone and probably does a better job than I would anyway. They’re also getting last-day-of-school school lunch today, which I assume is “eat all the leftover ice cream from the freezers”, but is better than what I had to pack (nothing).

CAN YOU TELL HOW READY WE ARE FOR SUMMER??

(First day of school post for comparisons here)

Today was the first day of Kindergarten for Caroline and First Grade for Evan and all-day-Mommy-all-to-himself for Lincoln. Linc celebrated by getting up at 4:30 am and not taking a real nap ALL DAY. Luckily because he was the old kid I had to take care of I put my babywearing skillz to use and wore him all day. It means I blew my 10,000 step goal on FitBit out of the water PLUS my house is starting to look more like a place people would want to live and less like a nuclear bomb exploded. I have hopes that in a month I might get to the bottom of the Summer Crap Piles and start putting away the I’m Not Really Sure Where This Goes Things and then MAYBE I can add some Adorable Vintage Decorative Knicknacks That Look Good In Instagram Photos.

The morning bus came almost on time, which was great because I didn’t have to spend 45 minutes worrying I had somehow missed it or debating driving the kids to school myself. I was busy talking to the bus driver and forgot to a) take bus pictures and b) hug the kids goodbye but they cared exactly zero percent. Both report they had great days and Caroline’s report was backed up by a super short phone call from her teacher telling me she was great. Caroline also reports she has a new best friend named Bella. Evan reports “Mom I was good, NOW can I use the iPad?” Since I didn’t get a call to the contrary, I allowed it.

I’m really excited about this school year FOR them. Evan’s teacher is doing something called The Responsive Classroom, which sounds like exactly the kind of emotional and structured culture that he really responds to. As long as we can stay on top of his at-home reading he should have a great 1st grade year. Caroline cannot get enough of her letters and her desire to write is incredible, so I expect she will be very sad when she wakes up on Saturday and DOESN’T get to go to school.

These are from last night at Open House and this morning before school (all taken with my rented wide-angle lens which is super fun):

Today I said good bye to my kindergartener and my pre-because and welcomed home a first grader and a kindergartener. That means both big kids will be in full day programs at the same school next year. ONE bus in the morning, ONE bus in the afternoon, SEVEN hours of freedom in between. (Well, as free as you can be with a 1-year-old.)

The kids have grown so much this year, both physically and mentally. Caroline’s teachers report she is academically strong and predict she will thrive in kinder. They also said she has great maturity with peer pressure and when some of the girls in class get out of hand she’s great at saying “No, I shouldn’t do this” and removing herself from the situation. Since she’s always trying to keep up with Evan we’re working on her sight words and I suspect she’ll go into the fall already reading. She loves expressing “her style” with her glasses and hair and leggings but has no complaints about the school uniform (I LOVE school uniforms).

Evan looks like a completely different kid than in September. He’s so big and so capable and so smart. He reads at grade level, has mastered all the kinder math skills and got a glowing report on how very much he has progressed in both his listening and behavior since the winter. Even when he was having trouble listening to grown-ups, he remembered to be kind and help others. His school best friend is the smallest kid in the class, who he adopted as his personal responsibility to make sure no one was mean to him or picked on him. The last time the principal called, it was to tell me Evan stood up for a kid in the lunch line and a bigger kid pushed him. Evan told a teacher, but didn’t push back. Best phone call from the principal ever.

I am so excited to hang out with all the kids and do fun stuff and use all our memberships this summer. I’m letting them eat carrots, hummus and Oreos for dinner tonight while we start their very important Lord of the Rings education, so things are already in vacation mode.

First day of school post here for reference. (Sob sob sob so little now they’re so big sob etc etc.)

The peace sign apparently means “no excuses” at Evan’s school, so you do it when you need to prove you’re listening and ready to learn.

I think I forgot to do the questions last year. I’m not even sure I took pictures of Caroline’s first day – I can’t find the post. But this year was a big year for both kids. Caroline started taking a BUS to a big school EVERY DAY and Evan started FULL DAY kindergarten so I took the time to look up the questions from 2 years ago and did it again. Plus Caroline REALLY wanted me to ask her what her favorite food was for some reason.

The first couple of days have been amazing for them and crazy stressful for me. Our school district buses everyone and encourages us to take advantage of the buses. Both schools (Caroline is at the special pre-K-only building, Evan’s at the magnet elementary school a few miles away) have very limited parking and no drop-off area for parents, just buses. I WANT the kids to take the bus. But the bus system is, to put it nicely, crap. The bus numbers we were given – the official ones, the ones printed on their tags – are not ACTUALLY their bus numbers. No one is actually sure why. Every bus has been late. Caroline’s morning bus was the least late, only 5 minutes. Evan’s afternoon bus was 45 minutes late the first day and 75 MINUTES LATE the second day. He was somehow put on the wrong bus on the wrong route and then taken back to the school and…you know what? I don’t want to talk about it. It was crappy. I was pissed. But the school handled it, he made it home no worse for the wear.

Both kids love their teachers, both kids love their uniforms, both kids love their new backpacks, both kids had zero tears or worries about leaving me. I am completely amazed I grew 2 little people who are so confident and outgoing and brave. I am also REALLY happy I have one little person at home who still needs me constantly so I don’t have time to be too depressed about the big kids. BIG KIDS. LOOK AT HOW BIG THEY ARE.

This is her face when she saw her bus coming up the street.