FIRST WEEK OF SCHOOL!

After SIX years of homeschooling, we have become a school-going family! It's been a big week. Huge. Feels like a lot of growth has taken place.

The kids took on a challenge and are finding themselves enjoying it! One kiddo had tears in their eyes on Monday as they hugged me goodbye before school, "I don't want to leave you, Mom!" 💔💔💔 Cue [unfounded] questions of self-doubt about my parenting which both failed to equip them to separate from me and forced them to do something they're not comfortable doing! But upon pickup that same day, that same child said, "I'm excited to come back tomorrow!" (phew! what a relief! They CAN separate from me AND do hard things.) 

One of the things I thought would be hardest this week was the after-school restraint collapse. They had to hold in their feelings all day and learn a new way of navigating a new part of the world. Surely they would all self-combust and burn the house down with them! But our combustiest kid followed our safety plan perfectly and calmed themselves safely in their calm down area! Unfortunately another kid did not have quite so air tight of a calm-down plan and ended up combusting right into my eyeball. Thankfully, our optometrist takes emergency calls and advised me what to do over the phone and had an appointment available first thing the next morning. 😅 

The other thing I was afraid of was the dreaded lunchbox packing! But wouldn't you know, my kids are quite capable and all my preparation paid off.

    1. putting packing materials down on their level
    2. buying some fun snacks they could be excited about
    3. drawing up diagrams of suggested lunches
    4. having a chart with foods listed in 4 categories so they can check that they have each category: fruit, veggie, grain, protein
    5. practicing UNPACKING lunchbags 

We did have to make an "emergency" Amazon purchase on day 1 when we realized that the style lunch bag we bought doesn't pair with the style segmented container we bought - all the food ends up dumped and mixed. But Amazon played nice and gave us a free 30 day prime membership so we could get the lunch bags by day 2! We have already had a forgotten lunch and water bottle. 😒 We can have grace on week 1. After that, they're at the mercies of their peers for handouts!

Another thing we learned about lunch bags this week: we do not fling them or let our friends carry them. We learned the hard way that dropping glass food storage containers on cement causes them to shatter. 🤦 My response in the moment revealed healing and growth: I paused(!!) and asked for a hug. The skeptical child asked why I wanted a hug. I confessed I felt like I was going to yell but was choosing to hug instead. After a soothing, quiet hug, my brave kiddo shared that they hadn't meant to drop their lunch bag and they learned not to swing it around in case it slips and falls. No yelling needed! We showed the glass filled lunch bag to all the siblings so that we don't have to repeat the same mistake 4 times! The very next day we almost had a repeat when a friend was holding the lunch bag and dropped it. But nothing broke, THANKFULLY. I don't know if I would have stayed as calm on take 2.

Something I discovered on my own all day: I feel less productive no matter how much I get done! I'm used to getting things done WHILE taking care of 4 kids! "I got the garage organized, kitchen tidied, and went for a jog." doesn't have quite the same ring as "I got the garage cleaned out WHILE TAKING CARE OF 4 KIDS." It also feels harder to prioritize "just for me" tasks (like blogging, meditating, doing a puzzle, reading, etc.) than I thought it would. I thought I'd spend most of my time doing that. But it turns out, I try to get done as much of my to do list as possible before the kids come home because if they say, "couldn't you have done that while we were at school so you could play with us now?" I will crumple. 😭 But I have felt worn out by the time I pick them up and regretted not using more of my time to fill my own cup or rest. I'm sure it will be a constant game of adjusting productivity, rest, and my expectations to find a good balance.

Even our marriage had some growth pains this week. Husband came home over lunch one afternoon because we'd been pushing off a conversation we needed to have and we ended up having our 2nd fight. The other one was also in the kitchen when the kids weren't home. 🤔🤔🤔 Even that, though hard and painful, felt like a growth moment and ended with a long hug and verbal assurance of our love for each other. 💕 I was grateful for the extra space to connect during the day instead of continuing to ignore it because we know not to have those conversations before bed.

All in all the week went way better than I expected. We had good fun using our new "school" lingo. Things like, "we can do that after school tomorrow!" elicited giggles all around. "It's so fun to say!" We felt like we were in a movie. We all agreed that our brains have not caught up to the fact that this is our new normal and it's going to continue for the next 9 months! This will be a fun post to look back on years from now and remember this big shift in our family life.