School Days

I realze that it has been forever since I have blogged, and I have some catching up to do. So I sat down with a list of topics and tried to get going again.

The cold weather is setting in and school has been in session now for like 85 days. Emma is in third grade and seems to have a ton of homework compared to years past. She is still a perfectionist, and gets extremely upset if she doesn't get all "E"s on her papers and report card. She is learning cursive, science, health, and social studies now and gets to exchange with the other 3rd grade classes for one subject. I am starting to feel like that game show, "Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader", only it's more like "Are You Smart Enough To Help Your Third Grader With Her Homework"? I challenge you to name the 6 Nutrients, and examples of each, demonstrate a food chain and food web, define consumer, producer, community, population, ecosystem, etc. etc. That was just this week.

Now I'm a wiz at spelling, reading, anything to do with English or of course the Arts. Just please keep me away from math, science and history. Did you know that there are more than 3 different ways to solve a two or three digit addition problem? Well, there is.

This is where Mike and I need to divide and conquer. He is never allowed to do spelling homework (he can't spell, AT ALL), but if it's Social Studies, then I defer to him. The trouble is that Emma would prefer that I help her, as daddy doesn't have a lot of patience (hello, have you met Emma?) which means my reading and inferencing skills are put to use on a nightly basis. It's pretty sad when your 8 year old knows more than you do on a particular subject. I'm already dreading 4th grade!

Aiden goes to preschool two days a week.  He jumped right out of the van on the first day of school and never looked back. He's very social, but he could care less if he learns to write his name or hold his crayon between two fingers. He loves to be read to, but not necesarily where there are 9 other kids distracting him from the story. He can recognize his name and tell you some of the letters, but that's basically enough for him. He loves paint and playdough, and give him some blocks or Little People and he's happy just to sit and play. I keep reminding myself that he just turned 3 AND he's a boy, and it is impossible to compare him to Emma at this age. But what he may lack in academic skill, he certainly makes up for in personality. He is incredibly sweet, funny and extremely animated when he tells a story. And, he's completely potty trained! And hopefully, he's adopted more of Mike's laid back attitude than the OCD personality of his mother. (I'm sorry, Emma)

We are looking forward to Christmas break and putting the backpacks and homework away for awhile!