It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Back to school time, oh how I love thee...

It's not that I haven't enjoyed having my children home all summer, I have.  We have had a very fun-packed and adventurous Summer... but come August, we hit the Summer doldrums.  Kids that were best friends all summer long are suddenly calling each other "stupid dorks" and are laying around on the couches lamenting how there is nothing to do.  That's how you know when it is back to school time.

Tanner and Ashlyn started 2nd grade this year.  Can you believe it 2nd grade! That magical age when all of your friends are turning eight and getting baptised (except, Tanner and Ashlyn have to wait clear until August next year... but it is coming and my favorite quote from Zac is, "You know one minute they are getting baptised and the next thing you know they will be graduating from highschool (tear, sniffle)." Of course, he said the same thing about them starting nursery, and tee-ball, and preschool, and Kindergarten.)

All set to go, Ashlyn has Mrs. S this year, who we have been told has been teaching for 30 something years and is the best teacher in the world.  One of her best friends/ step-cousins is in her class this year, which just makes everything that much more fun!  Ashlyn has really started the year on a great note, where she struggled with handwriting last year, she gets perfect scores on all of her handwriting pages this year and she has become a reading fiend!  I am so proud of Ashlyn and how hard she is working.

Tanner got Mrs. R, who we have also learned has taught for many years, but is new to 2nd grade.  The amount of boys in his class (and Ashlyn's) outnumbers the girls 2 to 1!  We know many of the boys in Tanner's class and hope his teacher is up to the challenge.  Tanner was thrilled to find out that his best friend Ty would be in his class this year.  Tanner is also having a terrific start to his year.  His teacher has already expressed how she enjoys Tanner's sweet and helpful nature and he is also reading so well.

Ian started "Mommy School" the week after the twins started school.  A group of seven moms from our ward got together to form a preschool.  We each take a turn teaching for a month and the kids meet on Mondays and Wednesdays.  We are learning about colors, shapes, numbers, letters of the alphabet and so much more.  I get to be the lucky mom to teach first and on our first day we learned about the letter A and had a theme on alligators.  There are 6 boys in our class and just 1 poor girl.  What is the deal with all the boys with the surplus of boys in this area?

And Charlotte believes that she is very much a part of "Mommy School".  She follows the kids from activity to activity insisting that she do exactly what the big kids are doing, which resulted in big black marker-y handprints on the wall, which fortunately came off... but I am having to come up with more clever ways to appease her into believing she is doing what we are doing without making such huge messes!

We all love school and learning and are enjoying the many fun activities and projects that are taking place in our home and at school.