Gabe started going to preschool last. My friend Jamie (who is really the most adorable and fun mom around - seriously, I want to be her) organized a group of moms in our ward to take turns teaching preschool. It is on Mondays and Wednesdays for a couple of hours, and Gabe seems to be having a good time. He is a little shy around other people still, but Jamie did say that she got him to smile, so that's something! Here he is on his first day. He think he is checking to make sure the car he brought for show and tell is still in his pocket.
Colin started 1st grade last week. His teacher was actually the person who took over for his kindergarten teacher for three months last year while she was on maternity leave, so he already knew her quite well. From what we saw of her last year, she pushes the kids a little more than some of the other teachers, and some of the work he has brought home already seems to show that. The second day of school he brought his math home (what they did in class, not homework). It was questions like 14-9, 16-4.....things I'm not sure they covered much in kindergarten, and this was the SECOND day of school. I heard a bunch of the moms talking about it the next day at pick-up. Some of them were saying that their kids were in tears over it, so I asked Colin how math was going. He said it was "kind of frustrating" but that he only missed one problem. Then I remembered that the previous day, when I picked him up, he told me that he had said two prayers while he was at school. When I asked him what they were about, he said, "I didn't want to mess up on what I was doing" but couldn't remember what he was doing. I am thinking that was math. I am glad that he seems to be able to handle the extra push that his teacher is giving them, but of course I will be keeping a close eye on that. He has taken going back in stride and seems pretty happy. His biggest complaint is practicing writing characters, which was what he hated most last year too, so nothing new there.
Here he and Gabe are in front of the school garden on his first day back.
