This is probably the fifty millionth post on this subject this week on Australian blogs, but hey, it's my blog - I'll wax all sentimental if I want to :-)
It was A's first day of grade 3, and E's of grade 1, today, and C's first day in the 3 year old kinder room at creche. I also had work meetings in the city - a rarity, as I go to the city once in a blue moon! - so it was a big day for all of us.
Were there tears? There were not; A and E were thrilled to see friends again, C was excited to be in the Big Kids' Room, and I, while feeling a little maudlin, was distracted quickly by the train trip into town, two intensive back to back meetings, then working on notes / plans from said meetings all the way home and for the remaining 45 mins before collecting the kids.
I am happy they're happy to be back at school; they have good teachers, nice classmates, and they are each keen to learn things. I like their school a great deal, and think it has a really great culture of respect and caring; they are nurtured and encouraged there, and that is awesome. I will miss having them at home (I am always a tiny bit blue the first week back) but the work I'll have on for the coming month will ameliorate that to a large extent.
I still wish - I even yearn, a little - for what we gave up when we decided not to home school. I still wonder, and I think I always will, how our lives might be structured (or not!) had we gone down that road. I think we made the right decision for our children and our circumstances, but man, I would've loved to try it if things had been different.
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I often think of homeschooling, but Miss 5 is a social creature and I think school is the right place for her. I can see I am going to have to be on her back about getting anything she may need to do done, it's taken me a week to get her to write her letter to the teacher, with much crying and arguing. *sigh* I can only hope she is still as happy to go tomorrow morning as your girls were today.
ReplyDeleteI reckon Shae's kids have the fullest social lives of any kids I know, so I think home school can satisfy the social butterfly too :-)
ReplyDeleteThat said, if I had an only, I wouldn't have considered home school. I would've found it too much to be the primary / sole interactor at home for my kid. Siblings provide a built-in casual social network for each other!