After-school adjustment

Our  family has entered a wonderful, new, exhausting phase of life - school days. Timo has had 5 days of school so far, at Heritage Christian Academy, a small (pretty young) K-8 school 3 miles away that meets at a local Baptist church. After the adrenaline of the first few days wore off, he woke up and announced, "I'm not going to school today. I just want to stay home and read." (Ah, the irony, because we are all so eager for him to actually learn to read on his own! Just think how many more hours he will spend with books then!) But he continues to go, of course, and gradually will adjust and learn the new rhythms, and will make friends and be more eager to go. And he has done really well so far - he gets up and ready by 8 AM, and seems to be properly respectful of the teacher and classroom rules.

We are also all adjusting to a different schedule to our days...getting up and ready to leave the house earlier, having quieter moments (with just 2 boys at home) throughout the day, leaving mid-afternoon to get Timo from school, Hawk taking one nap instead of two, and wondering how to spend the two hours after-school and before supper. I've had my daily routine with preschool/toddler kids for so many years, and it is strange to have to adjust my mentality away from "morning activity to lunch to nap/make dinner to play until Daddy comes home". But one small adjustment at a time - we don't have to have it "all down" the first week. And so far the changes have gone well.

Throw in there the changes brought on by Jim quitting his job at Western so we can raise support for South Africa full-time! He is also in disequilibrium as he gets a rhythm to his days and a sense for what he can accomplish each day and what location is best for various tasks: our basement; the library; church; campus library (he got a "campus minister" parking pass); coffee shop; or a combination.

Yesterday after school Timo requested the sprinkler, so why not?! The hot days of summer seem to have passed already, so we may only have a few more chances for this. Plus, he needs to be outside and running around after spending the day at school! Hawk happily watched from the [very long] grass, and tried to get Timo to roll the giant ball his way.