First week of school

Well, my first FULL week of school is over. I now only have 6 children, because one never showed up. Six students. I wish it were more, for the sake of the school, but I'm not complaining. I was surprised, though, at some of the challenges with only six kids. To start, they all know each other, so they came in talkative on the very first day. Usually you get a pass on the first day. I quickly solved that problem by rearranging their seats with an empty desk between each one.

Another problem is planning. Since I'm in a private school, I don't have any planning time, and I'm finding I have to plan way more than I thought. With such a small number, I go through the lessons faster. Good for them, but more work for me. I'm also struggling with special area - I have to teach art, music, and PE. It's harder than I expected because 45 minutes is a long time for music and art. Even PE. The kids have been begging for PE, and when we finally had it today, in about 10 minutes they were hot and asking to go in. Luckily for them we were using the parachute, which gave a bit of a breeze. For special area, I have all of the first and second graders, for a total of 16. This works well, especially for PE. It would be hard to play kickball with just my class.

As far as the boys go, we've had some issues with their school. The bus situation was a pain to figure out, and they just changed the pick-up time again. Jonathan now has 27 (!!!!!!!!!) in his Kindergarten class. If they don't hire a new teacher at the "9 day count," I'm seriously considering taking him with me to school. Finally, they have cancelled recess for the whole school, which I have been protesting in every way I can. Nothing so far, but I keep asking other parents to call, too.

Craig and Liz are here visiting, so we spent the afternoon at Daytona Lagoon with them. After dinner at Jonathan's, we're ready to crash for the night.