Husband. Dad to 5. Student Ministry Pastor. Follower of Jesus. Yatta yatta.

FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL IN AMERICA

Well, TODAY, was the first day of school in America for Becky and Billy. That makes 5 kids, one substitute teacher, and one field trip dad in the public schools for our family.

We met with the principal on Monday morning to finalize a teaching plan for our newest recruits. Then by Monday afternoon we were back and they got to meet their teacher (Mrs. Olsen), sit in their desks, and see the place they’ll call “school” for the next few months. Billy in particular has been doing the count down ever since. We told him “3 sleeps and then you get to go to school”. Every night since he has told us what number sleep it was.

This morning he woke up saying, “Sleep 3 is all finished. Now we get dressed, eat breakfast, and go to school.” So fun.

Shannon stayed through lunch and here’s her account of the day. I got it in an e-mail she sent, so this is her first ever blog post of the 707 on here (without permission by the way)- shhhhh, don’t tell her I stole it from my in box 🙂

  • Mrs. Olsen is very kind and they were so happy to go today! I stayed with them and talked them through all of the processes until lunch time. I left them for the afternoon. When they came out of their classroom after school, they both seemed rather pleased-and a bit shell shocked- but all was well. Becky brought me into the room after school to show me the art project that she had done in the afternoon. The students had made a duck and on hers was written the word “duck”. Very cute. The teacher has asked that I come back tomorrow morning until recess. That is when her small reading groups are going on and Becky and Billy need a little one-on-one direction until they are more able to work semi-independently. They used the computers in their classroom, loved having their own pencil box, and had a great time at recess. The other children were very attentive, a little too attentive!! Becky couldn’t walk 2 steps without a girl or 3(!) holding her hands. I’m hoping that it all dissipates by Monday when they come back after the weekend and they aren’t “new” any more. Jake found Billy and was his leader out on the playground. So nice for Jake to feel like he had a job of looking after them on the playground. Jake was pretty puffed up answering all the other kids’ questions. His class has waited for these kids to come to school-they were all very excited! I so badly just want Billy and Becky to be “normal” and one of the “regular” Rancho kids. I hope soon… All in all, a successful day!! Another huge step towards our “new normal”. The bonus-they were REALLY tired and took REALLY long rests today! LOVE THAT!! 🙂

And here’s some pictures from day #1.

Comments

  1. For some reason whenever I see a picture of Billy he looks to me like he is a hilarious little dude and if he does not already will at some point be someone who makes people laugh frequently.

  2. That’s awesome that they had a good first day at school, I was wondering how that would go. They are blessed to have their brothers to show them around, familiar faces are always good at a new school. Do they have a bilingual teacher? Are they learning english first or everything at once like the other kids? Just some other stuff I was wondering.

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