A Typical School Day

← Being a spider at the zoo.











Here’s a typical day. I get up first, fix my lunch, eat my breakfast and start to get ready for work. Next, Gayle gets up, gets the kid's pre-breakfast ready (juice, cereal, raisins, vitamin, that they eat in the car on the way to school). Then she gets ready, while I head off to work. Usually the kids are still asleep.

← Routine checkup.








Gayle gets them up, dressed, groomed, then off to the Car-Car-C-A-R, a.k.a. mini-van. She drops them off at school. They begin their school day together in the same room, by dining on the school’s brand of breakfast.

At some point, Andrew moves to the "3's" class. Bethany stays in the "4's". What goes on between then and the end of the school day is too much of a mystery, on a day-to-day basis. We learned the general plan of the semester from the teachers at the last parent-teacher meeting, and the door of the classroom posts the day's activities and meals, but the details of what actually happens each day is at best not reliable info directly from the kids and at worst incomprehensible. We should talk to the teachers more, but it never seems to work out. We anxiously await the next official parent-teacher meeting.

← Helping make pizzas.











When I get off work, I take a detour off the freeway half way home, near our old neighborhood, to swing by to pick them up. It takes about 45 minutes to get there. During good weather, both their classes are usually out on the playground. I try to approach undetected each day, so that I can observe who is playing with whom and how they get along.

I’ve not seen Andrew and Bethany playing together at school. Bethany is in tight with her friends, and Andrew plays some with friends, and some alone. It is also a time for the other kids to come up and “chat” with me – quite amusing.

Andrew runs up the instant he sees me. He always appears more than ready to leave. Bethany often continues to play for a couple of minutes. I’m usually in no hurry.

← Company picnic contest reward.










In the last month or so, we have finally turned the corner of potty training, thanks to Gayle and the school, at least in so far as I don’t have to look for bags of soiled clothes at school (especially trying when the teacher did not write their name on the bag).

We stop by each of their rooms to check their cubbies and folders for any coats, notes, artwork or handouts. Then one last plea to go potty, a possible stop at the drinking fountain; a treat from the cracker basket, "bye bye" to whomever is in the front office, fight for who presses the door release button, and finally we are out.

Bethany always sits behind the passenger seat, Andrew behind the driver; same for both the van and the Jeep. They used to fight for a seat until they each settled on one. They have been buckling themselves into the seat for some time now. Of course, that just prolongs the process as they want to instead squirm around and touch everything first. “Pleeeeease just get in your seat!”

The Jeep is stocked with learning tools/toys, so they play and learn on the way home. Andrew really gets into the electronic exercises. Each time he gets one right he shouts, “I did it Daddy!!” Over and over – and over. To share in the attention, Bethany then does the same.

Some mischief by Bethany with a hand stamper. You should have seen his back! →






On Monday evenings, we go to story time (stories, singing, dance and crafts) at our library. We are thrilled that they enjoy the library. Even before story time in our new neighborhood, they enjoyed going to play in the kids’ corner at the old library. Now they enjoy playing learning games on the computers while mom and dad look for books, audio disks and movies. Sometimes they excitedly look for their own books.

Once home, Andrew's focus is by default – TV. It's like he's had enough of the socializing, enough of the running around, "just let me kick back and relax". Seemingly a bad thing, but we aim for pre-school type programs and his concentration is such they they are a great learning tool for him. Still, we try to divert to other activities. This is a good time for reading.

Bethany is less devoted to the TV, she is usually involved in her arts & crafts, organizing, writing "notes" and pretend play.

Dinner's usually around 7:00...but that's for another posting.