Skoool

Somehow our lives have really just gained their own momentum lately and I haven't been really good about keeping up here on the blog.

The kids started school last week and are doing wonderfully.  I went back to work full time today.  I was really nervous about the transition - you know, the kind of nervous where you lay awake at night thinking about all kinds of horrible scenarios.  However, I seemed to have missed out on a lot of sleep for nothing.

We found a great private preschool/kindergarten a mile or so from my work.  The kids will go there for the end of this school year through the summer.  Since it's in Oxnard, it is a very diverse school with both teachers and students of all colors.  Currently both Ashagre and Elsa are in a preschool class together, but everyone's goal is to move Elsa into the kindergarten class soon.  What's great about the school is they rotate the kids around throughout the day quite a bit anyway, so they know everyone and get comfortable with each classroom pretty quickly.  This sounds like it might be scary and disorienting, but all the teachers know all the kids' names and are very warm and nurturing.  It seems to actually work pretty well.  Ashagre and Elsa spent time in several classrooms with Brent and I present over the past few weeks and they seem pretty comfortable with most of the teachers.

Like pretty much everything else that's been thrown at them in the past 3 months, Elsa and Ashagre have, thus far, taken on school like champs. I think they actually appreciate the weekly routine and the new stimulation and challenge.  While we do hear baca school or no school in the morning, they are all smiles and excitement when I pick them up.  They love telling me about their day and are always excited to take home their work to share with Daddy.  According to their teachers, both kids are making huge progress each day.  They are making friends, participating in the class activities, and starting to show their teachers that they really aren't the shy, quiet kids they pretended to be the first few days.  They are also quickly starting to understand the concept of the weekend.

I did have to advocate for them a bit in the beginning.  The director wanted to put them in a classroom with a new teacher.  I think her heart was in the right place, but it wasn't a good fit at all.  She was thinking the kids would benefit from the smaller class size and the highly educated new teacher.  However, the other kids in the class were quite a bit younger and had very little school experience.  Despite her education, their teacher just seemed to be doing damage control most of the day - asking one little girl to keep her pants on, making sure two little boys didn't pummel each other or otherwise get into trouble, comforting others that were weeping because they missed their mommy and daddy.  The room felt chaotic, and I didn't feel like Ashagre and Elsa, who have already attended school in Ethiopia, had much to learn from there peers in this classroom.

Fortunately, the director was able to work with me and the kids are now in a great classroom.  They seem to be falling right into the pre-established routine.  On top of that, the kindergarten teacher is wonderful and is really excited to have Elsa in her class once she makes the transition.

For now, I have worked it out where I go into work early and work on my off Friday (I used to have every other Friday off) in order to get off at 2:30 to pick the kids up.  Since I am already at work, Brent gets the kids ready and takes them to school in the morning before he heads to work.  Just after one day back at work I can tell it is going to be hard to be full time Water Conservation Coordinator and full time mommy.  There is just so much that needs my attention and I can already feel myself being pulled in many different directions.  For now we're just going to give it a shot and see how it all works out.  We'll readjust if necessary.