Kiki came home from school bright-eyed and enthusiastic. She’d been worried about navigating through the crowded halls, but found that the experience was actually fun. As she described it like a moving maze and a flowing river I realized that she was viewing the challenge of getting from class to class like a video game where the goal was not to run into other people. She is also full of praises for all her teachers. She thinks that they are all amazingly cool and is glad that the only homework she had tonight was a word search. I’m glad to see the disclosure documents and to realize that these classes are set up exactly to encourage the kind of educational discipline which Kiki needs. I don’t think she is going to be challenged academically this year, but I’d love for her to have the chance to get straight A’s and feel really competant.
I walked Link and Gleek home from school today. I’ve been hoping that I could eventually let them walk home together without me. It is going to be awhile before I’ll let that happen. Gleek needs to learn some good walking home habits before I’ll try to put Link in charge of her otherwise she’ll run him right over with one of her whims and he won’t know what to do about it. Honestly I don’t think they’ll be walking home for awhile either. Gleek is trying so hard to be perfectly behaved during school. First grade is so much longer than Kindergarten, she is worn out by the end of the day. It took her a full 15 minutes to make her way from her classroom to the meeting place. Then I had to threaten Time-Out to get her to climb down from the meeting place tree. Then there were several refuse-to-go-a-step-further moments on the walk home. Only the promise of chocolate chips at the end got her to her feet again. In a few weeks when life is more settled we’ll try walking home again. I’ll happily drive her home from school every day if I get announcements like today’s “I didn’t get sent to time out at all!”
Kiki is going to the doctor on Saturday. She has been sleepy and foggy for weeks. It used to be that she could not fall asleep during the day unless she was sick. Lately she has been sleeping for several hours each day, going to bed early, and getting up late. I know that she’s growing and maturing, but 15 hours of sleep per day seems excessive for that. I hope that she’ll test positive for Mono on Saturday. Having Mono would stink, but I like that diagnosis much more than some of the alternatives I’ve been able to think up.
The new schedule has me blogging a lot more. I’m not sure if that is a result of the large quiet spaces in my days or if it is merely me trying to process how the new schedule affects everything. I think it is a little of both.