The first day of school was on Monday, Aug 26, 2019. Starting at a new school in a new state was a big adventure for all of us. To add to the excitement, we had siblings visit the weekend before school began and the weekend after school began! This post covers Aug 22 – Sept 2.
I tried giving the boys haircuts before school started. It takes me a long time to do it, but I am getting better at it!
Dallin played with his robotics kit from his birthday. He loves building different characters and then making codes to program the robot to do certain tasks!
We attended school orientation on Aug 23. The boys got a tour of their new school, met their teachers and saw their classrooms. They are attending our neighborhood public school, which has very high ratings. It happens to be an IB elementary school, standing for International Baccalaureate school. In a nutshell, they focus on helping the whole child become a global thinker and contributor. We feel very fortunate to have this opportunity for our kids!
The campus has a wonderful tropical feel because the hallways and lunchroom are all outside, PE is outside, and most entrances into the school campus bring you into outdoor areas. There is a track with a large field, two large blacktop areas, three jungle gyms, tetherball, basketball, wallball, and lots of materials for playing at recess. Mosaics and murals are found throughout the campus, too. This year there are about 560 students, TK- 5th Grade. Class sizes for my boys is 22 and 24.
We were excited to learn about the large parent involvement at this school. It gets more financial support from parent donations and volunteers than anything I’ve seen in my teaching career. During the Jog-a-thon alone, students brought in over $85,000. And more comes from many other fundraisers and donations. As a result, the PTC is able to provide regular all-school family events throughout the year, after-school enrichment programs, and most of the specialty programs that students enjoy during the school day. While there isn’t any formal music program for students (only 5th graders get exposure for a portion of the year), the PTC has been able to ensure that students recieve dance, Spanish, art, ceramics, and gardening classes. Pretty neat!! Students also have library and PE instruction, which is funded by the district. I was especially excited to learn about the thriving after-school theatre company here, entirely run by parent volunteers.
Orientation was a lot to take in. The boys got really excited to be at the same school together. They liked meeting their teachers. I could tell that their teachers are wonderful. But we came home with a lot of questions! There were just lots of cultural and logistical things that were new to us. We were nervous for school to start. Luckily, we had some special visitors to distract us: Auntie Tanya and Uncle Clay!
We enjoyed a Padres game together on Friday night. The boys stayed home with Sister Soto because it was a late game.
Shauna, Amanda and Amanda’s boyfriend came, too! We all had a fun time visiting and catching up. Lots of talk about Tanya being pregnant with her first baby and excited for the birth in October.
The next morning was basketball time for the boys. Tanya and Clay came to watch. This was the day that Tanner caught fire and made some amazing shots and even some three point shots. I of course, had stepped out of the gym to let Dallin run around on the playground so I missed it all. But Tanya, Clay and Jeremy got to see it!! He later wrote about it in his writer’s workshop at school and made it a masterpiece project.
Tanner, the All Star Player!!
Then we all headed over to Coronado Beach. It was our first time at this beach and we loved it. The sand is extra sparkly and the hotel was really fancy. We had Mexican food for lunch that Jeremy got from a place nearby (he had to go through the hotel to get to the restaurant, so it was a bit tricky, but the food was delicious). Tanner, Clay and Tanya went looking for shells together and found lots of little treasures. Dallin made a bed in the sand for himself and took a nap, a real nap where he was actually asleep. It was so adorable. We learned that we should bring some sort of shade structure next time, but other than that, we had a great time!
After the beach, we got gelatto from this adorable ice cream shop at the hotel. We ate our treats on a cute ice cream bench.
When it was time to go, Tanya let the boys feel her baby to see if they could feel her moving. It was so cute. She also gave them some awesome books, and Dallin couldn’t wait to start looking at them! I love Tanner’s expressions in these shots. Tanya and Clay flew home that evening.
That night, Jeremy and I celebrated our 13th wedding anniversary! We got dressed up for a fancy date. We parked downtown by Jeremy’s office and then scootered our way to a fancy theatre. These scooters are a popular thing in San Diego. I had never been on one before. They go really fast! At the theatre, we saw Brian Regan live. His show started out a little odd because he was teasing an audience member and then got mad at her. He asked security to make the person leave. Awwwwkward! It took me awhile to get past that. Through out the show, we heard a lot of new jokes, and the other comedian was super funny, too. Afterward, we ate some snacks at a Thai restaurant and talked about how crazy it’s been to be married for this long. We’ve been through some crazy times together!
The Big First Day of School finally came!! Tanner started 2nd grade and said he was excited to learn and make new friends. Dallin started 1st grade and said he was sad because he doesn’t want to be at school. Both of them were incredibly adorable.
I took them to the playground and helped them find their lines. They seemed a little nervous!! Going home after school started was really hard for me. It was the first year I’ve sent my kids to school without also teaching. To say that I felt lost was an understatement. But I didn’t have to wait too long for the day to end, it was just a half day of school. Kinda wierd for them to start the year on a half day, but they came home happy!
They told me all about their classrooms. Both of their teachers have flexible seating, and there are lots of cool things throughout the rooms. Tanner was really excited because two friends from Zoo Camp were in his class!! Overall, they were really happy, and throughout the first week, they had fun stories to tell about how things work for recess, lunch, specials, etc.
Attending a new school came with some big adjustments. For one thing, the schedule and logistics are very different. Every school day is longer, which was hard for Dallin at first. Luckily, Thursdays are half days. We aren’t used to having half days every single week, but I knew it was something I could get used to pretty fast. I’ve really enjoyed having an entire afteroon during the week to take the boys to the zoo, the beach, or the pool.
We have been really excited about their new specials classes, but sad to discover that many of them only occur once every 2 weeks or just for a limited time during the year, instead of twice every week. It has been tricky for Tanner to get used to this because he likes to know the daily schedule before coming to school, and “The Wheel” schedule has been hard to figure out. It seems like he knows most of it now, though.
There are a couple other big changes that took us awhile to get used to. One, there is no school bus system in the entire district. You read that right. Abostlutely no bussing for any students, unless you have a handicap and a formal IEP that requires you to be bussed. This was a huge shock to me when I found out in July, and I stayed stuck on it for about 5 weeks. How are children without regular transportation getting to school? I understand that kids can walk to school, and without snow, they can do this all year. But we live in a canyon, so even though the way the crow flies is just 1 mile to school, it takes 45 minutes to walk there, and biking the hills just isn’t realistic for my 6 year old. And what about inner city neighborhoods with four lane traffic on every block to cross on the way to school? It is beyond me that students living in these challenging areas are not getting transportation from the district. Driving the kids to school every day came with some learning curves since it’s pretty crowded with 300+ parents all trying to get their 560 children at the same time. Luckily, I have found ways to avoid the pick-up and drop-off traffic rush, so it isn’t a major stress anymore. I’m almost completely over it now.
Another big change for us was school breakfast. Instead of being served for free to all students during the school day, it is served before school begins and has a cost. I knew this would most likely be the case, but I didn’t realize how much our free breakfasts in Austin had helped our morning routine. For the first 6 weeks of the school year, we tried doing our own breakfasts at home, but it proved to be way too stressful for the three of us. I finally gave up and decided to try school breakfast, even though it meant taking the kids an extra 20 minutes earlier to school. I was so surprised with the world of difference it made for us! Now, the boys eat breakfast every day at school, and our mornings are almost entirely free of rushing and yelling. It is absolutely worth the earlier trip to school and the $1.80 per kid, not to mention I have less to think about when I am grocery shopping. Along with the breakfast learning curve, we discovered that making our own sack lunches wasn’t working. I was exhausted with the arguing about what the boys were going to eat, and it was getting really expensive for us. When we switched to school lunch every day, the boys were in heaven! They like how there is 2-3 options of entrees everyday along with self-serve fruit and salad bars. They like how they don’t have to remember their lunch box or help prepare their lunch. I like how there is no arguing and they can get more food for a fraction of the cost.
Jeremy came was home one day while the boys were at school. We took a little nature walk behind our house.
For their first half day, I took the boys to the zoo. They get out of school early every Thursday, and we love it!! During this trip, we saw the koalas, and half of the African animals. It is so nice to have season passes because we can take our time to really enjoy each animal exhibit. No stress is the best!
Back to School Night was really amazing!! We learned more about the wonderful things the teachers are doing for Tanner and Dallin and their peers. I was really excited to hear they are using all my favorite teaching programs, including the Calkins curriculum for writing, Handwriting Without Tears for penmanship, and Words Their Way for spelling. The science and social studies curriculum is custom-designed by the teachers as part of the IB program. Math is common core, and focuses on students gaining strong number sense and mastering multiple strategies for solving problems. I am so excited about these programs!! Also very exciting to learn about the beahvior management systems the teachers are using, which are child-led through regular classroom meetings and discussions. Probably the best news of the evening is that the first and second graders have a no-homework policy. The only homework students are expected to do is read 15 minutes every night and work on a few home projects during the year. Woohoo!!
If you’ve read this far, you might be wondering what my plans are for teaching here in CA. During this first week of school, I had no idea. My main goal was to get the boys settled in their new school and just focus on them for awhile. In October, I took a standardized test to renew my teaching credential. I am terrible at those kind of tests, but I passed with a better score than I anticipated. I have the ability to teach now. I would really like to substitute, but oddly enough, San Diego district says they have an excess number of subs and are not taking applications. Not sure how to get around that. Luckily, there are plenty of opportunities for me to stay busy within the boy’s school community and even some chances for me to make some money! I will post more about it soon.
Before we knew it, Labor Day weekend was upon us. We spent Saturday at the Horse Races. It was a completely new experience for the boys. Tanner had tons of questions with every part of the experience. Afterall, horse racing is a pretty peculiar sport. We ended up going on a special family day, so there were bounce houses, pony rides and a few other fun things to do in the middle of the track. Then, we headed to our seats and bidded on a few races. The boys loved seeing the horses run. I think Tanner made a few bucks on one of his bets. We also got to see the horses up close on our way back to the car.
Then, Matt and Johanna stayed with us! They spent a few days in Mexico and then stopped at our place Sunday night and Monday. Sunday afternoon, we enjoyed playing card games, taking a nature hike and finding prickly pear cactus fruit to eat. Johanna knew it was possible to eat them, so she picked a bunch for us and prepared them for us to eat. It was a pretty big task to get all the thorns out of the prickly bears. I’m so glad we tried them because they were delicious! Thanks, Johanna!!
The boys brought a our neighbor friend with us on the hike. He is right in between Tanner and Dallin’s age, and the three of them started to form a really great friendship together as school was starting. They don’t go to the same school, though.
On Monday morning, Dallin and Matt played some Nintendo and we lazed around. Matt and Johanna used the juicy pulp from the prickly pears to put in some lemonade! It turned into a beautiful magenta color and tasted very yummy!!
On Monday afternoon, we all went to a Sand Scultpure Festival. Bumble Bea Seafoods was one of the sponsors, so Jeremy got free admission for all of us! We ate yummy food from amazing food trucks, toured all the fancy sand sculptures and tried making our own sand creations in the giant sandbox. The art was really impressive and the event was all on a dock right in the heart of San Diego Harbor.
Jeremy and Matt rode their bikes through South Park, where we met them for dinner. We ended up at a cool Indian restuarant. Our table was set in a window, so some of us were sitting on the porch and some of us were sitting inside. The food was a little pricey, but absolutely delicious. It was a very fun way to finish off our first full week of school!
