First Day of Public School

Elliot started 2nd Grade on August 8! This is our first public school experience after 2 years of Prenda. We wanted to keep going with Prenda but couldn't find a guide in Rancho that was doing 2nd grade. 

This picture was taken way too early in the morning. His school bus comes at 6:27am. 

I love this kid so much! He was not at all scared about going to the much bigger school. We went to a back to school open house where we practiced walking to his classroom from where the bus would drop him off. I walked him to and from the bus stop for one week. After that, I asked if he would be comfortable walking home from the bus stop and maybe eventually walking there in the mornings by himself. He was on board right away. He now wakes up by himself, gets himself breakfast, packs himself a snack, and walks to the bus stop every morning all by himself. I don't even wake up for it anymore. Aaron is up and working, so he checks on him to make sure he's up and gives him a morning hug. This is completely miraculous to me. Last year it was a struggle to drag him to school on time at 8:30, and this year he does it all by himself two hours earlier! For whatever reason, he decided to take ownership of getting himself to school, and he's completely rocking it. 

There was a teacher shortage this year, so Elliot's teacher is technically still a student at the U of A. She would normally be doing her student teaching this semester, but they were so short staffed that the school district gave all the student teachers their own classes instead of having them help in a veteran teacher's classroom. Miss O'Brien is great. 

Elliot's class at the library! They had a day in October where they learned about squash. 

Usually when I ask Elliot about what he does in school, he says "stuff." Here are some tidbits I have been able to piece together about the first part of his 2nd grade experience:

• He tries to be the first one to the bus stop so that he can stand by this specific bush so that he can be first in line to get on the bus. This seems pointless because they have assigned seats. He said "most of the other kids play and climb trees in the morning, but to me it's worth it to miss out on that to be the first one on the bus." There is one other kid that knows the bush secret and tries to be first, but he lacks Elliot's dedication so Elliot wins the undeclared competition most mornings. 
• His favorite "special" is computer class but also loves library and PE when they do obstacle courses or funny relay races. 
• His classroom had groups of 4 desks pushed together to form tables. Kids who talked too much got their tables broken up and have to sit with their desks in spaced out rows. Elliot is part of the only table that has not been broken up. 
• His buddy James Mills is in a different class, but they have recess at the same time. Each day they play "Age of Empires" or other video game inspired games with piles of sand. He dumps massive quantities of sand out of his shoes after school every day. 
• His teacher says that he is quiet most of the time and very well behaved. He does his trademark "I'm proud of myself" grin whenever he answers a question right in front of the class. 
• The work that he brings home seems super easy for him, but he says it feels the same amount hard as Prenda was and that he liked both of them.