THE EWELL FAMILY: Back to school 2013

The day finally came!! I love, love, LOVE my kids. But they finished school in Indiana before Memorial day. By August I was spent. Just ready to get back into some sort of a routine. And they kind of needed a break from being with each other- and only each other every day. They were anxious to meet friends.

Hayden started 3rd grade and Rebecca started 1st grade.

I really like their school so far. And their teachers seem amazing. They are really liking school. I never had the experience of changing schools. I went to the same elementary school every year. Same with middle school and high school. I never really had to worry about making new friends. Of course you make new friends that you didn't know very well in each new class, but I still had friends from church and previous classes that I'd see throughout the school. I am very proud of my kids. They have learned to take change in stride. There are definitely some moments that are tough for them, and those moments break my heart. Rebecca came home from school on the first day of school with 3 new "BFFs". This doesn't surprise me, and I'm so happy that she makes friends so easily. And she even has a boy from the bus making her bracelets and necklaces regularly.
Hayden is a little more like me. It takes him a little longer to come out of his shell. And once he is out of his shell, he's completely himself. One night at dinner, Rebecca was talking about all of her BFFs that she has made, and what they play at recess. Hayden got a little quiet and said, "I don't really have any friends yet." UGH!! My heart just broke as he opened up and said that he doesn't play with anyone at recess, he just swings on the swings alone. And at lunch he does sit by people, but he said he didn't really talk to anyone during lunch. Friends are everything to Hayden. He misses his friends from Indiana, and even Las Vegas still, so much. Jerry and I gave him some tips about how to make friends, and ideas for striking up a conversation with kids in the class that he wanted to get to know better.
I went to the back to school open house and felt just a smidgen of what they feel. It was odd to me, to look around and not see a single person I know. Hayden and Rebecca are the ONLY members of our church in the ENTIRE school. In Indiana they didn't have any members of the church in their classes, but they saw their friends from church around school, and played with them at recess occasionally. It's just nice to see someone else that is familiar. Our ward covers 7 towns, each with several elementary schools in them. So the friends they've made at church still live far enough away that they aren't in our school. I don't mean to sound like I'm complaining, because we really like it here. But as good as change is, it is still definitely hard. It is making them so strong though. Stronger than I was at their age. I am so proud of them.
Hayden has come out of his shell a lot more in the weeks that he's been in school. I'm so happy to hear that. I was so worried about him. I was really shocked the other day when he came home and said that he wanted to run for student council!! WHAT?? My first thought was to try to talk him out of it because I didn't want him to be hurt and sad if he didn't get elected, mainly because he's new and the school doesn't really know him. But I'm so glad I kept that quick thought to myself, and saw the bigger picture. Honestly, I am so proud of him. They had to write a little paragraph to read about why they wanted to run for student council.
Side note: When did my boy get so grown up??
I listened to him share his ideas about why he wanted to be on student council and why he thought he would be good for it. He was so cute. At one point as he was talking about the fun days they could have like hat day, sports team day, etc. he stopped and said, "but I'm thinking about the fun part, I need to also think about the work part of it." He decided he didn't want to run for president because that would be a lot more work for him. Then he said, " and I won't be upset if I don't win. I know that not everyone knows me, but I still want to run." Oh, I am so glad I hadn't told him my reservations and burst his bubble before he could even tell me all about it.
He asked me to help him with his speech. I only helped him with a few words, and giving it a conclusion, the rest was him. So here is his darling speech
" I'm Hayden Ewell and I would like to run for student council. I am honest, hard working, and responsible. I take ownership of my choices. I am willing to work hard for this school. I have good ideas to make school fun while we learn. I have to take notes and I love to write. Some fun ideas would be, twin day, hat day, costume day, and sport day. And a few surprises if you vote for me, Hayden Ewell, on election day.
He didn't win, but I am SO proud of him for at least trying. Major mom pride! And he took it very well too. He was happy that he tried.

Rebecca was so excited to start school, and she is loving it. She deals with change much differently than Hayden. He gets quiet, and sad, and when he finds the words he verbalizes. She just gets angry - at everything. I can laugh about this now, because it has gotten so much better in the last few weeks, but I didn't know if I would survive the first couple weeks of school. It actually started more in the summer, and it wasn't all the time, but little things would set her off and she'd get so angry. Once school started I hoped it would get better. She loved school and would come home happy, but within a few minutes something would make her angry and she'd be yelling at everyone. At open house her teacher said that they were doing a lot of testing those first few weeks to gauge where everyone was at and she told us all that if our kids had been extra tired or emotional, that was probably why. Ahh, light bulb!! She is adjusting to the change in her own way, and now that she's making more friends and getting used to the busy day schedule she's gotten so much easier. Once again my sweet girl is back. However, the daily morning fight of finding socks that don't "bug" her or "feel weird" along with making sure her shoes are tied tight enough - she wants them tight enough to cut off her circulation, but still wants to be able to move her toes.... -that is still there. Baby steps right??

I looked into many preschools for Sydney, and just like everything else on the East Coast, ridiculously priced. The average price for preschools is around $250-300 per MONTH! Ha! Yeah, right, not going to happen. After lots of stress I found some girls in the ward that have kids Sydney's age and we started our own preschool co-op. We teach one week at a time for two days a week. So far it has worked out really well. There are 4 little 4 year olds, and they are just so dang cute. We call it the fantastic four preschool. She loves it, and does so well in it. It's a good thing for me too. I taught this week and really had a good time with it. I learned very quickly that activities need to be about 10-15 minutes only, because that is about the max for their attention span at a time:)