School Days

Once a week, seems like that's about all I can handle anymore with this blog thing. Oh well, at least I get something down every once in awhile.

The past week marked the first day of Avery's official "school" experience. He went to his first morning of preschool (it's technically a mom's morning out program) on Tuesday. He LOVED it. Can I even begin to articulate how very excited this child was to be going to school?? He has matured by leaps and bounds in one short week.

That's why I really like letting my kids have a little taste of independence at a morning of preschool. It gets them in a fun environment, to do things that I wouldn't take the time to do (you know those things that require additional clean-up :0) and it gets them involved with kids their own age. Isaiah and Huston both went through this same class and they have all had the same teacher - so Miss Dina is about to experience the 3rd Spellman boy and she is definitely in for a treat.

Miss Dina goes to our church and we have actually been good friends for many years. I babysat her daughter when she was Avery's age (and even younger), now that daughter is a senior in high school. Who knew that Dina would be "watching" my kids someday - paybacks are tough.

Here are some pictures though -

On the way to school with his new lunchbox (which he is in love with... and don't worry we were stopped at a light, I wasn't taking pictures while driving - I'm not near that coordinated!)


Look how excited he was to head into class


And here he is after his first day - with his papers (he looks so big *sigh*)


So I know this will be a success and I know that Dina is going to have tons of stories to share about this one. After his first day Avery came home saying that he was "a widdle angel" - not sure where that came from, but I'm sure Dina will tell me.

As for the older boys school is going well for them too. I have finally been able to organize the school room thanks to some fun furniture finds at the salvation army. I got 3 good pieces of furniture for under $150! With a little touching up and adding to (not much though really) I was able to turn my treasures into usable pieces. Here's the room.

Two of the finds - I glazed the entertainment cabinet - stuck some fabric on the back - slid in some new shelving and it's perfect. The planter I left as is for now. It's a bit rusty but it is perfect as a little table to hold our books and papers.


Lillie likes the cabinets - they're great for sitting in. Obviously I filled them with things that her and Avery could get into - otherwise I would be asking for trouble every day of my life.


This is the other piece of furniture I found (the shelving unit/entertainment cabinet in the corner). It's much more bare basic, it doesn't have much character to it, but it serves it's purpose perfectly - I just punched out the cardboard backing.

The table will need to be replaced eventually - we already are fighting for elbow room.

This is an old picture frame that I found at the thrift store too. I loved it so I put some cork in it and made it into a bulletin board. I'm not satisfied with the fabric I put on it, but it was on sale and I wasn't ready to pay tons of money for a yard and a half of fabric! Give me a break - some of the prices were outrageous! (No wonder people just go buy clothes these days, who could afford to make them??)


I left the train table in here - with the hope that the little ones would satisfy themselves by quietly playing trains while the older ones worked... yeah, I know, wishful thinking - seems to work in Barnes and Noble...

So I am really pleased and we are really blessed to have a room that we can devote to our school stuff. It already has made life so much easier. I truthfully can't imagine homeschooling without it - I know it could be done, but I don't think I would have the level of tolerance needed to do it.

And this school year so far has gone really smoothly. I plan what we are to do the night before and get everything we need laid out in the room and then at 9:00 in the morning we get to work. I might post a little more about that later... too much to put down here on an already lengthy and overall blah post. I'll have to bore you with that information another day...