Back to School!

Okay, I am finally blogging about school! I know some of you are wondering how starting school, for the Ardis kids went. I really do have a good reason. My computer had some really bad viruses on it & it took me about 6 weeks to get it fixed. I finally called & had a computer guy come over & fix it! YEAH! Anyway, I know you don't care about that, you are just wondering about Back to School. SO, since the kids have been in school a little over 2 months I will catch you up.

Against what I felt, in my heart & soul, Bryce started 3rd Grade on Aug. 24th. He was really nervous & didn't want to even talk about going back to school. I had to drag him into the school to meet his teacher the Friday before school started. Once he got into his classroom & met his teacher he was all ready to go to school. His 3rd Grade teachers name is Mrs. Clopton. The funny thing is, she has 2 kids a boy named Brayden who is 8 & a boy named Bryce who is 6. Pretty crazy! His room was set up really cool. She had even built a tree house in the room & he loved it. After meeting his teacher he climbed into the tree house. A few minutes later a little girl named Lily climbed up also & he immediately made a new friend. His really good friend Joseph, from church, & his friend Kylie (who was baptised the same day as he was) were also in his class. So, Monday morning, much to my relief, he was excited to go to school. Mrs. Clopton is awesome! She knew that he was coming in behind & was their with her sweet smile & funny humor to help him along.

But, like I said I JUST KNEW HE NEEDED TO BE IN 2nd GRADE. Moms, when you know something in your heart & you just can't shake that feeling - you had better listen. So, 6 days into school Mrs. Clopton called me to say Bryce was the sweetest kid in the world, she just loved him, BUT he was drowning in the 3rd grade. She also told me that she was convinced that he was Dislexis. I was SOOOOOO upset, to say the least & so very mad at the school for not listening & especially at myself for listening to Bryan & the school tell me he would be okay. I will NEVER do that again. I informed all of them that I would fight them, if I had to for my kids. So, I went in & met with her & the principal & Bryce's NEW 2nd grade teacher. Her name is Mrs. Haas. She has been a teacher for 30 years & is very good & very sweet & loving. She has been a blessing. Bryce still struggles with some things, she is working to get him tested for Dislexia. But, 2nd grade is a good fit for him. He was very upset at first about going to 2nd grade because he LOVED his teacher & had made several new friends. BUT, thank goodness he has adjusted & loves 2nd grade.

Brayden is in the 1st grade with Mrs. Ahlstedt. She is really sweet & he loves her to death. He has made lots of new friends & is enjoying going to school. He is getting better at reading, but doesn't LOVE it. He does, however, love Math. He would much rather do math than read. And he would rather memorize a word than sound it out. He gets frustrated when we are doing flash cards & Savanah sounds it out before he does.

Bryan has promised him the Mega Transformer, that has about 8 Transformers together to make one, if he will try really hard & learn to read well. We will see how that works. He memorizes really quickly & tries to hurry & memorize them so he doesn't have to REALLY read them. Neither one of my boys like to read much. I guess it is just a boy thing, because their dad doesn't like to read either.


My girl Savanah is LOVING school. And I do mean LOVING school. She has ALLLLLL the teachers & staff at the school in love with her. Several of the teachers call her MS. DIVA! She is eating it up as you can image. She loves everything about school & can't get enough. I have started doing Brayden's homework with her also, because they aren't going fast enough in Kindergarden for her. That's my girl!

Thank goodness I have 1 kid that loves to learn! She will probably be reading like crazy soon. Her teacher can't believe that she can be quite the stinker at home. Although that is getting better. She has FINALLY realized that if she is helping & especially when she does things she hasn't been asked to do that she gets the attention that she wants. YEAH! Being 5 & in Kindergarden has been awesome!


My sweetie Sierra is in Pre-K. She loves going to school Tues. - Thur., coming to work with mommy on Monday & being home by herself on Friday with mommy & daddy. She is back to being her sweet self, well except in the afternoon when sister is home. They clash somewhat terrible, but if I tell them to play in different rooms away from each other they think their world is over.

We are working on our letters & sounds & she is excited to be learning a little bit of spanish at her school. I love her school because it is across the street from Bryan's office, so I just run her over in the morning & walk back over in the afternoon to get her. She loves it also because she knows I am close by. Savanah has been teaching her the cute songs they learn at school & she can't wait to attend Boals Elementary next year.



I love this picture of the kids in front of school. Savanah is excited, Bryce is nervous & Brayden looks like he is saying Bring it on! Just like his dad!


I am so thankful the kids are loving school, but I have to say that I really miss them. We use to have LOTS of family time, could vacation when we wanted & were not inslaved to a schedule of 7:45 to 3. I think they have adjusted better than I have. Getting up at 6:30 to start getting myself ready, making breakfast so early, get the kids up, dressed, feed & out the door to school. Then coming home & finished getting ready for work. Then off to work, drop Sierra off, work, pick up Sierra, pick up the other kids, come home to homework, then cooking dinner, then getting ready for bed. Oh my goodness I am tired by the time they go to bed at 7:30. Crazy life, but we are surviving! And people look forward to sending their kids to school. Don't get me wrong, I too at one time WANTED to send my kids to school, but life is MUCH more crazy with them in school. I have to say, looking back I loved having them at home. We became extremely close & I really miss them. If & when we homeschool again the only thing I would change would be a few hours, 1 day a week to myself, but other than that I have to say I love homeschooling my kids & miss it.

Well, we have definately started a new journey in our life. I'll try to do better about keeping you posted!