First day of school approaches

Tomorrow will be the first day of school for Kaeli, Paige, and Ryan. Kaeli is going into 3rd grade, Paige will be in 1st and Ryan will be starting his first full year of preschool. I'm very excited--looking forward to things being a little quieter during the day. I'm guessing AJ will be lost for a while.

Kaeli is very apprehensive. She's heard many stories about 3rd grade and is very concerned that it will be too difficult. I do believe she'll have to work harder, but I doubt it'll be too much for her. Fortunately there will be plenty of familiar faces in her class this year. There are 4 kids in our neighborhood (within 2 blocks of us) that will be in her class--2 girls and 2 boys. The 2 boys are twins and were in her class last year. A few times this summer she rode her bike down to their house to play. As a side note, I forgot about the one time last weekend that was so cute. She walked into the door for the day and I saw only one of the boys walking down the driveway away from our house. He had walked her home and I thought that was so sweet! It's also funny because they get into alot of friendly competitions at school--it's a good, healthy academic rivalry that keeps them both motivated to do their best.

Paige is incredibly excited about starting school! In fact, she came downstairs this morning fully dressed and ready for her 1st day! Steve asked her if she was practicing for her 1st day of school tomorrow and she said "that's TOMORROW?!" So, she turned around with her head hung low and proceeded to change into something else. I sure hope her day goes well. She seems to have a very nice teacher. At this point we don't know any of the other kids in her class. I did just find out that our future girl scouts leader's daughter is in the class. So, while they don't know each other yet, I know they'll probably becomes friends since they'll be seeing each other outside of school as well. I'm looking forward to her becoming even more competent in reading. She's doing well, but I know she'll do even better with some direct teaching of more advanced decoding skills.

I know Ryan is going to dazzle his speech therapist with his new skills! I tried to warn her that she's going to be completley amazed by him, but I don't think she has any idea just how amazed she will be. I just wrote her a long note explaining where he is right now and what areas she might want to address. I'm certain that he will make progress in even bigger leaps and bounds once she starts working with him. At this rate, I wouldn't be surprised if he doesn't qualify for services at the end of this year.

I will post their "first day of school" pictures when I get a chance tomorrow.