first week of school

The first week of school has come and gone and everyone seems to be adjusting fairly well. Big M is tired, but he is controlling himself much better nowadays and can avoid a tantrum, or at least recover from a tantrum easily. Time and time again, I tell him that he must recognize that if he is having a tantrum often, that he is tired and must rest. But how can I expect him to learn something that even most adults haven't mastered. 

A few days he came home and said, "Mom, I only got a warning today!" He was very proud of the fact. I've contacted his teacher via email to see how is doing, and I'm told he is an excellent student. He is having fun at school with his friends and that has erased some of his apprehension that 1st Grade is hard. Everyday he has a reading homework. He must either read for at least 15 minutes, or be read to for the same amount of time. Most of the time, I make him read by himself. He has gotten quite good at it and only need help with very difficult words like "through". And there are days where we have asked him to read bed time story to his sisters. By my estimation, he reads in the 2nd grade level at the very least.

We have also curbed his TV time and computer playing time during the week. We did well in the first week, but I once said that he could go back to playing or watching TV once his homework was finished. I may have made a mistake on that one because his homework were fairly short to do. I will have to rethink that last policy.

J and K are also adjusting well. They have the same friends so it makes it easier. There are essentially 2 classes in one classroom and they are always separated. This is something I highly agree with. In fact, I think I may look into getting them separated in 2 different classrooms. The pre-school has essentially 2 pre-k classes, with 2 groups in one class. It may do them good to be in different pre-k classrooms so that they can get used to this. Daddy and I want them to be separated in Kindergarten to avoid competition and criticism.