School Daze

This is the second week of school already.  The children started last week amidst all the family activity going on.  It was hard to get them into bed and into a routine but all is calmed down now and we are getting there.  All four of my babies are in school now!!!  Crazy.. the time did fly by. 

I am a bit freaked that Zane is in 6th grade now.  He went to the first school dance of the year last Friday (Dare Dance put on by the school safety officers).  I hear he had a great time with his friends and even danced with his friend's sister (he claims just to be nice) but was too shy to ask the 8th grader he has the crush on to dance.  Yes 8th grader.. OMG.. but I guess.. he has always had a thing for older women lol.  Let's pray it is a passing thing!  I think when Josh gets home he will have to have one of those father-son chats with him.  He is starting to break away from me, not telling me all his secrets even if I assure him I won't laugh or make fun or tease.  I think because I made such a big deal out of his first zit I embarrassed him and now he is ski to let me into his adolescent world.  And so it starts..my son is turning into a teenager..I pray that he can be spared all the trouble I went threw in those years and takes to heart our warnings and teachings. 

I did over sleep yesterday.. we all did.  We were up late because we had attended a BIG Rally called Christians Against Human Cloning (more on that later).  So I had to take them all into school late.  When I brought the girls in to school Sophia's class was in the hall doing the morning bathroom brake.  Her teacher asked to talk to me for a minuet and explained a problem she seemed to be having with Sophia.  It is embarrassing.. for Sophia and for me because it brings me back to those days.  Sophia has a potty problem.  She waits too long and has an accident.  It happens right.. but apparently when her teacher asked her about it the other day and if she wanted to go to the nurse to change she refused to acknowledge that she had wet her pants and would not go to the nurse.  I guess it was at the end of the day so her teacher let it go since she would be going home but she wanted me to be aware of it. 

After school yesterday I had a long conversation with Sophia about it all.  It turns out she is afraid to raise her hand sometimes to tell her teacher she has to go potty and she is afraid to go to the bathroom at school by herself.  It is too bad they don't have a small bathroom in the kindergarten classes but we have to make due with what we got.  Sophia also said she was afraid to tell her teacher the other day when she did have a little accident because she didn't want to be pointed out in class and have the other kids laugh at her and she didn't want to go to the nurse's office because she did not know where it was and did not want to be lost in school.  (awwww.. it's hard to be so little in such a big building.. been there done that.. I know what she means).  So I had her practice with me raising her hand and telling the teacher she has to go potty and made it clear she needed to do it right when she felt she had to go.. not to wait.  I also explained to her that every one has an accident once in awhile and no one should tease her but if she did that she could raise her hand and ask the teacher to come to her so she could whisper in her ear that she needed to see the nurse and not draw too much attention to herself.  I told her I would send a set of clothes to keep at the nurse's office for emergencies.  This seemed to help and I hope this is a quickly passing thing. I sent a note along to her teacher explaining what I had practiced with Sophia. She hasn't had an accident at home for a while now but I can tell when she needs to go and tell her to go.. she does get involved with what ever she is doing and sometimes needs to be reminded to go.

I must admit this does strike a nerve.. brings me back to my own school daze.. the ones I would like to block out lol.  I had problems too.. either because I was terrified to raise my hand (I was VERY shy) and then waited too long or because of medical problems that were not diagnosed right away.  Kids can be very mean too.. to this day the words echo in my ear "Pee Bea" or "Pee Pot Pants".  Obviously this is not something I talk about often.  So it pains me to see one of my children facing a similar situation.