First Day of School

School started for us yesterday.

Abby’s first day was about like most kids her age. We got up, she put on her new clothes, hopped in the car, and mom snapped pictures at every turn. In our house, its tradition that I take them to school on the first day. We get to the co-op, and I ask her, “you want daddy to walk you to your classroom?” Abby responded, in classic Abby fashion, “No, I’ll be ok. I know where it is. Besides, you need to get work.” And with that, her highly independent self hopped out of the car, waved good bye, and skipped off to class. Of course, dad is struggling to keep it together as he drives off to work, wondering what happened to his little girl….

David’s experience was slightly different. His actually began the night before. He and I were tag teaming a mountain of legos in the middle of his room that had gotten out of hand the previous day. We bantered back and forth about expectations for this year, since he would be at home all the time. He seemed excited and ready for the next step in his education. I told him one of my expectations for him this year was for him to read 1 chapter out of the bible, on his own, each day. He seemed pretty cool with that:

“So, like, I can just pick up the bible, pick out a verse and just read it? Like, turn to Exodus 10, and just READ it?!” he asked.

“No, I think a bible plan is in order. Pick a section like the Psalms, or the first 5 books of the bible, or the gospels.” I responded. After some debating and negotiating, we finally decided he would start in Matthew. Then, almost like out of the blue he said, “I wish I could be dropped off for my first day of school….” I stopped what I was doing, because this had the feeling of “one of those moments” parents wait for.

“What do you mean?” I asked. “You are going to be home schooled 100% this year. You don’t get to be dropped off at school.” And then, almost flippantly I added, “What, you want me to drive around the block, and drop you off at the house?!”

Amazingly, he looked up at me in genuine excitement. “Please, dad. Would you do that?!”

And so we did. David got up in the morning, got dressed “for school”, grabbed his book, jumped in the car, and mom snapped pictures. I drove him around the block, pulled into the driveway, and he jumped out, “see you dad. Have a great day at work.”

To me, the review of the first day is also really cool. That afternoon, Abby came up to me, “Daddy! I got to go to gymnastics! What do you think of my gymnastics outfit? My teacher this year is really sweet. She likes rules, though. We spent almost ALL DAY on rules…. HEY! 2 of my friends from last year are in my class! We did a devo on what makes God happy. I am going to finish all my ‘Tuesday work’ today. I got to swing on the bars and do hand stands in gymnastics today! That was fun!” For her, she summed up her day in 5 minutes. Things were good.

David’s experience was different. He got his work done by lunch. That has been his goal all summer. After lunch, he began getting his stuff ready for football practice. He is a starting safety on defense and a backup running back on offense. He likes to be prepared, and early; WAY early. Sometime during the morning, however, Michelle checks in on him, and he was reading the bible. He was on chapter 3 of Matthew. He had decided it was so good, he wanted to continue the story. When Michelle told me that, it took a bit for dad to keep it together, as he wondered what happened to his little boy.... Things were good. Things were real good.

I hope your first day of school experience was just as cool as mine.