Back To School

First day of school has come and gone and Shaye still wants to go back which really surprises me. She wasn’t able to make it to the first day of school (long story) but was really excited when I woke her up on Tuesday telling her to ‘wake up, it’s time for school!’ She loved it at first sight. The newness & excitement has worn off a little so even though she wants to go to school, she’s finally to her normal self that doesn’t want to get out of bed and definitely does not want to do homework.

There are many changes that had her really excited for this new school year. One of those reasons being a new school. After thinking about it really long and hard, Mac and I decided to enroll her in the neighboring town’s school instead of going back to our local school.

I want to state that it has nothing to do with the school district itself because I love it. I went to school there and got a really good education. We live in a town with less than 1000 people so the obviously the classes are small. They are strict with a good dress code and manners are a must. If there isn’t a yes ma’am or no ma’am coming out of your mouth, you’re in trouble.

Our problem was with the teachers and their inability to know how to handle different kids. There was also the fact that they have no other option if the child doesn’t get along with the teachers. Shaye started out first grade last year in a really good place. She was nervous and really behind which we knew from talking to the kindergarten teachers. They wanted to hold her back but they don’t like doing that in kindergarten, they would much rather do it in first grade.

By the end of the first semester, she was doing better. Her reading was improving, she was doing awesome with her spelling, and alright with her math. But something switched after winter break. She started hating going to school; she was depressed and crying almost every day after school. After that she shut down. It was impossible to get her to read more than a page or so of a book, homework started taking up to 2 hours to do even though it was really simple and she was acting out a lot more. We didn’t know where our child went. She was a shell of herself and it scared me.

After conferences with the teachers, it was decided that Shaye would be attending first grade again. I agree with it whole heartedly because she is still pretty immature for her age and the whole shutting down has put her even more behind and she would never had caught up in second grade.

Even though I love the school, I had a bad feeling that part of her shutting down was also the teachers. If she went back to the same school, she would have the exact same teachers again. Mac and I didn’t feel like chancing it so we switched her over. So far it’s going really good. She’s really excited that she gets to ride to school with Mama again (plus there is the part where she gets to choose the music on the way to school), and a lot of her friends that she knew from daycare go to this school so she’s getting to reconnect with them again. She really enjoys her teacher and loves the fact that she only has one teacher and doesn’t have to switch classes.

I’m hoping the excitement of the new school, friends and buses doesn’t go away too soon. It overjoys me to see her actually happy about school again.