Changes and Adjustments

 

We now have 2 eleven year olds in this house. 

 

 

Sweet boy is making sure that his brother is lighting ALL his candles!

 

 

Lousy lighting... great smile!!  I love this boy so very much!

Birthday parties can be very exhausting affairs... just ask Ben!

 

Are we feeling a big nervous and crazy for our first day of school???



 

John was just not sure he was going to like school!

 

 

He's just not going to give me a smile on this first day... 

 

 

Okay... maybe a tiny one!!

 

 

Can we go home now??? Please?????

 

 

This one couldn't wait for the day to begin!

 

 

Just go away mom and let me get at this stuff!!

 

 

WAAAAA... What in the world am I doing here???

 

 Stink face for school!!

 

 

That was two weeks ago.

 

Changing schools for Aaron brings its bits of sorrows.  He misses his friends from his old class and misses the 'way things were.'  He likes routine and likes things to be in a predictable order.  New schools bring many changes and he is having to adjust.  Two weeks in and he is slowly finding joy in the new norm. 

 

School for John has been an even greater adjustment.  He went to school before but for only a few hours each day.  Now it is all day.  He comes home tired both emotionally and physically. Though he is gaining in English by the hour, hearing English all day without understanding but a portion of it is hard on his spirit.  He loves language and loves talking.  Apart from Aaron he hasn't found anyone he can really 'talk' to beyond just simple conversations. John was fluent in two languages and even knows bits and pieces of a third.  I can't imagine how hard it is for him to leave those languages behind and start all over again.  He's adjusting as Aaron but the difference is so vast that right now he isn't finding a lot of joy in the process.  These things take time. 

 

My greatest pleasure is that I get to go in and teach my boys each week.  I loved homeschooling the older boys and wish I was in a place in our lives where we could do it again but we understand this is not the season for homeschooling. Our little guys need to be in school.  They need the language immersion.  They need to be around their peers and learning from them.  For me, teaching them history each week is the next best thing.  I get to teach a subject I love and my little boys get to learn from me.  It's a total win. 

 

 

And despite all the changes and adjustments.... both boys are finding that school CAN be fun!!