New Traditions...Our First Day of School

As excited as I have been to begin our new school year I will admit I felt...I don't really even know what... when the school bus carrying Logan's friends off to public school drove by last week.  I can certainly do without much of what a traditional school year entails but it's hard for me to get past my own found memories of school.  I determined that we would fill Logan's first day of "kindergarten" with our own traditions that would help to create fond memories for my children.

To encourage my oldest in his exploration of writing and reading I created a family mailbox.  He and his daddy have been exchanging letters all summer.  Ryan will leave a messages in the morning, which Logan and Blake are allowed to read when he has left for work. My boys have had a hard time with separation each day and this has a been a great way to include my husband more in our day.  Of course, the boys leave messages for their daddy in return. As a special treat for our first day of school I wrote a note for each boy and attached an octopus pencil (it was as close as I could get to a giant squid). They enjoyed doing some of their work today with their new treasures.

My grandmother made us this growth chart and we finally got it up at this house.  We measured each of the boys on our first day of school and we will make this a new tradition. I had planned to do this on their birthdays but it turned out to be a great way to mark the new school year.

The highlight of the day was a field-trip to the library.  Logan is finally old enough to get his very own library card.  He was so excited!  He was even more thrilled when he found an adaptation of Moby Dick for children.  The librarians thought it a bit odd that he already knew the details of the story.  I know this story may not be for every kindergartener but my boys loved it and decided to do some drawings.

They placed their pencils carefully so they would make it into their pictures. 

The book was adapted and illustrated by Allan Drummond.  We loved it but it may be too graphic for some.  He included some great historical information about the whaling trade at the back of the book.  My boys were fascinated.