The Reed Family: Back to School

Well we are now a month into school and I am just now updating! Oh well....life is busy.

Hudson is in 2nd grade this year and Harrison is in his last year of preschool (cue the tears!!!). The day before school started, we had meet the teacher for both boys. Hudson got Ms. Carr, who we heard is just great. One month in and Hudson is loving 2nd grade, but boy, is she kicking his tail too! I'm convinced 2nd grade must be the year they whip them all into shape!

Harrison is in the Giraffe room with Mrs. Deborah and Mrs. Kim and we just love them. He has had a great month so far and is already learning so much. He will definitely be ready for Kindergarten next year after having this crew.

First day of 2nd grade picture! He was ready to go!

First day of 4K! He was super excited too!

First Friday night after school started...

As part of 2nd grade, each child in Hudson's class had to "apply" for a job. We were sent home with a list of job descriptions and Hudson had to pick 2 jobs he was interested in and fill out the application, with references included. He really wanted to be the class Mayor, so this was his first pick. I cannot find the picture I took of him running for Mayor, but he made a poster and had a little speech prepared as well. I was SO proud of him for doing that because that would have been the last job that I would have applied for--ha! He did not win, which resulted in a lot of tears the second week of school, but also was a really good life lesson for him on not getting what you want in life, but making the best of what you do get. He did get his second choice, which was the Ticket Officer. In their class, they are given a weekly salary, which they have to use to pay bills and such, and the class has established a set of rules that everyone has to abide by and if you do not follow any of the rules, you get a ticket. You have to pay a fine for each ticket. And 3 times this year, they have market day where they have to make something to bring in and sell and they use their "money" that they have saved to buy things at market day. It's a really neat concept. Hudson is in charge of recording the tickets when the kids get them. And boy, does he LOVE this job. It all worked out in the end! Unfortunately, he is giving himself way more tickets than anyone would like, but luckily it has not been anything major!

He loves the Ticket Officer job so much that he established a ticket system for us at home. He is getting our act together at home too! Ha! This is really hard to read, but each rule is color coded and on the left is where the tickets go if you receive one. As you can see on this night, Harrison received a black ticket--do not stick your face in a person's bottom. :) We.were.dying.

Our house rules:

Blue - Make your bed (if you don't you get one more chance and then you don't get your allowance)

Green - Read and do your homework (timeout if you don't)

Black - Do not stick your face in a person's bottom (timeout if you do)

Orange - Do not touch boy parts (can you tell we are a boy family?!!?)

Red - Keep self control (timeout)

Yellow - Do not touch a breakable thing that is not yours (timeout)

Hudson and Harrison came up with these rules all on their own and it has been so funny watching them use it on each other AND on us, and the poor dogs (and you know dogs love to sniff bottoms so there have been lots of black tickets given there!!!).

Anyway, so we've had several play dates after school on Fridays and overall, just getting back into the swing of things. It's nice to be back in our routine, although getting up before 6 is still a struggle for me.