Photo Friday

This week marked alot of things in Aidan's kindergarten world. Today, was dress up day. This meant that 1) Aidan didn't have to wear his uniform and 2) he had his school pictures taken today. He wasn't really thrilled about the dress up day because, well....he's a 5 year old boy. He could care less about wearing preppy button up shirts and dress pants. He would have rather worn his school uniform because he can wear shorts (at least until the end of October). He doesn't care that he has to wear uniform shorts with dress shoes because, well...he's a 5 year old boy.

This was also the first week that he had homework. We were told at kindergarten orientation that once homework began, it would be sent home every Tuesday and Thursday. I thought this was fabulous. First of all, it was only 2 nights a week and second, we could plan around homework nights.

Last week, Paul was out of town on business and I was really nervous because I thought it would be the week that homework started. I was fretting about having to deal with the homework alone. I have "issues" with anything school related and that includes homework. I couldn't even imagine having to deal with the anxiety that homework brought. For me, it is really about the anxiety, not about the homework itself. I mean, come on, how hard can kindergarten homework really be? So, you can imagine the sigh of relief that came from our home when I frantically rifled through the yellow folder last Tuesday only to realize that I had been saved! No homework. I was safe for another week. Most of all, I was safe. Paul would be home next week and I had every intention of letting him handle the homework demons.

This Tuesday, I opened the folder and saw the homework page. I knew it was coming because on Friday, the teacher sent home a note telling us that this week started homework. I can hear my friend Trista saying, "you have got to get over your issues with school." I know she is right and I have tried really hard not to project any of my feelings on to Aidan when it comes to school. I had planned Aidan's favorite dinner Tuesday night to celebrate the first day of homework. I pulled the homework out of the folder and asked Aidan if he wanted to do the homework now or after dnner. I thought it would put a positive spin on it if I made it his choice. After we went round and round about homework, Aidan ended up in his room crying and I was slamming pots and pans around while trying to finish dinner. But, no matter how hard I thought I was trying, I obviously failed. I'm not even sure how we ended up in the argument about homework, but, we did. So, after I calmed down, I went to his room to find him hiding in the closet. I asked him why he was so upset and he said that he didn't think it was fair that he had to do homework when daddy never had to do any homework. Deep down, I felt sorry for him, but I calmly rationalized with him. Luckily, I had read a post by my friend, Josie, about a school related discussion she recently had with her daughter and used the same story with Aidan. Thank you Josie, for your calm, rational...wait, is that the same Josie I used to work with (just kidding)?!? Anyway, we marched right into the kitchen and finished the homework in about 10 minutes. We also got through Thursday evenings homework without fail. Although, I did leave that day for Paul to handle. Needless to say, I feel so much better that the first homework assignments are behind us and we stopped for a slurpee on the way home today, to celebrate....again!!