It has begun!

I'm just sitting here with Cameron on the couch. He's covered in italian dressing from dinner. I waited a minute too long to get him out of his chair and he dumped all of his pasta salad on his head. Ash is at footall practice with Tyler and Matthew. Tonight is the first crazy night of the season: 2 pactices at 6pm and 2 scouts at 7pm. Annie is at YW. They started at 6pm tonight too. At least the craziness was all scheduled for 6pm tonight. Jack and Jessie are out playing in the circle, at least that's where they should be. They can't get enough of playing with friends. So it's just me and Cameron. I think I'll wait to bathe Cam until Jessie is here too and maybe Ash so he can just bathe both of them.

One week until school starts! But who's counting. I have mixed feelings this year. I am excited for the routine and being alone with the little ones from 8am until 3pm. Some quiet time for me! Well sort of. Jessie won't take a nap anymore. But when you go from 6 to 2 kids it's bound to be a little calmer. When I clean it will stay clean for at least an hour instead of 10 min. I won't have to nag the kids all day just some of it. I can watch "Blues Clues" all day and "Curious and George" (it's "Curious George" but Jessie has added the and). I love to see what the kids are learning in school. The parts I'm not so excited about are: homework, no babysitters all day long, early mornings.

Homework rant: I understand Annie has homework and Matthew in 6th grade of course. But the amount in the lower grades is crazy! Some teachers we've had in the lower grades act like they'll fail if they don't turn in homework. Really in 2nd grade they shouldn't spend every second on homework and it shouldn't be the most important part of their education. I have 4 kids with homework every night and reading charts to do and extra projects. I feel like I'm homeschooling sometimes. Isn't that why I sent them to public school so I don't have to do so much work teaching them. Some teachers are great and keep homework in perspective. We had 2 last year of those teachers. The third made Matthew feel like a complete loser all year for forgetting his homework. He was a 5th grader. I'm sure no other 5th grade boy has forgotten his homework in the history of the world. What kills me is that they are so hung up on homework they aren't teaching them anything worthwhile. The teachers we've had who are homework nazis have taught my kids the least and had the boys hating school. Oh and leave me feeling like the worst mom ever! I had one teacher call and tell me Tyler, who gets 100% on every assignment and test (no exaggeration), was "way behind in school" because he hadn't turned in home work the past 2 weeks. (the homework he had was a packet turned in once a week) I wanted to keep him home on testing days so her scores would go down. If he's so far behind then she wouldn't want him on her testing right. He was in 2nd grade! Sorry to rant and rave it's a sore spot with me, obviously.

Overall I'm happy for school to start. I tried to hand pick the boys' teachers, so we will see what we get. Just one more week of long days of whining and nagging all day. Then we get it just when they're home from school. Whatever happened to kids just playing when they get home from school. And mom's giving 2 year olds baths. I'm such a slacker! :)