We at the Lewis household survived week one of the back-to school routine! This year the transition has been more difficult than past years because my oldest daughter started middle school and Joy is having a very difficult time with the transition and leaving Momma all day. Thankfully, my son loves school and his transition has been very easy. He is excited about school and even said, "I forgot how much I like school!"
Joy has been through so much change in this past year. I totally understand her apprehension, but it is difficult for me to see her struggle to go to school each day. She did very well this first week behavior-wise, but every night she told me she wants to go to Momma Tine. She hasn't talked about missing Momma Tine in months, so I know it is the fear of the unknown making her feel insecure and long for the "comforts" of her first 7 years. Yesterday she also told me, "School is REALLY hard, Momma. I just want to go home and go to bed." I have never had a child until now that struggled with school-and it breaks my heart. I tried to work with Joy some over the summer on her sight words and learning to read. She did make some progress, but not near what I was hoping. I feel guilty because I know I didn't spend as much time working with her as I should have. So, my new routine will include spending time reading and working on sight words every night with Joy. Please continue to pray for Joy that she will be able to learn to read and do math, and it won't be so difficult for her.
When I told Joy Friday was the last day of school for the week, she exclaimed, "Hallelujah!" I guess that pretty much sums up how Joy feels about school!
This morning, Joy was excited to sleep in and spend time with me. She gave me "lots of big hugs" and said, "I miss you, Momma." I said, "But I am here, how can you miss me?" She replied, "At school, I miss you and Momma Tine." Hey, it's progress, right? At least she misses me and Momma Tine now!
So, we survived week one. There are so many more weeks to go, but I am thankful the first week went better than I expected! Even though Joy is not really excited about school, she is making friends and she likes her teacher and she is behaving well! Micah loves his teacher and is excited and Natalie enjoyed her first week of middle school (everything except for getting up so early!) I think it will be a good year and I am praying for all of my kiddos that they will learn and do their best.
