Honor God

Update on school. Sam is surviving. He has now been a Kinder for three weeks. Last year when Max was in first grade he spent the first two weeks in aftercare hanging out with a kinder boy who was having a hard time adjusting and cried a lot. After the first several days the boy's mom was thrilled because the little kinder kid decided he didn't want to leave after care to go home when she came to pick him up, he was having so much fun with Max and his friend Kellen who had befriended him. After he adjusted and made some friends, Max and Kellen no longer needed to help him out. I found out about this a few weeks after the fact. The aftercare lady told me about it. I thanked her for encouraging Max to do this and teaching him to be so kind. She laughed and said the whole reason she even told me about it was because she hadn't asked Max or Kellen to do it, they did it on their own and she thought I would like to know about it. I was soooo proud of my little man!!! When Max was a Kinder some kids did the same thing for him and he must have remembered.

Well, Sam was very anxious before starting his first day of kindergarten and I asked Max to help him out like he helped out the Kinder kid last year. He said, "Sam isn't nervous." I told him that yes he was and please help him and hang out with him before classes started and then in aftercare also. He said he would, but seemed less than thrilled. Of course I stayed until classes started (after walking them in the building) and of course Max bailed on Sam the minute we got to the cafeteria. Ugh! Why are kids so willing to help others, but not thier siblings? I can't complain too much, Max has hung out with Sam some, but just not all the time, but Sam gets upset and wants Max's sole attention. Max wants to play and see his friends. Ugh! But Sam is surviving.

In fact, after just two weeks Sam now has a nice accent when he says his (Spanish) vocabulary words. (He definitely sounds better than me.) They get 16 new vocabulary words a week to learn! But they aren't tested on them, just introduced to them, and we are given pictures of them to use at home for flash cards if we want to. Whew! Between all those new vocabulary words for Sam and Max having spelling words to learn and practice for tests and Math homework and reading assignments life is busy. (And all the homework comes written in Spanish, so I have to ask Max or look up words to figure out the directions since Spanish is their primary language at school as it is a Spanish Immersion program). Not to add Karate twice a week. I am amazed at kids who do three after school activities. And most seem to. I feel like I am depriving mine sometimes. Of course those kids don't have working mom's and have longer days to get it done. By the time I finish work and pick them up from aftercare, we barely have time to eat dinner, do homework, take a bath and get ready for bed at a decent time. I feel so rushed as it is, I feel we have to keep things simple. Only it doesn't feel simple, my head is always spinning. But...we are all surviving. Yeah! That in itself is something. Right? I had to explain to Sam today during one of his fuss fits that I hoped he was happy, but that, that wasn't what was most important to me. My goal was to teach him to be act right and love and honor God. He stopped and thought about it, so I asked him if he was honoring God with his fussing and he said No. Maybe he is listening! Lord please help me each day to use the time wisely for your purposes.