Twas the Night Before the First Day of School

Forgive me, but this is for me. For the first time in 13 years, my stomach is not in knots, my head isn't filled with student checklists, my dreams aren't of crazy classroom nightmares, my lesson plan book is empty. Tomorrow marks the first day of school for my teacher buddies in Arizona. They've spent the last week in meetings and the last month at least meticulously measuring bulletin boards and arranging little desks. Every pencil is perfectly sharp and bins of table supplies are perfectly stocked. The library corner and teacher desk are perfectly organized. The whiteboard is perfectly white and the books are perfectly stacked. It is my favorite time of year, everything is perfectly, well, perfect...and then the kids come and mess it all up!

So even though I was able to be home part time these last two years, and even though I've had the summer to soak it all in, it hasn't been until today that I feel like an official stay at home mom. I'm not going to be welcoming 30 kiddos into my classroom tomorrow, and part of me is incredibly sad about that. Another part of me is incredibly relieved about that, too. I'm thinking that maybe a break from the classroom might be a good thing. I need to find something, but for now I am going to soak in the idea that I have an opportunity to be an official stay at home mommy, even if for a little while.

But maybe Vinny and I will play school tomorrow...take a look, he's already self motivated for independent reading time! We caught him this morning like this, and he was so engrossed in his book, he didn't even notice me snapping a picture!

Last week Vinny and I did some back to school shopping of our own, only instead of buying hundreds of pocket folders, labels, notebooks, and extra pencils like I usually do, we picked out finger paints, water colors, construction paper, little blue scissors, and ONE glue stick, not 30! I see some creative artwork in our future! In the meantime, I will be thinking of my teacher friends and wishing them a smooth school year ahead.