Ranger and School

And so ends Ranger's first week (ok, 4 days) in school. There are some huge differences in his attitude, thank goodness! He went from "are you going to school---NOPE!" to "where are you going---SCHOOL!" type of conversations.

Ranger used to:
1. stay up late at night
2. wake up around 9ish in the morning
3. lay in bed and watch TV
4. eat and watch TV
5. just watch TV

With school, Ranger now:
1. goes to sleep earlier than usual (hehehe---we haven't gotten to an 830 pm bedtime just yet!)
2. is woken earlier than usual (7 am on the dot!)
3. cries "I SLEEP!" whenever yaya wakes him
4. howls in the bathroom during his morning shower
5. calms down after his shower and is semi-excited to go to school
6. eats breakfast earlier than usual (sure, he watches some TV!)
7. bounds back into the room to say BYE to us, all excited for school.

I guess for Ranger, it's a step by step process where his body and his mind has to adjust getting up so early in the morning. Hehehehe. But by the time he is in school, he allows yaya to lead him to his classroom, and he is off! BY HIMSELF!!! Whoohoohoo!!!
No more crying, no more wailing. He has even started clapping his hands and singing some song (that I can't distinguish).....which leads me to believe that he has learned this from school. He actually picked up something!!! YEAH!!!

Now, to change all that watching TV part.......

It will probably be easier when we're back home after all the renovation is done, but I'll still let him stay in front of the computer and let him use lots of educational software. I know the 3 older kids have a whole set of those lying around. We just need to get organized more. He's already started on some kids educational games; the Jump Start series is one of the BEST software out there for this. He is already familiar with the Baby and the Toddler starters. It'll be colors and numbers next, with some emphasis on some math software for him to have an easier time at school. Raegan, Rogan and Raine all started with the Jump Start series and I can say that the money I spent on those programs were SO worth it!

School is SOOO competitive nowadays! Yes, even for the little ones. Idiotic, really, since they're only kids, but I've heard some moms going overboard with tutors AND Kumon AND a whole host of other extra curricular activities AFTER regular school. For preschoolers!!! Ugh. Overboard, I tell you. I'm with the school of thought that says that school should be FUN, especially for the little ones.

With the presence of TV and computers, parents can use these wisely to help make learning fun for the kids. That's always been my goal (that, and books of course!) for the kids. I want the m to have fun. When they have fun, it's just so much easier for them to learn. Learning and Fun. They should go hand in hand, yes? :)