School is back in......

Last week the kids stared back at school, and while I was excited at first about them going back and learning and being entertained for the day I decided after day 3 that maybe this was not what I was looking for. I forgot how much I would have to change my evening schedule to accommodate homework, reading and early bedtimes. I guess I just had this all in my head how it would work out but apparently 2nd grade is much different than 1st grade.
The first and second night was mostly papers for me to fill out ect. I was ok with that. Then Thursday night was the mother load. I was totally unprepared. Hannah had skating and I didn't bother to ask about homework and goodness i was in for a surprise when I got home. Her assignment was to read a 12 page version of Cinderella and then on this sheet of paper write and draw what was the beginning middle and end. This was one of those big text books so I was just not prepared for that I thought it would be one of those cute decodable books she had last year that took like 15 min to read. WRONG!!!!!!! An hour and a half later, yes yes you read that right, an hour and a half later we finished it all! I wrote a note telling the teacher that maybe a mistake had been made and she was not ready for 2nd grade because my goodness Hannah could hardly read. We where both in tears by the end of the evening. Granted it was now about 10pm but still she told me she hated reading and it was hard and she was stupid and that she couldn't do it. My heart broke and I felt like a failure. I am her mother, a teacher, her rock and now I have just let her down. I cried as i wrote the note to her teacher.
Here we are a week later and we are going round and round with the I am not good enoughs, I hate reading, and I am stupid. These things hurt me deeply to hear about my sweet Hannah. She used to love to read and never had a self esteem problem. She struggled through her homework again last night and all the while I am watching her write the answers to questions and I can't read a dang word on the sheet because her spelling is about as good as her reading. Did the summer really turn her brain to mush? After drying our tears again I told her to go to bed I would finish up signing off on her work and clean up her mess. I just had to sit on the couch and really think about what to do next. A friend of mine who is a reading and handwriting specialist at a DISD school has offered to help so next Tuesday Hannah will work with her. I feel some relief with that. Though what happened next made me feel even more at ease. Her teacher wrote an email to me about how she knows Hannah is struggling to keep up and she is doing some testing and we will have more answers next week on how to do it and gave me some helpful pointers and stuff to do to make reading fun again. I again cried ( yes, I know I cry a lot over this!) and wrote her thanking her so much and how Hannah is so happy to have her. What most of you don't know is that this teacher had Sean for his 2nd grade teacher and he as most of you know is me reader! He would read all day long as many books as he can find and never tire of it. So I think this might be a reason Hannah feels the way she does. I think she compares herself to how Sean was and maybe what this teacher is expecting since Sean was so exceptional at reading. Anyways I sent the email to Chris because he knew how much I was stressing out over this and his responses made me feel so much more at ease. He wants Hannah to get the help she needs and he would help do whatever it takes to do it, he wants to just be involved. I felt so much better hearing this also.
Thankfully tomorrow is Friday and we have a long weekend. I think Hannah already needs a break from school. I know I sure do. Her drill team has a exhibition this Sunday at 10am at the Galleria so I know she is looking forward to that. If you can you should come see they are super cute and skating to Boogy Woogy Bugle Boy. Also if you are interested the weekend of Sept. 18th Hannah and Ella compete in Arlington at the Parks Mall. This will be there last competition for the year as we prepare for the Holiday show starting here in a few weeks. Lots of rehearsals ect till Thanksgiving. This should help pass the time and help Hannah get away from school stresses.
An update just because I need a distraction....... We are officially at the 60 day marker. Chris has started his out processing and will get more info about his flight next Tuesday. He has roughly 5-6 weeks left of work and he will be heading out. He also finally got to see a doctor and he has 3 kidney stones and a infection. He will know more on Tuesday about what will happen next with that. So yes 60 days folks I can live with this. And once he is here I have 10 days of him here till he goes to get his stuff and move in. I am excited to start a new chapter in this life. I feel that things will real be heading for the better here soon. Don't you think?! G'nite all!