falling into school

this fall marks the first year of landon starting school! he had previously gone to expore and learn classes with special needs kids last year but it was really more of a mommy and me class setting. this year he started preschool at our community center. he seriously could not be any more excited! landon talked about it forever and made sure he was a big boy so he could go. i think he equates school to friends so that's why he's super excited, not for the learning part. he loves playing with friends- my little social butterfly. this year he is going to an express preschool class. it's two days a week for 45 minutes, so not super intensive at all. i even have to stay outside the room. next year i'm going to enroll him in something more but for now, this is a great way to introduce a learning, mommy-free environment. plus it's ridicudlously cheap. as i've mentioned, we try to do homework time a few times a week [with the incentive of fruit snacks]. i try working on letter recognition, number orientation, shapes, and colors. he knows the letter L, can count objects pretty well 1-10, ok for 11-20- he messes up on the teens a lot. he knows his basic shapes but ones like pentagon, hexagon, crescent, etc are more foreign. and he knows his colors but routinely messes up black, brown and gray.

here he is in front of his school- which i cropped out the name to keep creepers away

activities wise, i was informed that the sports class at our community center was cancelled this year. so i organized a soccer class i'm going to teach to a few of his friends thursday nights. just 30 minutes to get him running [aka tired]. then a week ago i found out they are doing a sports class where they introduce a new sport each week so he's doing that as well. hopefully this should tire that boy out because he is impenetrable to sleep! he did t-ball his first class and liked it enough. he really loved the soccer class i'm teaching for a few of his friends. i think sometimes people think anyone can teach a kid's class but that is not the case. i don't claim to be perfect but i do have experience and i know how to teach kids. he's still talking about how he loves coach mommy and wants to go back to soccer class- so that makes me feel awesome. [no pics of soccer were taken bc i was riding solo and coaching- i'll try for next time]

speaking of school, justin is enrolled in a masters class at unlv. he wants to get a master in public administration but there are a few hurdles to pass. since we'll be gone next semester in carson, one intro class seemed like a good start. i am not looking forward to having my husband gone one more night a week [especially with my mom gone so i don't have her house to run to when i'm bored or overextended], but it's better to do it now then later. and it seems like any job these days require advanced degrees. i just hope it'll be worth it one day because education is expensive! i'm proud of him for doing this- going back to school is not easy! he is amazing and i'm proud of him.

silly us, thinking we were done. notice us trying to keep landon's trap shut with a binkie