- They are going to be exhausted after being gone from home for 8 hours, including bus ride. In fact, I've been told they'll probably be tired the first month.
- And with that tiredness will come grumpiness, restlessness, argumentativeness, and poor choices.
- And an unwillingness to get up in the morning and go, even if they love it. Exhaustion is just hard to overcome. Plus, we're going to have to streamline the morning routine, as they'll have to be out of the house and at the bus stop almost 20+ minutes earlier than in times past.
- They're going to miss play time. Bud essentially came home with Mama, ate, and got ready for bed, with a little bit of downtime. During the school year, they'll be home around 4, with homework, dinner, and bath before stories and bed around 7:30. Which doesn't leave much time to play. Especially when compared to the 6+ hours a day they got in kindergarten. This will probably be the hardest part for them.
- Which means we'll probably change bedtime to closer to 8 p.m. If they sleep in 'til around 7 am, that's still the recommended 10-11 hours a night, even if they don't fall asleep right away.
- Homework timing: homework was already a probably in kindergarten, though it was only one small packet once a week (or one sheet a day, depending on how you wanted to it). I don't know if it'll be best to do homework right away when they get home, as some families do, or give them a break from the day and do homework later . . . but having to pull them away from playing might just be too much.
- Lunch. I'm going to have to come up with more and better lunch options. I don't like the menu of the school hot lunches--tater tots, hot dogs, hamburgers, pizza--all the horrible crap you read about in news reports about childhood obesity and poor food choices. Besides, neither of my kids really likes those choices. But they can't have deli ham and crackers, or just fruit, everyday.
- As for their being in the same classroom all day, sharing teacher, classmates, and assignments, I'm sure they'll do the usual twin thing: they'll love it and they'll hate it!
I have, however, identified some up-sides to having them in the same class for me:
- Between the two of them, I should get a better picture of what they do all day, something I didn't get in kindergarten (especially after being spoiled with the daily updates from the teachers in preschool).
- I'll have fewer projects, deadlines, events, etc to remember. A couple of times this year, Sis and Bud's homework packets got switched and we didn't know whose was whose. Next year, they'll be the same!
- And I won't have to divide my time between two classes. I can go to one book sale, one walk-a-thon, one gingerbread-decorating party, without running back and forth. I can also focus all my volunteer time in one class, which gives each child more time. And less opportunities to be jealous that I'm in the other class.
But let's not get too ahead of ourselves; we still have 6 weeks of summer.
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