Cole's First Day of First Grade

August brought another milestone for Cole: The first day of first grade! As you can tell by the picture, he was very excited. (I love the missing tooth gap in his smile!)

I know he likes school because of the daily "hour report," how long the 7-hour day actually felt. The best days feel like only half an hour, the longest day so far was four hours. He is quite serious about his evaulation and often spends half the ride home decided exactly how long the day felt.

He felt right at home in the first grade section because outer space murals cover the walls. In January, the class studied space and he brought in some of his vast collection. The model of the planets Aunt Robyn gave him has a quiz component and the teacher told the kids not to try it because it would be too hard. He was so proud that he knew all the answers!

Reading is by far his favorite subject and we are thrilled that he has become a book worm. When he had to write an essay about his favorite day of the week, he chose Friday because it is the day his class visits the library. He likes mysteries the best (I wonder who he gets that from?). He finished the A to Z Mysteries (a series like Sue Grafton's with The Absent Author, The Bald Bandit, etc.) and is now devouring the Encyclopedia Brown series. I discovered that Encyclopedia Brown is available on the Nook, so I may have some competition in using it!

He reads everywhere, even on the way home from school. I used to get impatient waiting for him to get out of the car, but now I just leave him out there. It's not uncommon for him to sit in th car for 20 or 30 minutes. I don't know if he even realizes we're home!

He also likes math and seems to intuitively know the best way to solve problems. He'll often throw out 3-digit addition problems and ask me if his answer is right. While I'm still trying to carry the 2 from the ones column to the tens, he tells me the answer and how he figured it out. I'm hoping I can learn better math skills from him!

While he loves school, homework is a different story. On Monday each week, he gets a few worksheets, spelling words, and sometimes a writing project, like a short essay or book report, that is all due on Friday. It is a struggle to get him to sit down and do it. Inevitably, he saves it until Thursday afternoon. Then after all the whining and pouting, what would have taken 15 minutes drags out to an hour and a half. The funny thing is that he will independently work on his math and phonics workbooks and really enjoy it. Most likely because he choses to do it instead of has to do it.

It's a struggle for me too because I feel the worksheets are just busy work (the spelling words and essays have real value). He does multiple worksheets at school and always does well on them, so I can't blame him for not wanting to do the same thing at home. I understand the goal of discipline, but he's in 1st grade. I don't recall homework until 3rd or 4th grade. I worry it's setting up a resistance to homework that will last.

Anyway, we are so happy that he is happy in school and doing well. I hope he maintains his enthusiasm for learning!