wrapping up the school year

Valentine's Day craft time at Luca's school.

This was Luca's first year in school and, just like he learned a lot in school, I learned a lot about what it means to have my child in school. One of the surprises was how much Alain and/or I were to be present at the school during work hours. While Alain owns his business and is limited by workload, I work for someone else and I am limited by workload and company policies. Some of the school-time requests we received:

- School open house event: even before Luca was enrolled, we attended the open house event (10:00 a.m. on a Monday)
- School orientation: once admitted, Luca was to visit the school with us and become familiar with the place and his classroom (Friday 3:00 p.m.)
- Parent/Teacher meetings: 3 meetings during the school year (between 8:00 and 10:00 a.m. on Tuesdays)
- School forum: Luca performed for the Halloween show, Winter show, Valentines Day show, Mardi Gras show and End-of-year Show (9:00 - 11:00 a.m.on Wednesdays)
- Winter and Spring Fair: an event for parents and children (9:00 - 12:00 on Fridays)

Combine that with the times he had a fever and we had to pick him up, and it amounts to quite a bit. I am very thankful for the stay-at-home parents as well as parents with a flexible work schedule because they went along on field trips and aided for classroom projects.

While I love how many activities happen at the school and how much Luca enjoys them, I still struggle with wanting to attend all of them but being unable to do so. I am better prepared for next school year, but I wonder how things will go when Andre begins school. Double the time? I sure hope there is some overlap or I'll have to start working part time just to be there for both of them!