I complain about how early I have to get up, now that I’m part of the School Kids’ Mom Club. It’s exhausting getting up at 6:11 am every day, and staying up until after the kids go to bed and I can’t be awake any longer.

(Why 6:11, you ask? It’s a neurosis of mine. My alarm can’t be set to a “regular” number, like 6:10 or 6:15. It has to be off my a minute…6:11, 6:14 or 6:16 are all okay. If you figure out why, let me know. I’m curious, too.)

But, there are a lot of things I DO love about the big two being in school. Here’s a list:

1. I LOVE that they can do things in school that I HATE for them to do at home, like paint and play with Play-Doh.The kids love those things, but dang, if they don’t get messy! They also get to go outside and play on the playground, which is kind of too much for me to handle with a kindergartner, preschooler, toddler, and infant.

2. They get to learn things. I consider myself a pretty smart cookie, but I am not patient and I am NOT a teacher. I’ll leave that to the professionals.

3. The girls get along so well when they’ve spent even three hours apart. They aren’t fighting over the same toys/books/clothes all day long. Essie misses Ivy when she’s gone all morning, and when she gets home, Ivy is willing to let Essie play with her/follow her around/repeat everything she says/do everything she does.

4. We no longer have the afternoon screaming at each other/wrestling/generally noisy fight and play fest that happened every day in the summer between the two oldest. Even on the weekends, because they’re apart during the week, they can actually be relatively calm together.

5. I get a few hours of quality time with the two smallest, and Essie positively soaks up the extra attention.

6. I now shower every morning while the kids eat breakfast. Mostly because I don’t want to wear the same yoga pants and t-shirt to drop off the kids two days in a row. So, I’m exhausted, but at least I’m not smelly, too.

I’m sure that list will grow as the school year goes on, as will the list of things I DON’T like about it. I’ll keep you posted.

I’m linking up this week with Northwest Mommy for Monday Listicles.

Update: I did talk to Henry’s teacher about my concerns. She told me that she wasn’t concerned at all until she found out that I was. She said that he was just fine when they had to line up, and for the rest of the day. He’s not outgoing, by any means, but he’s fine. She thought that maybe he was feeding into how I was acting (e.g. worried about him) and responding to it/playing into it. She thought it might be helpful for us to go back to dropping him off first, then leaving and dropping Ivy off at her classroom.

Thank you to everyone for your concerns and suggestions. We’ll see how it goes this week, and I’ll let you know. Wish us luck!

Oh, and don’t forget about my Mabel’s Labels giveaway happening this week! Even if you don’t have kids, you can win some for yourself/your house. Or, if you have more than one kid, there are LOTS of labels in this pack…you can get just your last name on them and use them for everybody!