1,2,3,4,4

That's what we are thinking for the school year.

Joey 1st grade
Joshua 2nd grade
Jacob 3rd grade
Justin & Jack 4th grade.
Jordan 8th grade
Jason 9th grade

We met with our school's vice principal the other day as she wanted to share her insight into how the boys are doing.
They have made some tremendous strides in the last two months of summer school.
They read.
They write.
Their English acquisition is nothing short of remarkable.

John and I....in all of our non-existent professional educatorish wisdom..
intended to hold both of them back this upcoming year
but now
now we think we may have a new plan.

Joey will stay in 1st and Jacob will go ahead and move to 3rd.

This will do a lot for all three of them.
It allows Mr. Smarty Pants to continue excelling at a normal pace
It gives Joey some extra time to catch up and grasp some much needed baseline concepts
and once Joshua arrives it will protect and respect birth order.
Which, when you have 5 kids within 21 months of age
is such an important issue.

Prior to our adventure in adopting I had no idea just how important respecting birth order is.
And to be honest....
I had kinda chalked it up to mumbo-jumbo
but now?
Now
I get it. 

It's a big thing.
A
big
big
thing.

The dynamics of which are both complex and subtle.
Make the mistake of ignoring it.....
(ahem....me)
and it can and will reek havoc on your family structure.

Oddly we didn't actually adopt out of birth order
but what we did do
was have a massive tendency to group the youngest four together.
That is 
Not.
A.
Good.
Idea.

Blessedly I caught on early as it began to rear it's ugly head round these parts
we made some small changes
and now all is well.

 
So all of that to say
1,2,3,4,4
I'm thinkin it's gonna work for us.

Standby for next week when we will probably change our minds again
less you think I have it all together.