My Kids are Going Crazy

I'm seriously frustrated as a parent right now. 

The school year has begun for my kids.  They always start right around the first of August in their school district.  Since Micah has moved up to middle school, his schedule is now different from the girls'.  He started last Thursday. 

I decided that the twins would no longer be in the same class.  We have a tendency to have constant fighting at the end of the year, and tattling is a constant.  My girls are incredibly honest about what they do wrong, telling me with great detail if they have even the slightest infraction, so I'm really not seeing how tattlers would ever be an advantage. There are two excellent teachers in their grade at school, including one I have known for 10 years.  I totally trust both of these teachers.  All that being said, my girls just aren't thriving in their classes at all.  They aren't behaving horribly by any stretch of the imagination, but they aren't acting like themselves.  It's weird.

Ali is having trouble keeping up in class.  She is acting like she doesn't understand concepts that she can explain to me at home when I ask about them in a round-about way.  I don't quiz her or anything, but more than and less than are easy to talk about while cooking.  Zoe is having trouble with her work, too.  It's like neither of them have any focus while in class.  Zoe is usually my hard worker and isn't completing her work.  I just don't know what's wrong.

Becca is doing okay, I think.  She hasn't had any issues this year yet that I know of, and she has told me quite a bit.  I honestly don't think that she is suffering, but she's a bit more flexible than the rest of the kids.

Micah wasn't having trouble until today.  We had a nightmare in the parking lot this morning.  I don't want to rehash everything again in my brain (I just don't want to start crying again), so I'll just copy and paste my Facebook status:

Well, I just about died this morning. I was dropping off Micah like I normally do, in the "push the kid out of the car and drive away" section of the parking lot at his middle school. He decided that he wanted me to go with him to school today. There were about 50 cars behind me trying to shove their kids out the door, so I peeled him off of me and told him that he needed to go inside, I would go park and meet him in there if he went. He stayed there watching me until I had to exit the parking lot (there is no way to go back around and park there) and went to park on the street. While I was parking he ran into the oncoming traffic and was almost hit about 3 times before I got to him.

I keep going over this whole thing trying to figure out what I should have done. I couldn't get him back in the car when I was going to go park, and I couldn't get him to go inside the school. He just wouldn't detach from me, and he wouldn't get in the car. He had it in his head that he would go to school and I would go with him.

The guy who was in the parking lot directing traffic was incredibly patient. He told me that while he directs everyone else away from the parking area, he will look for me in the future so if Micah seems to need to park any particular morning, I can go ahead and do that so we don't have an accident. Security was quick to arrive on the scene to walk me and Micah to class so I didn't have to go through the office and get a pass first, but we met up with his 1:1 and I told Micah that since Ms. Melissa was there, I was going to go. He was okay with that as long as I watched him walk to class with her.

Middle school just got harder. This morning routine is going to need some work.

I just don't know what to do. Something is wrong with my kids.  Are they stressed?  Are they sick?  What's up?  Did school start too early?  Is the routine all wrong?  What do I change?  Should I try to put the twins back in the same classes?  Should we work something different out with Tony doing different things in the mornings? Do they just need more Daddy time?  Do I need to be more present at school or more attentive at home?

I know it's only the first/second week of school, but this has never been an issue this early in the year before.  I don't know what to do to make it better.  I just want to know what's wrong and fix it so I can have my kids back.