Big Milestones this Back to School

Every year heading back to school is momentous and this year consisted of major milestones to make it even more dramatic. Our oldest trail-blazed another new path for the family to follow as she headed off to high school. We are learning the ropes of high school with Emma as we figure out the scheduling and transportation, soon we will get our feet wet with clubs and grades. We got Em's schedule over the summer. They have 4 classes each semester with each class being 85 minutes. Emma mentioned that the long classes will take some getting used to. Her schedule originally had lots of challenging academics st semester and the art, gym, Spanish type 2nd semester. So we went in prior to the school start and they re-balanced the 2 semesters. Emma seems pretty comfortable with what she is taking and who is in her classes. Not much makes her stress and high school is fitting that trend.

Rachael also embarked on a milestone year and started middle school. I brought her to the orientation social and we walked her schedule and got her locker and combination. She was way ahead of me as she zipped along the halls while I waddled behind. We meet her homeroom teacher and tried the locker only to discover that the top locker had the lock well above eye level. We then waited for a tall student to come in so she could switch to a bottom locker. This standing around was difficult for Rae as she was anxious to see everything else. When the locker was sorted out we walked through the rest of the schedule but by the 4th or 5th classroom Rachael declared that she couldn't take anything else in. It was all a bit overwhelming. The first day though she got off to her bus and managed the day well. She was excited with lots of stories and loved that the science teachers corn snake shed it's skin for the new school year. School was going well but by the time she got home she had a lot of anxiety to vent and we've had some difficult evenings with our overwhelmed girl. She has been glad to have Emma as a listening ear when she gets home and I am happy to see them support each other.

3rd grade has been a good transition for Megan. She likes her homeroom teacher but was a little worried that no good friends were in there with her. But then on Tuesday they got their academic class schedule and it turns out she won't have her homeroom teacher for any classes. She switches rooms for most subjects and has friends in each of those classes. Megan has come home each day with good behavior tickets and a smile on her face. Megan is looking forward to helping Bridget at school and making sure Bridget gets to class and feels comfortable. Megan is ready to be a bigger kid on Campus.

My little Bridgie Rose was looking forward to starting Kindergarten and enjoyed all of the preparation. We got to visit her classroom the week before school and meet her teacher. Then this week she had a modified schedule to ease into the year. I think this is the perfect pace for B. The first day I went in with her and she sat pensive on the rug as kids moved around her and I went with the parents to fill out forms. Bridget paid attention and answered questions when she was called on, but was not comfortable enough to raise her hand. I don't think she talked to any of the other kids but she was really disappointed when she realized she had off on Tuesday. Wednesday she had a 1/2 day and I drove Meg and Bridge to school. Bridget wants to ride the bus and is thrilled that tomorrow is the day. When I asked her about her day she had lots of things to tell us about the kids in her class and the things that she noticed. I asked her if she talked to any of the kids and she said "not yet". Right now she seems to be getting the lay of the land and so far is excited about what she sees in kindergarten. Thursday is the first day on the morning bus but is a half day so I get to go pick her up. Then Friday will be her first full day of school. Sometimes she seems too small to be off to school but she is loving it.

The milestones have been marked and we are off to another year in school.

For some reason Blogger won't let me post pictures so I'll try them again in a different post.