big shoes to fill

The boy has only one teacher who does not know the girls. This is a common situation in our town for many students who have siblings. His geometry teacher has 12 students in his 5th hour class with older siblings who this man taught at some point. By the way, I'm tickled pink that he has this geometry teacher as he is an excellent math teacher and hilarious to boot.

The 'odd man' out is the new Latin teacher. Interesting fellow, a native of the UK, he went to school in Colorado for his undergrad and did one master's degree at Minnesota and one at.....Notre Dame. Yep, so we got to talk about South Bend a bit and the boy had already informed him that was where he was born.

The evening went well. Got to see a lot of friends in the hallways. The teachers are focusing on teaching and trying to keep the merger business/problems away from them. A common question was about PowerSchool. It has typically not been available until after Labor Day, but the common thought is that it might not ever make it back up. Rumors are flying about just what type of online grading portal will be available.

We had fun. The boy has some big shoes to fill as his sisters cut a wide path through that high school and were very well known.

Today is Wednesday! Yeah!

open house

Tonight is the open house at the high school. We start in home room and then move through his day. They are also having the club fair and a meeting for the new Honors Academy/Emerging Leaders program. Busy night.

We always attend the open house when they are freshman. It had been hit or miss after that with the girls because we always had a soccer match to attend. With the boy, we will most likely make it all four years. We also have his first speech and debate meeting this week. That is on Thursday.

So, with all of these events, I came home from work and did more work! Laundry, cooking, cleaning etc so that when the weekend does arrive, we can do things other than household chores.

I heard from both girls yesterday. The new college girl had 5 houses to visit yesterday, the max she could have. She will get a new list today reflecting up to another 5 houses if no one dropped her. The sophomore was relaxing with her 'recruitment buddy' and enjoying having rush behind them.  Both ladies start classes on Wednesday.

The school year is up and running! I'm trying to run too...but at the moment it is more of a fast walk.

Tuesday, let's go!

off he goes

The alarm will ring in 15 minutes and the boy will begin his first day of high school. Wow. Round three starts now.

It isn't like I didn't know this was coming. I did. I've been thinking about it for a while. But, it is still rather stunning that he is starting high school today.

The oldest is all settled into her amazing, gorgeous, beautiful sorority house. The middle kid is now the focus of the procurement and packing process. Her departure is next on the to-do list.

Summer is now over. School bells will ring today.

Off we go.

open house nite

Hubby and I navigated the high school open house last night. He learned the freshman class is the biggest with over 540 students. The total enrollment is the smallest they've recently had at 1980 students.

I learned I wouldn't be able to survive those hallways between classes. I also learned that some teachers, have really nice, spacious classrooms and others have broom closets masquerading as classrooms.

We think our daughters are in great hands. The majority of both sets of teachers are very experienced. The Honors Alg II gal has been teaching for 26 years, dept. head for 24. She has an Einstein action figure doll in her classroom! I think that between both kids, only one teacher is a brand new, fresh out of college professional....and she seemed to be extremely prepared.

Both kids will take the ACT this fall, the first time for one and the second time for the other. We need a baseline number to start with so they can take advantage of all the tutoring classes available to get the best score they can possibly get. Thirty is the magic number for admissions and scholarship money.

It was a good night. I know I wouldn't want to be back in high school, but it seems like the kids have good teachers this year and that can make all the difference.

the good, the bad and the schedule

The high school schedules are out and while one child is thrilled, the other isn't quite as happy. The oldest has benefited from her honors heavy class load in that she is with the a majority of her friends for every class. The youngest has at least one person she knows in every class, but none of her BFF's. She was one unhappy student after we left the school for her soccer practice.

She will get over it, meet new people and thrive. It was good to see the few teachers that the oldest had last year and now the middle one will have this year...the big three: Honors Geometry, Honors English and Honors Biology. Of course they've all heard about her from her sister. Should be an interesting year for her! They've never followed on each other's heels like this in their academic careers.

Rain moved in last night. Ugh.

Not sure if I'm in the right frame of mind for the meetings I have today, but maybe with more coffee in me, I will turn the corner.

returns

Last night marked my brief, thank God, return to high school. Yep, I got to experience a small taste of my daughter's daily life as I traveled the halls through her schedule. Wow. Boy am I glad to be done with all of that. She has class in three rooms that don't even have windows! Where do you look to daydream and plot the next chapter in your book? I guess the back of the kid's head who sits in front of you.

A steady stream of customers ventured into the store yesterday. Still quite a few moms out looking for required reading titles. "Johnny Tremain" was the most requested book during my shift.

Today I'm off to lunch with Kim, yeah. Maybe a trip to B&N after lunch, yeah. Then home to get ready for the soccer field. The oldest has her first game this afternoon.

Hope to plant butt back in chair once the day is truly underway and get a few more words polished and down.