Brooklynn

Brooklynn is in the fifth grade this year.  To say I've been dreading this would be an understatement! The middle school years are widely viewed as horrific.  Friendship dramas. Body dramas. Attitude dramas. Everything...Drama!  We're about a month into the school year, and yes, it has been dramatic.  Also, it has been all kinds of awesome!  My middle schooler is totally rocking it!  So far, she's handled nasty rumors, hair disasters, face disasters, and academic pressure with a grace that I had no idea that she possessed.  I have been so proud of her the last month. She has confronted a girl who started a particularly nasty rumor about her head on, didn't get upset, and fixed the problem without adult interference.  She's took it on herself to research skin care and hair care and try things that have really worked(her hair looks fantastic!) She got a 93% on her first math test.  The highest grade she earned on a math test last year was a very low C. She's gotten A's on all of her spelling test thus far and has(all on her own) set a personal goal of making it on the honor role this year. She's been trying out new looks with makeup, hair, and clothes.  She has been digging a lot deeper into her faith.  Asking tough questions, and arriving at well thought out answers.  She loves her religion teacher this year.  So - here's to the middle school years. May they continue as they started!

AJ

AJ started Kindergarten this year.  My expectations of this year for AJ were that Kindergarten was going to be "easy peasy lemon squeezy" as AJ would say.  Yeah - not so much.  He loves his teacher, so that's a plus.  He says she's hilarious. "Mom - she does this thing where she says "interesting, very, very, interesting" in a funny voice.  She's the funniest teacher ever!"  Also, the lunchroom ladies are "the best cooks in the whole entire world", so that's awesome.   Everything else - horrible. I think that he went to school the first day thinking that they would do some trig, and read War and Peace all before lunch. In reality "all they do is COLOR"!   The other kids - horrible. He has one boy who's name he remembers on a regular basis that is pretty cool.  He says that he is "JUST LIKE ME"! "Mom - he even goes to the bathroom the same way as me" he said.  That freaked me out!  Turns out that just means he utilizes the stalls, not the urinals. Whew! There is also one little girl that is acceptable, although he can never seem to recall her name.  Everyone else - not so much.  They "try to get him in trouble" with their fighting games, they are in his personal space, or they are telling on him for being too rough or him being in their personal space.  School is too long.  They have to be sooo quiet.  There are entirely too many lines, whistles, rules, you name it.  So, here's to hoping we get the hang of it.