Pursuit of Knowledge

It happened.  All the kids went back to school.  I know some moms jump for joy on the first day of school, but the first day is both happy and sad for me.  I love all the time we have to be together as a family during the summer break.  Even if we aren't doing anything exciting or particularly fun it's so wonderful to just be together without school and all the activities that come along with school filling our schedule.  

So the first day this year was a happy day, but once all the girls left for school I was left with a "now what?" feeling and apparently the solution to that feeling was cleaning because that's how I spent much of that day alone at home.  Still, it's a big day for our whole family and I am always excited for the girls to go back to school. Not because I want to house to myself so much, but because they love school (most days anyway) and they were excited to start the new school year.  It's nice to hear about their day when they come home in the afternoon - I don't even mind the complaining about homework or the inevitable friend related drama.  

Madison is a sophomore this year!  Starting your second year of high school is much less stressful than starting your first for both the student and the parents.  She came home from her first day with a schedule that works - no holes and all the classes she wanted! Madison came home the first day with all sorts of papers from each class and just one line on the syllabus for her AP History class had us both worried. "Other activities outside of course work (including sports, significant others, and READING FOR PLEASURE) take second place to this class; AP History is your significant other."  No reading for pleasure? Or drastically reduced time for reading for pleasure?  We're all hoping that Madison will survive the year.

Eighth grade!  Emily has finally made it to the top class of her school and she has been counting down the days until school starts back up.  Mostly, I think, because she's been waiting forever to wear her new school clothes.  Every new shirt or pair of pants that she bought this summer was added to the pile on top of her dresser, not to be worn until school began.  She's looking forward to taking PE twice this year, both first and last quarter, instead of just one quarter.  Emily was elected to be the president of her school's NJHS chapter at the end of seventh grade so she's full of plans for being the best NJHS president ever (and getting all A's and blowing away her mile run time from last year and the list goes on!)

Middle school?  No way!  Sadly, the day has come that we have more kids in middle and high school than we do in elementary school.  Abigail has been both nervous about and looking forward to middle school all summer.  If we're being totally honest she was probably more nervous than anything else.  She has some friends in all of her classes and has figured out how to open her locker.  For middle school that's a great start to the year!  She said to me one day a couple of weeks before school started, "It's great having older sisters because all the teachers see your name and already think you're as good as they are."  I reminded her that she still has to live up that good reputation since it will only get her so far.  At this point we're only seven days into the new school year, but she's done a great job of preserving the honor of the Moran family name.

Happy new school year to all the parents and students out there!