...and we're off! A week and a half into the new school year and boy am I whooped! Middle Schoolers are most definitely a far cry from elementary kiddos. In all honesty, I just haven't found my school year joy yet. It's not the kids at all (okay, maybe it's those sometimes snarky 8th graders a little), but rather the whole building atmosphere. Secondary schools are run QUITE differently from elementaries, we'll just say that. I still struggle with the daily walk over to the HS building for my 8th grade choir. Every day from afar, I can see and hear the elementary kids at recess---MY kids---and it saddens me greatly. But...this too shall pass and somewhere along the way, I will find my joy again.
The kids are off to a great start at school. Hanna loves kindergarten, and Joel is thrilled that he has some of his best buds in his 3rd grade class. I cannot believe where the time went, in terms of my babies. Joel is learning cursive (yes, our teacher will forever teach it, despite the recent "optional" label it has received from the state) and Hanna is coming home singing letter and shape songs almost every day. Whatever occasional thoughts I may have had about her teacher when I was her colleague, I AM impressed and grateful that she makes music a regular part of her instruction. Joel's teacher used to be my choir accompanist and always had a piano in her room, making her classes sing the SSB every morning. But the move to the new building left her no room for it...argh...
Joel has started fall baseball and loves it. He's moved up into a new league in which the first 3 innings are pitching machine and the final 3 innings are kid pitch. He's been learning pitching mechanics from dad since spring ball ended and it is paying off. On Sunday, he did a SUPER job! It was the first game, and he was thrilled to have the grandparents there for it. His first time pitching ever, and he really brought the team out of a slump. We are very proud. On Sunday night, we received a phone call from our coach concerning the opposing team's coach, who also does travel team for the neighboring town. It seems that he wanted permission to contact us to discuss getting Joel on the travel team. We politely declined. We feel very strongly that rec. league is the perfect place for Joel, and that travel teams run the risk of causing burn-out (and empty checkbooks!) among other things. We want Joel to enjoy ball and always be able to get sheer happiness from participating in it...no pressure involved. We also think playing different positions is valuable. His skills are coming along just fine in rec. ball in our opinion. But, for the record, the "scouting" phone call left us beaming!
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