School and Camp

Ok, I'm getting a lot of emails and phone calls with people just dying of curiousity about my "news" that I'm revealing tomorrow. I've certainly sparked your interest. Most people are guessing that I'm pregnant or that we're moving. Nope, not even close. A couple of you asked, with trepidation, if we're getting a divorce and that's definitely not the case (Marlon was shocked anyone would even think that!) You'll all just have to wait until tomorrow. It's actually not THAT big, but it's something significant that will be going on in our lives that I want to share with you.

Anyway, I figured I'd better do the update about school and camp that I've been talking about. School is going really well. Harrison is very happy with his classes and teachers. He has World History with the teacher he had last year, who was his favorite teacher, so he couldn't be happier about that. He is in the higher level pre-algebra math class, which should challenge him. He is thrilled with his language arts/humanities teacher, who is very rigorous but who will get him very ready for high school. And he loves his science teacher because she is very organization and structured and he loves that. He is still in the symphonic band, but more of his friends are in it this year (last year there were only 4 6th graders because it's the honor band, but this year most of his friends who were in concert band moved up.) He has a lot of friends in PE this year and is not doing zero period PE until the spring when he will hopefully have a role in the musical and be back in musical theater.

Socially, he lost his two best friends from school - one moved to Seattle (and he misses him so much) and the other is going to the traditional middle school (mostly because of the traditional calendar vs. year round schedule.) Another couple of good friends also moved to the traditional middle school and his other best friend moved to a different school last year. He still has plenty of friends, but it's just not the same. As part of my role on the PTA, I'm heading up a Middle School Task Force to see if we can implement any programs, such as clubs and things, to enhance the middle school experience at our school, since we're a smaller middle school (which has advantages and disadvantages.)

It should be a challenging year for Harrison academically to get him ready for high school and I'm sure it will be a great year.

After last week's drama, things have settled down in 5th grade and Jacob and Michela are both very happy with their teacher and the classmates in their class. It's different having them together again, but it will have advantages. I think it will be a good year for them too - and then next year *they* go to middle school. They're all getting so old.

Harrison never really had time to do a "guest post" about camp, so I'll just do a quick update. He loved it. It was a little disruptive to him to have him come home for 3 days (to start school), so that was unfortunate (he didn't want to leave to come home, but then he didn't really want to go back) but overall it was an amazing experience. He definitely wants to go back next year. They had so many different kinds of fun activities - boating, rock climbing, archery, hiking, arts and crafts, swimming, leadership, music, dance, etc. The dining hall was fun, he enjoyed his cabin mates and loved his counselor. They had activities every evening by the camp fire - really creative and fun programs. Being immersed in a jewish experience for 2 weeks was great and he loved the independence and all the camp "routines." He can't wait to go back next year!

Ok, that's enough of an update. Don't forget to check tomorrow for my news!