We have high hopes for Katherine's Sophomore year. She's not taking P.E. (thank goodness), opting for Fashion Marketing which is actually her homeroom so she'll start there every day. I thought FM would be a business oriented class, yet seems they'll do a fair amount of design work which is one of her big interests. She's opted out of French III to take Arabic I. OK, she didn't really choose that change, we encouraged and pushed and basically told her it was a sensible move considering in Jordan Arabic class is mandatory. Having the basics under her belt will do good for next year. She said her instructor had them writing on the first day. Eek. That's more than Ian was doing at his Orientation yesterday.
The 6th grader, the little fish in the big pond. Nicholas doesn't have a working locker yet, hopefully that will be remedied today when all the other grades receive their lockers. He had a good day, a friend he met during Welcome Week is in nearly all his A Day classes and sat with him at lunch. He got lost once, searching for the gym which is clear on the other side of the building from the 6th grade halls. Biggest worry? The kids on the bus. The not nice kids on the bus. Biggest excitement? He doesn't quite know yet, give it a few days.
Rebecca is the big fish in the big pond this year. The 8th grader. She wasn't all amped up about going back to school, but found out that her best friend is in every single class and she has Chorus, her favorite class, every single day. Her mood changed quite a bit by the time she got home. She's an old hand at this middle school thing and has quite a course load. In addition to Extended English (Extended = Honors, or whatever you want to call it), she's taking HS Algebra I, HS French I and participating in SIGNET, the "gifted" program. Hopefully with these classes she'll be ready for high school in Jordan next year. Typical U.S. schools are behind international schools abroad so we push our kids to take everything they can within the school system to get ahead and hopefully be on par when we move next summer.
Ian had his first day of Arabic yesterday, a day filled with Orientation classes. One of his daily classes is "Aerobics." We're hoping that's a joke title for... something else. I figure aerobics has that Arabic sound to the word so it's some form of.... something... to help them retain the language. Whatever it is, it's sure to break up his day! Even better, he's on the 7:30 a.m. class schedule which might sound awful to everyone else, but since Katherine and I are up at 6 a.m. anyway this allows him to be gone during the same schedule the kids are gone, and home when the kids are home. Even if he's studying this frees up our ability to have dinner when we need to around the kids' evening activities, and we'll all get to see him more often. After the past 2 years it'll be a great improvement.
Between 9 and 2:30 I'm enjoying the quiet house.
Good start to a new school year. Wonderful first day photos!
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