The Promise of Another Year

Dear all,

The kids are now entrenched in school.  M and S continue at the senior school (college) while R enjoys his final year at the Junior along with A who is now big enough to have weekly spelling tests, the bane of my life. 

R is Big Man On Campus but it comes with a price:  studying for his Common Entrance Exam in June in order to be accepted into college.  R has never taken much pride in the academic side of his education.  He does, however, possess Nobel Prize winning social skills, which he continues to hone every time the teacher’s back is turned.

M is for once, off to a great start.  This is the first year in his entire school career where I have not had to attend an emergency first week parent/teacher meeting.  I am missing those conferences just a bit.  It was always exciting to see teachers’ eyes bulge and their hair stand on end when they described M’s legendary lack of organization, as if I mightn’t have been aware.  When they managed to pull themselves together, they would insist, without exception, they’d have M sorted by the end of the year; I’d nod my head solemnly in gratitude and solidarity, hiding my amusement and doubt.  M organized by the end of the year?  Good. Luck.

So M has turned over a new leaf.   He mostly shows up to class on time.  Often he turns in homework. Relatively few illegible assignments are returned.  Kudos!  Yet for all those successes, he admits that he rarely brings the right books and folders to class but let’s face it, it’s good to have goals.

S, on the other hand, is one of those people who love the promise of a new school year: the scents of new books and autumn in the air.  Her academic load gives me a stomachache:  Math, History, Religious Ed, Physical Ed, Physics, Biology, Chemistry, English, French, Spanish, Latin and Greek.  And my only goal week after week is the same:  keep up with the laundry.  Also, for fun, she takes Mandarin two days a week at lunchtime, but she thinks this might prove be too much.  Ya think?

With love from England,

T-Ann