Back to School

The boys went back to school last Monday. Jiro is in fourth grade this year, and Satchel is in sixth. That means Satchel is a middle schooler!



Despite it being in the 90s the kids wanted to wear jackets and/or long sleeves. They claim the air conditioning blasts in the building but I don't believe it. Other than Jiro's jacket, neither one is wearing any of the new uniform stuff I bought. I think they are afraid of drawing attention to themselves, although I did finally convince Jiro to get a haircut on Saturday. Satchel is still holding out. My guess is someone will mistake him for a girl and then that'll be it.

Both boys like their teachers and seem pleased with the firends in their classes.

Due to the heavy load of school supplies, they did not ride their bikes on the first day. Or the second. Satchel actually had a second load of supplies to take that was heavy enough that I was enlisted to help. (I was instructed to walk ten paces behind him and not speak to him or his teacher. Nice, huh?)

Did I mention that my awesome mom did 99% of the school supply shopping and saved me a fortune in both time and money? She's pretty awesome.

Days three, four and five on the bike were foiled by Satchel's need to carry a string backpack, a messenger bag and a binder on a strap. My efforts to convince him to consolidate were fruikless. Looking forward to Satchel getting his locker today so that they can begin riding bikes tomorrow.

Satchel ended up with orchestra as his elective and on his own, put in a change request for "anything but orchestra." He hasn't heard back though and is insisting I need to buy him a violin so he doesn't fail the class. He told me that Snowden has violins for $20 a year but if you break it you buy it. Amro rents them for $20/month and doesn't charge you if it breaks. Guess which option he chose?

I called the office to see about getting him transferred into art class.

School lunches are a bit of a nightmare. The quality of actual school lunch has improved quite a bit and I'd be happy for the boys to go through the line, but they don't want to waste half of their very short lunch break in line. Understandable. So, I'm on a mission to simplify the lunch making process and try to wean them off of easy junk food to easy whole food. No small task, but I'm up to the challenge. (And no, this doesn't mean I'm going to start crafting each meal into a video game scene or anything crazy like that.)

Soccer is also back in full swing. Satchel decided to play for Evergreen this year if I would be his coach. How could I say no to that? Jiro is playing with the 3/4th graders. I miss coaching him, but I think it will be good for him to have a break from me.

Jiro has started reading the Harry Potter books.



That's it!