Back to School

The kids started school a couple weeks ago.  Owen and Weston are in 11th and 9th grade at the High School.  They get to walk together again this year.  They also are both doing early morning seminary at 7:00am at the church.  Owen drives them to that and then they have time to come back home and walk to school. Classes are going well for the boys.  Owen is particularly excited about his choir class since he made the elite choir.  Weston is doing marching band and cross country this year, so those are new for him.  I'll do another post later about their sports and activities as they get into the semester.  Weston is not excited about his English / Ethnic Studies class.  He says it's "too woke" and they're talking about white supremacy and issues with more of a political agenda than from a historical study of race and culture. I think he's doing okay in his math class.  Owen is taking US History and AP Calculus this semester, along with choir and basketball. 

Savannah is in 7th grade this year at the junior high.  She now rides the bus to and from school.  She's not too excited about that, but Alex and I are glad not to do the drop off and pick up every day. I got the play-by-play on the first day's bus ride.  She apparently was the only one to get on at the first stop and was a little worried it was just going to be her.  I messaged back "Let me know when someone else gets on."  The driver stopped at the next stop but no one got on.  At the next one, three boys got on.  At the next one, a girl and 2 boys got on, but the girl sat with the boys.  At another stop, she told me that a couple rowdy boys from last year got on.  I asked if they went to the back of the bus and she said "yes".  She also was very nervous about the first day so she kept messaging me about that.  She wasn't able to message the rest of the day because of the new "off and away" phone policy at school.  It wasn't the best day for her.  She was already worried about the friend situation and who she would sit with at lunch.  She waited in the bathroom line most of the lunch time so she didn't end up having enough time to eat lunch.  She was chatting with a friend from last year when another girl came up and pulled her friend away.  She gave Savannah the "not you" hand and said she was just having a private conversation with the other friend.  Savannah said that's usually the "you shouldn't be talking to her" conversation. Savannah was left sitting there alone.  Her mean girl drama from elementary followed her a little bit that first day.  The next days were better though as she started making some new friends.  She already has a good friend named Carly (not sure if I spelled the name right).  Savannah loves her art class.  She was placed in an advanced math class that we didn't sign up for.  It went too fast for her to keep up with, so she had to switch her classes around a little bit after the first week.  She seems to be settling in to the schedule and routine after a couple of weeks.  She now takes her lunch, has made a couple new friends, and doing well in all her classes. And she has a good friend who rides the bus with her - just didn't ride the bus on the first day.  So junior high is going okay.  It can be pretty tough!