Middle School Back to School Night...

It was back to school night at Sierra Middle School! Chris and I went and met all of Emma's 8th grade teachers. I think all in all, she did pretty well this year!! She has the same Spanish teacher as last year. I am thrilled about that. Emma can understand a lot of spanish and can speak pretty well. They gave some sort of assessment and Emma scored an 83%. I am happy with that. She loves the Spanish language and still wants to go to Costa Rica and study this summer...

Next was Electronic Publishing. Wow, that teacher LOVES the kids and LOVES what he does. No wonder Emma LOVES his class. She is applying to be editor of the paper. Keep your fingers crossed as this would look excellent on the high school application we are working on.

Next was PE. That teacher was out, however, I know him, great teacher and last year he told everyone of in the office that Emma was going to be one of the top 2 achievers from all of his classes. Great judge of character. I played with my phone and Chris looked up baseball scores during this period. We joked with the principals that we were "skipping gym".

Next, American History. That looks like a fun class. The announcement was made that the Owl team was going on a field trip next Friday. All four core classroom teachers will take part in this. We discussed what the class consists of and I really liked this teacher. Hope she is willing to give Emma some of the harder work she offers. We will see.

From there we headed to English. I liked this teacher. She was the one that noticed that Emma was reading ahead and sent her to the library for the unabridged version of the book to read. She stated that Emma is a fabulous reader but needs to slow down with her writing and be sure what was being asked of her. I love her for not squelching Emma's reading like most do, now if she can make the writing assignments interesting...

Science. I think this is Emma's favorite subject. I loved it when he said that asking kids to memorize what order the planets are in is stupid. They can google that. But let's talk about why they are lined up the way they are, their shape and size and placement in the solar system and how that will affect future space travel... He talked about teaching kids to think like scientist. Teaching kids how to think...

Math was next. He had a cool board! He was younger than I pictured. Emma was most worried about having this teacher, but in fact, is really enjoying him. We talked about math placement for High School, and college math requirements. (yep, 3rd week 8th grade)

What we heard from everyone is that they like our Emma and that she is doing really well this year. No late assignments, doing good work. We are proud...

13

13... I think I could just leave it there, and all of the mothers out there would go ahh, yep, I know. Even if their own children are just preschoolers, they know, as they were once 13, and they KNOW what they have coming.

I am thinking about my Christmas letter this year... (I know, Christmas in July). What will it say? I will talk about all of my 13 year olds achievements. Her big heart, her love of reading and her being asked to be on the school paper, her love of track. I will not probably mention how every time you look at her she cries, how she goes from laughing to crying in a matter of 2 seconds, how her room is a mess, and how I see the struggle between the woman she is to become and the child she still wants to be every day. I think that whoever decided that 13 was an unlucky number must have had a 13 themselves.

Chewing Noises...

Emma has developed an intolerance.  It is a CRAZY, neurotic, intolerance.  It is something that she will never be able to get away from, unless she moves up to a mountain somewhere and becomes some sort of weird hermit.  (a possibility at this point)  What is this intolerance, you may ask?  CHEWING NOISES.  Are you kidding me.  Everyone chews their food.  We have nice table manners at our house.  We eat with spoons and forks, no one eats with their mouth open or has overly horrid table mannerisms (except for maybe a certain someone who's name starts with E).  Suddenly, my oldest spawn can not stand the slightest sound of any mouth noise.  We must have the radio on during dinner to "soften the noise".  Ok, I am starting to think this is some kind of attention seeking behavior.  Or she needs some kind of psychotherapy?  Or we will need some sort of psychotherapy before she is done with puberty...

Abby is in bed.  I just had to threaten her with the 4 b's and that was that.  Thank you very much!

Emma texted me today with some exciting news.  She was one of the students accepted to be part of the yearbook and newspaper staff!  That little girl is SO excited.  I am excited for her.  She is a writer.  She has a 'style' to her writing.  She loves photography.  I think this is going to be right up her alley.  She is probably the MOST excited about a writing workshop that she has the opportunity to go to in Washington DC in the fall.  "Can I go, Mom?"  I told her I had to talk to dad.  (hell yes, of course she can go)  She has to keep her grades up, turn her work in on time.  Emma is such a nice kid.  I am excited she has this opportunity.  I am excited that she is excited about it.  I am excited that she has something that I think she is going to really shine at!  Plus, it is something to put on her college application!