Fourth Grade Start Your Engines...Maybe

We are scheduled for James to start school tomorrow (8/15) and he is very excited. Today kinda got away from us time wise and a late bedtime might cost us a smooth start. I did finally make it to get school supplies and still need to get to St*ples to get their 1 cents folders.

Well...Praying for a peaceful and successful year for all.

"That'll Be 3 Cents Please"

Off*ce M*x has their lined paper on sale for 1 cents a pack (limit 3 per person). So each kid got three pennies and in they tromped to get our 15 packs of paper. We will go back again tomorrow and we should be set for the year.  I am in a slight software crises. I totally did not shop early to get our curriculum and am now in a race to get 8th grade's software. I was able to get 1st grade's stuff early for a really great price, but I keep getting outbid for 8th grade.

On a side note...we got our vacation confirmation e-mails today and my mom suggested looking at all the passports to make sure they are all set. Oh My Goodness!!! Jordan's passport expires next month!!!!  So we rushed to the post office and applied for a renewal. I am so glad we noticed that. We would have been so much in trouble at the airport.

This week: completing paperwork, updating portfolio files and getting joint subjects all together.  We are taking music, art, foreign language  and PE all together.

Screeech....Changing Lanes Again

We made changes to the start dates to stagger each grade a bit more. Orientation is still on for tomorrow even though our new school shirts won't be here for 2 more weeks. I kinda went shirt shopping crazy because the Mart of Wals had such a great sale on school polos with free to home shipping and then I ordered the new shirts with our school emblem as the other shirts are over 3 years old.

Old school emblem

New school emblem on navy polos

Fourth Grade still starts Monday, August 15th. James is excited.

First Grade will now start Monday, August 22nd. Jackson says he is happy and is very excited to get to his new Lifepacs. My foster daughter will start with him on the same date as Public School does not start until September 6th. She does not state how she feels about going back to school, but if I were to let him start and not her, she would cry and say she wants to come to school too, so I take that as a sign that she likes to be a part of things.

Eighth Grade will start Wednesday, September 7th. Jordan has been offered an invitation to take part in a small class offering group piano lessons, but I am not sure if she will be able to take it as our November vacation would cause he to miss so many classes. She is not looking forward to school, but is kinda excited about her new math curriculum (we are changing to Life of Fred.)

Pre-School. I am back to having a pre-schooler. My foster son will be 3 yrs old next week and he is already learning so much that we have decided to let him join in slowly. When Jackson first came home, I thought it would be good to start him at a preschool level to give him a chance to bond and mature. Jordan basically taught him and has offered to teach this level again. We use the Brightly Beaming Letter of the Week and I think my 3 year old will enjoy many of the activities. Anyway, he will start September 15th.

 

Fiber Optic Yuck!

Jordan came out after being in bed for an hour to tell me that her ear hurt and that she felt like she had a bug in there. I got out my optical scope and sure enough..there was some unidentifiable something in there. She tends to be kinda waxy in the ears anyway, but this did look different. I tried some warm water, but nothing came out and she said that it hurt very much, so my Mom came over and took her to E.R. We await to see what they find. I have always teased her about growing potatoes and corn in those ears. LOL! It seems she may actually have something to harvest.

**UPDATE**

Jordan's ear was impacted with wax. Her ear wax was a dark red/maroon colored wax that the doctor noted as being "normal in color".  I have looked in those ears for years and have never seen anything that color, but I guess I'll take the Dr's word on this one. She was given a solution to soften the wax and something for pain. When she came home her ear was bright red from all the digging. She was not happy, but will live. Nothing living or past living was found (even tho' she thinks she still feels something in there). It of course did not help that she came home, got ready for bed again and found a spider on her wall. It was a long night. ~Smile~

Not So Abnormal

We went to the Y last night with invited friends and had a blast. We stayed until almost 8pm and changed into pajamas like always so that we can come home, have a snack and go to bed. As we were coming out of the family locker room, there was a man coming around the corner that looked at us, crinkled his forehead and just stared. We stopped at the rock climbing wall, sat and waited for our friends. He cam back around the hall and asked me, "Are you babysitting?" I told him, "No, these are my children." He just stood, mouth opened and looked at each child. ~Sigh...here we go~

Man: Really?
Me: Yes, these are my children.
Man: How? Adoption?
Me: Yes! Isn't it wonderful. I saw the look on your face in the hall...you were wondering.
Man: Yeah, like what is that big black woman doing with all of those white kids
Me: (not sure whether to laugh at his honesty or to take my earrings off and kick his....well never mind) Yes, I have adopted my children.
Man: How many did you have before you adopted these?
Me: (I now know I am talking to someone who is just a couple sandwiches short of a picnic) I have 6 children altogether.
Man: Are they attached to you? You know you could've just had some kids even though there is no guarantee they will be attached you. I just think it's abnormal for you to have them.
Me: Are you saying we are abnormal?
Man: Yes! I think it's abnormal.
Me: We are not abnormal! That word sounds quite negative.
Man: You are abnormal. We could take a survey.
Me: (Major eye roll) Well, We are not abnormal!
Man: (Mumbles as he walks away) Yeah ya are....

Jordan is stunned and angry calling the man rude and racist. Yup... that about describes it. My friend came out of the locker room, we recounted the conversation and she was ready to find him to...ummm... well probably not to encourage him LOL!

I don't mind teachable moments, but man oh man...

Fade to Black

Summer school did not go as planned, but that is alright and a part of this path. We were doing pretty well until I got very sick and you know... when mama gets sick, not much gets done. (at least that's how it is for me as a single parent) So we kinda faded out to our end of summer break.

It turns out I did not really like the Summer Skills books that I picked as bridge books for the summer. They did not flow very well and jumped from review stuff to not yet learned stuff and then back to review. I usually use Summer Bridge books but wanted to try something new this year. Next summer I guess we will go back to what we know.

Dates are set for school:

Orientation - August 8th

Early Start for 4th grade -  August 15th.  (He needs the extra time as he struggles to keep up during the year)

First Day - September 7th

Splash Pad & Amber Alerts

This morning I was watching the news and thought I saw an amber alert for a child that was a foster child in my home last year. ~Sigh~

We finally made it to the splash pad at a local county park. Fun! Of course I did not have my camera. We went pretty early in the morning and there were 2 large daycare type groups with younger children (about 30  3 - 5 yrs old).  One of the teachers stood at the edge and started looking around the play area with a very worried look on her face. Another teacher came up to her and they tried to figure out the last time they had seen "him". Rut-Roh! I was having an internal dialog hoping they would contact security to shut the park down. Every minute that they spent looking around, counting and re-counting kids made me wish they would say something out loud because if the little guy was missing, the more time that passed the farther away he could get. After about 12 minutes they found him. Whew! The look of relief on their faces... and of course he did not know he was lost.