Aug 23, 2012

First Day of School

Putting on a brave smile.
I sent my elementary-aged kids back to school this week. I can't believe how fast they are growing up! Crafty is now a 6th grader, Sport is in 4th, and Scout is in 1st. Even Curly will be starting pre-school in a couple of weeks!

Let me tell you how my life works. We have been on "A" track since we moved to this neighborhood 18 years ago. I know all the teachers, have the breaks pretty much memorized; my life is arranged around the holidays they are in school and out of school.

So this year Bossy was in transition because they were house-hunting, so she got a permit for Taco and Burrito so they could attend our elementary school. The problem with that was the staple.

Yeah, that's right, the staple.

Because our two track requests were stapled together, they got put in a separate book, and that book got the lowest priority when it came to assigning tracks. My friend who teaches kindergarten on A track gave me the first hint that things were going to be different. She had seen Scout's name on the D track list and questioned it with the administration. They assured her it must have been a mistake and of course we were still on A track.

But then the letter came. Crafty was totally devastated by the news! All the kids she had gone to school with for the past six years were now on a different track. As a 6th grader she was going to have to start over and even though she makes friends easily, she just didn't want to do it.

We put in our request to change back, but the odds were stacked against us. We wanted to move a 6th grader, a 4th grader, a 2nd grader, a 1st grader and a kindergarten student. It just wasn't happening.

Crafty's first day was full of tears. Sport took it like a man. He had at least one friend from his baseball team in his class so that helped, and Scout had two neighborhood friends in her class.

Yesterday was a little better, but we are still struggling. Hope your first days of school were all happy ones!

8 comments:

Jennifer said...

I don't understand the "tracks".. Up here everyone goes at the same time with everyone.

T.Irwin said...

I also don't understand tracks. They should just move the family back!

Mom of 12 said...

The idea with tracks is that one fourth of the students are always out of the school. That way they need fewer classrooms. We already have a bunch of portable classes. Without the tracks we just wouldn't have enough room in our school for all the kids who must attend. Most of the time I'm fine with tracks, but this time it has been hard because of the change.
Sandy

Natalie Ockey said...

Sorry that school got off to a rocky start. I hope each day gets better.

LOVE MELISSA:) said...

I am sorry it wasn't a perfect first day. I hope tomorrow is better.

Anonymous said...

What happens around Christmas time, do all the tracks have time off?

Mom of 12 said...

Everyone gets a couple of weeks just like traditional school. A track gets the first three weeks of January off too, which I love, and B track gets the three weeks before Christmas off. Basically it's 9 weeks on three weeks off.
Sandy

Debby@Just Breathe said...

Hope they have a great year!