Back to school thoughts

In my attempts to write more of my thoughts and contribute less photos sans captions, I dug up one of my favorite posts Run on sentences... which described how I felt at the end of last summer. It is one of my favorites, because it really captured last years thoughts on back-to-school time.

The uniforms have been dug back out, the school supplies labeled and the backpacks ready.  Now if only we were ready!

Though most of my thoughts from that post haven't changed, I am sure the thoughts of my daughters have changed significantly. So, here are their notes on this coming school year.

Grace - I don't want the summer to end because I loved all of our vacations this year, especially Wisconsin Dells. It was fun to swim and check things off of our bucket list each day. I am excited for third grade because we get to have Titanic day. It looks really fancy. You get to eat up in your classroom and don't have to do any school work all day. I'm not looking forward to having to dance with boys though. I'm nervous that my teacher will be really strict, and that I will have a lot of homework.

Emma - I don't want the summer to end because then all the fun stuff ends like going on vacation and riding my bike. I really liked all of the water slides and being tall enough to do all of the grown up rides. I am excited for first grade because I will get to meet new friends and have a new teacher. I'm not nervous or scared about anything because I love my school and the first grade teachers are awesome! Plus, I'm going to cheat on all the tests! **Only Emma! As a teacher I can't tell you how appalled I am at that last sentence.

Norah - I want to go to school. They have more toys. I like the playground there. I want to play at home all day and then you can take me to school at night and we can play together. I like school.

Us - Once again we're not ready for summer to close. Mark is heading into his busy 'month' and our daily reminder is that it will definitely not come close to the agony that last fall had in store for us. He has enjoyed being able to get to work early over the summer and though he loves taking the girls to school in the morning, he's preparing for the long evenings of work that come from not getting to work until 8AM each day. I have spent the summer enjoying the girls and taking every opportunity possible to make memories with them. It has been a great 2 months (really short since 2 weeks of it were spent with students in Spain) and the fact that I have ignored school work a good portion of the summer has set me up to head back to school ill-prepared. As nervous as I am about the upcoming school year, I know that I made the right choice in ignoring it as, if nothing else, I will come back ready for the challenge instead of burnt out from lack of escape. Though I am teaching a new curriculum, I do feel like it should be less work than last year. I am hopeful that a positive attitude will combat any negativity that comes my way this year.