Tuesday, August 29, 2006

And School has begun...



Aubrey's gone beyond the stage now where she wants her picture taken the first day, I guess the only way to have her want to be in a picture is to have it be with one of the local political candidates she's been meeting as she's accompanied me places. She had to think for a moment on if I was supposed to go into the school with her or stop at the door of the school. With a "don't embarrass me" warning given I was allowed to go inside.

Man was that a mistake. Any pretense I had of thinking I was in reasonably good shape ended when I walked up the six sets of stairs to get up to the third floor of the school where her classroom is. I had been there before when we met her new teacher but for some reason that early in the morning it felt like stairmaster time.

The walk to and back from school was no problem - that's not even a mile round trip. What's sad is this is the last year this particular school building will exist. They are tearing it down next year to build a one. So Aubrey will be the last 6th grade class. However, I'm sure the teachers and the staff will prefer the new design which does not include the built in stairmaster moments.

Thinking about this being my last year of having a child in an elementary school made me pause for a moment. It's hard to believe we are here, it seems like it was not long ago that she was clinging to my leg not wanting to go to kindergarten. Telling me "she wasn't ready, she'd go next year".

Now I'm not sure I'm the one who is ready....

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's a very strange feeling. At least in TPS, you don't start junior high until 7th grade, so she gets an extra year of elementary school. Time sure flies, though.

Cyberseaer said...

My little 6th grader is in middle school here. When I went to school, 6th grade was still elementary school as well. I guess the BOE thinks that kids can handle the faster pace of middle school earilier here. All now is that she will have to leave the house earilier and that means waking up at 6 AM. More fun for me.

Unknown said...

C - If Aubrey would have stayed in Springfield she would have been at the middle school this year. Her TPS school goes k thru 6 so next year she would go to "junior high" for 7 and 8.

That's the way it was when I was in TPS too - we were k thru 6 then junior high for two years then high school. Aubrey would have had to have gotten there at 7:20 for the start of school rather than 8:45. That made me happy.

See Emily - I told you I was feeling old...

:-)

Holly said...

Man do I ever hear you on it being the last year with one in elementary! Next year, if all goes well, I'll have one in elementary and one in high school, which doesn't even seem possible! Yesterday was a good start for both kids. The oldest had a good first day, so he said, and the youngest says she LOVES her teacher...LOL. Sadly her teacher this year is directly across the hall from the horrid teacher she had last year so she has to see the old teacher daily. I told her she is to do nothing but smile if she encounters him and show him respect, unless she wants more problems this year. **UGH**
Glad to hear that Aubrey's first day went well!
**huggles**

Scott G said...

I used to hate the first day. For all my public school friends it was a fluff day. For me, we immediately got into taking notes and homework.

Hooda Thunkit (Dave Zawodny) said...

I had to laugh when you commented on the six flights of stairs.

If I were faced with that, the teacher and I would never meet ;-)

Thankfully, our children went to a one-floor school (St. Pats).

I hear tell that all of the 6th grade classrooms are on the 3rd floor there.

Maybe that is what they meant by higher education ;-)

Unknown said...

That was a good one Hooda :-)

Mark said...

Back to school time is always a mixed emotional time. The time to self is great, but it's also (exhausting, but) nice to have the boys home for the summer.

Still, the first day for us isn't until the 5th (wouldn't want to interfer with LaborFest, now would we?) and it'll be a new thing because it'll be Alex's first day at his new school. I'm not liking it, but we're still trying to make it work as best we can.