10:25 a.m. - August 15, 2006
Schooooool's IN!
Can you believe it�s time to start school again?
At least it is here in BFE land.
Some school districts started on Monday, and the city schools here start on Wednesday. That means, of course that the Montessori school starts up.
And Katie is once again ready to get going.
Last night was the parent�s meeting for the program, and since we�re �veterans� of the program Liz was the only parent to attend, and she brought back all of the information.
Most of her friends from last year are coming back � Delaney, Kate, Justice, Hannah (both versions), Basim and Evan. Unfortunately, Patrick, the boy she was going to marry, is starting first grade and won�t be in Montessori this year. Her bud Tayla isn�t going this year either.
There are some new students, as there is a full class of 24. Two of the new boys were on Katie�s soccer team this past year, and I think I may have influenced their parents as I talked about how well the program suited Katie last year.
As Katie is a veteran of the process, she�s going to bring snacks on Thursday, and Liz was validated as a good Montessori mother when the teacher expressly said that a good snack to bring would be �peanut butter sandwiches shaped like dinosaurs�. That�s Liz�s snack trademark, as it combines ferocious beasts in cuddly shapes with peanut butter and wheat bread for a snack that will delight any four year old.
By all accounts the teacher is right back into her role as the benign dictator. One of the mothers recalled that during two field trips last year, she was politely told to stop talking out of turn, and she made sure she was quiet during the presentation.
The open house is today, and it will be conducted with ruthless efficiency. You WILL bring your child down here, and you WILL show your child his or her cubby, and you WILL show your child where to hang his or her coats, and you WILL get him acclimated to each of the areas of the school, and it WILL take only 15 minutes. Because on Wednesday, we�re not messing around � we�re going to kick it, Montessori style. Yo.
And with school starting, dance class is also gearing up. This year, Katie is starting tap class and after one is absolutely thrilled with the decision to go to tap. She loves the shoes, because they are shiny and make noise. But of course!
However, Liz said that her friend Kate was moving from tap to ballet this year, so we shall see if tap is just a one year thing. However, I think she saw some of the older Montessori girls do some solo tap routines last year, and really liked the clacky shoes.
Heck, we all like clacky shoes, don�t we?
I was really impressed with Katie, though. I am watching the entire first day of MTV for an upcoming essay (or series of essays) and there was a video by Kate Bush that showed her dancing to �Wuthering Heights� and Katie was following right along with her and doing a pretty darn good job of following along. I think she�s really found her niche.
She�s also going to play soccer in the fall, and has new soccer shorts, shin guards and socks. The other day she was wearing her new dance leotard, which is peach color, and also had on her new black soccer socks that go up to her knees, and then she put on her shin guards. That was quite a look!
But I don�t know if I�m ready for school yet. The Wabash students come back soon and that means I move from being a golf pro to a captain of industry (i.e. - the ties come back on). High school sports have started, and I have my first volleyball game to cover tonight and my first football game on Friday up in West Lafayette. Not that I don�t mind the money, but this year I am covering more and more sports for the paper and with Liz�s board schedules we�re going to be in and out of the house a lot.
Yet I may be able to take Katie to a few volleyball games, if she�s good and polite and gentle and doesn�t try to carry Kristin around the family room. She always moves Kristin around because she KNOWS Kristin wants to go wherever Katie wants to go. Yeah, sure, no one knows where Kristin wants to go, except that she will go exactly where you DON�T want her to go.
At any rate, the end of summer is coming sometime. It�s far from over, as it�s still mid August and there�s always a chance for the 90 / 90s to come back. (90 degrees � 90 percent humidity � which adds up to 100 percent of ick). It�s been a difficult summer at times, because of all kinds of things, and I won�t be sorry to see it go.
So GO already! I mean, pre-season football is starting. You know, the National�Football�League�Dah-dah-dah-daaaaah!
