Back to School

This has been a hectic week with both boys going to new schools, one in university in a different city, and one into high school.

Alex has been experiencing the results of some of his actions, or should I say, inactions. He decided to blow off academic orientation in July, resulting in his signing up for two "wrong" courses and having to stand in long lines to talk to a counsellor this week. The first issue was resolved, but second can't be due to timetabling conflicts and full courses, so he either needs to stick out the one term computer course intended for computer science majors or find something else to take. Second, he decided when he was packing that he didn't want to take our old bubble jet printer with him, only to call me in a panic asking if he could buy a printer. I said no, and shipped the old one to him. He is also "desperate" for a small fridge for his room. I'll probably order one from Costco for him and have it shipped directly.

We don't hear from him very much, and when we do, he wants something. I'll leave it at that.

Michael has finished his second week of high school and seems to be thriving. I attended curriculum night (which should be called "rules night" as very little curriculum was discussed), and was quite impressed with the teachers I met. Michael's only issue with his teachers is that his French teacher is "mean" and extremely strict. She was not a curriculum night, and even the department head who met with parents alluded to this teacher's hard core personality in a kind of round about way. The art teacher wasn't there that night, nor was his science teacher, but his math, geography, english, gym, and music teachers all look great.

He's also off to a great start in music. He had a private tuba lesson with his teacher on Tuesday evening that went well. His school band teacher is very impressed with Michael's "keenness", and has offered to teach him the basics of bass trombone so that he can play in the Junior Jazz Band. He won't have to audition, but can just sit in on practices and play what he can at the beginning. All junior music students are in the concert band, and practices begin this week. He's been really getting in to jazz lately (traditional, not modern) and has been downloading lots of stuff. The junior band goes away to band camp for four days (over a weekend) in a couple of weeks and that should be an excellent time for the young players to gel.

Japanese started today, and he'll be starting back at karate as well. He tried out for junior volleyball at school and given the small number of players who have come out so far, he's likely to make the team if they can field enough players. He also apparently did really well in football in gym class. This, a child who has never been very interested in team (or other) sports until karate.

I have a really positive feel about this school for Michael, and am glad he's getting involved in lots of stuff. He'll be busy, but is clearly enjoying things, so that's great.