It’s really happening. Today my daughter and I went to her new school to pick up her class schedule, books, P.E. clothes and a ginormous binder, already filled with 2 spiral notebooks and many dividers, and 2 dry-erase markers. Advanced Language Arts, Social Studies, Pre-Algebra, Science, P.E., Cadet Band, and an elective to be determined later (which she hopes will either be Running Club or Art or just a homework period). I hope it will be Running Club or Art, because she can do homework at home! She wants to have extra time for homework because she also has to practice for band at home.
Everything went smoothly for us. She will be going to the 6th grade orientation on Monday and her first official day of school will be on Tuesday. We bought a few new school clothes. Not a lot. We’ll be buying more every time the weather changes. She wants some purple streaks in her hair. The appointment has been made for a couple of days after the first day. Part of me is hoping she’ll change her mind after she’s been at school for a couple of days (I’m not ready to see anything mar her beautiful red hair), and part of me is proud of her for wanting to make such a bold statement –and after all, hair grows out!
She is excited about school starting and has already posted her schedule on Facebook to see how many of her friends have the same classes.
Though we have a few loose ends still to take of, like getting notebook paper, Back-to-School season seems to be going well for us! I’ll be updating next month when the theme is “Surviving School, 101.”
Intense Life Coaching 
Our 6th grade started middle school on Monday and has had a pretty good first week. He can find and open his locker, find the band room and open his band locker, and find his bus. All the rest is easy! I’m waiting a week to go ask them why he doesn’t seem to be in a gifted social studies yet and why the accelerated math class can’t start for two more weeks. And, why going to the library has to be such an ordeal. And how he ended up in honors band (glad, but wonder how that happened). Ok, so the first week went ok for him, but I’m full of questions still!
btw: has your daughter thought about Kool-Aid as hair color? I believe mixing the powder with vinegar will give her streaks for 2-3 weeks. The ones I’ve seen were pretty bright in color too. I’m sure you could google it.
Wow, they still have lockers at your school? The only lockers they have at the schools in this district are gym lockers. Even my old high school got rid of lockers when the student population got too big. Even back when I went to high school in the ’80’s we had to share lockers. I always managed to get someone who had a car, so she never used the locker, so I got it all to myself!
I hope you get your questions answered to your satisfaction, and thanks for the kool-aid tip! We might try that…
How exciting. Good luck to her! 🙂
Good luck to you both! In my experience, middle school age is incredibly hard on parents and kids alike, and more so for gifted kids. I say that not to depress you, just as a head’s up. 🙂 I would love to see some major blogging about navigating the teen years with GT kids in general. I find it utterly brutal for everyone involved, even though we always had such a good relationship and my oldest (14 now) was always such a level-headed kid. Issues like anxiety, feeling like an outsider and existential depression seem to really get amped up starting at the middle school years and then into the teen years. BTW, mine had purple streaks too. It was pretty fun!
When I started Middle School–well, it was called “Jr. High” and it didn’t start till 7th grade. I have older kids, so we’ve already gotten used to 6th grade starting the next tier of schooling. I remember feeling like I did not know what was going on for quite a while, though I managed to keep my head above water. I’m glad they have a special orientation for 6th graders, and they have 8th graders in charge of groups of the new incoming 6th graders to show them the ropes. We never had anything like this. You just got your schedule then you had a little map and had to figure out how to get to your class. Of course I often had my map turned the wrong way!
I’ve been trying to think of it as more “character building” than “brutal” 😉 Definitely a character building experience.
Glad to hear she and you are off to a great start and that she’s excited. I don’t normally say this to teen girls bc they are so much more than this but…what a beauty! I can see some of it but not all comes from within–that smile, her intelligence. Good luck! 🙂
Thank you! We think this is one of her best school pics yet –besides K-2nd grade pics where they can’t go wrong–we ordered a bunch of them –which is a complete 180° from when her Spring pics came in–a few weeks went by and I realized we hadn’t seen them. I asked her about it and she told me she turned them back in (you get a packet of proofs and then turn in the ones you don’t want and send in money with your order for the poses you want) because she hated how they turned out. I was very angry at first and told her I at least wanted the chance to make that decision myself. Then she started crying and saying how they had taken upon themselves to comb her hair and it they did it wrong and combed all the waves out and they made her smile a certain way that turned out looking stupid. Fine. At least we got the Fall pics for that year.
Wow purple streaks Cool! There is this lady Lee Binz (The Homescholar on Facebook, and her site of the same name.) She educated her two sons at home without even a co-op and they sounded gifted to me. One is/has grad. college studying Engineering and the other was really smart too a Chesshound. But she’s really friendly and knowledgeable, she’s trained as a nurse. Maybe she could even contribute here. I don’t know if she considered them gifted but they sure tore through A Lot of books and College level stuff in H.S. I’m sure she’d have some thing to impart to you.
Oh, By the way My eldest got a Mohawk yesterday, she’d wanted it for over a year, she turned 18 and got to choose to do it for her B-day. My middle child used to have blond tips on his hair that he might get again, because he misses the look, and I think he wants the very tips to be Blue? Gonna have to see about that one. 😀
Bon courage!
Sincerely, Anna
Blue tips? Go for it! It’s just hair! 😉 The purple streaks are fading a bit now. When they are gone, she’ll have very light blond streaks in her red hair.