What a week!

Ding!  Week 2 of school has flown by...and the verdict is in.  We are a nerd herd.  Well okay, we all already knew that.
Miss P is settling into kindergarten okay.  She still has moments of "enthusiasm", or just "not listening", but her intentions are good.
Miss D has found the green road & will hopefully stay on it.  At first, she needed a reminder the teacher ran the class and not her, *and I got the *I never knew she could be so stubborn, but she's so cute and we just love her* talk.
  E2 is well, himself.  His teacher seems to be handling him well.  He's bit a of a culture shock to her after having his two older brothers. 
 E1 has gone in headfirst.   He wants to do strings, choir, mathletics, safety patrol,...and is presenting his EL project this week.  There's a lot on that kids plate.  
And then there's our oldest. Ahhh.
As if seventh grade isn't hard enough, being the first year of passing periods, lockers, and sooo many teachers....Poor #1 fell in the shower earlier this week and cut all the way through his lower lip.  His stitches are right in that crack between the bottom of the chin and the start of the lip.  He's getting them out today.  With the stitches, his confidence wavered a bit.  He couldn't bear being on the bus in the morning, so softie parents we are, we drove him to school the rest of the week.  Yet somehow, by afternoon, everything was okay.  
By the end of the week, I heard snippets about the librarian, the lunch room, who he sits with in class.
He showed me what he was reading, even if it wasn't my favorite material.
He shared his concerns about being too well known, and organization, and getting places on time.
He also shared his take on his teachers, how nice they were, how they put him at ease.
This whole experience reinforced his trust in the adults in his life, at a time when a lot of kids are starting to wonder.
It also makes me wonder, how long do we have to enjoy this closeness?  Is it really possible to continue to be a parent and a friend to a teen?  I hope so.

With the kids gone, I should be getting so much more done, right?

Uh, maybe.  Eventually.  Right now it seems my head just can't get in the right space.  Case in point, I posted the "launch" post in the wrong blog Monday.
Granted, the last two days were only half days for the older ones, and Miss P only had a classroom visit.  Today is her first day, and it's also the first full day.    Kids out the door by 8, and retrieve them around 3.  Seven hours with minimal distractions.  Seven hours with no fighting.  Seven hours without dishes breeding everywhere.  Seven hours to clean, write, and hang out with my four year old (not necessarily in that order.)  Seven hours, every day, that seem to be floating along like a cloud on a windless day.
Si Guy is having a ball.  He has the t.v., the sidewalk chalk,  the computer, mom, everything for as long as he wants, when he wants it.  What's not for a four year old to like?
Mr. M is very matter of fact, unflappable, and seems to accept the new world order.  Life is progressing as it should.  What's the big deal?
The big deal, is princess P has never been a group of more than twelve kids.  She's never been away from family for more than half a day.  She's never had to stand in a lunch line, keep track of homework, or any number of expectations that are suddenly in her world.  Yet, she's not daunted.  She's excited!  She's ready.  She's fine.
However, I'm spacey.  I miss her chatter, her "help, and yes, even her arguing with Si Guy.....I miss how fast the time goes by with two kids, and the energy.  I'll get used to it.  I need to, because next year I won't even have one.  They will all be gone.

Only 2 weeks until school starts...

and reality is starting to dawn on all of us.  New shoes, backpacks, and lunchboxes are lined up on one wall in my bedroom.  All the kids have finished their summer camps and classes.  Our oldest is getting serious about his summer homework.
Yes, at the ripe old age of 12 our son has three summer assignments from 2 classes, and unlike the "packets" in elementary school these assignments are not optional.  If he turns them in on the second day of school instead of the first he only gets half credit.
This kid spent ten days at summer camp and a week on a missions trip.  No time for homework there.  He volunteered to help at vacation bible school.  No time for homework there. He also spent four weeks with his grandparents, no homework there either.
Summer vacation is from Memorial day weekend-August 15. Since it started with a holiday weekend, that means "real time" started around May 31st this year. That means his entire summer break is eleven weeks.  He volunteered,camped, and had other commitments for about 8 of those weeks.  That left one week at the beginning of the summer and these two weeks at the end for visiting with his friends and homework.
Now don't get me wrong.  I understand honors classes require extra time & effort.  He does too.  That's why he's not playing football this fall.
I understand the point of  summer project planning, reading logs, and even requiring a book to be a particular category.  What I don't understand, is requiring a specific book, especially one that is clearly oriented to one gender.
When they did sports statistics as math problems, everyone cried foul!  How are girls supposed to be interested in that?
Well, explain to me then, how a normal 12 year old boy from a "traditional" family is going to be interested in a book like Define Normal.  It's about 2 girls, peer counseling, and foster care.  It is ALL about relationships, especially female relationships.   Yes, we are supposed to stretch our perspectives...but how many of us took our sons to see The Joy Luck Club?   I understand there aren't nearly as many boys in honors English as girls, but to me, reading requirements like this are part of why.  It shuts out boys as effectively as older math class models shut out girls.
There are plenty of other books out there about breaking down stereotypes, that at least have some primary male characters, (not just fringers to say hey, guys have these issues too.  Those characters that might have added a male angle/perspective to this book were not developed.)
Even Little Women is more boy friendly than this book.  And there are girls I know who cringed at this title too.  If you want to teach a lesson, give a list of titles with that lesson.  Don't force feed, especially when assigning about five pages of writing to go with it, and especially over the summer, when a kid should be able to have some time to just be a kid.