Today marks the end of the first week of the new school year. It is also the end of the kids' first week at "Metairie Academy for Advanced Studies". I see some challenges this year, but I'm convinced that we (or they-the kids) can handle them. Homework will be plentiful and tough. Studying is now REQUIRED. And behavior must be kept under control. It's a new year…a new school...a new beginning.
One of Zachary's biggest struggles is keeping himself organized. His backpack is always a mess of crumpled and folded papers. His desk becomes a total disaster. More than once last year, Chris brought him into his classroom to search for missing materials required for an assignment, and spent 15 minutes removing old un-needed papers that were crumpled and shoved into his fully packed desk. We are trying very hard to make changes this year, including finding Zachary's organizational skills.
For both of them, they have skated through school, making mostly A's with a few B's – without having to study or work very hard for those grades. That doesn't happen at M.A.A.S. You have to study. Philip fought with me for over an hour Wednesday night about studying his spelling words. He took the list, read it once, and told me his was done. No son, that isn't enough - STUDY. He told me to quiz him. Naturally I picked the hardest two words on the list to quiz – and he got them wrong. I sent him back to REALLY study. You guessed it – three minutes later he's back, yet again proclaiming that he has finished! I made him write each word ten times, which made him furious. That was not an assigned written homework, why should he have to write the words? In typical Philip fashion, he tries to negotiate with me … how about writing them FIVE times each, and then reading them another five times each. No, son. That is not what I said to do. How about eight, then? In the end, he wrote the words ten times each, and studied them for another 20 minutes. But, it took over an hour to accomplish that. It should not be such a struggle.
I'm afraid that they will learn (and in some respects already have) that they can get by with very little effort, and do 'ok'. Last year, we told them both that B's were not acceptable. That makes me feel like a tyrant parent. But, they were both capable of making A's with a bit of effort (and in some subjects, with very little effort at the level they were learning at the old school). Getting an easy B without any effort is not an earned B. If they can get a B with no effort, I expect the effort to earn an A. If they studied hard and struggled and ended up with a C, then I would consider a C an acceptable grade. But they are both capable of so much more. M.A.A.S. is a tougher school. They will have to work hard, and B's may become perfectly acceptable for them if they work hard for them (maybe even an occasional C). But first, they need to learn HOW to work hard. This will be a struggle this year, I can tell.
So, as we embark on this new adventure, I'm already looking forward to the first big break from it. And I've figured it out. We are going camping for Thanksgiving!! Because of a major dispute in Chris's family (and him basically now cut off from the majority of his family), for probably the first Thanksgiving in the 15 years we've been married, I will not be told where I have to be, what time to be there, and what to bring. I get to make our plans for Thanksgiving. And I'm going to plan to not be home. It is really kind of funny given that for years I've dreamed of having a very quiet and simple Thanksgiving at my own house.
But, instead of the traditional Thanksgiving meal at home, we are going to go CAMPING! Well, I guess that makes it more "traditional" than anyone in my family has ever seen. We'll cook our Thanksgiving meal over an open fire.
Chris and I used to go camping a lot before we had kids. We would wake up on a Friday morning, and before work decide that we would go camping for the weekend. We'd rush home form work, throw the camping gear in the car, and drive to Grand Isle, or Hattiesburg (to a state park outside of Hattiesburg
But, since having kids we have not been ONCE. My poor boys have been deprived of the joys found in childhood camping. I've thought about it and talked about it, but haven't actually taken them. I do not like camping in the summer (or southern summers anyway). It is way too hot here to sleep inside of a tent without circulation (and air conditioning!). I would much rather camp in October/November (sometimes even December given that we have VERY mild Decembers), or March/April.
A lot of the gear we had was damaged in the garage (our garage had deeper water than the house, and the stuff on the bottom shelves of the camping shelving was ruined). The tent we had was too small for a family of four. It is time to replace it. Some of the basic camping supplies are rather cheap, and some things we had can still be used. Really, you don't need a TON of stuff to camp anyway.
Thanks to a birthday gift from my dad and step-mother, I've got a new tent that can sleep 10. It's a three room cabin tent – the two outside rooms sleep 3 (2 comfortably) each, and the center sleeps four. We'll use the two smaller rooms as 'bedrooms' – or 'sleeping bag rooms' . The larger center room will be a 'living room', for storing gear, hanging out in case it rains or we want a place to just relax - making it the perfect "four person" tent for us.
We'll go to Paul B. Johnson State Park in Hattiesburg
Paul B. Johnson State Park
Near the campground is Black Creek – which runs through the
Black Creek Canoeing (we've used this canoe rental place before - they are great!)
From reviewing the park's website, they have expanded some camping sites and made some improvements. But in general it was always a very well kept state park, with lots to do (nature stuff – hiking/canoeing/etc – and a game room with a snack bar/pool tables/arcade games/etc).
So now, even though we are only a week into school – I'm already very much looking forward to the next school break. Only 14-1/2 weeks to go…
