Cat Started Middle School

Cat has moved into the Really Big Kid World of Middle School, entering 7th grade at a nearby 7-12 charter school.  She wasn't excited about wearing school uniforms again, especially considering this school requires students wear "full dress" uniforms on Mondays - red cardigans, button-down shirts, ties, and skirts for girls in 7th and 8th grade, and a similar uniform but with blazers instead of cardigans for the high schoolers.  Cat's mother loves that she has to wear a uniform again.

Seventh grade preview day - a short day where the kids
found their classes and met their teachers without all of the older kids there

Our local traditional school came highly recommended and Cat tested into the gifted program there.  She has friends from school and church who go to school there and she's already in love with the choir teacher.  But I thought we should give this charter school a chance, so last year she and I went on a tour and she fell in love with it.  She was really excited that the middle schoolers have to take Latin, she thought it was really cool that the middle school athletes practice with their teams during school (due to a lack of space for both high school and middle school teams to practice after school), and the smaller-school atmosphere is really appealing.  Spots are allotted based on a lottery, so we decided to just put her name on the list and see if she got a spot or not, then make our decision after that.  When she got a spot in the first round, Cat took it upon herself to pray about where she should go to school and decided on the charter school, reasoning that she should take the spot and give it a try for a year at least, and then if she didn't like it after the first year she could transfer to the traditional school closer to our house.

Celebratory First Day of School In & Out Burger Lunch

Over the summer and over the course of the first few weeks of school, I've been even more pleased with the school.  Cat was evaluated to determine which math class she should be in at the beginning of the summer.  She was placed in an 8th grade class, but we were told by some friends that considering the advanced math she was doing as a 6th grader, the 8th grade class might be too easy for her.  We contacted the math department and asked if Cat might be able to take a harder math class and the head of the department asked her to come in so he could work with her to find the right class.  We met with him toward the beginning of July and after about an hour going through problems at his white board, he told her, "You're in a great position.  You could choose to take 8th grade math and you'd do very well.  Or you could work independently at khanacademy.org, focusing on these concepts for 30 minutes a day, and prepare yourself to be in a 9th grade class."

Cat didn't hesitate for a minute.  She wanted to be in the harder math class.  She didn't work on the math every day but she was pretty diligent about it, and when she met with the teacher again shortly before school started, he determined that she'd learned enough to enter the 9th grade honors math class.  She's the only 7th grader in there, and she's absolutely loving the class.

First official day of school

We were a little nervous about the extra time Cat would be at school this year and the workload, and the added commitment level of a more competitive soccer team, plus piano and YW and other things she would have going on.  We found out right after school started that Cat had some friends who had a free period because they'd received a waiver for PE due to significant time commitments to other athletic activities (mostly dance).  When we looked into it, we found out that Cat would qualify for a waiver as well because of soccer, which means that she doesn't have to be at school during first period.  She goes to school at 8:50 instead of 8:00 and gets to use that extra morning time to practice piano, do homework, or just sleep.

Full Dress Uniform

Cat is finally giving theater a try (something I've been wanting her to do for years) by taking a drama class AND joining the group competing in the Shakespeare Festival in Cedar City soon.  She's loving this, as well as all of her classes, and when I glanced at her grades the other day the lowest grade she had was a 98.  She happily tells me about what she's learning, the funny things her teachers say, and the developing middle school social dramatics.  She loves that knows more kids from her school last year, which surprised her, and of course she's also making new friends.

I sure hope the rest of the year continues to go this well.