Wednesday, September 4, 2013

First Day

For the last few weeks I've been admiring all my on-the-ball friends on facebook and instagram who've been faithfully posting their kids' back-to-school photos on their kids' actual first day of school.  Some of the posts are nostalgic, some are gleeful, and still others are just plain factual.   All of them, however, seem to use hashtags like #5thgrade, #bestdayoftheyear, and #wheredidthesummergo.

 I, personally, have never fully grasped the concept of correct hashtag usage, but when I do use them I like to make mine as long and weird as possible, just to see what kind of reaction I can get out of Spencer.  You should have heard him after I used "#dinnerat1030pmtastesbetter" on one of our vacation instagram pics.   I thought he was going to die of embarrassment on the spot.

Luckily he survived and is now doing his best to ignore us completely while he lives up the college life at JMU.   Hopefully the rest of his siblings will fare as well.  They all started school yesterday and while I did actually take pictures of them before school, it took until today to actually transfer the pics from the camera to the computer.

Cami is a junior in high school and is already running a million miles per hour.  She is taking a full academic load including 3 AP classes (AP calculus, AP human geo, and AP lang), going to early morning seminary, running cross country, and is the only National Honor Society officer left that didn't quit over the summer.   I have a hard time keeping up with her and I find myself in the weird position of often encouraging her to slow down, stop studying so hard,  and to breathe occasionally.

Ellie is in 3rd grade and is being homeschooled for the first time this year.  She is still having several absence seizures per hour, a fact which would make attending school a challenge, so I am excited to give her the one-on-one time she needs to thrive academically.  She is still a bundle of ever moving energy and I love to see how her creative mind processes the world around her.  If it were up to her she would cook breakfast, lunch and dinner for us every day and she has grand visions of publishing her own book one day (ideally before turning 9).

Adam is in 5th grade and is also being homeschooled for the first time this year.  Although he loves school and has always done very well in his studies, he was very excited to join Ellie at home this year.  He is naturally very curious and  I think my biggest challenge this year will be to keep him academically challenged and engaged.  He's spent the last two days perusing the Lego catalog in his free time and I sense that he is hoping that I might figure out how to make Lego building a part of his curriculum this year.  

Emma is in 7th grade and is just beginning middle school.  She has been counting down the days all summer long and she couldn't be more thrilled to be a "sevvie" this year.  She has been taking voice lessons this year and has decided that she really loves music.  In addition to having a beautiful singing voice, she also has become the first of our children to actually practice her instruments (piano and clarinet) without being asked.  Her music adds a joyful backdrop to our home and we are thrilled that someone appears to have inherited their music ability from Glen's side of the family.

I thought of finishing up this post with some really long, obnoxious hashtags just to see if I could embarrass Spencer enough to actually text or call.  Then I realized that in order for that plan to work he would actually have to lay eyes on the blog first.  He used to read it pretty regularly, so that he could correct/cajole me into fixing any perceived errors, but since he didn't even flinch when I posted this picture of him last week, I feel pretty confident in saying that I can hashtag anything I darn well please now without fear of sonly recrimination (or phone calls).  :(
 #imissspencer #noshame #teasingspencerisfun 

1 comment:

K said...

I have to say I've never understood the hashtag thing. It just seems weird to me. I would like to know how so many people learned about it. Was there a class I missed or what?

Glad you got everyone's first day of school photos. Hopefully, I'll get some of my kids too when they FINALLY start school next week.

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