Candice & Todd's blog: Survived the first 7 weeks of school ~whew~

Wow. Teaching in public school is SO HARD. Seriously hard. The sheer # of kids you see each day is daunting. (120) The LACK of planning time tied up in meetings and/or parent communications because of grades or behavior is frustrating. The lesson planning and grading have to come after our kids go to bed -- or usually -- I crash and have to get up in the middle of the night to work or really really early the next morning. I look back on my last post and though that the work there at my old private school was a lot. It was. But.... it was definitely different than this. The pay and the benefits are much better where I am... and the breaks / summers off will be worth it. (hopefully!)

With that said, we did not do much since early August -- except for adjusting to my new job + the kids being in school and dealing with that routine of (more) homework for the 5th grader and a little bit of behavior stuff with the kindergartner. Isabella is mostly adjusting, but she's just tired which makes it hard when she comes home in the evenings. She doesn't have homework -- she wants it so we try to give her some challenging things to do.

One thing I'm also adjusting to / getting used to... Mercer will be a middle-schooler next year. 6th grade. Just like what I'm teaching. He will be plunked into a world of "on your own" schoolwork and management. They are trying to make him more accountable now in 5th grade -- having received his 1st zero for not turning something in / not getting a chance to turn it in late -- but it's still going to be a big adjustment! He will also have to manage more real-world situations (as I'm observing) and not be in this sweet little protective bubble that he has now at his current elementary school. (Here's a pic of the playground) I am glad that he and Isabella are together this year. I can tell he is already getting "too cool" for some things...... but mostly he is a good sport and goes along with the kiddish stuff still. thankfully!

As mentioned in the last post - Mercer sort of fell into this baseball group - the carry-over from his summer All-Star team. That's going well, but he's missing out on some of his Cub Scout outings and is missing out on his last year of Mission Possible Kids at church. But, he is building a camaraderie with a diverse group of kids that are outside of his little school and neighborhood bubbles... which I think will be valuable when he does go to middle school next year.

Here are a few shots from his "last" bottle rocket launch / Isabella's last sibling. Mercer's launch went earlier than we expected, so we didn't get his photo. It was sort of a dud. Her bottle rocket did better than his this year.

We didn't have any soda bottles for the launch, so we had to buy cheap soda... and instead of throwing it down the drain, why not throw Mentos in it and shoot it out of the bottle at home before the event?! :)

We are reading a "realistic fiction" book where the main character goes geocaching. Mercer's cub scout den went on a geocaching adventure one day. Mercer seems to be more into that than letter-boxing... which is still OK because it will get us outside and seeking adventure. (I bet we'll have more to come on that topic in coming months!)

He's been enjoying soccer so far, however, he is not fully-committed. He is missing half of the practices for baseball. Although he's not played soccer before (the little thing he did when he was 4 +/- doesn't count!) AND since he's not going to too many practices... it was surprising that he seems sort of natural / his instinct on what to do looked pretty good (at least from the side-lines). He has only played in 1 game so far -- missing his 2nd gave for a cool opportunity he had with his school: singing the National Anthem at a Braves game in the new stadium.

He's walked the perimeter of the field with his cub scout troop. He's walked the perimeter of the field with his baseball team. But - to see the group walk ON the field -- they looked so small!

I'm not sure how much of a singer he is - or if he's more of a lip-syncher... but he got out there and he got to be on the jumbo-tron. HOW COOL IS THAT?!

Mercer is involved in a lot right now. Isabella, however, only has the 1 thing on her plate: Hip-Hop dance class.

It is a bit far to drive because in Marietta there only seems to be Hip-Hop classes for older kids... but honestly... it's cute and she is totally in her element. There's a small group of girls from K - 2nd grade (she's the youngest); the teacher seems to be very patient with her and the other girls first in seeing a bit of what they're capable of naturally... and then adjusting to starting to teach them specific moves -- leading up to an eventual routine. I snapped a pic of Isabella in the studio on a rare occasion when we were there early.

One interesting thing that Todd did... he went "indoor sky-diving" with a friend. This was scheduled over a year ago and we finally got it on the books.

I was supposed to go as well / had a ticket, but once reviewing the safety forms, declined to go because they said since I've had a couple of dislocated shoulders... my shoulder would likely pop out of socket during this experience. Um... no thanks. It was cool to watch.

He said it was interesting, but I'm not sure that either he or Mike loved the experience.... so - I wonder will Todd ever try the real thing?! :)

We went to our favorite place to hike with the water and the ruins.

We have also been making blanket forts in which to watch movies lately.

We celebrated Mercer's 10th adoption day earlier in the month. Hard to believe it's been 10 years since it became official! We celebrated him with donuts and a gift before he went to school.