Back to school & routines recap 2024

first day of high school!

swimming pool fun

It's already the end of September, and I'm happy to say that the transition to back to school has been a relatively easy one (phew!). Hendrik started high school and is liking it so far; he loves the more independent style of daily student life and the more rigorous academic challenge that high school courses bring. We were wondering how the earlier start would go (he leaves to walk to school at 7:45), but he's been great at being mostly ready to get to school on time. He's walking with a friend that lives in the neighbourhood, has four classes every day (art, math, physical education and geography this term) and is finished at 2:30. He made the school volleyball team, so has a busy schedule with practices and games (and club volleyball)! He made the B team with Forest City, and has a great crew of coaches - and a good team too! - to grow and learn with this year. 

A and J on their first day : grade 7 and grade 3

It's hard to believe that Alana is in grade 7 this year - eek! She's had a great start to the year too, and we're very happy with her teacher and class (and a smooth day one of the school year). She played on the co-ed school soccer team, a season that has already come and gone! Basketball is the next school sport starting up, and we're trying to encourage her to rally the troops and find some other girls to play; hopefully there will be a coach that might come forward too. She's also playing club volleyball, and there's a great group of girls on the team (and coaches too, ha!). We're practicing three times a week this year, so balancing it all with the other kids' activities might be a challenge, but we're only double-booked on Thursdays, so it shouldn't be too bad. We did a team building evening on Thursday and the girls had a great time - great photos too!

Team Evergreen : Beach vball / team building!

new bike same colours! :)

riding!

And Jordan is off to a great start in grade 3... at least I think he is! We have meet the teacher next week so I'll get some more info then; the kids don't tell us too much about what they do during the day. We're very happy with his teacher and the class he's in, so that's positive, and his extra-curriculars are just getting rolling. He's playing hockey on Saturdays and Sundays (with the Ice Dawgs), and doing basketball with a few friends on Monday evenings. Baseball tryouts for next summer are this weekend, so he has his first session this afternoon. He's swimming a lot (still - the weather has been great!) and is following his big brother's footsteps with his love of Archie comics; I think he's going to be Jughead for Halloween - !! Love it. He also loves watching sports with Steve, which is the cutest.

fancy snack platter with one of Jordan's besties

What's new with me and Steve? Steve has been busy with neighbourhood odd jobs - building fences, doing minor repairs for friends, painting etc., so has been filling his days no problem-o. He's helping coach Hendrik's club team which is a different group this year, so I think despite having mixed feeling initially, he's excited to be involved and learn with and from a new group of coaches and kids. I haven't signed him up for anything, so he's not playing hockey or doing any extra-curriculars :). On the other hand, I signed myself up for women's league volleyball and a weekly basketball run, so I'm getting my fix, thank goodness! These two weekly activities also keep me motivated to exercise (otherwise I am not my best), and I want to be able to keep feeling at least moderately capable when on the court! My school schedule has been similar to last year - I'm teaching two grade 6 classes and 4 grade 7/8 classes daily, with a sprinkling of grade 1 gym here and there. I think overall things are going to be a bit easier this year; there are fewer challenging students behaviour-wise (I think), but the range of attitudes and abilities is so great and so all over the place that it will continue to be a fairly challenging endeavour (teaching core French - I'm the French teacher in an English public school). I'm coaching the girl's basketball team at school with another teacher who is great, so we'll have fun together for sure. And I'm coaching Alana's club team, so with three practices a week that will keep that schedule nice and full. I was definitely stretched a bit too thin during the first two weeks of school as it was back to school routines (overload) and club volleyball tryouts... ugh! That's all behind us thank goodness, and I'm already finding practice planning a lot easier than last year (last year I had to figure out how to keep 19 kids actively involved on one court). So there you go! Life is full and busy. Thank goodness for the weekend! ps. I haven't forgotten about Holland photos - I'll get them up here some time!