Mid-October

There has been a surprising benefit to Elise starting public school: we're suddenly meeting all these neighbors and interacting WAY more with neighbors we already knew. Just the daily bus stop meet-ups seem to encourage more conversations. It's been really nice! 

We've started mandating the hour after Elise gets home from school as mandatory outside time for everyone. A lot of the neighbor kids are out as well, so it's kind of a cul-de-sac party every afternoon. 

One afternoon we lost a football to the storm drain and it was quite the communal effort to retrieve it. Natalie snapped some pictures of us all trying to get it back out. My favorite things about this are that Chris is always out with the kids even though his girls are all grown up, and that his dog, Boh, is right there in the middle of it all. 

And yes, we did successfully save the football. 

Over the summer I kept asking Catherine if she wanted to try out public school while she still had the chance to attend elementary school. She gave me very clear nos--"Why would I want to go to public school and sit in a desk all day?"

But then Elise started school and came home raving about how fun it was. Covid cut out a lot of the fun things Catherine used to enjoy about homeschooling (gymnastics, sewing, homeschool PE) and she was feeling a lack of social interaction. So in October she mentioned that she was kinda, maybe, sorta thinking about trying out public school. I told her if she decided to go, she'd have to stay until at least January. She agreed, and, despite some nervousness about starting mid-year, off she went to 5th grade!

Her first day was kind of weird and I didn't manage to catch a picture of her until she was getting off the bus:

Smiling for the camera:

(She was glaring in the first picture I took)

There were two immediate, awesome benefits to public school. The first was the discovery of Sara, who lives right around the corner and is also in 5th grade. How we didn't know this for all these years is beyond me. Sara is one of those super awesome kids--smart, kind, talented, and fun. 

Their school had a Trunk or Treat we were planning to attend. Sadly, Elise was a close contact for Covid (actually her entire class was!) so she was out on quarantine and couldn't attend. I told Catherine we weren't going and she was heartbroken. Somehow Sara found out, and next thing I knew Catherine was getting a ride with Sara's family! And Sara's mom even sent pictures!

Ben, Sara and Ghost Catherine

Catherine made her costume all by herself.

The second benefit: school band/orchestra! All kids have the option to play an instrument starting in 4th grade. Catherine was nervous since she had missed an entire year compared to her peers, but she wanted to give it a shot. We watched YouTube clips of all the instrument choices so she could make her decision. I was pushing for cello, but alas! The clarinet won out in the end. 

Catherine worked like CRAZY to get up to level on her instrument. She met with the band teacher her first week of school. She was assigned to work on two notes: D and E. Instead, she taught herself basically every song in the book. She was immediately promoted to full 5th grade band when she came for her lesson the next week. I'm so proud of this girl and how hard she is willing to work!

As it turns out, both Sara and our neighbor Wyatt also play clarniet.

So we had a few days of neighborhood clarinet ensembles.

Sara is a beautiful player and patiently taught Catherine some tips and tricks:

Quarantine Elise was so, so sad to miss school.

But she did manage to entertain herself!

She even assigned herself homework and demanded I email pictures to her teacher:

Painting all her letters!

We also made and decorated Halloween cookies!

Having Catherine go to school broke my heart just a little. I'm so glad she loves it, but I had kind of planned my homeschool year around her. Seth was mostly doing his own thing, and Aaron just doesn't care about much of the fun stuff (like reading aloud). So when she left, I was sad to realize that most of the fun things I had planned weren't going to happen anymore. But I'm happy she's happy and I'm hopeful she'll be back home again next year!