The New Year Ahead

1st Day 10th Grade

Summer is coming to an end.  The days are getting shorter and the summer heat is finally dissipating.  And while there are many calendars; fiscal, lunar, Julian - its the school calendar that establishes and forms our year.  January isn't the beginning of the year so much as its the period between semesters. 

This is going to be a big year for this family.

TJ starts kindergarten next week.  Real school with greater expectations and no naps!  Its hard to judge and set expectations on a five year old, but thankfully, my son is a good listener and very polite and respectful.  I suppose that starting out those are good traits to have.  We have been reading over the summer and playing with math on the iPad.  I'm pretty sure he's not a genius but I am also sure he won't be a slacker.

1st Day Kindergarten

Lisa is excited for TJ as evidenced by the collared shirts she has purchased for him.  TJ may not be the kindergarten valedictorian but he will win the award for best dressed.  And best smile.  The one new element TJ brings to our family equation is we now have a hard-time for school.  Whereas in pre-K he showed up whenever Lisa or I could get him there school is different.  School starts at 8:35am.

TJ is going to school on a "traditional" school calendar, meaning that school begins just before Labor Day and ends in early June.  North Carolina also has "year round" school which has the same number of school days but the year starts in early August and has longer breaks throughout the year.  

The other big piece to the puzzle is that Samantha now lives with us and is starting 10th grade at Fuquay-Varina High School.  Big?  I meant, huge.  Samantha lives with us now.  We have a teenager in the house - just like that.

We are fortunate for a few things (so far).  First, Sam is super excited to go to school.  Unlike other kids, Sam actually contacted her teachers over the summer and eagerly engaged them on New Student Orientation Night.  Enthusiasm on the part of a student is a teachers greatest ally.   Second, Sam went school shopping and made very mature clothing choices.  I have been worried about getting into constant arguments over her clothing choices because everything she has now is too tight, too short, too worn, too risque for a young teenager.  I understand you need to pick your battles, but this is one of them.  And then Sam deflates the whole issue by getting blazers and nice tops and pants.  Poof.  Gone.  For now.  Third, Sam is coming into the school as an outsider - and a Northerner at that.  Her clique of friends is back in New York leaving Samantha to learn her way into a new social dynamic.  This might pay off in her attention in class because without her posse to impress with her sarcasm and antics, she might spend more time listening to the teacher and engaging more in the learning process.

Sam's school is also unusual in that it runs its school year like college semesters.  Instead of eight classes for the entire year, she will take four classes in the fall and four other classes in the spring.  Classes will be double the length to make up the time.  The concept sounds great because she can only have homework in four classes at a time.  Of course, the amount of homework hasn't been determined yet.

Unfortunately, Sam provides us another hard-time for the day.  Her bus picks her up at 6:05am!  I'm not even up at 6:05am.  None of us are. She needs to be at school by 7:05am.  The lopsidedness of the two kid's schedules against our work week - or - what we've been used to - has us fretting. 

Last night we went to our first high school football game.  TJ sat with us while Sam hung out with the few new people she knows.  By the end of the game there was a chill in the air as we celebrated a win for the Bengals and the start of the year.

Samantha's Summer of Sailing

Samantha set a lofty goal for the summer - to earn the difficult rank of Lightning Skipper at Camp Seafarer.  Because of its difficulty it was a goal that, at the outset, was not clear whether she would obtain in her last year as a Camper.

Sam in Sunfish #9

Since Sam has been going to Camp she has been a sailor.  She has a natural talent on top of the water, rowing or sailing.  At eight years old she learned to sail a Sunfish - a one small, one sail, sailboat that can fit two people.  (Like the ones pictured here).  She could rig it, un-moor it, and sail it for hours on end.  In the following years she developed a talent for racing these little boats and made the racing team for several years in a row.  She even taught her older cousin to sail and even got her on the team last year.  

Close Quarters

Sam is a easily earned her Sunfish Skipper several years ago.  Of course, with Sam, once she achieves one thing, she want to go the next bigger thing, and in this case the next biggest thing was a Lightning - a two sail, 500 lb boat that can fit up to seven people.  It is not the type of boat you'd expect to see a fifteen year old sailing by herself. 

William J Adams IV Regatta Camper Sailing Teams

Sam dedicated her last year at Camp Seafarer at earning this rank.  To earn a Lightning Skipper means that she can take out one of these boats all by herself.  From all accounts, she poured herself into the classes and passed her water survival test; thirty minute dead man's float, 500 meter swim, among other things because it turns out that the prerequisites to take the final test are just as hard as the final itself.

Lightning Sailboat

She took her final and failed.  That's right, she failed.  By all reports - she was crushed.  Expectedly.  She sobbed and sobbed, according to inside sources.  Who can blame her?!  When you put that much effort into it and when you have that much heart you never expect not to get what you want.

I want my kids to fail from time to time.  I don't want them to win each time they set a goal.  That means the goal might not have been lofty enough in the first place.  I want them to feel that sting and be willing to try again.  Especially if they know victory is just around the corner.

When I saw Sam at the William J Adams IV Regatta on Saturday it had been two days since she failed her Lightning Skipper test.  She was sailing - racing - Sunfish in the regatta.  There were Lightnings on the water too.  I asked her about the test and in a sign of maturity she blamed no one but herself and stated with confidence that she would pass the second time.  After all, this is Camp, and how can you build confidence if you don't get another opportunity to succeed?  She told me that she was going to try again on her fifteenth birthday.

She actually tested the day after her fifteenth birthday and was on the only Camp Seafarer Camper of the Second Session to P-A-S-S her Lightning Skipper test. 

Congratulations to Samantha for earning a real challenging achievement!