OK, OK. I get it.
Summer’s over.
September is drawing nigh.
I get it, but it ain’t easy.
I love the pace and the sunshine and the mandated fun that is summer.
It’s hard to hang up the swimsuits and move on.
That said, I also love a fresh start. A clean sheet. A blank page.
And — January 1st notwithstanding — there is no fresh start like a new school year.
I worship the academic calendar for its intuitive sense of when we need a breather and when we’re ready to kick it in.
(Well, maybe not ready-ready but, um, willing to get ready. Like, um, now.)
Here goes.
I’m jumping in.
Back to blogging on a nearly daily basis. If you haven’t all given up on me by now. I had no earrthly idea that I wanted or needed a break from blogging until this summer when I just pretty well stopped. And it turned out to be a relief. Go figure. That said, I have three big ol’ purple post-its here with all the things I’m eager to post about so consider yourselves warned.
Back to teaching new students who come armed with new words and new questions that make me think. Nothing keeps me on my toes more than teaching. Well, okay, parenting, I guess. But for the same reason. I often have a plan — a good plan, I think to myself — and yet there is always the unanticipated loop that gets thrown when humanity and creativity are involved. I love that loop. When it doesn’t drive me to the brink.
Back to packing lunches, signing papers and biking the girls up to school in the mornings. As of yesterday we have a 2nd and a 4th grader at our house. Which is staggering to me, but they don’t seem the least bit flustered. They could not stop stepping on each other’s toes afterschool, so eager were they to tell me about their new teachers and tablemates and the surprising thing that happened to so-and-so over the summer. I might have to implement a buzzer system if this giddy greek chorus keeps up.
Back to my desk. September is like Christmas for me. I get to unwrap the ideas I’ve been gifted by the muse these last few months and I get to try ’em out. I get to see if they spin, fly, hold water and laugh & cry like a real baby.
Happy New Year!
Oh, yeah, I totally get the whole new school year, new beginning thing. There’s always a mix of “I love this” mixed with “take a deep breath and dive in”. Our school year starts in February here and it has some of the same appeal but not all of it. I still love the beginning of the American school year, seeing yellow school buses on the roads again and waking up to a little crispness in the air.
We’ll be in the States next year for six months and my kids will do the whole start of the school year thing in Fall 2009. I think they are already as excited as I am. Of course, at that point I’ll have a 6th grader, a 3rd grader and a kindergartener and I will join you in being staggered by how quickly they’re growing up.
It’s good to see you back.
No crispness in the air here yet, but I have faith it’ll happen by November.
Where will you be in the US? It’d be nice to cross paths sometime. My sister’s kids are just enrolling in American schools for the first time this fall themselves. Newness, newness, newness…
We will be in SC but I’m hoping to do some travel for book promo. ME WITH YOU will be out in May 2009 and barring complicatons MINI-RACER will be out in Fall 2009. Couple that with me wanting my children to see a little bit of the USA and maybe I’ll pass close enough to meet you? Fingers crossed!
I’m kind of bummed I don’t have any girls to tell me about their days at school! I also have a 2nd & 4th grader, but they’re boys, and getting any information about their new classes or what happened in school was like trying to budge a boulder. I didn’t even realize some kids told their parents everything that happened in school until I read Marion Winik’s recent article in Ladies’ Home Journal about her surprise, after raising two older boys, when her little girl started chattering about all the things that happened in school! Then some friends in town confirmed that they’ve had the same experiences. Not that my boys don’t talk my ear off, but they tend to do it about Pokemon or Star Wars rather than real life! 😮
Anyway, Happy Back-to-School!
LOL.
None of us at this house really even understand Pokemon.
Maybe you need to invite some of the boys’ female classmates over for an update!
Yay to back to blogging! I’ve missed your musings.
My son starts his last year of high school next week. Talk about a wake-up call. Now you’ve made me nostalgic for 2nd and 4th grades…
Yeah, the teacher would give me a zero for not putting my name on that comment.
It’s OK, Sara. This first week of class we cut everyone a bit of slack…
Go go go! You can do it! Let that pen fly!
Crossing fingers…
Three post-its = three ideas at my house. I’m betting you write in small print or else that those are some big-ass post-its. Also? This was a lovely post. I’m glad your kids are so excited about school. Mine start back next week – my girls are now in 10th and 8th grades. Seems like only yesterday they were in 4th and 2nd.
I KNOW that 10th and 8th are right around the corner. Sigh…
Welcome back!
Here’s my wake-up call: one of my former 4th graders is now TEACHING third grade in my building. EEP!
Oi!!!