Back to School

Well, it hardly seems possible that i have not posted since May but the blog doesn't lie. We had a wonderful summer but I am ready for it to be over and for life to get back to "normal". The incredibly hot temperatures have finally gone and this week the kids go back to school. It seems that even the return to school cannot be done all at once, but rather in small bites. The first and fourth graders started back on Monday. I have been working a little at a time to finish shopping for all their text books. I still need to get some of them covered. Fortunately their classes will probably do the same as in previous years and form a class Co-op. This means as parents we will choose two parents to open up an account at a local bank. Then each parent pays 15 or 20 euros into the account and the teacher uses that to purchase supplies for the class. Last year the 3rd grade teacher not only bought the pencils, pens, crayons, markers, glue, colored pencils, etc for the class but also used the money to purchase the kind of notebook she wanted the kids to use for their class notes. I know I would have spent more money running around to buy all the stuff and this way the kids have what they need when they need it. A win-win situation for all in my book.

Tuesday I took the two older kids out to shop for their supplies ... at least the notebooks and folders they want. In secondary school the teachers are not so particular about the kind of notebooks so the boys helped me pìck out the kind they wanted .... knowing that we wouldn't even be looking at the expensive ones with the pictures on the covers. I'm sorry but i can't afford to pay twice the price just to have a Disney cover. Not when I am buying 16 or 17 notebooks!

Today, Wednesday, my second born started school. He moves up to the "instituto" this year to start 7th grade. The 7th graders had to go into the school at 10am for an general assembly, find out their class lists and meet the home-room teachers and get their school "agendas" to record their assignments in.

I thought my life would finally get back to a normal school schedule tomorrow when my oldest son heads back to school for his first day. It will also be an assembly, class list, home-room teacher, agenda day. What I found out was that in order to have this first day "orientation" for the 9th and 10th graders, the 7th and 8th graders get to stay home. So, we wait till Friday for the TRUE first day of school celebration (for Mom)Ü