FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL . . .

Today was the first day of school for the boys. They both seemed to have a pretty good day, although Andrew got a stomach ache during the day. I think it was just his nerves, because he was fine on the way home. I told him after a few days he should be okay. I think he's just nervous about being in a new school with people he's never met before. But other than that, I think they both had a good day.

Jason was in the wrong Mandarin class at first. He heard his name called, so he went to a class, but it was for students who already spoke some of the language. The teacher was actually calling for another Jason! By the time he got to his class, the class was almost over, so hopefully by tomorrow he'll be in the right class. At Concordia, 5th grade is part of the Middle School, so he thinks he's hot stuff! He switches classes and everything. He has Math, Band, Drama, Art, Science and Social Studies, PE, Religion, Health, Guidance, Language Arts, and something called ATL, but I have no idea what that is. He'll also have Mandarin classes every day. He got to choose between Band, Choir and Strings. Then he got to pick his preference of instrument. His 1st choice was Flute, then Oboe, then Clarinet. He was kind of upset because he didn't get any of his choices. Instead he got the Trumpet. I told him it was probably based on a first come, first serve basis, and we turned ours in late. But I think he'll be okay. At least he'll learn to read music, and if he likes it, then he can continue it at Crosby next year.

He also has Drama for 1 semester and then he'll have Art for the other semester. They put on 4 plays throughout the year. The High School puts on a play in the Fall and the Spring. Last year it was The Sound of Music. I'm sorry I missed it, because that's probably my favorite movie of all time! This year their Fall play is MacBeth, but they haven't decided on the Spring play yet. They are also doing a 5th and 6th grade play which is Alice in Wonderland and a 7th and 8th grade play that's called Channel Surfing which was written by 2 of the teachers at the school. He's going to try out for the play. I was thinking about getting them both into some kind of acting at home before we left, so we'll see how this goes. If he likes it, then I might try it at home as well.

Andrew also has Mandarin classes everyday, so they should both know more Chinese than Ryan and I by this time next week! I was thinking I'd like to take a Mandarin class, but with not having anyone to watch Sarah Beth, it makes it kind of hard to do those kinds of things. I guess I should have gotten the Rosetta Stone before I left!

Anyway, that's it for today. I was very homesick today. I guess that's because I'm so used to the boys being with us all day, and since they weren't, it made it all seem so much more real. I don't know if I'll ever get used to this; but I sure hope I do.

This didn't turn out very well.  But this is from their first day of school.