Middle School

Yesterday Caleb went to his middle school open house. They split the boys and girls in to seperate open houses and there were still a lot of kids. After a brief orientation where they went over rules, expectations and discipline we went around to all the different "stations". We had to pay school fees, get his school id made, get schedules, get books, meet all of his teachers, etc.

He is excited about starting middle school, but he has the normal elementary school to middle school intimidations. The campus is quite large and he has two minutes to get from one class to the next. I have no doubts he can do it, they really are not that far apart, but he was nervous about it.

Something that his MOM is nervous about is the fact that they do not HAVE to stay in the cafeteria for lunch. They have concession stands outside and they have vending machines (with water and juice) outside. Just seems to mom like a good oppurtunity for kids to get in trouble. BUT, they have to learn now before high school when I think they can leave campus during lunch.

Which leads me to discipline. MAN! They have TRO, which is an all day detention room where you have to do all of your work, have lunch, EVERYTHING in this one room. Then they have afterschool homework clinics if you don't do all of your homework when you are supposed to. They have Saturday school - yeah, self explanatory. I think he got the picture that it was very important for him to be at class on time, have all of his homework and have a perfect uniform.

We did have a schedule issue while we were there. He had signed up for band and did not get put in it. May not have been as big of a deal except we have heard by several people that if you are not in band in the sixth grade you cannot be in the seventh or eighth grade either. I asked the band teacher, she said you could be but it was VERY difficult to get in to. They did get the schedule fixed before we left, so he IS in band now.

I am SOOO not ready for a middle school student with seven teachers and lots of homework. Luckily, he is pretty self-sufficient when it comes to homework!