We arrived home just in time for school to start for the four girls! After a year of homeschooling, select-day in-person schooling, and wondering if all would actually end well, the girls were off to begin Kindergarten, 3rd grade, 6th grade and 9th grade - woot!
In true Drafts fashion, we have four girls in three different schools, ha. Never a dull moment but it continues to be the best decision for each of them and we are more than pleased with our choices thus far. Kindergarten for Cha....she is THRIVING, loves every day, loves her friends, the challenges, she has gained so much independence and she takes it all in each day. Her teachers are fully invested in her and love her to pieces! My favorites so far have included her scheming to be a bus rider by getting into the bus line instead of the car rider line on purpose - she said, "my teachers are too smart for me!"; she loves to visit the "doctor" aka the school nurse for lollipops; she tells me sometimes that things "scare my nerves"; she gives every teacher in car line a good morning hug before walking into the building; all of the safety patrol know her name and tell her hello each day.....she is hard to forget with her precious grin and her fun personality!
***I must note here about Chapman's glasses or lack thereof on her first day of school! Getting ready for school and out the door each morning by 7:30 with four girls can be quite a challenge, especially in the beginning before any sort of routine is even established. SO, on this first day of school, still overcoming a little jet lag, we all dressed and readied ourselves for school. Normally, we place Chapman's glasses on our dresser before bed each night. So just as we were walking out the door, I asked Maddox to please go get Cha's glasses on the dresser for me. She did as she was asked and came back empty handed. I was a hot mess. Frantically trying to make everything perfect for the first day of school yet missing a key component on how that would happen. Ugh. We looked EVERYWHERE. ALL the places. NOTHING. Called Ryan in hopes he knew. NOTHING. So, I took her to school without her glasses and fretted over the fact that we had lost them after keeping up with them on a 12 day, hotel marathon, national park tour trip, the glasses were lost somewhere in our GA town. Fine. Order new ones. Except, I had not looked one key place - the washing machine. Chapman kept saying that she put them on top of the laundry in our closet while slipping into her pjs the night before....that was her last memory. Fast forward to the first day of school morning, I had started a load of laundry early before everyone awoke for the big day. But surely I would have seen her glasses, surely I would not have dumped them into the washing machine. Surely. Yet, as I heard the final spin taking place, I began to really wonder if that is where they were after all. When the spin finished, I opened the laundry machine, and there on top were her glasses - shiny as ever, all in one piece. Of course I washed her glasses! Who doesn't wash all the things after a big trip, right?! UGH. Well, the good news is that they were unscathed.....and I called the school, ran the glasses to the front office, and Chapman was able to enjoy her first day of Kindergarten with her newly washed glasses!**
Maddox and Maryn began at Logos Classical Academy. While homeschooling was good in many ways, Maryn specifically missed having friends to work with in a school setting. Logos uses much of the same curriculum that we were using at home plus some.....and, it is challenging for both girls due to the memory work that is due at the end of each week. They are doing so well, love their friends and teachers, love the head of school, love it all! They come home each day with many stories to tell! It was a good choice for these two as they are able to attend school M/W/F and they are home with me on T/TH. T/TH they do work from home. It's the best of both worlds really. While Maryn is in a class with more boys than girls, Maddox is in what has become known as "the sorority" of sorts. Seven girls, one fabulous teacher!
MK began 9th grade. After being with the mostly the same group of girls in elementary and middle school, high school has proven to be a bit of a mix-up providing a friend in one class and three in another, etc. Different but she is taking it all in stride. MK is strong and doesn't allow situations to get the best of her so after a few days (or maybe a week??), she had it all figured out, found her groove and has stayed the course.
And then a few weeks later, the it was the boys' turn to leave for school. I thought I was prepared but now know I wasn't - who really ever is ready to let their children flee the nest? Both boys were ready to tackle their year - a Freshman and a Senior. Thankfully, Colin moved into his house and then was able to come back home to go with us to move Pryce into his apartment for the year. Having Colin with us was a blessing. We also took Chapman. Bless her little heart. She literally hid in P's closet to avoid leaving. The tears were shed when we found her and she made Pryce promise to Facetime her the next day. And on her birthday. And by the time we left, she had him promising to FT every day until she would see him again. Watching all of this made me teary.....I had vowed that morning not to cry as I could tell P was having a bit of all the feels. It was fine. We all did fine. And we have continued to do fine. Just different and we look forward to the times when all 8 of us are under one roof - those are the best times!
