First Day of School!

Today is Sarah's first day of 8th grade. On Monday all the parents and 8th grade students arrived for orientation and were greeted by the staff and informed of the rules and regulations for the coming year -- one big new rule is "NO GUM"! Then, we all were ushered into the brand new 7th and 8th grade school building. Everything is so new and bright! Well, actually there are still lots of things 'in the works' and being finished up (like the gym which won't be done for 3 weeks, etc) but they went ahead and started school today so the 7th and 8th grade students would be on the same schedule as all the other grades. The new junior high school is connected to the high school so the transition next year to 9th grade shouldn't be as hard for her.

Sarah is taking social studies, science, keyboarding (typing), advanced piano, PE and pre-algebra right along with all the other kids and then she has a one-on-one class for English. During orientation night we found out about a new kind of art club they'll be having after school and Sarah is interested in trying that as well.

She is excited to have a new BIG locker. In 7th grade the lockers were stacked with one small locker on top of another student's small locker. Upper lockers could only be opened after odd numbered classes and lower lockers after even numbered classes to keep from kids being piled on top each other. But with the new tall lockers, that's all solved. She was excited to go yesterday to pick up some locker goodies like a mirror and has plans to print off some Jay Chow photos to stick up inside -- yep, she's a teenager!