This morning we began the first day of the new school year. New things abounded. New markers, a new visit from a big brother, new lesson schedule, and a pile of new peaches from a neighbor (currently headed to a date with a pie shell).
With all the newness of this new school year, the good, the bad, and the ugly all made appearances:
The good: The children were engaged this morning and made it through a new level of demanding coursework that included first lessons in Chrea, factoring polynomials, and Francis Bacon’s Novum Organum and his undistinguished death from pneumonia as a consequence of sitting in the cold while developing a new method for preserving raw chicken.
The bad: The lessons, even though they are new and harder than last year, are already easy… and that means wee have to ratchet it up a notch and make it more challenging quickly. If both kids naturally adapt to writing an encomium without much instruction, we will be through this level of composition quickly and I must learn the next level soon.
The ugly: One piece of advice – don’t expect your boy to be cheery and raring to learn after a week at boy scout camp that left him a little older, standing a lot taller, and much hoarser. Explaining to a twelve year old that a sore voice, bruises, mosquito bites, and weak muscles will go away soon and, as the Hub puts it, “Suck it up, buttercup,” can only be described as ugly.
All in all, I think seventh grade will be the best yet, as soon as “the ugly” gets a good night’s sleep.
