First Day of Fifth Grade

And here we are at the beginning of Fifth Grade and another school year.  The getting up early part is going to be tough for all of us as always, as we're certainly not used to hearing those alarm clocks going off each morning.  It makes you really look forward to that Saturday morning, doesn't it?

The routine cranked up again, prayers in the morning, breakfast, taking the 'before school photo,' and all the other bits involved with getting dressed and washed up.  One spot of bright news is that the skin medication we got after our last visit to the doctor seems to be working out for Madison.  Her complexion is clearing up.  It still has a bit of work to do, but it's nothing like it was at the beginning of the summer when we were trying all sorts of things.  Just washing your face isn't enough sometimes, nor extensive visits to the pool, or other creams and face masks.  This medication however seems to be working.  We have it on each night before bedtime, as Daddy reads from the devotional and whatever book we happen to be reading at the time.

We've been reading this Inspector Flytrap book at night - we're on the third one now.  I think there may only be three.  It's been a fun and quick book series, very easy to read.  But it's a great concept.  Also,  the delayed punchline that happens in book three is pretty funny.  Basically, you've seen and met what seems to be a pretty innocuous character in book one, and then book two, only to realize he plays a much more significant part later in the third installment.  Hopefully that isn't saying too much.

But that was at night.  In the morning, we faced off against the chaos of the first day of school drop off.  It wasn't that bad, really.  Part of this was the fact that the side exit was open for us, and that helped relieved the pressure in the system.  No blockages here!  We were armed with the "Descendants 2" soundtrack on the way in, something we were jamming to as we pulled up into the parking lot.  Madison was all ready to go.

She had a great day, pretty much staying in the classroom and learning the rules and so forth.  Because school is the way it is now, kids don't actually start learning anything for a while.  No, instead there are contracts, rules, procedures and pre-tests.  We know several teachers who confirm the old, "Teachers don't teach as much anymore" feeling.  Basically, they repeat what it is they are told to repeat to the kids, and get them to do the best they can on the upcoming tests, which assess whether or not the teachers repeated what it was that they were told to repeat.  Obviously, that's a slight exaggeration.  But it is true that teachers don't have the freedom they once had, because there's a lack of trust in the individual performance in the classroom.  Sure, there are teachers that don't do so well.  But on the whole, it something beyond just a job.  Countless overtime hours are spent in fretting and preparation, because it is a calling.  It's not just a career.  Yet government reaches its tentacles into that and sucks the creativity out of it.  It's a challenging time to be a teacher, but again those that go out into battle in the schools are called, and so there's a special anointing behind that.

That was quite the rabbit trail.  Madison has a teacher who we understand to be called.  Just meeting him over the years leading up to this, you can tell his passion is education, and creative ways of teaching.  Her first day today was with Mr. Reed, her first male teacher, and evidently one a lot of the kids want to have.  It'll be a good year for her.  We're already seeing favor over Madison's life.

Madison met an old friend on the bus, one who moved back into the area for this school year.  She sat with her friends, and that's the sort of phrase that is so wonderful to Daddy and Mommy.  It's good to have friends.

We had to get to bed on time tonight, which again is funny considering "on time" has been approaching 10:30 - 11:00 pm all summer long.  Now we're back to the 7:30 - 8:00 pm time slot, and that's a bit of a shock to the system.  But we're all going to get used to it together:  early to bed, early to rise and all that.

And so the first day came and went, just like the others will.  And just like grades K-4 have.  You're told to hold on to these days while they last.  We've done the best we can, and as they get fewer in number, you cling even more tightly to them.  We lingered a bit at bedtime, watching her as she closed her eyes to go to sleep.  She looked up at us, and said, "What?"

We just smiled, and told her goodnight.