I am already stressing about them getting their assignments done and turned in on time. I loved how uninvolved I had to be in British schools where the teachers are like, I'll do my job and you do yours, and now I'm stressing like crazy over every little grade I see pop up in the online grade book. Sometimes transparency isn't a good thing. Lol Hopefully I will be able to balance keeping the kids on top of their assignments but not stress out too much.
My stress about my new calling is starting to settle as I am getting organized and figuring things out and taking it one week at a time. I have awesome leaders and girls to support me.
Lidia is working for 2.5 hrs each day after school at the Elementary School in our neighborhood. She's mostly vacuuming classrooms and cleaning the teachers restrooms. Aiden is just on the sub list right now. I'm not sure if he can juggle school and a job. We'll see if something opens up in the neighborhood. He's not thrilled with being a janitor either but the hours are nice, no weekends. I don't know of any other teen jobs where you get weekends off and no late nights. I told him it won't be forever and it's good motivation to do well in school so you don't have to do it forever.
Lidia went to orientation at the Wildlife Rehabilitation center yesterday. If she sticks with it she could learn a lot. I don't think the people there were so excited that such an inexperienced kid was volunteering. But they didn't say she couldn't do it and the point is for her to learn and gain experience working with animals not just to get volunteer hours. If she wants to one day get a job working as a vet tech or in a zoo or something she's got to get first hand knowledge and volunteering is the way to do it. She will put in three hours there every weekend. The first three times you just observe and after that they start giving you jobs to do. It's a lot of feeding and cleaning poop. But it's also like an animal hospital. They take in wild animals people find and try to get them ready to be released back into the wild. If they can't be wild anymore they ship them off to zoos or sanctuaries. Some animals are beyond rescue and die or have to be put down. They only take wild animals native to Utah though so they don't help raccoons or red foxes. She should have some interesting things to share with her animal science class at school. Of course it's more agriculture based. Lidia is also taking clothing at school this year. She's gonna learn to sew! She and Aiden have US History together this term as well as Drivers Ed. We've got to take Lidia to take the written test again so she can get her permit. Aiden passed the first try. He's slow and thoughtful while Lidia rushes. Lidia is taking theatre class, English, seminary, and U.S. Gov too.
Aiden is taking two dual enrollment classes, drawing and intro to engineering design which sounds like a CAD class. I had to register him at SLCC and Weber State. His drawing teacher is already impressed with Aiden's drawing abilities. I hope it's a good class for him and helps him to improve his shading to give more dimension to his work. Aiden is also taking robotics and automation and of course the usual English, history, drivers Ed, seminary, and math. It really stressed me out trying to figure out what math class to put him in. I hope it's the right one. It's all so different than in England. The school was no help in figuring it out. They had me read the class descriptions and decide. Of course now, after school started, they are going to do testing on all of my kids because they had IEPs in the past and determine if they are eligible for services and what those services will be which means if they need a remedial English or math class that they'd have to change their schedules like half way into the term. Maybe they'll be quick about it but I doubt it. If they seem to handle the classes they are already in, I won't change them but if they are obviously struggling I can change it even if testing isn't complete I think.
Tristan is taking remedial math and English and goes to a functional skills class. I know he needs it. I'm trying really hard to motivate him to do well. He seems to always do the least amount of work possible and it's not gonna fly here. He got 50% on his first assignment. Not a good start. It was just labeling and coloring a map of the USA. You couldn't really read his sloppy handwriting and he only colored half of it. He said he was coloring it red white and blue to be patriotic but of course all of the white states are not colored and the teacher didn't fall for it. Geesh! Tristan keeps me stressed out. He has theatre and pe this term as well as all the basics. His science teacher seems fun. My neighbor is student teaching in his English and functional skills class. Our old bishop's son is the principal. Tristan walks to school with the other two deacons from church. He's made friends with them. Tristan starts guitar lessons next week. I hope he puts forth a good effort. He's taking from a older kid in our neighborhood.
Avery is enjoying school. He is pretty behind for his age in just about everything but he's trying his best and they're working with him and he's happy and made friends so that's good. His teacher is on the ball which I like. She doesn't waste time but she's creative and motivating. Avery earned 40 behavior bucks this week and he spent them all on four sets of plastic vampire teeth. One for him and each of his siblings. I thought it was very sweet of him. He learned to ride his bike this week! Finally! It's a long walk to his school and he wants to ride his bike instead. I have driven him some too but traffic is crazy at the school right now because they don't have the red light installed yet and the entry on that side is closed until they install it so everyone has to enter through the neighborhood. Avery loves our puppy Max and plays with him quite a bit but sometimes he's not careful enough with him and he loves to teach him naughty behaviors like running all over the house and upstairs and letting him chew on our things. Avery thinks it's funny and is just playing but it's counterproductive if I'm trying to train him. I've got to train Avery on how to teach a dog good behaviors. Lol
It's hard after a long summer to get back into a disciplined routine but we're trying.
We haven't taken Lidia and Aiden out for a driving lesson yet, need to. They don't actually drive at school until Nov.
We went to our neighborhood pig roast last night. It was fun to do that again. Lidia and Aiden stayed and helped clean up after. Cory and I brought Tristan and Avery home to get them ready for bed.
I thought I might work part time after we moved back but right now I've got more than enough to keep me busy and stressed. I am walking with my friends every morning again which I really enjoy.
Cory is getting back into things at work and has a trip to MD for a week coming up. It's nice to be on base but there's traffic getting through the gate so it's not as quick as you might hope. He wants to ride his bike but I don't think it's safe in work traffic here. I'm fine with him riding out on antelope island Sat mornings. He bought a pass so he can ride out there as much as he wants. He's also trying contacts for the first time. We'll see how he likes them. He can see more clearly with glasses though.
