Study Hall After Dinner

Rose #1 in first grade has real homework.  She has a list of 10 spelling words she has to learn each week (the "hard' word this week is "picture" - which, if you look at that word for awhile, you wonder why exactly it is spelled that way).  Tonight we sat down and she carefully wrote them in two columns - one while looking at the list, and the other from memory.  She did pretty well.  I think she might be like her mama and a good speller.  For some reason I was blessed with being able to spell many words.  This is a talent that became largely useless after spell check was invented. 

We had a good night at study hall at the dining room table.  It does not help that Roses #2 and 3 have NO homework, and they were running around screaming like banshees.  But, I got the glue stick out (Rose #3 likes to think that gluesticks are actually chapstick) and Rose #2 worked on a smiley face guy with glued on pieces of craft-ish pom poms.  (You have to see it to know what I mean.)  Rose #3 dumped the brand new box of 64 crayons all over the floor and thought it was a scream.  You know, heaven forbid you should actually COLOR with the CRAYONS.  Far better to dump them into a waxy crayon pile.  Sigh.

Rose #1 persevered and got through her spelling list.  And, she worked on her math homework.  She also has a project to do about her cultural background.  This is a pretty intense school, but she is happy.   I have high hopes for this school to carry her largely unscathed through eighth grade - it is a 1-8 school - and hope she can go off to high school without a lot of the crappy junior high shenanigans.

It is funny how kids are so different.  I don't worry (much) about Rose #1's academic skills, but I worry about her socially (for reasons that are probably obvious).  I don't worry at all about Rose #2 socially - she is the life of the 4-year-old kindergarten party - but I do worry about her academically , at least as much as you CAN worry about a 4-year-old that way.  

Rose #3, I don't know about yet.  I was thinking this morning as I was walking into the skyway that we never even planned on having Rose #3.  (She was a bit of a surprise...a welcome surprise but a surprise nonetheless.)  I can't even imagine life without her now...