In The Hartland: First Day of School 2023

Monday, September 11, 2023

First Day of School 2023

Well, it's hard to believe it, but another school year has officially started! Last Wednesday, September 6th, the three older kids headed off to school. Although Lia was officially a freshman in high school last year, she still attended her junior high school. So, today was the first day of her life, walking in the halls of an actual high school. Although she was nervous about making it to all of her classes on time and finding someone to eat with at lunch, she wasn't as nervous as she could have been thanks to the handful of friends she already knows at this school from running and church. Lia was anxious to get out the door early this morning to meet up with her good friend and running buddy, Hope, before school started. She survived her first day as well as could be expected and even found a friend in four of her six classes. And, although her closest running friends all have 1st lunch together, she found three girls from her team to eat lunch with in the cafeteria.

Although Logan was not excited about moving into the Quest class for highly capable students that he tested into last winter, he managed to make it through his first day okay and actually came home excited about several things that his teacher discussed. As always, Ella was super excited to go to school today and was really happy with her teacher and the fact that she found her two closest friends from last year to play with during recess. So, overall, I would call it a success for all three older children which is always such a relief to me after their first day back to school!

After waiting five days, Emmett was able to return back to his beloved preschool today as a second-year student in the PreK class which meets three times a week in the morning for 2.5 hours. He was assigned to be in Miss Kelly's class and found two boys from last year who he knew to play with during class. In addition, he has three friends (Auggie, Evie, and Isaac) who are in the other two classes and who he found at recess to play with today. Emmett was super excited when I picked him up and couldn't wait to show me the worksheets that he had completed about the letter A. I was blown away by his perfect upper and lower case letter As that he traced multiple times on one of his worksheets. He sure seems to be very advanced in the classroom environment both with his behavior and his academic performance. I can't wait to watch him grow and learn this year!

Lia

My grown-up sophomore heading into 10th grade.

She got up two hours early today to curl her hair and looked so pretty as she headed out the door.

Logan, Emmett, and Ella posing on the porch before heading off to elementary school.

Logan:

6th grade and his last year at our beloved elementary school.

Ella:

4th grade and as excited as can be to get back to the social scene that she finds at school each day!

Since the new principal is no longer allowing parents to walk their children onto the school grounds the first day of school, this was the best picture I was able to take as I said goodbye to Logan and Ella at the side gate before they ran across the field to enter the school.