An Update on School

In 53 minutes, it will be September 2008. That is just so hard for me to believe. In so many ways, life feels like it is in fast-forward. In light of that, I have some catching up to do...

School is in full-swing. As he did last year, Rudy loves his job. He is fulfilled by the challenge of teaching the fundamentals of playing music to middle school students. He loves to teach them to play their instruments successfully and seems to be excited about some of the promise that he sees in his students this year. He also loves that he is home by 4:00 most days and that we have our weekends as a family. I concur.

The beginning of school has been a natural challenge for me. Any job change promises a learning curve and this one has held true to that promise. I'm getting the hang of it, but have spent lots of hours getting things in working order and trying to figure out just what I need to work on with my 52 new shining faces. I have to say, though - my school is wonderful. I never dreamed that I would enjoy working in an elementary school. The staff is so cohesive, the principal is so supportive and the school climate is amazing. Even though the idea of teaching "r" and working on lisps isn't too enticing, I'm encouraged and inspired by the people around me.

Caleb is doing very well at his daycare. He calls it "my cool." We hit a bumpy patch the week of the 18th, when the kids were transitioned to the new age groups. Ms. Elizabeth and Ms. Janell were moved out of Caleb's class and we were faced with yet another transition to new teachers. Initially, we weren't all that impressed with the change. We weren't getting the consistent feedback that we had quickly become accustomed to and we even had a few negative interactions that primarily centered around Caleb's potty-training. I waited it out for a week, then grabbed an opportunity to talk to the asst. director. She was exceptionally apologetic and promised me that she would make sure that the problem was addressed with the staff. Last week was a complete turn-around. We got wonderful feedback from the staff all week - even the day that Caleb had 2 accidents and ran out of clean clothes! One of the teachers commented that Caleb was a good listener and both teachers told Rudy how musically inclined Caleb seems to be. I don't want to make this seem like I was complaining because nobody was bragging on my child. That's not the case at all. I just need feedback of some sort. It's extremely difficult to leave Caleb with other people every day. I need to know when I pick him up whether or not he's had a good day and I like to hear if there are things we need to address at home. I feel like we're getting that now and I'm very pleased.