This year will be the fourth year in our elementary school, with A&Z starting second grade. I definitely thought this year was going to be old hat, but of course something new pops up that wasn’t even on my radar. 

We don’t get our classroom assignments until the afternoon before open house, so that always gives us a little bit of anticipation before heading back for another school year. Because I am a Millennial who has spent way too much time stalking people on Facebook, I scrounged around our school online portal to see if I could find anything earlier. And lo and behold, the girls have the same teacher for the very first time.

Definitely thought it was some sort of a mixup since we had been told at Pre-K that it was policy that siblings must be placed in separate classrooms. So I was dying to hear what had happened.

As soon as we arrived for open house, the first person we ran into was the registrar. Immediately, she asked if we had seen their assignments and explained. In addition to someone new doing the class placements, the girls were also on the same academic performance level, so they were placed with the teacher who was the best fit.

Initially, this was always my concern about them being separated. It’s not that they would be too socially dependent on each other. I want them to be placed with the teacher that best fits their learning style; and if that teacher just so happens to be the same for both girls, I wouldn’t want one of the girls to miss out.

Surprisingly, I was not the only one who was surprised. I’m pretty sure every teacher that knew us noticed that the girls were assigned together and asked how I felt about it. I can’t help but wonder if everyone was being so nice because I had initially cried on that first open house day four years ago…

Pre-Emptive

Once we met with their teacher, I gave her a quick spiel about our summer and the things I was concerned about for the year: 

Yes, please keep them separated because they will bicker and get frustrated with each other. 

I think A might have ADHD so please let me know if you see any red flags.

Z will try to be your teacher’s pet, and she does take things very personally. (As a former sensitive kid who cried a lot, I know how it feels to not be able to keep it together over a misunderstanding.)

I know nothing about classroom management, but I could tell that the girls were a bit reluctant with the new set up. Z had mentioned that she didn’t like the idea, she thinks her sister being in class would take attention away from her. I let her know that the teacher has attention for everybody, regardless of who their sibling is. 

This year, there is also a fair bit of competency placements. In our school, small group work in reading and math is part of the daily schedule. Kids who qualify for advanced study are in a small group of their own and will go to a different class for that subject period. Some friends of ours also noticed that their kid’s schedule is almost evenly split with some subjects being taught by one teacher and some by their homeroom teacher. Since our school is Title I, I could assume that this set up is to accommodate a bigger range of diverse learners and language speakers.

TAG

Last year was our first experience with TAG (Talented and Gifted). A’s test scores qualified her as a High Potential student, so she got to go to a special TAG class once a week. The class had some additional curriculum that was a little more in-depth than in their general classes. The class also challenged their critical thinking skills and deeper application. 

Z did get a little jealous because many of her friends were also in TAG. But this year, based Z’s spring testing, she is now invited to join the high potential group, too. Last week, we had a short parent info meeting on what the kids will be learning for the next year and the TAG testing qualifications. Our state requires high marks in 3 of 4 different standardized tests, depending on grade level. I found this super helpful because I didn’t get that intro last year, and the criteria for “gifted” are so different than they were 30 years and different states ago.

After this summer, it is very clear that the girls learn and absorb content very differently. Seeing them in the exact same learning environments should make for an interesting thought experiment. I don’t think the girls will be put in the same class again until middle school, so this will be an intriguing year. 

After School

On a related note, the girls are registered for completely different fall activities. The only thing they have together is Girl Scouts. Not exactly sure why I did this to myself, but I’ve been hard-core chauffeuring for the last three weeks. Each week, a different sport start was added to the calendar and we have one final afternoon club that starts after Labor Day.

Keep in mind, these are all off-campus activities so I don’t have the convenience of just picking them up later from school. This also means that our dinner time is different each day. Some days are now strictly take-out days because there isn’t a big enough window for either me or Troy to make dinner at home.

We also tried a later bedtime since the girls are a bit older. No go on that one. They still need to clock about 10 hours of sleep or else our mornings would start out pretty rough. No big deal in the long run, but these are all of the small scheduling tweaks to get the new school year going.

---

Now that we’re closing out the first month of school, Troy and I are going on vacation for my birthday and leaving the girls with the grandparents for the week. I don’t anticipate bumps in the road, but I’m always interested to hear how other people try to take on my girls. They’ve already come home with a new “sort of” crush. They’ve wanted Kpop Demon Hunter hair every other day. Z brought sushi for lunch last week?!?! This is going to be a boujee, ridiculous year.