First Day, Round One

Today is Shaggy's first day of school. The first day of his JUNIOR YEAR. The first day of another year of cyber-schooling. He's a mite ticked, as this first week is "orientation week." Full of activities to which he successfully oriented himself last year. The first complaint of the day came when he scored a 29 out of 30 on a reading benchmark. When he knew better. Such a perfectionist, my boy is!  Then, he grumbled a bit about an activity that was exactly the same as the one he had to do for last year. My son does not love "busy" work when he feels as if he's already conquered said lessons.  I'm trying to be sympathetic. I don't enjoy the monotony of that part of education either. I get what he means when he says it feels a tad condescending.  Seriously, at this age I do agree with him that orientation should be either about acquiring new skills or getting to "move on" if those skills are already in place.... But that's just my two cents and I'm sure his administrators don't really need to hear it from me.

In other news, (I can't believe I forgot to mention this milestone!) Shaggy got his driver's permit last weekend.  He's been out with The Boss practicing once already. They barely went over 4 mph but both came back feeling quite victorious. A benchmark of a whole different kind!  The thrill of a new stage of life, of new  things to learn, was palpable. The Boss and Shaggy were almost giddy in their excitement and anticipation.

Listening to The Boss and Shaggy fill Dr. D in on all the silly mistakes and funny stops and starts in the kitchen the other night, I couldn't help but marvel. I was standing among my three men. How on earth did this happen? Where has the time flown?