So, Anyway...

Like I was sayin'...I think between the new school year, Facebook (which makes me feel like I'm in touch with people, though this is illusory, I think), and Skype, I feel much more connected than I used to, and the blog business has fallen by the wayside. Making this a difficult task: Where to pick up? What details have been leapt over that would otherwise have made it into some post or other here? Tough call. Tough call.

T got off to a beautiful start in Kindergarten. (Part of her first day is in a video below.) She loves her teacher, and was a very giddy and bubbly host when she took us on a tour of her classroom at the WES Open House. She was the absolute last student there - we didn't get to her room until 7:40 or so, and the event ended at 8:00. We had been so busy, you see, being given a tour of the classroom over in Ms. Shannon's 4th-grade room, by a tour guide who had a clipboard, on which was a series of items he was required to show us. This list was thirty-five items long. So, yeah, it did take something of a while.

Q's back on the soccer pitch, and is loving it. He scored two against Berkshire Hills Black the other day, and although the team lost, 4-6, it seemed obvious to me that overall, Williamstown were the more advanced side. There are a few players on the team that are young or unskilled or both, and they tended to let some very easy shots by during their tours on defense; meanwhile, W-town had a lot of very near misses, including one that should have been a penalty shot, as you'll see in the soccer video, should you care to watch. Good game, though. There are a lot of 4th-graders who are very good, and there had been talk of having one powerhouse team and another developmental one, but there were a ton of kids out this year and they decided in the end to have three teams and divide the top-flight players up among two of them. So Q's on the field with some great players and some close friends. We've been seeing the Backiels again at games, which is great - they're a hoot, and we hadn't seen much of them since last fall, what with Q not playing baseball anymore.

I don't talk about school much here, but I have to say, I have the best AP class ever. I've decided to focus on short fiction, and have divided up the class into groups of 2 to 3. Every Thursday, one of these groups has to tell to the rest of the group a short story that they have read, and do so with all the important symbolism and such intact, so exactly that the rest of the group is capable of telling the whole story back to them by the end of the hour. Friday, all the other students get a copy of the story, and the presenters use it to anchor a discussion about the meaning and symbolism of the story, the author's intent, etc., and to teach to the rest of the group any interesting grammatical elements, turns of phrase, or expressions they picked up in the text. Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays, we all read stories together that are not the same ones as the ones the student groups present. We've gone through the cycle once, and man, it was awesome. I felt like I was in grad school again. SUCH a special group of students - I get misty when I think they're leaving this year.

But not before we go to Ecuador! That's right, this year in February we're all heading south again. I've got 90% of the trip planned and reserved. It's going to be great - 22 kids signed up so far, 6 chaperones. Can't wait.

T has also started Irish step dancing. I've not been to a lesson yet, but T came dashing into the bathroom to open the shower curtain and show me her steps when she arrived home after her first one, so it seems to have been a big hit. Believe me, I know this is going to get filmed, and soon.

Man...There's just too much to tell. Best if I start up again with the random everyday stuff, rather than give a ton of past events short shrift. It's starting to feel dull and newsy, and nobody likes that. So I'll sign off - but not before leaving you with the promised school video. You'll laugh, you'll cry. And then you'll feel really stupid.

Chao!

T'S FIRST BUS RIDE on her FIRST DAY of KINDERGARTEN