Goodbye 7th Grade…and Hello, Summer!

My newly-minted 8th grader with her team award for Musical Excellence

Today I had yet another occasion to practice my newfound habit of early rising:

This morning, we had to be at the Middle School by 7:45 for an awards breakfast. Normally, I’d be draaaagging myself out of bed, but since I’d been awake since 5:45, I really was bright-eyed and bushy-tailed as I prepared to drive my youngest daughter, my mom-in-law, and myself over to the school.

The weird thing is that this morning, I woke naturally on my own at 5:44 a.m., just a minute before the alarm went off.

Huh. Who knew getting up early would be so…easy! (Did I just say that? Good heavens. Someone alert the press!)

My poor almost-kindergartener, however, had a rougher time of it, as did my mother-in-law. In fact, after already she was already up and dressed, my 5-year-old actually bolted back to bed and hid under the covers. “Mo-o-o-mmmm!” she moaned. “I’m NOT a morning person! I’m a NIGHT person!” I was surprised at how hard it was to get her moving. I’m used to being the one who hates getting out of bed.

Maybe she isn’t such a morning person after all!

Once we arrived at the school (where we were early enough to secure a handicapped spot for my Mom-in-law’s benefit), we were treated to a breakfast by the staff, then watched happily while my oldest received award after award.

Honor Roll for the quarter. Honor Roll for the year. Avid Reader. Musical Excellence. Math Team.

We quite honestly didn’t expect that many, but the one that really blew our socks off was the award for Musical Excellence. All four of us were shocked when they called her name. (My daughter’s music teacher said my daughter’s expression was “priceless”!)

However, they explained: she’s been working extremely hard all year, practicing 30 minutes every day since August. She even willingly took up the tenor sax during the last few weeks of school, at her music teacher’s request, as the band is heavy on clarinets and short on tenor saxes.

Also, a few weeks ago, my daughter competed for a music scholarship in the district. Out of all the kids who performed, my daughter was one of ten students in the entire district who received a scholarship, and the only one on her team at the school to do so. The check itself, for $150, will go toward new reeds and music for the tenor sax.

The funny thing is that, much as she likes routine and dislikes new things, she loves that tenor sax! She intends to pick up the tenor sax in addition to the clarinet, rather than in place of it. Her eventual goal after high school is still undetermined, but she’s thinking she might like to go to the Berklee College of Music down in Boston. Mastery of more than one instrument is step one in achieving that goal.

Paying for it is another, but if she continues to win scholarships, as she has already done at age 12, she may have some help there later in her school career. (We can hope!)

It was a nice morning spent celebrating the scholastic achievements of a really wonderful bunch of kids. The teachers, who are outstanding, were lavish with their praise, explaining that this class is unique: “Don’t change,” they said. “You are all just about perfect exactly as you are.”

And before you think all teachers say that–we don’t. Trust me. A class has to be truly amazing to inspire the kind of excitement and sheer fun I saw those teachers exhibit all year long. I’m really not sure who had more fun this past year–the kids, or their teachers!

Truly the teachers at my daughter’s school are just an amazing group of dedicated professionals; that said, it takes a great group of kids to keep teachers excited, energized, and literally dancing all the way through to summer.

For now, my daughter is delightedly hanging out with her baby sister, watching videos and playing video games (at my suggestion!) in the basement, where it’s nice and cool. Maine is having a bit of a heat wave today; along with the first day of summer came highs in the upper 80s (with a “RealFeel” of 93), and high humidity. We are even under a “US Severe Weather Advisory” because of the heat.

A quick reminder for those of you sweltering away on the east coast today–remember your furry family members and give them plenty of water, and please DO NOT leave them in the car! It’s just not a good day for it!

Once again, another bright and early morning has come and gone, and it’s just been lovely. Getting up at 5:44 was surprisingly easy, and watching my daughter complete the 7th grade and start her summer was just…awesome.

Aloha Kakahiaka!

Congratulations to my new 8th grader – I hope you and all your friends have a great summer!

Below: enjoy a little “Summertime” video courtesy of High School Musical 2!

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Note: It’s come to my attention that many of you are seeing advertising videos on the bottom of this blog post. I sincerely apologize–I had no idea that they were there! It seems that, if you are logged in to WordPress.com (as a WordPress.com user, that is), you don’t see them–so I never did. Unfortunately, other than paying $30 to remove the video ads, there’s nothing I can do to get rid of them. WordPress is a great site and most of it is free for anyone to use, so this is apparently how they make money, via ad revenue, to support the free site. I’m truly sorry that you see them there; I’ll fiddle around with spacing in future posts to see if there isn’t some way to bump them down a bit so they’re not right at the very bottom of the post.

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