Nate's a Freshman!

Today is Nate's first full day of High School. He seems to be pretty non-plussed by the whole idea. Granted he was at the High School for Geometry last year, but in general he doesn't seem excited or displeased with going back to school. Maybe it's just his personality or being a teen - Band Camp didn't seem to excite him that much either - or maybe he's just doing that teen thing of non-communication. I think it's a bigger deal for me and his Mom - it was bad enough having a teenage, but having a freshman makes feel even older.

Nate's going to be one busy kid this fall. In addition to going to class, he has marching band after school 3 days a week and pretty much every Friday night for football, he's trying out for Jazz ensemble, and I'm sure there are clubs he'll want to join. His class load is pretty tough, so much so that he could not fit in "regular" band during school. Outside of school he's still doing Tae Kwon Do and drums as well as joining the High School Youth Group at church. As my Mom and Dad always said, as long as his grades are good he can do the other stuff.

Some weird things I noticed looking at his schedule....Nate has gym every day 1st semester and none the second semester, replaced by Health class. Wouldn't it seem to make more sense to give the kids some exercise a few times a week throughout the year? And there is no required Art classes. Not that they were my favorite, but in art history, I at least learned about different styles and artists. Nate says there is a "Fine Arts" requirement which he'll fulfill with band. Then there is this odd class he has to take called Advanced Academic Literacies - I'm not whether it's some state mandated class. The class description says "Advanced Academic Literacies encourages students to develop basic skills across the curriculum including basic literacies in reading, writing, listening, speaking, information, science, economics, technology, mathematics, visual, global and multicultural studies." I'm not really sure what that means but the class consists of a project where they have to run a Travel Company. I guess it's kind of a life skills class. It's only one semester and Nate will be taking Java programming in it's place in the 2nd semester.

I'm going to try and get to as many home football games as I can. Partly, to relive the fun I had in Band, but also to see Nate enjoying it. As a freshman drummer, he doesn't get to play "real" drums - the get assigned either cymbals or bells. Nate got bells which he seems OK with - it's a chance to read "real" music. It also means he only has to learn the music and not any marching formations. In parades, the bell players carry the banners and such. I'll be sure to post pictures of him in Band, maybe with some of me from my days in Band if I can find them.