Princess And Her Middle School Momentum

Last year was the first year of middle school for my little Princess, and it was NOT all that she thought it would be. It was horrible, the biggest let down of her life. After seven years (Pre-K included) of being every teacher's "pet", she was suddenly stuck with seven "mean" teaches all at once. After seven years of perfect report cards, her grades began a steady downhill slide, stopping at the lowest acceptable level. The work was unexpectedly difficult, and she had a hard time keeping up. It was so sad to see her struggling that way but all I could do was help her to study, and encourage her, reassure her that as long as she was trying her best, then she wasn't letting us down.

Princess spent the summer begging to be home schooled like her older sister. Of course I simply cannot appease her. Princess does not have Punkin's behavioral issues. Princess has every potential of making it through the school system with flying colors, and earning scholarships to higher education. There are weighted courses, challenges, and experiences that I cannot offer her the way our local schools can. Although I did look into a few online schools, it proved to not be a viable option, either because the school was not acceptable by our state, or was simply waaay too expensive. She was very disappointed, needless to say.  

When summer ended, she found it rather difficult to be hopeful, and not jaded by last year's struggles, but we kept reminding her of the experience that she now had under her belt, and that there would be new opportunities available as a seventh grader, than as a sixth. So, she gave it a chance, as if she had another choice.

Well, we now sit at two and half weeks into the year, and she couldn't be more thrilled with it. She adores her four core teachers, and all but one of the electives. She was accepted into chorus. She's joined the Chess Club. She's got a firm grasp of the algebra (so far), and she's having no trouble keeping up with the reading list. Her social life is in full swing, with get togethers and sleepovers. Everyday when I ask how it went, she replies "Awesome!".

Yesterday she came home with some news that made my heart and my eyes spill over. After passing an assessment exam with a perfect score, she was promoted to the Academically Gifted Language Arts class. She received a perfect score on her Social Studies poster board project (plus extra credit for turning it in early). And she passed her first Science test with more than a hundred percent.

Fingers crossed that we can keep the momentum going strong!