On Being Bored

Anna, if you cannot tell, is not having the year she hoped for in third grade. When we first moved here, Kate had such a miserable year in third grade that I was really worried, but I thought that the move, and a totally inappropriate class assignment, and the difficulty of making friends in a class of kids that weren't really on Kate's intellectual wavelength, were to blame. I didn't blame it on third grade.

Now I understand that third grade is a hard year, a year of a lot of changes, especially in expectations for the third grader--both in what she expects and what is expected of her. At University School, they even put the third graders in their own hallway (along with the art and music rooms) between the 1st/2nd graders and the back hallway where 4-6 grades are. Now I see that this arrangement makes more sense than I ever understood.

Change is hard. I am only beginning to get a handle on managing change in my life in my 40's. And things seem to change faster for kids than they did when I was a kid. I hope we can all help Anna realize how totally special she is, how great she is at making things happen, how MANY things she makes happen that wouldn't without her (like this blog), and how SHE, with all her amazing powers, can make this year interesting and memorable, even if it doesn't seem like it will be now.