Middle School Madness

Were you this busy as a seventh grader?  My oldest has to be at school by 6:50 two days a week for Jazz Band rehearsal.  On a "normal" day he takes the bus which arrives around 8:00, and is home around 3:15 or whenever the afternoon bus arrives.  On Wednesdays he stays late for math club and/or community service club, and arrives home around 4:30 (just in time for his clarinet lesson at 5:45).  The usual nine period class schedule contains:  English, social studies, math, science, French, either band or gym, either health or wood shop, either home economics or art, and lunch (which is only 20 minutes every other day, because the other 20 minutes he attends chorus rehearsal).

I have to attend a meeting with the guidance counselor in early April to finalize his requests for his 8th grade schedule.  Assuming he remains in the honors program, he will have science for one and a half periods a day (earth science has a lab every other day).  Health and art are no longer required, which gives him a free period every other day.  Some kids take study hall (which affords them the opportunity to complete some homework in school) and some attend a generic computer skills class.  They aren't allowed to roam the halls freely, thank goodness.  

So Son #1 was mulling over these two free period options...until we got a note in the mail yesterday about a new class called Science Research, which meets every other day.   The kids will learn the scientific method, will have lab work, will take virtual field trips, and will have projects throughout the course of the year.  Sounds a helluva lot more challenging than study hall, doesn't it?  Sounds like actual WORK to me!   So I casually read him this letter from the dean of the district science program, expecting my son to say "no way" and instead he said, "I'll take that!  It sounds like fun to be so hands on."  

Proud, and a wee bit worried, all at the same time.  I guess that's what I ought to expect out of parenthood on a good day!