School’s Out

Yesterday was the last day for the 2022-23 school year. Now we have a 75 day summer break. In August we’ll have two in pre-k (at two different schools since Noah will still be in ECSE), one in kindergarten, one in first grade, one in second grade, one in third grade, and a sophomore and a senior in high school.

Fritz is all done his junior year. When he unloaded his backpack he saved a pile of stuff and said there was information about applying to college in there because that’s coming up quick. He took AP US History this year and while it was a lot of work he also learned a lot.

Adrian finished his freshman year. He loves DATA in spite of the long bus ride (his best friend is going to another magnet at the same school next year, though, so the bus ride will be a bonus. There were three or four fires set at their school the last few months so he did indeed learn what happens when there is arson. He said he won’t have holidays because he’ll be going to summer school for six weeks (taking art and PE so he can get all the appropriate credits to graduate because of iCSI).

Zeke completed second grade. I have no idea where he got play tennis for what he plans to do over the summer. He’ll be playing some other sports, but not tennis. He doesn’t know why he said that either.

Mayci finished first grade. Of course she said she wants to do her summer workbook this summer because she loves school and anything that looks like school. The year was a little rough due to having a completely inexperienced teacher, but we made it through! I just hope Anthony doesn’t get her next year.

Anthony finished kindergarten. It turns out the kid is crazy smart, incredibly ADHD, and a little bit lazy and stubborn (maybe more like a lot stubborn). If Nicholas doesn’t get the teacher Anthony (and Mayci) had for kindergarten I’m going to be sad because I absolutely love her. Then again, if he has the other kinder teacher we’ll have collected the whole set (when I said that once a principal said they should totally make teacher trading cards so you can collect them all).

Nicholas finished pre-k. By walker he means the way he gets home from school. I always love how little kids answer the what do you want to be when you grow up question. I’m sad that the teacher he (and Mayci and Anthony) had for pre-k is retiring this year so Joel won’t have her. The assistant principal said they hired an amazing replacement, though, and I’ll love her.

Noah has completed pre-k3. I love that he wants to be Noah when he grows up (and even very carefully spelled it out for me). He’s made amazing progress this progress this year and his teachers both said they hope to get him in their class again next year because they just love him. It’ll be nice when he’s in kindergarten and they all go to the same school and no longer have to get him on and off his bus and deal with a second elementary school, though!

And then there’s Joel who got to be the only one at home this whole school year. He got incredibly spoiled and has been my dad’s shadow (not sure who is going to miss the other more – probably my dad since Joel will be busy in school). I love that he said he wants to be a grown up when he grows up.

Third Quarter Report Cards for Fritz and Adrian

Fritz and Adrian are done with three-quarters of 11th and 9th grade. This quarter was a little rough for Adrian since we discovered he had forgotten to take his Ritalin for about three weeks straight, something we discovered after his grades dropped dramatically. He did a decent job recovering from that dramatic drop.

Fritz
Algebra II – A (93%)
3D Modeling & Animation – A (94%)
Physics – B (85%)
AP US History – B (82%)
Video Game Design – A+ (100%)
AP English III – A (93%)
Computer Science – A (97%)
GPA: 4.24

Adrian
Physics – C (70%)
Cybersecurity – B (82%)
AP Human Geography – C (74%)
Spanish II – B (86%)
Geometry – A (91%)
Computer Science – A (95%)
English I – C (73%)
GPA: 3.11

Fritz and Adrian’s Second Quarter Grades

The second quarter was a lot of staying on top of Adrian to clear up his zeroes and get things turned in. It’s something he’s struggled with the whole time he’s been in school. In the end, he did really well and is quite pleased with his grades.

Our school district allows high school kids to exempt up to three midterms every December. Whether they can exempt depends on grades and absences/tardies. They cannot exempt AP course midterms no matter what.

Adrian’s Grades
Physics – 75% quarter / 85% midterm / 78% semester
iCSI – 97% quarter / 97% midterm / 97% semester
AP Human Geography – 70% quarter / 70% midterm / 72% semester
Spanish II – 91% quarter / midterm exempt / 91% semester
Geometry – 92% quarter / midterm exempt / 93% semester
Computer Science – 93% quarter / 88% midterm / 91% semester
English I – 88% quarter / midterm exempt / 90% semester

GPA: 3.5 quarter / 3.7 semester

Fritz’s Grades
Algebra II – 94% quarter / midterm exempt / 95% semester
3D Modeling & Animation – 93% quarter / 100% midterm / 92% semester
Physics – 96% quarter / midterm exempt / 95% semester
AP US History – 85% quarter / 86% midterm / 83% semester
Video Game Design – 100% quarter / 100% midterm / 100% semester
AP English III – 91% quarter / 94% midterm / 93% semester
Computer Science – 98% quarter / midterm exempt / 98% semester

GPA: 4.4 quarter and semester

Fritz and Adrian’s First Quarter Report Cards

Fritz and Adrian have completed their first quarter of 11th and 9th grades at their very challenging magnet school. It was a lot of work and they both did quite well. Fritz even won the Kindness award (nominated by his English teacher).

Adrian
Physics – C (78%)
Cybersecurity – A (96%)
AP Human Geography – C (76%)
Spanish II – A (90%)
Geometry – A (93%)
Computer Science – A (90%)
English I – B (89%)

Fritz
Physics – A (94%)
3D Modeling & Animation – B (88%)
Algebra II – A (95%)
AP US History – B (80%)
Video Game Design – A+ (100%)
AP English III – A (95%)
Computer Science – A (97%)

Done With Middle School

Adrian has absolutely loved these past two years in middle school. He has grown and matured and learned so much. He was quite sad when he got home Friday because his final year there has come to an end.

He did amazing his last quarter of middle school, especially since he was so far behind just two months ago (a lot of work and an increase in his medication dosage helped get him back on track).

Spanish 1B – C 72%
(73% on the semester exam; 74% for the semester; 76% for the year)
Fundamentals of Computer Science – A 100%
(97% for the semester; 96% for the year)
Health – B 89%
(86% on the semester exam; 92% for the semester – it’s a one semester course)
Science – A 91%
(92% for the semester; 95% for the year)
American History – A 94%
(90% for the semester; 90% for the year)
Algebra I – B 85%
(99% on the semester exam; 88% for the semester; 88% for the year)
ELAR – B 85%
(89% for the semester; 89% for the year)
(*semester exams were only taken in classes he earned high school credit in)

In 10 1/2 weeks Adrian will begin high school at DATA (computer science pathway of course… just look at that computer science grade this quarter) and iCSI. Before then, though, he’ll be taking a couple weeks of camps at Code Ninjas and will be teaching some of his little siblings how to play Minecraft and maybe Roblox and working with his father to prepare more for his IT Fundamentals certification test he’ll be taking next year.

2021

This has been a busy year for us. I simultaneously can’t figure out how the time has gone by so fast and how we fit so much into just twelve months. Tomorrow will be 2022 and the start of twelve more months of adventures.

In January Fritz and Adrian got their first semester report cards for 7th and 9th grades and both did amazing for their first time in public school since kindergarten and second grade. We also continued trying to figure out just how much food to make to feed our small army (spoiler alert: it’s always too much or too little).

In February we put up a baby urinal in our bathroom and it’s been the best thing we could have done. There was more figuring out how to feed our small army (we’ve pretty much got it down now). We got a playground put up in our backyard. We ended up with COVID in the house and had to quarantine at the same time pretty much the entire state of Texas shut down due to a freak snowstorm and crazy cold (we got lucky and never lost power).

In March I started getting more creative with Mayci’s hair. All the adults in the house got vaccinated for COVID. Zeke turned six on Pi Day. The next day Noah had surgery to remove his tonsils and adenoids and have tubes put in his ears. We got brave and took all six kids to HEB for the first time.

In April I sprained my foot when I gracefully fell down the stairs of The Beast. We also discovered Zeke has hair like Fritz’s: It grows SO fast!

In May our six-year-old officially changed his name to Zeke. School got out and so Mayci finished pre-k, Zeke finished kindergarten, Adrian finished 7th grade, and Fritz finished 9th grade.

In June the kids were bored of their 11-week summer vacation within about 30 seconds so we started our summer schedule which continued the entire summer and worked great. We got Fritz’s end of course results (all three passed). We entered Birthday Season when Adrian turned 13 on Juneteenth. The end of the month the twins turned two.

In July we got Adrian’s STAAR test results (he did great especially because it was his first time taking that sort of test). On the 6th Nicholas turned 3. And then on the 11th Fritz turned 15. Adrian saved all year and enlisted the help of a few other people in order to give Fritz an Oculus Quest 2 for his birthday. On the 18th Anthony turned 4 ending our intense streak of five birthdays in less than three weeks. Fritz got all registered for the virtual school for 10th grade.

In August we finished birthday season on the 2nd when Mayci turned 5. Zeke and Mayci both took off in their reading (best decision ever to work on teaching them how to read over the summer). We found out who the three elementary schoolers’ teachers would be (they’ve all been the perfect teacher for each kid, especially Zeke’s). In the middle of the month it was time for four of the kids to be off to pre-k, kindergarten, 1st, and 8th grades (and Nicky moved to a new room at preschool). A week later Fritz started 10th grade. Just before the end of the month my beautiful mother turned three-quarters of a century old.

In September we started getting monthly boxes of Young Adult books from Literati for Adrian (love those books). Dance classes started up for Zeke and Mayci. I did the most complicated and beautiful hairstyle on Mayci that I’ve done so far (53 twists). The twins moved out of their cribs and into their big boy beds. We took four of the kids to the movies for the first time. Mayci went to dance camp at the high school and got to perform at halftime at a football game.

In October we pulled Nicholas out of preschool. We got the four littlest boys new church clothes. I did some fancy hair on both Mayci and Haley. We had some really cute costumed kids on Halloween.

In November Jamie and I went to see The Beach Boys again. Lola moved in with Cameron and Tami and it’s helped Nicky’s eczema so much (he’s allergic to dogs). We celebrated Jamie’s 46th birthday and one year since we adopted the kids by playing at a trampoline park. We got our family pictures taken. I started having more time to read again thanks to Haley playing with the twinplets six hours a week and the kids getting a little older and more independent.

In December Nicky suddenly started looking much older and bigger than his little brothers. Anthony’s dreams came true when we put a Christmas tree in our living room. My Daddy turned 77 on Christmas Eve.

And now here we are on New Year’s Eve looking forward to what 2022 will bring us. We know a few things like Trek for the big boys, Fritz being ordained to the office of Priest, Birthday Season ending with us having 3, 3, 4, 5, 6, 14 and 16-year-olds, Ani turning 22 in February, Zeke turning 7 in March, me turning 44 in April, Cameron turning 21 in October, and Jamie turning 47 in November the same day we hit two years since the kids were adopted, and having kids starting pre-k, kindergarten, 1st, 2nd, 9th, and 11th grades in August. Whatever else 2022 has in store for us, I know it will be awesome!

2020-21 Final Quarter Grades

The kids did awesome this school year. Fritz and Adrian worked hard their final quarter of the year and definitely didn’t slack off at all. Zeke and Mayci learned so much in pre-k and kindergarten. We’re so proud of all of them.

Zeke got 3s in music, 4s in PE (I didn’t even know 4 was an option), 2s and 3s in conduct, 2’s and a 3 in language arts, 3’s, a few 2s, a couple 1s, and a 4 in reading, 2s and 3s in math, 3s in social studies, 2s and 3s in science, and a 3 in health. He can count aloud to 39.

Mayci got 4s in PE (and still has the little crush on her PE teacher that started the very first week of school), 3s in language arts, 2s and 3s in reading, 3s plus a 5 (didn’t know that was an option either) in math, 3s in science and social studies, 2s and 3s in conduct, and 3s in fine arts and technology. She can identify all 26 upper and lowercase letters as well as tell you the sound each one makes, can count aloud up to 29 and can count 20 objects.

Adrian’s Grades
Math A (94%; 95% for the semester; 97% for the year)
Science A (98%; 91% for the semester; 95% for the year)
English B (88%; 81% for the semester; 82% for the year)
Robotics A (97%; 97% for the semester; 96% for the year)
PE A (100%; 100% for the semester; 100% for the year)
Spanish A (90%; 85% for the semester; 86% for the year)
Texas History A (96%; 93% for the semester; 92% for the year)

Fritz’s Grades
Spanish I A (90%; 90% for the semester)
Animation A (96; 94% for the semester)
Outdoor Adventure A (99%; 100% for the semester)
AP Human Geography B (89%; 85% for the semester)
Biology A (94%; 95% for the semester)
English I A (92%; 93% for the semester)
Algebra I B (85%; 90% for the semester)

(4.01 GPA for the quarter; 4.15 GPA for the semester)