Class of 2016

It's official!  Jaron is now registered for High School!  We went through his 4 year plan - and made sure he will get enough credits to graduate.
We along with Jaron's input picked his classes and even met with his cross country coaches and track coaches for next year.  Cross country practice starts in the summer - and he'll be able to do a cross country camp as well.
We signed him up for seminary - which is release time - so he will walk to the seminary building every day as part of his schedule.  Love that.  We found out that he will be losing 2 credits in the four years of his high school career - because they don't give credit for seminary.  So - the options are online BYU classes, or 0 hour or 8th hour.  8th hour isn't an option because he wouldn't be able to participate in cross country or track.  Luckily we found this out before registration through friends in our ward - or we wouldn't have done things right.  They don't say anything about seminary or losing credits at registration.  Right now we have him signed up for 0 hour to work in the school store to make up the 2 credits.  He will have to do that for two years - or if he ends up not liking the school store things - then we are going to have him take BYU online courses to make up the lost credits from taking seminary.  To me it is worth it.....I feel really strongly about him going to seminary.  He is going to need that daily strength and the friendship of those youth that believe in the same things he does.  I know I really relied on seminary every day in high school.  It's not an option for Jaron not to take seminary.  It's so important in my mind for him to do it.  It will give him strength, help him associate with youth and friends that believe in the same things, and also help him prepare for his mission.  I am excited for him.  He was wanting to take a Painting and Drawing class as an elective - but didn't realize he wouldn't be able to do seminary if he did that - and he quickly changed his mind once we figured out that he has only 1 elective to choose from and told us that he wanted to go to seminary.  It's one thing for us as parents to want for him to do it; but it made me proud that he thought it was just as important as we do and was willing to do 0 hour in the early morning and also give up the drawing class in order to have seminary be a part of his schedule.  I really feel like it's a blessing to have him do that - not a sacrifice and I am glad he is on board with it.  Richland and Kennewick's school district isn't so strict and allows after school sports to make up for the credits for students who go to seminary.  Not impressed with Pasco's school district when it comes to this; they are more strict.

I have talked with our bishop, the seminary teacher and Jaron's principal of the his middle school - which is a member of the church, goes to our ward, and used to be the Vice principal of the Pasco High School.  I also talked with some friends in our ward that have older kids and have gone through some things already and they gave us some great advice as well.  Mainly being that seminary needs to be a part of their lives in high school because they face many challenges these days and just need that daily strength from it.  They gave us some great advice on how to work Jaron's schedule to have him do seminary and also be able to make up the lost 2 credits.  I am so glad we talked to them before we got to registration.  Jaron's seminary teacher actually used to be our home teacher when we first moved to Pasco 6 years ago.  We brought home a Pasco HS t-shirt that says Class of 2016 on it.....needless to say - I am a little in shock!  I had myself a good cry yesterday when all the kids were at school -but felt much better after registration was over and I was able to meet counselors and coaches at the school, walk around the school, etc.  and that we got the whole seminary thing and 2 credits thing worked out!  My sweet husband took me out to dinner last night and cheered me up - and made me laugh.  Don't get me wrong I am excited for Jaron - it's just hard as a mom to see them grow up so fast!  It was like seeing him get on the school bus for the first time, but 10x worse - I think mainly because it's so in my face that he will be graduating in 4 years....unbelievable to me that we are at this point in his life already.  Here we go......