Reflections on the Close of Summer, Part II

But we're in school-mode now, and this year will be a whole new ball game.  Mostly I anticipate that it will just be more full.  Which is kind of hard to fathom, since I thought last year was full.

We'll have three kids in school.  Two going full-day, and one going in the afternoons.  That means three people to get ready for school each day, three people having to complete homework assignments, three sets of teachers with whom to correspond, and three classes of children to try to understand.  Whoa.  That's a lot.

Add on top of that the six extra-curricular activities between them, and you'll see what I mean.  All three of The Bigs are now taking piano lessons, so they'll need to be at lessons (weekly for Cat, bi-weekly for Jack and Eliza) and practice daily.  Cat and Jack are playing soccer, which means 1-2 practices per week and 1-2 games per week for several weeks in the fall and several weeks in the spring.  Eliza will be taking a dance class one morning a week and a music class one morning a week.

I'm tired just writing about it.

But this is good, right?  This is what we want for our children.  I think it's worth the sacrifices so that each of them can begin to learn piano - our family's chosen method of teaching kids to WORK - and so that they can each have a fun activity that gets them moving and helps them to manage their time well.  I just hope that I can juggle all of this without going absolutely insane.  Check back with me on that in a few weeks.

At least all of the kids were really excited about school to start; Cat, to the extent that when Ben asked her if she was excited on the way to Back to School night her response was, "That is a ridiculous question."  She got the teacher she wanted and is already ecstatic about all of the great things they'll be doing as a class.  Jack admitted that he was nervous the night before school started, but he's enjoying school so far.

Jack and Eliza are excited to get started on piano, so much so that after their initial lesson, which was shorter so that the teacher could get both of them started before they begin trading weeks, Jack asked if he'd be able to have a long lesson like Cat next time.

And they're all thrilled about their chosen fun activities.

So, hopefully it will be a fantastic year with lots of great learning and horizon-expanding.  Hopefully we will learn to handle this level of full-ness well.  And hopefully