A Few Things in Life

Enjoying: 

• Breakfasts, lunches, and dinners outside
• Hummingbirds coming to our feeders

Struggling:

• Intense projects at work that I am unexpectedly responsible for

Reading:

• The Sediments of Time by Meave Leakey, Samira Leakey
• The Windsor Knot by S.J. Bennett

Need to do:

• Plan what hikes and activities we want to do during our vacation
• Start packing
• Figure out what items (sunglasses? sunscreen? hats?) we are missing for the trip and buy!

Looking forward to:

• Reading
• Hiking
• Going to the pool with kids

Not looking forward to:

• The week after we come back from our trip, the 3 kids are in 2 different camps that start/end at the same time and that are in opposite direction. While it's lovely that they'll be having fun 9 to 3, the drop off and pick up is going to be a challenge.
• The good thing is, one of the camps is literally 5 minutes away.
• I will be asking my parents if they can pick up from one of the camps.
• The bad thing is, one of those days I have an important meeting during the pick-up time... making the logistics even more complicated.

School is (Almost) Out

My oldest (9th grade) has finished his last final today! He is done. No school tomorrow.

The next-to-oldest had her 8th grade graduation ceremony today. She has an (optional, I guess) half-day tomorrow that she might go to.

The youngest has her last day of school (4th grade) tomorrow - and it's a half-day.

So... they are pretty much done with school.  They are super excited about summer and NO HOMEWORK. 

Except of course there is going to be some homework... all 3 take music lessons and will need to practice, so there's that. The older 2 have mandatory reading assignments from school (only 1 book for the whole summer... but for the one going into 10th grade it's Frankenstein - so that should be exciting). My kids generally like reading but they are not so big on assigned reading. They like to pick their own books. My son is planning to take a European History class, and I'm pretty sure I have a copy of  Machiavelli's The Prince lying around from my college days - I think he might like it. 

The older 2 also have mandatory math assignments that they need to finish before the new school year starts. 

The youngest has already found an activity book for 5th graders that she wants to work on, and she plans to do 2 pages of LA and 2 pages of math daily. I hope she does some writing just for fun, too. 

There also will be chores. So many chores... (just kidding - there will be some)

There will be camps.

The oldest one has a job. And he will have cross country training starting in July.

We will be travelling for a couple of weeks.

We will be going to the shore with extended family for a week.

Hello Summer!

Finals

E, a high school freshman, will have his first FINALS next week. I remember those days - studying, eating chocolate, studying, falling asleep on the floor next to a pile of books...

I have to say, 9th grade has been... intense. For a non-perfectionist bright kid who barely had to do any work during elementary and middle school and still got good grades, this was a huge change. He is still figuring out how to study, how to manage time, how to - and when - ask for help.

I feel rather inadequate as a parent. I should have made sure he had all these skills long before now... and he sort of knew that hard work was important. With violin, the more time and effort he put into it, the better he got... But I don't know, it just seems like the motivation with putting in the work into math or science or english classes is kind of fizzling out. With music, one can experience a pretty quick cause and effect. With schoolwork.... sometimes it's hard to have the end-game in sight.

Do you help your kids with school work? If so, how? How do you help them stay motivated?

Weekend Report: Recitals, Pool, Teenagers , Pianos

Ah, June is here!

Our middle child had a piano recital last weekend.

I loved listening to her play. I don't think she is  happy with herself, though - she made a few mistakes. 

It feels like she is taking out her frustrations on the rest of us.

Work is still crazy and I have zero patience with people around me.

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The kids had some pool time this weekend. I haven't dared to go into the water yet... Maybe today?

The oldest child has 3 tests today... after working at the pool yesterday until after 8 and then staying up to study and finish up homework past 11... I hope he is feeling OK. He has a recital next Sunday and finals Monday and Tuesday... He just wants to be done with everything...

I stayed up too late with him last night...I wanted to keep him company and then he asked  me to quiz him on some of the vocabulary he's been learning.

And then our middle child and I had yet another fight. Ugh. Teenagers. Exhausting.

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We are looking for a new piano... We've had ours since Chicago (we bought it used back in the grad school days) and it is not in a good shape at all.... Our favorite piano technician says it doesn't make sense to do anything with it beyond tuning....

We looked at a couple of instruments last weekend. I am not sure my husband and I are on the same page here - I think he may want something that's just "an upgrade" from what we have. I'm looking for a piano I can fall in love with. There was a new Boston upright there that sounded nice. But we need to look around more... 

Speaking of pianos... I still miss our "Riga" piano that I grew up with... It's been more than 30 years, and I still love it and miss it. It was part of our family and it was a huge part of my childhood. 

What do you miss the most from your childhood home?