Hellooooooooooooo

Oh my goodness, is it really May? I wish I could tell you of all the wonderful and exciting adventures we've had, but alas, most of life has just been very much getting some things done and hanging out with the children and (still) finishing up Sophine's schoolwork and figuring out summer and beyond. Right. Riveting.

I did work at a conference with this guy and this lady. They are both wonderful and inspiring teachers and provided me with a much-needed parenting shot in the arm. Some pearls of wisdom included statements like "Save athletics for the teen years. At that point you want them busy and tired." Furthermore: "We spend so much time worrying that I think we should designate specific days to specific worries. So Sunday we'll worry about (and I'm paraphrasing here) global warming, pimples, growing old, and snakes."Also, Nancy Poer recommended starting backrubs or foot massages in early childhood as a way to keep connecting with your child through the rest of their childhood. I've been doing these with Sophine nightly and have been richly rewarded. It's as if that previously hidden gate into her inner life has sprung open, and all her hopes, worries, dreams, memories, thoughts and the rest of her innermost being come bubbling out. It's a wonderful thing, that. I hope she continues to feel open to sharing herself with me in that way for a few more years.

This week we're trying to finish up schoolwork with Sophine. We have been working on Word Families. We made a town board similar to Aleisha and Sara, have told silly stories about the family of -ight (and others), made up some really fun sentences (Gail told a tale of a snail sent by mail on a whale eating kale and landing on a nail in jail with a quail), drew pictures, played recorder, painted and gardened. Now what's left is some form drawing and finishing up our Main Lesson books. Then Sophine gets to tell her dad about First Grade over dinner, and we'll give her a beautiful book on fairy tales as a gift. Hopefully by the end of next week we can put all our schoolwork away until August. I certainly could use the break from planning!

So that's where we are. Busy but with little to report. Soccer, pottery, volunteering at the Farm, driving Heidi to preschool, German classes, celebrating spring with Maypole dancing and planting, and lots of hanging out in the garden. Heidi, incidentally, has discovered a passion for these caterpillars. We have a lot of them in the garden right now, and she carries them around, letting them crawl all over her. This apparently is hilariously funny, and worth a kiss. Then she puts them in a bucket where they're supposed to spin a cocoon, and she is quite put out when they disappear overnight.

There you are. A rambling post. Next week's agenda includes sewing a colonial shift for Market Fair, and a Fairy Festival. Maybe I'll even post again!