Sep 4
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

The faces look catty-wumpass (slid sideways) to me, which I can only attribute to more beer than usual (well, one instead of none, I really shouldn’t make it sound as though I live larger than I do). Plus I tried to get awfully clever with the shading in the thread.

I realized this afternoon that both girls are heading into school in very different places than we thought at the end of the last school year. Aerin has jumped a year in math through her and her dad’s extremely dedicated efforts. She has spent the last couple of days being resolutely slothful. She reads, she pokes at stuff on the computer, she reads some more, then she goes to bed late and does it again.

Alice is going to the Montessori school to share a multi-age classroom with 7 in her year and 15 all together. We were there today doing recon of the room (it was planned) and meeting the rest of her first-time-in-the-room peers. They look like an interesting bunch of kids. Their parents were an interesting lot as well. Two of the parents work there, two of us are new and three more have been there forever. Alice promptly parked herself with a book in the book corner and had to be lured out repeatedly. But she also hooked up with a trio of girls in the playground and they were trotting and cantering about in a little pack with their heads together. After worrying about knowing no one, she realized she had been in swimming lessons with one girl (3 years ago?), and she was very relieved.

And I did a good thing. My neighbor across the street is starting 1st grade, having done kindergarden for two years at a very different school. I realized one person in her class is the younger sister of a good friend of Alice’s, so I invited the sister to come play too, so my neighbor could meet one person before school started. It helps so much to have one friendly face to sit next to.

Tomorrow is the very last day of summer vacation before school starts. We have no plans. We aim for boredom. It helps make school more exciting.