I’ve been remiss on day to day journaling and the capturing of the events of our lives. Most evenings are filled with homework and music practice and scrambling together something slightly nutritious that doesn’t make me feel like we are completely failing as parents. Weekends involve shopping, errands, soccer practices, music lessons, and inevitably one birthday party or another. (Auden is still young enough that the entire class invites each other to each birthday party, and a parent need accompany the child.) We try to carve out a weekend now and then with an adult centered activity, but we don’t always succeed. All in all our lives sound like those of every other family we know.
The school year this year began more smoothly than last year. This is not surprising.
Last year was pivotal for both boys. Eliot started 6th grade, and Auden started Kindergarten. Both took a while (as did we) to straighten their rudder and navigate the rough sea. Eliot fiercely managed the significant increase in reading, writing and homework and at the end of 6th grade received mostly A’s. (Notably, his official learning evaluation didn’t come through until the end of the school year. His dyslexia could have warranted allowances, but he made it through without them.) Auden took a while to get used to the new routine and the rigorous mental activities, but by the end of Kindergarten he had gained a centeredness that gave him the confidence to start playing soccer, which he continued to do all summer and this fall.
After all that, there was little that could rock us going into this year. Eliot was placed with the strict and challenging math instructor that he wanted. (Go figure. – ha!) He’s taking on learning trumpet on top of clarinet and oboe, and Sandy has been having a blast playing with Eliot in the evenings. Auden’s new first grade teacher and assistant seem completely genuine and suitably directed in their pedagogical approach (for Auden’s needs). He began light-weight cello lessons in addition to his piano and soccer, but seems to be managing it well. Of course, we’ve only a few weeks of the new school year completed, but so far it doesn’t feel quite as choppy as it did last year.
With that, I must end. An update on the lives of the adults, Siouxsie, Oli, George and CC will have to wait for another post.