Racing

I think you could describe the pace of our life lately as "racing" -- fulfilling, yes, but definitely racing.

I've been doing okay on making sure the girls get enough academic practice at things. They're both making some progress on math. I'm in a period where we're practicing some more basic skills there so that they'll be able to make some bigger leaps soon. (Madison is practicing the mechanics of isolating a single variable in equations like (1/4x - 28)/3 = 4. Ella is working on borrowing with unlike fractions, as in 7 1/6 - 1 4/5.)

I guess the biggest academic news, one that is a real relief to me, is that Madison can suddenly just spell, well and accurately. I am positive that this is not because I've been diligent about the word lists in Romalda Spaulding's The Writing Road to Reading (although indeed I've been more diligent this year than I have in years past). No, I'm positive that it's because of all of the writing she has been doing. She hates the little red squiggly underlining that Word does when one misspells a word, and she's taken pains to correct it, and to notice the good spelling, each time. The beauty of this is that it happened completely naturally, and without much effort on her part. YAY YAY YAY. I'd been questioning my decision, for the past while, to leave her be on spelling. While it's true that she would have spelled better much sooner had I forced the issue, WHO CARES? She is there now. The girl is 10, can spell, can write, and is HAPPY.

The lesson is learned.

Tonight, Ella cried because she had to put away her chapter book (yes, another one of those blasted fairy books) before she finished it. Yes! She cared! She wanted to keep reading! I will take these baby steps where I can get them. Wouldn't it be wonderful if by the age of 10 Ella is a voracious reader? Maybe it can just happen naturally, as Madison's spelling did.

But back to racing. Madison's Schoolhouse Rock performances went great this past weekend, and we have one more weekend to go. Due to my sending out last-minute press releases on Sunday morning, which basically read, "If it's a slow news day here in Rochester, please consider sending a videographer over to the Auditorium Center, especially if he or she is a child of the 70s," we got both News 8 and News 10 to film the kids and put the show on the nightly news. That should finish up bringing them in for next weekend. (At least I hope.) Here is a photo of the cast doing "Circulation." Madison is in green.


This week, we're still racing. I am on the Fickle 93.3 bowling team for "Bowl for the Cure" next Friday evening, and this morning Marti (the DJ) and I practiced at Bowl-a-Roll. Then we raced over to bring Ella to another of Adrienne's fabulous "Picturing America for Homeschoolers" sessions at the Webster Library (this one was on the Brooklyn Bridge). I would have raced to bring Madison to writing class in between, but she is quite congested from a cold that developed this weekend, and I figured that the rest of the parents would prefer that my kid not be blowing her nose in close quarters next to the 6 other kids in the class, sharing pencils and the like. So we raced to BJs and other errands instead, and raced home and finished our academic work for the day.

Tomorrow, a school concert with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra in the morning, then back home for schoolwork/my work and instrument practice, then flute lessons, dance lessons, and a final run-through rehearsal for Schoolhouse Rock.

My fingers are too tired to type out the rest of the week's schedule, but suffice it to say that a large part of my mental energy is avoiding burnout. Really looking forward to next week when things slow down just a little!

I've been working really, really hard on the development of the new KidsOutAndAbout.com web site so I can expand this year and achieve World Domination next year. Can I give you the coolest sneak peek into the new design? Here it is: