The Beginning of the End

Technically, it was yesterday I suppose. The boy’s last 3 days of school. Tonight he “graduates” from kindergarten. I get to make a main dish of some sort for a kindergarten party. Should be a good time for all.

At this point, after a fair amount of gnashing our teeth, the Wife and I have basically mapped out the summer. It’s actually more difficult than it might at first seem. As the kids get older they’re capable of more and figuring out what “more” is directly affects the schedule. At the same time, it’s the summer and I think we’re both on the same page where we think the kids should be allowed a fair amount of latitude. They just spent 9+ months on a pretty restrictive schedule, time to let them decompress.

The lass will continue with her dance lessons, but with a different teacher at a dance school. We’ve lucked out in the regard that her first teacher has emphasized keeping it fun while teaching her kids the rudiments of dance. The new teacher looks like she’ll build on top of that while still keeping it fun. It’s a once a week thing. She also offers a camp sort of program where, for one week, she takes the kids for the morning and does projects and incorporates dance into it. The lass seems to truly enjoy dancing so we’ll continue encouraging her in that endeavor.

The boy will continue with his MA lessons. Anywhere from 2 to 3 times a week. He’s enjoyed them so far and the meta lessons that MA offers are compelling enough that it’ll be worth it to keep him at it for awhile. Last night he discovered that a friend of his from school is in his class, so now he has more motivation to stick with it.

Dropped from the schedule are the swimming lessons at the Y. Because of their difference in abilities, there was no easy way to get them both into classes that fit well schedule-wise with the afore mentioned activities. The closest would have been to commit to Friday night at the Y for about 3-1/2 hours. We really wanted to keep up the lessons, but ultimately decided that it wasn’t worth the cost to our sanity as well as stretching the kids thin. By the time camps, vacations, weekends and day-trips are figured into the equation, they’ll have plenty to occupy their time, as will the Wife and I.

So Summer, ready or not- here we come!