Uh...Just Kidding

Yeah, so all that stuff I wrote about how Evelyn and Willa are doing
great about their transitions into separate classrooms...I was way
off there. I had to carry Willa crying to her classroom today as she
held out her hands toward her sister and screamed "Evelyn!!!!!!
Evelyn!!!!" Pretty awful. I didn't cry about it until after I got
out of sight of Willa, though, so good for me.

School Days

We have one week of school under our belts and are embarking on week
two! Evelyn has transitioned to a primary class for 3-6 year olds,
and Willa will move up in another couple of weeks. She and Willa
will be in separate classrooms from here on out. "How could you
separate them?!" You may ask. Believe me, it's for the best. When
they're together, they're either being silly, and end up rolling
around on the floor laughing, or they're teasing each other, which
ends in tears. Ask any teacher you know if either of these scenarios
are conducive to a calm learning environment. Uh...no. Evelyn likes
her new class, and Willa does not seem bothered by her absence. This
means that either they each have a healthy amount of self-confidence,
or that they don't like each other very much. I'm going to assume
the former.

Mary Grace has started her 2nd Grade year, which means she is in the
same community that she was in last year with the same teacher, but
she's a "second year" child which comes with all kinds of bossing-
around opportunities. She is already taking advantage of this with
some poor child named Evan who has been assigned to her as a sort of
1st year "little brother." She eats lunch with him, shows him where
to put his shoes, and just generally tells him what to do all day
when he's not in a lesson. She's in heaven. She's about to start
soccer and children's choir this week. Piano lessons and ballet
start after labor day, so we're all about to get really busy. Let
the insanity begin!

Follow the Child

"Follow the Child" is a Montessori mantra. It basically means that
in educating children, rather than pushing information to them, we
should offer little seeds of inspiration, see where their interests
take them, and be there to guide them toward the information they
seek out. I have been trying to teach Mary Grace about money for a
year or so, without success. She just hasn't been interested. Then,
today, she comes to me with a little purse and ALL her money from her
piggy bank stuffed inside. She says, "I want to go shopping." She
is also all dressed up in an adorable outfit with barrets in her
hair, jewelry, and fancy shoes. So, quick, I change my plans for the
afternoon so that we can go to the mall. She had no idea what she
wanted to buy, just wanted to shop. Love it. We had some great
discussions about why we pay sales tax, about saving vs. giving vs.
spending, we did lots of math problems, and had a little talk about
why some teenagers choose to pierce themselves in unusual places.
All in all it was a great little outing. My favorite part was when
Mary Grace spent $1 (about 1/5 of what she spent the whole afternoon)
on a merry go round ride for Evelyn and Willa. It more than makes up
for all the times she kicked the backs of their seats on the ride home.

Final Thoughts

It's been an amazing trip, and we are so glad we went. Here are some
things we won't soon forget...Mary Grace's love of building fires,
Evelyn washing her baby in the dishwater after cleaning up dinner,
Willa dancing in the neck-deep water at the pool, the chipmunk who
kept visiting ou campsite which the girls named "Camper," bribing all
the girls with lollipops for the whole trip, and waking up all
together in the tent and snuggling together for just a few more
minutes.

The Last Leg

Instead of the mosquito hike on Thurday, we neded up doing a great
hike to a waterfall from the nearby town of Ouray. Mary Grace got to
climb all over it and get nice and wet. We went back to the hot
springs pool one more time and then went fishing one more time (no
luck). It rained that evening so I taught Mary Grace to play UNO in
the tent while Jason made dinner. It dried out enough for Jason to
take Mary Grace on an evening hike where they made up their own
interpretive trail (we have great video of this). Friday morning we
packed up, which sounds quick but actually takes about 3 hours, and
headed to Albuquerque. We found an affordable hotel, had showers and
a nice dinner. We thought about going on to Carlsbad Caverns on
Saturday, but when everyone woke up we were tired and decided to quit
while we're ahead, so we're headed back to Georgetown today.