Soccer Fever

We went to our first soccer game of the season today. Mary Grace,
as it turns out, is one heck of a defensive player! She blocked at
least three goals, one with her stomach. She's all about the big
stop. When I was little, I played soccer for a short period of
time. I quit, though, because number one they served oranges during
half time, and I hated oranges. (I was such a weird kid. Who hates
oranges?) The second reason I quit was because the coach wouldn't
ever let me play goalie. Unlike Mary Grace, who seems to have a
natural defensive instinct, I just wanted to play goalie so I
wouldn't have to run around quite so much. The fact that I weighed
about 40 pounds as a third grader didn't help my case. I'm glad to
see my inner goalie spirit lives on.

Is that rain, or is the sky crying, too?

The emotional roller coaster continues this week. Pretty much every
morning, Willa refuses to go to class, crying for her sister, her
Daddy, and everyone else under the sun...including at one point
screaming for the front desk administrative assistant at the school.
I responded by immediately going to get said assistant and Willa
happily walked to class with her. Whatever. By Friday, she had
Evelyn crying, and even Mary Grace was upset. Emotionally drained as
of Tuesday, I asked Mary Grace, "Why are YOU crying now???" to which
she responded with a pitiful "I don't know!!!" Good grief. My fear
of the teenage years increases by the minute.

It rained today, which was a nice distraction this afternoon. The
girls got their boots and umbrellas out and played around in the
driveway. I didn't even make them come in when it thundered. It
could be years before it rains again here, so I figured they should
enjoy it. Of course, since it rained more than one sixteenth of an
inch, dry creek beds all through central Texas were suddenly turned
into fast-flowing rivers and people were being carried away in their
pickup trucks by the raging flood waters. I'm not sure people were
meant to live in this part of the world.

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.