June 05, 2003 - 7:40 p.m.

The End of An Era

After tomorrow, the summer officially begins for me. The two youngest kids, who are in Montessori preschool, have their last day of school. In addition, M is "graduating" since she'll start first grade in the public school in the fall. She has very mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, she absolutely loves the Montessori school, and their philosophy has been great for her. She's a quiet child, at least at first, and sometimes has trouble taking the initiative, but under the gentle guidance of her teachers there, she has flourished and even taken on a leadership role in the classroom. She gives visitors tours of the classroom and helps younger children with their work. However, she is also very excited about being a big kid and moving to the elementary school which her older sister adores. We're hoping she ends up with the same 1st grade teacher H had, both because she's a fabulous teacher and because M might feel more comfortable about the transition with a familiar teacher at the helm. M hasn't talked much about the change, but I think the stress is coming out in her behavior. She's been very sensitive lately and has also been having minor bathroom accidents. Pretty typical for a child facing a change as major as a new school. Hopefully summer fun will take her mind off of it.

So, as of next week I actually have to work from 7AM until 6:30PM Monday-Thursday. And in another two weeks all three kids will be out of school. I am looking forward to the kids being home, because it means we can do so much more. I have already begun mentally making a list of all the things we can do: trips to the zoo and museums, bike rides on the bike path, lazy days at the pool, bowling, mini-golf, and picnics. At the same time, the days are really long, and it's hard to find time to really exercise. Chasing the kids around keeps me pretty active, but we also tend to eat a lot of ice cream in the summertime. :)

Luckily the summer is pretty well broken up, which keeps me from getting exhausted and burned out. Once we get through June, we're all on vacation for two weeks: them on Cape Cod and me on the cruise for the first week, and who knows where the second. Then it's only a couple more weeks until the kids are all in camp for two weeks. It's a day camp, but even B will be there from 9-3:45. I'm not sure how I am going to fill all the time during those days, but I already have plans to put some serious work into my long abandoned children's book. After that there are a couple more weeks before school starts. I am willing to bet the summer will fly by just as quickly as the school year has!

today's project: spent the rainy afternoon at the library

musing about: what kind of graduation gift to get M

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