Caught in the Whirlwind

Our lives are so busy, so full of fun and activity, that I shudder to think of what it would be like trying to cram preschool and kindergarten in there. Everything we do with the children is stuff we would probably do with them anyway, excepting the workbook pages Colwyn asks for (I imagine if he were forced to do workbook pages all day, he wouldn't ask me for any).

Colwyn and Lachlann have been really productive on the art front. They draw and write incessantly. Lachlann's writing is mostly just scribbles, reminiscent of a heart monitor's readout, but Colwyn does a pretty good job. His favorite is making love cards, which usually include a nice drawing as well as some combination of the words, "Colwyn" "Mommy" "Amma" and "Lve" (he often leaves out the o). The other day he drew a remarkably detailed Captain Rex, which I meant to save but might have gotten tossed by accident. We live with a near constant litter of construction paper, it's hard to remember what should be saved.

This past week we went to tour the Salem Post Office with our homeschool group. It was the first field trip I'd planned for the group, and I was super anxious about it. Homeschoolers can be a bit.. flaky.. at times, and I was afraid nobody would show, and there I'd be at the Postmaster's door, looking like a total idiot. Well, thankfully, we only had one no-show, and the kids were all super well-behaved. I think the moms learned more than the kids, but not by much. Colwyn, of course, said that the only thing he learned was that post office workers like to go to Dunkin Donuts, just like us. Yeah, he's at that age.

We go to Jen's house every other week for book club. The boys have always played really well there during one-on-one playdates, but for the last four book club meetings, they've refused to play with the other kids. I suspect that Lachlann would, except that he doesn't want to leave Colwyn alone. They just sit with me in the living room, which is fine since they don't really complain, but it leaves me less able to talk freely. We plan on continuing to attend, in the hopes that they'll eventually get used to the group. I think part of the problem is that we now tend to have mainly 5-6 year old boys, and as you can imagine, it gets rather rowdy. I don't want to push them, but I also want to make sure they're exposed to groups like this. It's a delicate balance, and I don't always feel like I'm doing a good job.