Beginning to gel

Three weeks in, I think our homeschool is starting to gel. All of our activities are up and running, our schedule is becoming more predictable (a huge comfort for me, if not so much for the kids), and our "work" is getting done on a daily basis rather than on a weekly basis.

Because my legs are tired from last weekend's 50K and I'm trying to save them for next weekend's 50-miler, I haven't been running as much this week. I've been doing more research, less writing. More sleeping, less swimming. I slept right through my swim yesterday morning because I was out late the night before kvetching about the horror that is Sarah Palin with my excellent, like-minded friends.

I shouldn't call her a horror. If I knew her, it's possible that under certain very limited circumstances (sharing snack bar duty at our kids' hockey game? -- though I cannot imagine my kids playing hockey) we could be friends. Or at least chatting acquaintances. Which is the very thing about her -- her realness, her it-could-be-me aura -- that attracts so many people into her orbit.

What happened to Leaders We Can Look Up To? ("I'd like my president to be just like me. Or maybe even a little bit worse!")

But her politics are scary. If even half of the unsolicited information about SP that pops into my email inbox is true, we're in for a wild ride if she gets elected. (Notice I have not mentioned a word about McCain. The actual candidate. Nobody is talking about McCain anymore.)

But I digress. As the commenters on my newspaper blog would say: Stick to my area of expertise.

But as a new homeschooling mom, I no longer have an area of expertise. I am flying by the seat of my pants. Winging into the stratosphere without a parachute or a net. Look, mom, no hands!

We have signed up for a bunch of activities. Community Think, art, Seaport, Nature Center, Classical Kids. We have somewhere to go almost every day. This is mostly for Nell's benefit. She needs social activity. Simon and Ben have each other and would happily stay home most days. I feel bad interrupting their games every day to drag them to activities that they would prefer to skip. It's a tough balance. Am I stressing Simon out too much? Overstimulating Ben? It's difficult to say.

Yesterday at the Seaport class Simon walked from venue to venue clutching the hand of a 5-year-old blond girl. The women will save him in the end.

We are going to try our first homeschooling run this morning with my friend Karen and Roxy the dog. Nell on the bike, boys in the stroller. Or maybe Simon on his bike as well. We'll run on River Road. Up and back at 8:30. There shouldn't be much traffic. I'll try to remember to bring the camera.