Revving Up

Our schedule is starting to get busier, which means I'm striving, as always, for balance. My eldest child has an expressed distaste for going out too much, which I have to reconcile with my own restless personality.

Tuesday is going to be our very busy day, finishing up with taekwondo(Ian) and dance(Eliza). This morning Ian and Eliza both started an Improv class at The Hideout downtown with the very talented improv actor, professional clown, and fellow homeschooling mom Jessica Arjet. Eliza's class is at 10 AM (Ian and Caroline and I wolfed down scrumptious breakfast tacos in the coffee shop downstairs as Ian theoretically applied himself to the schoolwork he'd brought along but actually had a long and involved conversation about Bionicles with another mom), and Ian's is at 11. It seems like it's going to be great for both of them, since Eliza's involves a lot of participatory storytelling, which will help draw her out of her shyness and appeal to her deep love of stories feating princesses, and Ian's involves learning to play games, tell stories, and be very creative IN A GROUP. Note the constraint. Very good for him.

It's funny, because there are hundreds of homeschooling families in Austin, but we always seem to run into the same 25 or so at our various activities. In fact, there's even a core of, say, 5 to 10, whose paths keep intersecting. Turns out that the one other child in Eliza's class (we're worked on recruiting more) is someone she's been in co-op with for two years now, and his mom and I served together on the board when she was Director and I was treasurer. A girl in Ian's class is the daughter of my good friend Greta and brother of Ian's friend Christian (we also met them through Monday Co-op, and Greta and I served on the board together). My friend Randolph, whom I know from Spanish class last year at my house, AAH support group meetings, and Friday co-op, plus the fact that he is, quite coincidentally, best friends with my next door neighbor, also showed up with HIS twins. It's a small, small world.