Friday Five: Confessions

Five Hard Truths I Simply Must Face:

1. Around this time of year, I start wishing my kids went to school. Why? Because I start idealizing the whole Back To School Shopping thing. New clothes (even though, seriously folks, it's still hard-core summer around these parts for another six weeks, and why buy new shorts?), new pencils, new backpacks, new Trapper Keepers.

Do they still make Trapper Keepers? For me that was the nirvana of BTS shopping as a sixth grader. Have Trapper Keeper, will travel in style for the school year, knee socks and jumpers notwithstanding.

Oh, and Family Fun magazine dangles all the cool BTS traditions in front of my nose, and moms like NieNie throw these adorable BTS feasts for their kids, and ... um ... well, we're going to the Not Back to School Party at Northwest Pool with other Austin homeschoolers!

2. Speaking of clothes, I bought a nice little stack of cooler-weather clothes for my older daughter and two nieces at a yard sale this morning. Really nice stuff. But here's the confession. I purchased a dress at my daughter's heartfelt request, gritting my teeth because I try hard to not to foist my own clothing preferences onto my kids ... and displayed front and center on this dress ... oh I can hardly type this ... were three ... yellow ... chicks.

There. I said it. I bought my kid clothing that contains cutesy animals. The earth spins on.

3. Also on the subject of clothing, have I ever told you that I organize my side of the closet in ROYGBV order? And my shirt drawers, too? Yes. I do. It is one of the tiny parts of my life that I can control, and opening the door to see my tops lined up in colors of the rainbow gives me a daily jolt of aesthetic pleasure.

4. And now back to school-related topics. (I almost said, "And now back to school," but we already talked about how that's NOT in the cards for us so why beat a dead horse?) I still have not decided on a curricular path for us this year. I have ordered NOTHING. Nothing from Rainbow Resource, nothing from the usual suspects (Sonlight, Tapestry of Grace, etc.) in which we dabble. Mired in a morass of indecision about our approach this year -- you'd think I'd have picked something and stuck to it by now -- I'm simply keeping us all busy with our daily forays to Japan. Apparently we're too busy painting paneled screens, learning to eat with chopsticks, making carp kites, and counting in Japanese to worry about the 3 R's right now. But leave your name and number at the sound of the beep and we will get back to you. Maybe.

5. I realized the other day that my youngest child, age 3.5, does NOT KNOW ALL THE LETTERS OF THE ALPHABET. OR her numbers. Y'all. This is a matter of grave concern. I learned to read at three years of age, and skipped kindergarten accordingly. My oldest child had his letters and numbers comfortably under his belt way before this time (was that more important to me then? You bet!). I can't remember about my second child (a bonus confession!). And I've just been humming along, thinking Caroline is so brilliant because of the witticisms that pour from her mouth, and the six zillion ideas she spews out like molten lava every day, and the fact that any imaginary play that occurs in this house has her as its director and life-force, and the knowledge that if I can't provide materials for one of her projects, she'll simply make do with something she scavenges from around the house, and the vague certainty that by age six, she will have figured out to use a credit card and will be booking all of us vacations to France with detailed itineraries.

Silly me, wandering about in some blissful fog. I'd better start ejucatin' this chile.

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