Extracurriculars and Another Car

Boy do we need a second car. Fortunately, I think I've found the perfect one. What do you think?

With the school year starting, we have all sorts of activities lined up, and will need a mode of transportation to get there, but we're working on that one.

In the meantime, we've got several extracurricular (EC) activities lined up. I'll tell you one thing, homeschooling definitely forces you to be engaged with your children's education. When you think about schooling, you really just get them dressed and send them off. You don't have to give it much thought, and when you do have some thoughts or concerns, it's not as if you can do anything about it.

Homeschooling, on the other hand, really forces you to be engaged and thoughtful. I'm not trying to sell homeschooling to anybody, but it sure makes a parent more aware of what is going on in their kid's education, like it or not. I'm guessing most parents fall into the "not" category. I can't say I blame them.

However, there are rewards to being more engaged and having more say in the matter, not unlike life in general. When you get down to it, at some point in the daily grind of our lives, we really stop giving life much thought and just sort of mindlessly go about our daily routines. It's easy and comfortable, but at some point time passes you by and when you stop to look back on things, you ask yourself, "Where did all that time go, and what do I have to show for it?"

I know what I'll have to show for it - 10,000 dumplings! Even then, I won't be able to show them because they'll be passing through someone's GI tract. Oh well, such is life.

I've deviated terribly from my point, which was that we've had to arrange ECs for our kids. Fortunately, this has worked out fairly well. For A, we've got guitar and piano, and she's going to do robotics, though she had to decide between that and cartooning. For N, he's got drums and art at the AVA, and assorted sports programs, including tennis lessons, though he's a baseball player at heart.

The ice skating rink will be opening soon, so we can start skating, and as soon as it snows, we'll hit the slopes, though I've read that they're predicting a mild Winter. Bummer. The weather here is starting to resemble more southerly states. I can't imagine what it's like down there.

Until the next time, thanks for reading, and thanks to Renaude Hatsedakis for the pic.