Weekend Wrap-Up and Reading

At Parentella, my post is on why we chose a charter middle school for Riley. After the first week of school, I'm just as convinced that we made the right decision.

It hasn't been easy. It was exhausting. The days start early and on a good day, we leave at 7 a.m., and get home at 7 p.m. On top of that, we still have Sylvia's dance and art classes, my rehearsals, and my dad's in recovery from his knee replacement surgery. There's a lot going on, to be sure.

But every day when I pick up Riley, she's all smiles and has had a great day. If she hasn't finished her homework completely at her after-school program, she only has about 10 minutes left to finish. She's as passionate about Robotics as Sylvia is about her arts activities. It's so great to see Riley find her niche. Her favorite classes are Technology and English. English comes as quite a nice surprise as that's never been a favorite subject of hers, but she loves the teacher so that helps a lot.

Sylvia had her 3-day new student orientation this week as well. She's already made lots of friends, and is getting to know the campus. She's thinking of joining the leadership program at her school, which of course, I fully support. She's also starting to like her ballet class as her technique improves, which was exactly the point.

Their uncle from their dad's side of the family was in town, and we had a great day with him. I've always gotten along with X's siblings, and it was nice to see him. The girls got to tell their uncle all about their lives. He may be an "x"-in-law of mine, but he's still our family, and for that I am grateful.

We got tired and cranky a few times during the week, but overall, I don't think any of us would change a thing about our lives right now.