Thoughts, thoughts, more thoughts, and some questions.....

• On Kayleigh and school........

It has become apparent that I have given birth to a "mini-me"! Kayleigh comes home from school requesting "homework" everyday and is especially excited when her teacher gives her worksheets to complete at home. She walks in the door, pulls out her folder and gets to work without me saying a word. Of course, she rarely has any "homework" from her teacher, so I spend about an hour or so a week finding worksheets for her to do. She is way beyond the curriculum for reading and slightly ahead in math, but I am trying to keep an open mind and see how this year progresses. There are things that concern me: 1. She is having a rough time getting up in the morning, which could be just because she has a body clock like mine, 2. She has brought home a couple worksheets that she has purposefully mark incorrect answers on; I say purposefully because I know she understands the concept on the worksheet and when I ask her about it, she replies "Sometimes I just do things wrong".

She loves the social aspects of school, especially getting invited to birthday parties! At the moment she seems more interested in playing with the boys than the girls, which is totally fine by me.

We started "afterschooling", which is just a fancy word for enrichment, last week. This year we are reading about History from the Creation through the fall of Rome, studying Life Science, beginning piano lessons and dabbling in some art appreciation and drawing. It sounds like a lot, but we don't do everything on the same day. Monday and Wednesday are History, Tuesday and Thursday are Science, and Friday is piano lesson and art. Of course I am beginning to ask myself at what point does enrichment need to turn into full-time homeschooling? In other words, if I am finding myself having to supplement in Math and Reading, and she is loving the History and Science, at what point does it make more sense to bring her home? My one concern with that is her social needs. Kayleigh loves being around other kids and adults, so that would be my one challange in homeschooling her, other than my own selfish desire for a quiet house!

• On our new digs.....

I love our new home, but I am beginning to miss FloMo! Well not really FloMo, but the closeness to our families and friends that are still there. Driving 20 miles doesn't seems like much, but with construction and what not, it's a hassle and not fun! Plus, Little Elm is in the boonies! The closet Payless is 30 minutes away and Kohl's is 20 minutes! We have a Wal-mart and Target nearby, but that's about it. Coming from an area that has just about every kind of shopping you can think of within a 5 mile radius, this stinks! I also miss the Lewisville Library which has a much bigger selection of books that Frisco or Little Elm. The Frisco Library has a coffee and snack shop, so I guess it's ok.

• On the church we are visiting.....

Still not sure. We started visiting right when the pastor was starting a series on Spiritual Disciplines, which has been interesting, but I really want to see how he teaches from a book of the Bible. The pastor's style is not my ideal, but if his content is truth, I'm not really concerned with style. Truth be told I prefer our former senior pastor's style and I miss the way he taught the Word without gimmics and voices and elaborate Power Points; not that all that stuff is bad, it's just not what I prefer.