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[rivka]

It's funny the way kids' ages telescope.

Two kids on my Friends List are starting kindergarten this fall, just like Alex. (Except that Alex started June 1, but never mind that.) One of these kids, I've always thought of as significantly older than Alex. The other, I've always thought of as significantly younger than Alex. My view of their relative ages was cemented in their infancy, when a few months' gap is huge. But now they are all kindergarteners, and more or less the same age.

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I've been feeling really quiet in LJ these days. There is work stuff going on that I can't really talk about, and it consumes a lot of my emotional energy. Not posting about that stuff winds up meaning not posting at all. You could try asking questions if you felt like it, or you could just, you know, enjoy the silence.

Comments

[rivka.livejournal.com]

What did you eat when it was horribly hot?

Typically: some kind of meat or fish cooked quickly on the tabletop grill, bread and butter, and a tray of cut-up raw vegetables and fruits. We don't have air conditioning in the kitchen or dining room, so minimizing stove use was critical.

And excursions. Where else would you like to go nearby? A weekend for all of you, a day without kids?

My ideal day-without-kids would involve a spa in the mountains, some soak/wrap/massage-oriented spa treatments, really good food for lunch and dinner, and a hike in the woods.

I'm looking forward to Thanksgiving at Williamsburg again. I'd like to go back to Assateague Island this fall, but I doubt we'll make it out there.

I'm curious about Alex in other ways. What does she do by herself? What does she do with friends, kid and adult? What is the ballet like?

Alex spends a lot of time working on various art projects, like origami (her latest design can be either a cat or a dog, depending on how you hold it - it's really cool) and cut-paper projects. She also likes to make big complicated designs with pattern blocks, etc. She spends a lot of time pretending, although increasingly she is secretive about what exactly she's playing, so I don't know the details. She likes to build fairy houses in the garden and mix magic potions out of leaves and berries. She likes to catch snails and pillbugs and make houses for them. She and Colin like to chase each other around the house and climb on each other.

The ballet is awesome. She's in the Young Children's Program at a serious music conservatory. The way this school works, at age seven we'll have to decide whether to seek serious ballet training or go into their "open program" for students who like dancing but don't want to make a big deal out of it. Until age seven, everyone is together in the early childhood program.

The Young Children's classes are developmentally appropriate, with a lot of fantasy and games and an incredibly nurturing teacher... but Alex also comes out of class using phrases like "fifth position" and "port de bras" and lecturing us about the wrong way to do a plie. So the classes are very, very gentle and fun, but with an underlying seriousness of purpose.

One thing I love about the ballet program is that children Alex's age do not have a recital. There are "open classes" which parents are invited to attend, and twice a year they go to a nursing home to dance for the residents. But five- and six-year-olds do not dress up in expensive costumes and perform on a stage in front of a big audience.

Here's a picture from ballet:
(http://www.flickr.com/photos/rivka/4849724055/)

[hobbitbabe.livejournal.com]

That ballet looks adorable and sounds really wholesome. I'm glad.