The Most Wonderful Time...

So, I have very much enjoyed this summer. The girls had some great camps and I got a few good court results, plus of course I finally got to go on my honeymoon which was fantastic. All that said, I really like back to school time. The girls are of course not looking forward to homework, but I think they enjoy school also. Abra certainly does like the whole social aspect of it, and they're both good students who generally really like their teachers, at least so far. So this is helpful.

But one thing which is looming large is TIME. This is especially an issue with #1. God bless her, but she is the world champion dawdler. She is in a hurry to do exactly NOTHING, and has always been that way. She was an early talker (raise your hand if you're surprised), but with most of everything else she took her sweet time. Still does. The upside of this aspect of her personality is that she's generally pretty inflappable, and quite unlike her mother is not prone to the Big Freakout. She's pretty easygoing, and difficult to fluster or frustrate. This is all good.

Nonetheless, there are still certain things you have to learn to do and do ON TIME, and on your own. Over the summer, Dad and I have become frustrated by the fact that if you don't direct them to do their morning/evening chores, they won't do them. "Did you feed the fish?" "You didn't tell us to feed the fish!" "YOU HAVE TO FEED THE FISH EVERY &$!*ING NIGHT OF YOUR LIFE, WHY WOULD TONIGHT BE ANY DIFFERENT???" Grrr. I know that by the time we were the girls' age, and even before, my brother and I would get ourselves ready for bed and get into bed in a timely manner without being reminded, and we got ourselves up and ready for school without much nagging, either. So we've set up a Chore Chart. The idea is that the girls are supposed to pay attention to what time it is in the morning and after dinner, and are supposed to do their morning/evening tasks by a certain time. They earn checkmarks or X's based on performance, with negative consequences for X's and a weekly "Special Surprise!" for a full week of all checkmarks. Abra has yet to earn a Special Surprise, but we haven't been doing it very long (and had a couple weeks' haitus during vacation time). Back in the saddle again starting tomorrow. The hope is that by the time school starts in three weeks, they're doing things on their own. We'll see. Wish us luck.