Sunday, July 31, 2005

Mid-summer progress report

What the heck happened to July? I can't believe how fast this month has gone. Halfway through the summer here, and have I done all those great enrichment activities I was going to do with my kids? Well, kinda. I arranged to stay home to have "Camp Mom" with my son, and was worried that my natural laziness and desire to spend too much time in front of the computer might result in him really attending "Camp TV Cartoons." But we've kept up a little routine. We've gone to the middle school almost every weekday morning so he can, with the principal's permission, play on the computer and get used to being in the building he'll be attending in the fall. He's made an entry in his weblog almost every day, which is certainly more than I can say. We read together almost every day. He's had almost one playdate a week with friends who will be at middle school with him. And, mostly thanks to the fact that his tutor works with him for two hours every morning, he's finished his summer reading project for school, done lots of worksheets and science experiments, and made some progress on gross motor skills. Not too bad.

But of course, I always feel I should be doing more. I still spend too much time on the computer, doing not enough work. I don't always feel like playing. I should be strategizing ways to deal with his latest crop of behavioral oddities and trying them out during our nice uninterrupted time together, but I'm not. I'm inspiration-challenged, and too often short-tempered about it. I want to be one of those moms who's 100 percent available to her kids, always ready with a great play idea or able to endlessly follow her child's inspirations. Do those moms even exist? Maybe just in the guilty heart of every mom who falls short.

How's your summer going? Are your best-laid plans still laying there? Take this poll and spill the beans.

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