Practice

My cousin, Big Chief, once told me that practice is good for children. She was referring to hunting for easter eggs at the time, but the advice applied to other activities. I'm not always good about following that advice, but for many activities I find it is well worth the time. One example is practicing school. I've been doing that all summer with Larien. She's now very excited for her first day of school tomorrow.

This morning we practiced getting ready for school and driving to school. Inwe was the first school aged child to rise (Finwe was up at 6am). She ate breakfast sans television. After that we headed upstairs to wake Larien and get dressed. Inwe quickly got dressed and even brushed her hair!

Larien will be the difficult one to wake in the morning. I had to bribe her with juice. However, after she got up she eagerly got dressed and sat patiently while her hair was done. Breakfast was a challenge for her, but she got some in.

I didn't practice making lunches, but I've done that before, so I'm not nervous about it. I will just have to cut down on the news-reading first thing in the morning. I'll have time later to read it.

We did learn that we'll need to leave earlier to reach school at 8:30am. That part of practicing was good.

What else do I need to do for the start of school?

• print family photos for Larien's class
• gather old t-shirts for art smocks for both children
• shop for lunch and snack food with the girls