Sunday, Dec. 30, 2012 - 6:21 a.m.

Q went to the class for the next age group up at Gym. She did swimmingly! Just suddenly participated in some of the structured activities, let the teachers help her, and even fived them when prompted. Yay!

We also tried our first official session of observational drawing. She sort of scribbled a bit, called it what we were drawing, and then spent the rest of the time engaged in one of her little sequence games. But hey, first time out. At least she sat with me and did something involving pencil and paper. It's a good habit if we can stick with it.

Had yet another conversation with mil about school, in the context of our tentative house-buying explorations. Sooner or later they're going to start wondering why we don't seem more concerned in this regard, which is how it must seem to them. I really am eager to have the conversation and get it over with, but J wants us to have our solid plan worked out, which I agree with, but I don't want to waste too much effort on aspects of things that can't be planned. I can't know which sorts of social opportunities she will be interested in, what subjects she'll learn as a part of her project learning and which will need to be supplemented with formal lessons.

The socialization issue-- that great red herring of homeschooling-- is one that they're going to be most worried about. But, frankly, they're so much more social than we are...I'm concerned that they'll judge us by extrovert standards, and we'll never measure up.

Anyhow, for now I just want to get some of the structures in place-- our habits of meaningful work, focus, exploration, curiosity. Our circles of people that will become her peer group.

I am so excited to do this, it's hard to bite my tongue every time someone utters a "when she goes to preschool..." Or "when she starts school...". I want to say, "No! We aren't doing that! I have a better plan!"

Meanwhile, mil got us a few more packs of stickers "for when we might decide we need them". (Potty training, she's talking about potty training again). What was that about trying to take over everything?

The annoying thing is, Q does respond to them. They lavish on the praise, and she as a result she wants to please them. So they can ask her to do something, and she often does it.

Time to go reread the articles outlining why praise is bad.

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