Coping with the morning rigor of deciding what to wear is a problem that most women grapple with but they usually don’t start doing that till they leave school – School uniform is a wonderful thing! But here in the land of the free (providing you have health insurance) you can wear what you like to school every day. Back at All Saints Primary the kids had the odd casual day when they did not need to dress up. The USA equivalent? Well how can you dress down if you don’t dress up? They manage it in the form of pyjama day!
In my opinion what these young 11 (going on 17 year olds) don’t need is a lesson in how to be a teenager. ‘Can’t be bothered to get dressed – well go to school in your PJ’s!’ Whatever will be next ‘why get out of bed? You can tune into the lessons over the internet!’
But on Friday all the girls and boys at Felicity’s school did just that – They all turned up in what they wore to bed, but I suspect, judging by the new shiny nightwear in front of me, none of it had ever been worn before!
Another successful day of learning I’m sure! But Felicity had a great time and fun was had by all.
A couple of days later (Saturday morning) I took Felicity for her second trip to the local magic shop where they run junior workshops. This week they were learning the cut and restored rope and at the end of the session they run ‘show and tell’. A chance for the kids to do a trick, for the other members, if they are brave enough. My wonderful girl had something prepared and stood up and did a beautiful performance. Where does she get all that amazing confidence and charm? I blame the parents!
And it is not only Felicity who is taking after the parents. OJ (although we don’t call him that anymore, not after the Simpson affair) has signed up for yet more sports! Regular readers will know of his baseball exploits in Little League but now we have to add another Americanism to our lives -‘Track’. Which I understand is what we used to call ‘running around and jumping’!
Now I think Oliver must get his sporting prowess from me as I am a well known fan of the gym, actually all this writing about exercise is exhausting me! But you can’t do any sports in an American School without a medical. It is at times like this that I really miss the good old N.H.S. So we took OJ at a cost of $26 for a ‘physical’.
So in 8 weeks we have a son in Junior High (eighth grade) doing Little League, Track and learning guitar. A Daughter in Elementary (sixth) wearing Pyjamas, learning the Flute and performing to a roomful of tomorrows magicians!
The point of this story is that Kids are amazing and an object lesson to us all. They are not worrying about what is going to happen next month and next year, they are getting on with it, and enjoying it. Living their lives to the max. Another week and more excuses to be proud of my children – but now we need to get on with some work. And I’ve got a driving license – but more of that next time.