We pulled Lillie from the charter school the next Monday. Friday went alright, but over the weekend she was still crying off and on about going to school on Monday. We talked with her cousins about the neighborhood school who have gone there and decided to try that. The charter school is very strict and while she was slowly getting used to it, David (who also spent a few hours in her class the first week) and I decided we weren't even sure we wanted her to get used to it. The only time they could really talk was during lunch and recess and it just seemed unnecessarily rigid.

So, Lillie got last week off and started school today. We've decided to start off doing just four hours a day. She was a little sad when I left her today, but when I picked her up she told me was fine about 3 minutes after I left (she was wearing her watch). She was very happy with her teacher. She made friends with the girl next to her and they played with her younger cousin at recess. Lillie was really glad to get to see her cousin at recess. And, while there was no one she knew in her class, she saw plenty of kids she knows from church while she was there. Which is nice.

She also told me that she does better when I'm not there (the only hard part of the day was saying goodbye to me). I had come for the first hour at her request, but even she realized that it would be better to say goodbye at the start tomorrow.

After school, Lillie was even talking about going a full day in a few weeks, but I actually don't care what she chooses one way or the other. I just like that she likes it.

Summer has been busy. We were busy having fun and busy being lazy. Forgive me for never making any jokes. Or even offering a boring update.

This was our first week of school and it was one big ball of stress. Grace has been fine but Lillie has not. For the first time in a while, I've actually had stuff I'd like to write about, but I have just barely had the time to get any work done, much less blahg. Lillie decided to go to school this year. On paper it seemed fun, but she has been pretty miserable with the reality. Each day has gotten better. I' ve come into class quite a bit and today is her first full day without me. I know that she is okay, but it's still hard. Not as hard as the other days, but hard.

We found out that there is an option to go half-days (and homeschool the other half) and at first we were thinking this was the answer to all of our problems. It still may be, but I'm starting to lean toward just doing the full day. Yesterday I was hardly at school and besides the goodbye, she was fine. I think she was even a little proud of herself for handling it. A few hours in the morning with me is alright (and I'm happy to do it), but I think in the end the hassle of running over to the school three times a day and the weirdness of being the one kid who gets to skip mornings may outweigh the benefits.

We'll figure it out. And, I'll probably write about it. At some point I hope to get back to writing a few times a week, but right now I think this blog will just have to stay on the backburner until further notice.