Friday, October 31, 2008

Overcommitted

It's a more than a little crazy right now.  In the past, when we got overwhelmed with schedule clutter, it was evening commitments that needed to be weeded out.  Currently it's daytime commitments that have us scrambling.  Something has to give, because this is CRAZY!  With Emily's good time-management skills, she is getting everything done, but at the expense of serenity.  The classes at greatest risk for being neglected are French and the literature and writing portion of English. 

In a previous blog I outlined a typical day.  If Emily doesn't get up at 6:15 and get RIGHT to it, things don't get done.  She goes to the junior academy from 12:30 to 3:45 four days a week, and we're coveting that time to do schoolwork.  She goes to the school for musical enrichment and PE.  The classes are fun, and beneficial, but they're not currently part of her curriculum.  I only recently learned that she gets her English done in the band director's office during music lessons--meaning, she's often listening to two trumpet students while trying to concentrate!  Good thing she doesn't have ADD!!

We experienced the school setting for two years, and in that time this same feeling of "it's too much" happened intermittently.  When I was in college I remember feeling as if each of my professors thought theirs was the only class that mattered.  I used to wonder if they had any concept of the staggering amount of work that was assigned over all the courses in a typical load.  It's all a lesson in setting priorities and managing time, I suppose.  

Second semester I foresee that one of the extra music classes (band or choir) will get jettisoned from the schedule.  

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