In January it was yet another birthday party - this time Hannah's. Incredible that she is 8 already and soon will be in double figures. That means more homework, it also means being more serious about things - like how to manage being under pressure when the class took a small Maths test, or decision on investing in kids hobbies -- and whether they should become serious at them or not?
Both kids have done bits and pieces of different sports and other extracurricular activities over the years, partly since school offers 4 different options each week, and every semester you change the options, so there's been ballet, zumba, cooking, athletics, football, singing, storytelling, gymnastics, recorder and lots of swimming. We also have done the odd extra activity; for a while there was some ballet and tap dancing, another time there was gymnastics. Since we've been in Kenya there's been tennis Sunday mornings and the last year or so has been horse riding.
The kids enjoy tennis and are improving slowly, which is good. The coach is good at making the practice entertaining and mixing up different activities. Horse riding continues, though I can't tell at what stage the kids are at. They still enjoy it and have to do a lot of cleaning out of the stables and cleaning the horses which is important. There's always a lot of art, especially for Leah still in kindergarten, as well as after tennis in Karura Forest, and often at home or even in the car. It's almost the opposite to horse riding as you can do it anywhere, any time even for just a few minutes with almost any materials for almost no cost!
Leah has now worked out how to swim, not really with many lessons, but after swimming so much she's just sort of worked it out; some lessons should be helpful now to improve her technique. Hannah has been in the school swim team since last year which means swimming 2 or 3 times a week, which recently has been becoming a bit much for her and she's always that keen. We've taken her to a few competitive events which are quite a performance as you wait around for hours, until the race which lasts a few minutes. She won one last year where she was the oldest in her age, but this year once she was in a different age category and was the youngest she struggled. We'll see if we continue to go, investing so much time in it or not.
Probably the main area we've not done much in is music and this may be something we should do more of. Hannah liked her recorder lessons, and wanted to do guitar this year too! So to the question of how much time (and money) parents should invest for these activities, how many different activities kids should do (vs just playing or sleeping etc), and then whether to focus on fewer activities and get good at them or try lots, and when to stop all the trying and focus? Who knows the answer, but I think we'll be seeking these answers in the next couple of years.
This most recent birthday party was quite simple, without any bouncy castles or swimming pools; just games and the now common sleepover after the cake. Sleepovers are a very frequent request nowadays!
In late January we had a break-in which was somewhat disturbing. One of the results was getting a puppy, who is very much a puppy. Lots of craziness usually related to biting and chewing everything and everyone. Another result was me changing my passport again, and Andrea having to replace her computer and deciding against a Mac for the first time in her life (I think she quite likes the touch-screen aspect of her windows laptop).
In other news the alternator on our car that has had problems for a while finally died and with it the car stopped moving, which I didn't know could happen, and was surprised at! Thankfully we seemed to get lucky finding a nice tow truck man, who then recommended a nice mechanic who seems to have got a new alternator for a decent price... but i suppose we'll only know in a few weeks from now if everything is still working!
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