The dance recital was just as hectic as I knew it would be, but it sailed through without many glitches. The costume changes went smoothly, considering we only had an average of 7 minutes for each. J lost both her black and beige gore boots so we borrowed - I had to clean up and crazy glue an old pair from a teammate, and she ended up wearing her beige pedini shoes when the beige gores she borrowed were way too small. I also forgot to pack the 3 pairs of white shorts we just bought. It's really horrifying to get there and realize you don't have every piece of every costume. But in the end it all worked out - as it usually does in life - and it was a fabulous show.

The after-party was at a really quaint Italian place in Long Island City. The food was great (buffet), the open bar was great (lol), and the kids had a blast running around the sidewalks right outside. And when it started to drizzle, it got even more fun for them. We got home before 9 and all 3 kids passed out immediately.

Monday was a total day of rest for us. Most of the company dance parents kept their kids home from school, too. B brought the car in for a repair (the gas gauge wasn't working), so I took advantage of the time at home to get some good cleaning done. W and I have been doing an easy reading "program" called "Ready Reading" from Tanglewood (thank you to whomever recommended that). It's 22 lessons and you do one a day. He's having fun with it and we've been following the page-a-day thing. After just 10 lessons, I see an amazing amount of improvement already. I did question myself on how this ties into unschooling. Well, the thing is, W wants to read, but is having trouble getting over certain humps on his own. It's frustrating for him. Before I printed out the program I asked him if he'd like to try something new, and he agreed. It's like when you have a loose tooth that's hanging by one little string. It's just quicker and less frustrating to go in and pull it out than wait patiently for it to fall out by itself. And this reading program is the quicker and less frustrating way to reading.

Anyway, this program builds upon everything learned previously and uses lots of repetition. This works for W because he remembers the rules from day to day and feels very confident reading to me now. Normally, he refuses to show me what he knows until he knows it perfectly and won't make mistakes. Now he seems proud that he knows so much. I believe in phonics. I always have.

On Tuesday, J was having fun reading me certain facts out of the Time for Kids book. She then started quizzing me on what the capitals were for certain countries. I suck at that, so she changed it to having me guess the continent that each country is on. She read off an alphabetical list of countries (that also listed lots of facts about that country) and although I guessed most of the continents correctly (ok well, just slightly more than half, lol), I never realized how many countries I've never heard of (Andorra, Brunei, Comoros, Eritrea, etc). We were laughing hysterically and laying all over each other on the bed with W thrown in there for good measure. I think he was actually paying attention. He seems to know all the continents.

The summer dance classes started Tuesday, also. W is trying out tap (but it turned out to be a more advanced class - which isn't good since he's never taken a tap class in his life). And J took her mandatory company tech class (jump, turn, kick). J has 2 mandatory classes today (lyrical and ballet), and 2 more tomorrow (company tech and acro). This is the schedule for the next 5 weeks as well. Her performance team (the one she qualified for with 6 of her teammates that had the big 4-day rehearsal on Memorial Day weekend in NJ) is doing the Meadowlands Fair at Giants Stadium in a few weeks. This fair is really fun, too. I didn't go last year because I had to work (my mom took her). This year we'll all go together.