No classes

Yesterday I cried for the first time in many months out of sheer despair over the behavior of my child. We went to the 3rd soccer class with L. and he refused to go out on the field. I tried probably 15 different approaches, short of bribes and threats, and nothing. The two coaches tried to talk him into joining the game - and nothing. Today, he refused to go to his music class too. I feel quite helpless, for I don't know what to do. The only approach that I think can work at this time is bribery and I'm just not sure I want to do that. On the other hand, those classes are for his enrichment and development (music for memory and soccer for gross motor)...

I guess I'll have to wait for next week and see what happens then.

Memberships & Competition

My oldest L. (3.7-yr-old) has reached the stage where he wants to be first all the time. Unfortunately, he doesn't quite understand that in order to be first, you have to make an effort, you can't just expect others to step aside. So, in the morning, L. wants to dress faster than A. (whom I dress), and gets very upset when that doesn't happen (which is pretty much always because L. dawdles).

So we get to have these conversation where I explain the meaning of competition to him, but that hasn't quite helped him feel better about it.

On the plus side, Cali weather is finally shaping up, and we've bought the Gold Pass to Great America & Gilroy Gardens, which are opening very soon. This Sunday we'll renew our Oakland Zoo membership, which means we will have five memberships:

1. CA Academy of Sciences
   
2. Oakland Zoo
   
3. Gilroy Gardens
   
4. Great America
   
5. San Jose Children's Discovery Museum (CDM)
   

This should give us plenty of variety over the summer and fall. Add in occasional fun events like Maker Faire (yeehaw, bought tickets for that too), and voila, meaningful family weekends.

Before kids, we would never get memberships, but if you plan to go to these places twice or thrice (which, chances are, you would), the memberships are more cost-effective.