Columbia Playgroup

Columbia University is only a short distance away from where we live. As luck would have it, there is a really nice homeschooling group that meets there every week during the summer. We meet in a shady square of grass, surrounded by a hedge and behind that, beautiful old buildings. There is not the crazy, chaotic frenzy that is many NYC playgrounds during the summertime, and it is an absolutely lovely location. The kids don't miss the playground equipment at all--they fill the time by organizing themselves to play jumprope, red light-green light, tag, tug of war, frisbee, or group "make believe" where they are all one big family or drivers of wild horses or magicians mixing potions. We are meeting some really nice families through this group--Maya spent the whole afternoon this week playing dolls on the picnic blankets, and Jonah is usually found just to the side of all the action--not entirely ready to jump in with a group but not content to be left out either. He wants so badly to play with the bigger kids, but in his heart he is just a stick wielding little guy who likes to emulate others while not actually playing with them and run around a lot.

The playgroup is part of our regular weekly schedule...this week we added to that tennis lessons at the Central Park Tennis Center. It meets twice a week for the next two months. The kids loved it and they looked pretty cute with their kid-sized rackets and new tennis shoes. I had a major moral dilemma in that Jonah is supposed to be 5 to do the lessons. Oh well, life is messy. He certainly looks bigger than most of the 5 year olds in his class. That counts for something, right? Next week the track program starts--I don't know about Maya, but Jonah, I think, will really dig that. Now if I can just figure out how to sneak into Columbia for a Master's program of one kind or another our summer schedule will be complete...