It’s the last week it’s available. School starts on August 18 for reals, as in all day long. So she goes half days this week, is off next week and half of the week after and then, HELLO THIRD GRADE.
No fewer than five thousand times in the past days she’s asked, “Why do you think Summer Intervention is good for me?”
And every single time I’ve patiently answered, “Because it reminds you of what you learned last year in second grade and helps you get ready to learn more awesome stuff in third grade.”
Because it’s all true. She needs this time in school to remind her that being social is important, that sitting still and listening to the teacher is important, that taking it all in and then being able to spit it all back out is important.
School isn’t easy for Olivia. She doesn’t enjoy sitting still for hours at a time, socializing with her peers is almost painful for her. The work itself doesn’t come easily like it did for me when I was her age or the way it does for Alyssa.
But she tries. She gets up with a sigh every single day and trudges to school and enjoys the snacks at Summer Intervention and writes little snippets because she’s told to do so.
She tries. She tries so hard and for that I am grateful. I praise her and hug her and tell her how amazing she is.
She always hugs me back, smiles at my silliness and then launches into an tale about the Monster High crew and their imaginary visit to our house.
This girl…I wish I could smooth the way for her, make things a little easier, make them less stressful. But since I can’t go to school for her I can listen to her stories, laugh with her at dinner as she laments the unfairness of having to feed herself dinner (a tale for another day) and hug her as much as she’ll let me, reminding her every single day how much she is loved, how lucky I feel to be her mom, how she fits so perfectly into our little family, how without her, we just wouldn’t be complete.
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