Why other things are important

Sometimes I get frustrated when other things intrude on our homeschooling time. I have so many things I want to teach Z, especially now that the school year is just starting and I had done two weeks of homeschool brainstorming in France. This week we didn't get to do any geography or history at all and I was really looking forward to it.

Yesterday Z had an audition that 2:40 at a place that took an hour to drive to and more than and hour to drive home from. the whole afternoon was gone. Then today we visited our older friends from Camarillo that we have coffee with every other week. We only had time for math before going and we didn't get back to till almost lunch time.

But I have to remind myself why these other things are important.

I decided, when I sold the bookstore, that I was going to continue seeing some of the people for whom the bookstore was an important part of their life. There is gentleman in this eighties who was a customer and one of my employees, a woman in her fifties with a daughter in high school and an older son who recently became a father.

Every other week we meet and have coffee and I listen to them and I share things I think they would want to hear and I bring Z and they dote on her. I ask after their kids and grandkids and I ask their advice on things.

I think to go there and make small talk and have coffee is more important that school work at that time because it is teaching Z that we don't just leave people behind. It is teaching her that the connections we make matter. It is teaching her that we can have intergenerational friendships. It teaches her that sometimes we drive 45 minutes each way to visit with people who are older and lonely and who get a great deal of enjoyment from our visits.

I think what she learns there is very important.

The auditions are harder to justify. What is she learning? Maybe that some endeavors take time to come to fruition. A father we met at one of her auditions told me that his daughter went on 20 auditions before she got her first job. I heard the average is 50.

I am learning that if it were just about me I not that interested in driving an hour to meet with someone for five minutes and not get a job over and over again. Note that I am not a professional actor. ;)

But there are some things I do care enough about to go and put myself out there over and over again in hopes of getting somewhere at some point. Right now Z cares about this. So maybe she is learning a valuable skill - the skill of dedication and salesmanship.

I don't know for sure. For her it all all fun at this point and she gets to list to The Order of the Phoenix in the car which is quite engrossing.

*yawn* Okay I am getting tired.

p.s.
Happy New Year!