Tell you something you didn’t know, right? The home inspection here pointed out a crack in our basement wall, which we were told isn’t an issue but maybe it is. So they want to bring in an engineer and I, of course, am worried that it is an issue and that we’ll be stuck in the house forever until it caves in on us.

My other worry is that the engineer will tell us what the guy who looked at it told us, namely that it’s an old crack and not moving and so no big deal and then we’ll get an inspection on the other house and find deadly mold in the attic.

I’m now with Noah on the nice neighborhood children. You know, the “enthusiastic” ones. They drop by three or four times a day to see if Noah can play yet. We told them no on Thursday but they came by two more times to make sure. They have come by three times today (Noah has someone over and I have a kid-limit for my sanity’s sake) and called once. The little girl will squeeze her way in if you crack the door so Noah talks to her through the screen. Now she wants to play in our yard by herself “just for five minutes,” she says. I feel kinda bad for them but not bad enough to say, “Hell, just come on in! My nerves can take it!” They must be lonely, I guess. I finally told her, “N, I feel very frustrated when I tell you no and you argue with me. No means no.”

Noah is contemplating school since his best friend just started. He’s very torn. Some unschoolers will never let their kids choose school and some will. I have very mixed feelings about it. I feel like he’s old enough to make an informed decision but I also don’t think he’s that informed. Anyway since he’s not sure himself I told him that we would spend the next year working on it as an option and he can decide next summer. As soon as I said he could go he changed his tune. The truth is, he wants both. He wants to have friends at school but he doesn’t actually want to do, you know, school. He said maybe he could let the teacher know that seven hours was too long and he could leave halfway. I told him no dice.

He and I had already talked about being more structured in his results this year — more portfolio gathering, really. I think that we’ll visit the principal at the new school and talk to him/her about what third graders are doing and maybe Noah can visit a class. I don’t know. I’m thinking that when he gets in a neighborhood where all of his friends are going to the same school that he’ll likely want to go. And that’s one reason we picked this neighborhood — the school is pretty good. But it’s still school and it’s still a lot of things I don’t like. Still if Noah knew what he was saying yes to and wanted to do it, I trust him. If it was a disaster (unlikely) he could come home again. And as sad as it would make me (because I do love our unschooling so much and hate to give it up) it would be easier in a lot of ways.

I tell you though, the thought of getting him up and out of bed and off to school makes me tired. Although as close as the new house is, it’s a five minute walk tops. And then the notes. The excusal notes. “Please excuse Noah from class this afternoon. He has a dentist appointment.” That would feel all crazy.

Well, we’ve got this year. One year (day) at a time. Best I can do, right?

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