The Art of Time Management

There comes a point when you and your kids choose extracurricular activities in which they want to participate. Dance has always been the activity of choice for my daughter. She's been dancing since she was five. We go to the classes every week, we buy costumes and primp for photos. We spend time practicing for the yearly recital. This year, she decided to participate in tap, jazz and ballet which means two nights of dance lessons each week.

Then there is softball every summer. Now, there is softball camp every Sunday afternoon to prepare for the summer softball season.

Then the opportunity for music lessons came along. My daughter decided to join the orchestra and play the 1/2 violin. Since neither my husband nor I had music lessons ourselves, we gladly signed her up.

Now she decided to participate in the school play "Sleeping Beauty". Since she got the part of a Chorus Girl (I'm not sure what version of "Sleeping Beauty" has chorus girls, but whatever) she is spending almost every evening this week rehearsing for the play.

Add to that the usual homework and recorder practice for music class, and we're on a pretty tight schedule. It didn't hit me until I was watching her in softball practice on Sunday. She was waiting in line to practice her fast pitch, and she was practicing her dance steps while she was waiting. Now that's multitasking.

She wants to do it all, and I want to encourage it to a point. I am hoping that she really falls in love with one activity, but so far she likes everything. And she is an excellent student with very good grades.

Raising that girl is getting to be a full-time job.