Julia spent the last couple weeks settling in at school. She’s very enthused about the idea of being a first grader, but sometimes has a little trouble with accepting the reality of what that entails. That is to say, she’s still having some of the same problems she had last year regarding focusing in class and getting her work done when she’s supposed to. She’s not having any issues with the actual difficulty of the classwork, which we’re taking as a good sign; and she loves her teacher, Mrs. Peters. Rather, at times she’s just a little unclear on her responsibilities and our expectations.

Julie and I are racking our brains trying to figure out how to motivate her without dampening her spirit and enthusiasm. She’s fundamentally a good girl (of course, what kind of parent would I be if I felt otherwise?), but we need to help her understand that people are going to judge her based on how she behaves—she’s not going to make it on charm and looks alone, real-life examples from contemporary American society notwithstanding. If nothing else, we don’t have to worry about parenting being boring.

As part of the plan to address these concerns, we’ve decided to take a big step and start giving the kids an allowance: 25¢ for each year of age, or $1.50 for Julia and $1.00 for Joe each week. The exact amount will be adjusted based on their behavior at home and at school and whether they help out with their chores around the house, which largely involve feeding Maggie and helping me pick up apples in the yard. I’m looking forward to them mowing the lawn, cleaning the gutters and bringing me drinks by this time next year.

The other big news is that Joe is all set to start Junior K for real this coming week. He’s been busing over to Amber for the last month or so, but they’ve still been doing fun summer camp activities. On Monday, he gets his first real dose of school, complete with desks, school supplies and homework. He has the same teacher Julia did for Junior K, Ms. Aamoth (though she was Ms. Powell at the time), and a bunch of his preschool friends are in his class, so it won’t be a complete change of surroundings, but it’ll be a shift nonetheless. Knowing Joe, however, he’ll probably take it with aplomb.