ONE WEEK TO DEPARTURE!

I am completely overwhelmed and trying to keep my focus clear on the priorities - there are many...

I found a cleaning lady and the plan is to have her come 3 times before we leave - once for each floor, beginning with the basement at 2:30 today. We are still discarding items as we are cleaning, organising and packing, and Tim will probably do a trip to Value Village today or tomorrow.

I met with the boys teachers last Wednesday, and we have a good plan for the schooling front. Leo's will require much more work than Dylan's, and it will be a great opportunity to be creative and make fun projects together. We will explore Canada's first Nations and the first French settlements, and we are encouraged to note differences and similarities with those of Mexico. In Science, we will study the world of plants, their structure and their use - and the timing happens to work with our stay at the farm!
Dylan will have to keep a weekly journal, and prepare a presentation on Mayan civilisation. He will also have to keep-up with his math. The books represent a heavy load - I packed them in a separate bag.

I made the poster for the classes I will offer in Majahual, 3 family circles for accompanied children up to 4 years olds, and 3 classes for unaccompanied 4 to 7 year olds. It will take place at the little Montessori school of Majahual. I will arrange my teaching in the village of Xcalak once we get to our first house. I have a lot of small instruments to donate - it feels amazing to give songs and games and instruments to children, and know that they will keep playing after I'm gone.

For Le Petit Atelier, I met with my biggest client last Wednesday morning and everything is fine and dandy. Happy client, happy teacher, happy kids - I couldn't ask for better. I will be meeting with 2 other big clients this week and fine-tune the schedules for the next trimester, and then everything will be lined-up until April 1 inclusively.

For The Little Workshop, all the schedules are finally settled. This was the most challenging part as Tim is a very popular teacher and his absence is being felt. However everyone is continuing - and our 3 teachers are well booked and ready for the upcoming months. Because our hard drive died about 2 weeks ago, I had to re-enter all our email addresses and phone numbers. This is actually a good exercise because I now have the info on my iPhone as well, and we are leaving with an updated address book in our computer.

This all sounds so dry and serious and boring... it is the unavoidable organisational phase which is not so much fun. But that's how we can pull this off - I can't wait to lighten-up!