This is my review-the-last-month and look-forward-to-next-month post. Think of it as my hello [month], goodbye [month] post.

Plus I calculated how much money we need for childcare and kids’ activities for school year 2026-2027. Seeing that number made me sick.

July

July started on a rough note: a TERRIBLE heat wave in New Jersey, and a thunderstorm knocked out power for practically the whole of NJ? It sucked. We had a generator and used our outside grill and inside gas stove so it wasn’t the end of the world but the HEAT. The heat was awful. We couldn’t sleep. Thankfully, we had two fans that we placed in the bedroom and that made things borderline bearable.

July was largely about our epic Italian trip. I wrote a lot about it so I won’t recap it here. My Italy postmortem post can be found here. All in all, it was a good trip in spite of some parenting challenges.

August

August is a get-back-to-normal month. Easy-going things like playgrounds, ice cream, cooking and baking, and pool visits. One week of summer camp. Some academic work for the kids. Some academic work for me. Planning Q4.

Slowly getting back into the swing of things. It took us (me) a while to feel normal again after jet lag. Plus! This is important for me: starting HRT and keeping track of how I’m feeling/any symptoms. The headaches eased up, thankfully.

In August I’ve been focusing on:

1 building routines for the kids (and myself)

2 reading books, articles, blogs

3 getting back to lifting weights at the ymca

4 weeding the flower beds

5 listening to podcasts and audio books

6 overall catch-up on so many things… life, laundry, planning Q4, decluttering

7 seeing friends (my 3 sister-friends also traveled this summer).

8 enjoying being at the house

9 some back-to-school prep but my kids don’t go back till September 8th (!)

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I also sat down and calculated aftercare fees and extracurricular activities fees for next school year. I take advantage of an FSA account for dependent care so I do get a tax break. But the rest of them is expensive.

Last year we were doing: aftercare, piano, Brazilian jiu jitsu and gymnastics. Piano was expensive ($90/hour) but L decided not to continue… Silver lining?… I also never calculated the total for last year.

But this year, I did. And those numbers are insane. School year will run from September’26 to June’27: $6,720 – aftercare; $2,765 – gymnastics lessons for both kids; $2,500 – Brazilian jiu jitsu, only for my son (he had a change of heart and wants to continue).

Grand total: $11,985. Let’s just call it 12K.

But! Not included: swim lessons for both (it’s time) and a tumbling gymnastics class for L during the week (instead of piano).

Let us say that is another 3K… So, 15K total?…

I realize that we can only send them to aftercare and be done with it. BUT, I want my kids to do things. When I was a child I never got to participate in any classes because skates were “dangerous. In gymnastics people “broke their necks.” Piano or violin were for “patient and hard-working” people (apparently I wasn’t one of them). Martial arts and riding a bicycle were “for boys only”. Those are my mom’s views.

Realistically…

Aftercare is non-negotiable. Both T and I work and, although I can leave work at 2:45PM per our teaching contract, there is no way I will make it to school pick up on time, so the kids have to go to after care. Also, on days when I JUST need a break… say, when T is away on business. In between work and pick up, I can go home and rest, or go to the gym, or do yoga, or get groceries. Anyway, aftercare is an investment and is worth it. It’s from 3pm to 6pm but I usually pick them up earlier.

Other activities… Swim is #1. I need the kids to learn how to swim. They “think” they know how to swim, but they don’t.

Gymnastics on Saturdays: L loves it because of cheer component, and she is a very active child. Plus she has friends in those classes with similar love for gymnastics.

Brazilian jiu jitsu is good for R since martial arts is 1. confidence, 2. self-defense and 3. friendships but it’s not a “must.”

I am waiting for August 24th when the YMCA opens its registration for swim lessons. Swim will dictate BJJ and that additional gymnastics class.

To sum up…

~ aftercare – a must #1;

~ swim: #2;

~ gymnastics on Saturdays #3: already registered at the end of June

~ Brazilian jiu jitsu #4: waiting on swim.

~ Additional weekday gymnastics class (instead of piano) for L #5: waiting on swim.

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If you have kids, what are they doing this school year? Did you do after-school activities when you were little?