Wow. I can’t believe it’s been a week since we last talked. I find the last six weeks of the school year take me by surprise. There’s so much going on …

At our home, we celebrated Sophie’s 7^th birthday last Friday night and are now immersed in my older daughter, Liv’s, busy soccer schedule (her school team made it into the city finals – yeah!).

I’m trying to keep on top of weeding the garden (why do the weeds grow so, so much faster than anything else?) and get all of my annuals into the ground. I usually go for white flowers but after such a long winter I want my outdoor world awash in colour, so this spring and summer purple impatiens reign.

We’re also building a deck in our backyard. (Ok, my husband is actually building the deck while I play general contractor and monitor the progress).

With all this activity, I admit homework takes a backseat in our house. I was delighted when Sophie came home from school and announced her grade 1 teacher’s rule: No homework on lovely spring evenings. How very civilized.

I felt quite smug about my slacker attitude toward homework this morning when I read a report from Active Healthy Kids Canada. One of the key findings says: Parents should think about trading time spent doing school work for time spent being physically active with their children because research shows that kids who are active do better in the classroom.