Choosing A School

Sixth grade is the first year that electives are offered. Drew wants to take computer applications. I know he loves computers so I listened to him. My problem is twofold. First, and primarily, it is only a one semester class. The other semester is filled with study hall, which I don't want him to have. There is no mixing and matching. If you want computers, it comes with study hall. Period. Secondly, I've spoken with more experienced parents, including one who has substitute taught in the computer class, and I've learned that desktop publishing is the only thing they teach. This means more Word and PowerPoint. He already does well with these and they aren't difficult to pick up on your own. So, I've put my foot down and he's chosen again. In the end, he chose Exploratory. This may be known to some of you as "cycle." It consist of 6 week sessions of 6 different courses, including food / child care, shop, music, drama, sewing and art (I think). I have to agree that most of these classes would not appear to interest him at all. But, I think that they are good skills to learn and if he hates them, they are only 6 weeks. Then, on to something different. Most of his friends also wanted to take computers and all of their parents put the kibosh on it, too.

He also chose band. He's thinking of ditching the horn for percussion. He wants to remain in band because in high school they take a trip to Disney every four years. He believes that it will be his senior year. He also has expressed an interest in jazz band. Sixth graders may play in jazz band but not if you play the horn. You need to play a jazz instrument. He's thinking of keyboard, since he has experience in that arena. He hasn't expressed an interest but in our high school football trumps God community, they are replacing the recreation program with a district funded middle school football team. This team comes complete with cheerleaders, pom-poms (who knew there was a difference?) and marching band. Don't get me started on why we need this but have 26 kids in a class!

The only other options are chorus and full year study hall. I think that he is content with his choices.

One would think that enrolling a child in middle school would put kindergarten in perspective. Such is not the case. I feel strongly that phonics is the way to teach reading. Period. We reside in a whole language district. So, I'm searching for alternatives. There is no such creature as a secular non public school in our county. Possibly in our state. If you want to find one, you better head to Chicago. This makes my search all the more challenging. I'm looking first at curriculum and secondarily at religion. I'm trying to formulate an equation that will return the best solution, taking into account curriculum, religion, class size and cost. Now, I could put up with pretty much any religious instruction but the monkey wrench in the math is that members get a discount. Sometimes as much as 1/3 the cost of non-members. I'm not meaning to be hypocritical or offensive, but for that much money, I could be Lutheran. They're not so different from Catholics. In fact, they used to be Catholics. And I'm not particularly Catholic anyway. I have 3 more schools to visit. Public school registration is next Monday and Tuesday. I'd like to make a decision before then. And in the end, the result of my study may say to enroll her in public school. But whole language? shudder

And speaking of not being very Catholic, this Nun Chuck is hysterical. And don't miss Nunzilla!

Food for Thought

Customer Service
While at Dick's this morning, we tried to pay for two items at a cash register adjacent to the entrance to the mall. Someone who looked like he should have been in school and had previously offered assistance came over and told us, "Oh, you can't pay for that here. You have to go to customer service."

Drew in Equality
"There is no such thing as a bigger half."

Tim Reading
While waiting at a red light yesterday, Tim let's out an "Ahhhhhhhh," a la Tarzan. Then he says, "t, t, t, mmm, mmm, mmm." Then I caught on. He was reading random letters from the back of a Penske truck in front of us.

Sledding

Timothy was born in December. We moved in June, when he was 5 months old. Tim never went sledding in NY. I think he went to a hill in the Baby Bjorn with Cub Scouts that first winter. But he never went down the hill. I think he was less than 6 weeks old.

Last year it didn't really snow. We had mostly mud. And anyone who has ever been to central Illinois knows that a pancake has more slope that our terrain. So even if there had been snow, what was the point?

Well, I've ventured a bit more around town now and I once saw people sledding on a decent sized hill on a golf course. Now I know where to sled in the event that we have snow.

It finally snowed last night. And, guess what? It's possible to sweat when you go sledding. No cold toes or fingers. Just wet soggy outerwear. Tim loved it!

Ready to sled.



















Thoughts on finger dexterity and mittens.



















Ready for action with dad.














Enjoying the ride.














Hiking up the hill.



















Communicating that he's had enough.

Can't Live Without

While most of you don't live in Illinois, I've found so much great universal information on Illinoisloop.org that I just had to share it. It's all about education and I happen to wholeheartedly agree with most of the content. A true treasure trove!

Charles Murray on Education

Aztecs vs. Greeks and embedded links to parts I and II of the series.

House Bound

This is what we awoke to on Saturday. Really, the ice was everywhere except the roads. But our poor shrubs! And the poor children. This storm warning extended 3 whole days, or right through the long weekend.

Having experienced our share of ice storms, we chose to stay put. We had no commitments and we had 4 playoff games to watch. By approximately 10 AM Saturday, the kids had picked up on the confined felling. By noon, we had cooked up a mixture to grow crystals, as seen in one of their picture books, and had decided that watching the colorful glasses sit on the counter all weekend was not the way to pass the time.

Feeling their pain, I agreed to allow them to drag their outside vehicles to the basement, provided the transportation was smaller than a bike. Their dropped jaws indicated their disbelief. Why do they continue to ask when they get a surprise answer? Are they hoping that I'll change my mind and respond in the negative? Eventually, down went the scooters, skateboards and rollerblades. Helmets, everyone!

Satisfied that they had gotten away with something, they actually played together and got along. Eventually, however, things grew quiet. 4 kids on wheels in a room full of toys and we didn't hear anything? It's strange how this lack of sound is so much more startling than the usual cacophony. And then the silence was shattered. The house shook, wood crashed and metal echoed. Followed but uproarious laughter and squeals of delight. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.

At this point, the adults decide that we should go investigate. I mean, we have 4 kids. How long would it be until we missed one of them? But the house! We'll never get someone out here to install temporary floor jacks to keep us from plummeting to the basement during the storm! We sneaked down the stairs and peered around the corner to find child one on a scooter and carrying a broomstick giraffe, child two riding a skateboard and wielding an actual broom, child three restacking the Lincoln Logs, and child four amassing a pile of Hotwheels. And then we understood. Children one and two were crashing into the constructions of children three and four and then engaging in a joust. Without helmets. Even knights wore armor.

Kindergarten

When Drew was 5, I saw him as a big kid who was totally ready to head off to kindergarten. Indeed, he was. Now I see kindergarten students and they look so little. If you told they were in preschool, I would completely accept that as truth. Lugging backpacks that hang to their knees, they look too young to be institutionalized.

Megan is old enough to be one of them this year but she is still home. The truth is, I am terrified of making her part of the machine. Only I know my child. Even the best teacher could not possibly be as vested as I am in her success. And most teachers... Don't get me started. And I perceive Megan as my child who could most easily slip between the cracks.

But she can't wait to be a kindergartener. She wants to be with peers all day. She asks me every day if she can ride the bus next year. She pesters me to join the older two for lunch so that she can eat in the cafeteria and enjoy the playground. She wants to know if Tim and I will eat with her next year.

I think that I would feel better if she were reading already. But she's not. And here is that pesky double edged sword. They. Will. Begin. At. The. Beginning. Then I will complain that they always teach to the slowest child in the class and lose many hours of sleep plotting ways to force them to group by ability.

I hope that this is just part of my mid-year mental assessment of their education and the ensuing crisis that I inevitably enter. I will register her next month.

And speaking of registering, I have a parent's meeting to attend next week at the Middle School. That's right, my ready-for-kindergarten first born son is going to middle school. When did that happen? Perhaps that will put a bit more perspective on kindergarten.

Leonardo

While perusing the shelves of Barnes & Noble last week, I came across a gem called Amazing Leonardo da Vinci Inventions You Can Build Yourself. Amazing, indeed. It required normal household items. Many children's projects claim to use products that you have at home, and in fact, you do, after a $73 trip to the hardware store. Day 15 of our Christmas break called for a bit of action, so we built the helical air screw model. Aeronautical engineers we are not, as our creation neither flew nor received modification to achieve flight.
When I tried to snap a picture for your viewing pleasure, I was a little surprised that the camera batteries were dead. I quickly understood that there is a shutterbug under our roof. And there were bored students whose interests lay in aquatics. I knew about the sink trick, although fortunately for them they only got my wrist. I just didn't know that they were dumb enough to leave a trail allowing no shred of reasonable doubt.