School Daze November 16, 2006
Posted by spacemom in : Kids , 2 commentsThe School Post.
DISCLAIMER: I am seriously F*d when it comes to school. I was placed into our G&T program in 3rd grade and graduated 2nd in my class (0.007 behind my best friend in GPA..I kid you not). My childhood experiences from parental pressures to teacher expectations has seriously screwed me. Which is why I had nightmares last night after writing this up.
I have an unhealthy fear of school. Seriously. This is just not right.
Soleil will start kindergarten in September 2007. This scares the hell out of me.
Why?
- How will she deal with the structure?
- How will the school deal with her off days?
- How will I deal with the pressure to do the right mom things?
- Will she be okay in Kindergarten?
- Will I put too much pressure on her to do well?
- Will I not push her enough that she slacks off?
- What will I do when she is home after school?
- Testing testing testing!
Whew, that’s a long list: Let’s tackle them one by one
1. How will she deal with the structure?
Honestly, this is my own fear. I know she does great in daycare and her class is leaning more towards a kindergarten class than her preschool class did. She has more structured time and she follows rules well, but at home we allow a great deal of freedom. I worry about how she will deal with "you have to do it this way". I know, stupid, but there it is.
2. How will the school deal with her off days?
I was raised that you NEVER EVER miss school. It is that important. But, Jay disagrees with this. And slowly, I see it too. The girls will miss school on the Jewish holidays. No argument from me there. That is a simple fact. Our district is not Jewish enough to give the holidays off, unlike the town next to us. So, the girls will simply not go to school those days.
We also travel a bit. The school’s website has a big important note about how parents shouldn’t schedule vacations during the school year, how important it is to keep the children’s education consistant…blah blah blah. Listen, Jay and I can handle most of the subject matter the girls will take until, maybe highschool. And even then we can help out. I think we can help them with assignments and such if they go with us on a trip. But this attitude from the school that nothing is more important then school just sends ripples of fear down my spine. I fear the school system…
3. How will I deal with the pressure to do the right mom things?
You know, those THINGS. The PTA, the checking assignments, the baking cookies (yum) and all other things maternal. Hell, I have no time now? Will I do the right things? Will I fail miserably? I worry how I come across will affect my children’s success in school.
4. Will she be okay in Kindergarten?
This applies to both kids, although I think Luna more than Soleil. I know, every parents wants to think their kid is smart. Yeah. But seriously, Soleil was asking us about how ELECTRICITY works. Why can’t we see it? We explained how the electrons move in the wires and how it isn’t something you can see and then she wants a microscope to see the wire moving. She asks questions that make you think. Such as "how thick is air?" Or "what if you took ice from the freezer, let it melt and then froze it in the freezer? would it be the same thing?"
Luna is using vocabulary that blows us away. And her logic. oh man, the logic. The other day Luna said something about a crack-crack bird. Soleil and I laughed and said there is no crack-crack bird. Luna got angry and said "the egg goes crack-crack and then there’s a bird. The crack-crack bird!" Okay. you’ve got me there.
Will they maintain their love for learning at school? I worry that school will kill their spirits..
5. Will I put too much pressure on her to do well?
Again, for both girls. I want them to respect learning, but I also know that in school, I was stiffled from the organization. Will they feel that way too? Will I put pressure them to "get good grades"? I remember a time from my freshman year in college. I got a 66 on my Geo 101 final. I needed a 3 on the final to get an A in the class and I had decided to worry about my physics 101 class instead. My dad was furious. I was thrilled that I had pulled 66 without studying and once I knew I had one question right, I blew off the rest of the test. I hated that pressure that my dad and mom gave me. I don’t want to do that to my girls, but I worry that once we hit the school years, with the quanitative measures, I will pressure them.
6. Will I not push her enough that she slacks off?
I had a teacher in my senior year in high school. She was an idiot. She was teaching us physics and I was reading the Sky and Telescope magazine. I asked her about Schrodinger’s cat. She had no clue. Come on woman, this is basic quantum physics. How can you teach physics without hearing about that? I lost all respect for the teacher and it was only my love of physcis that kept me going in that class. (yeah, love for physics, you can retch now). I worry that the girls will find teachers that are idiots (we all had them) and just slack off because of it. If I wasn’t terrified of my parents displeasure, (see #5), I would have blown of 11th grade English… Trust me on that one. However, I don’t want to terrify my children into working hard… Sigh…
7. What will I do when she is home after school?
Logistical. I work from oh, 9ish to 5ish. Kindergarten is 8:30-3:30, T-F. I don’t work on Mondays, so that is taken care of, but what do we do the other days of the week? I figure we’ll be in work early other days of the week, but to return home? I am lost in the maze of after school care. Babysitter? Nanny? Sign her up for classes and have someone take her to these? After school care through the town?
I just don’t know….
8.Testing testing testing!
We have the wonderful state tests called the MCAS. I can’t believe they are forcing kids to take these, but there we are. I have a healthy disrepect of standarized tests. I hate them. I feel kids need to be evaluated on severa; items, not just how they deal on a test under pressure. These tests start in 3rd grade…. 3rd GRADE! Why do we put this pressure on kids? And don’t get me started on the "teaching to the test" crap that goes on..
Whew. This is insane. I know that the root of all of this is my experiences in a small town school. But I want my kids to have a much calmer experience in school than I did. It is such a huge thing in people’s lives. School days shape so much of who we are, our ambitions, our goals, our fears…
Overheard in Burbank November 15, 2006
Posted by spacemom in : Seeing the World Through Astronomy , 5 commentsScene: Burbank Airport
Time: 8:30pm
Spacemom is in urgent need of a restroom. She finds a women’s room and walks in with 2 women following. She manages to get stuck with the handicap stall that is sans lock. Lovely. She steps out of the stall to hear one of the women sudden jump out of a stall
"It’s Broken! My toilet is broken!"
I peer in, looks good to me…
"It doesn’t have a flusher!"
Flusher? WTF?
The other woman also comes out " Mine doesn’t have one either!"
This is surreal, this isn’t true.
I speak up "these are automatically flushing toilets"
A VERY dirty look sent my way "Yeah!, How can these toilets flush without the flusher?"
I start to explain and then realize this is just not worth it. I take the stall she has just abandoned (without the flusher) and void. I get up, zip and button and Ah… the toilet flushes. Thanks to technology.
The stall next to mine flushes. The "no flusher" woman yells "HOW DID YOU GET IT TO FLUSH?"
Seriously
I
Can
NOT
Make
This
Up
Two women had never heard of automatically flushing toilets. Where have they been? Have they missed the technology boom north of them? Damn, I guess Figlet was right. It’s the Valley Girls.
All this and coffee too? November 15, 2006
Posted by spacemom in : Life...otherwise, She Blinded me with Science, I dream of sleep , 4 commentsOh Lord, I am tired.
Last night, I spent 3-4:30 am curled up in a crib (with one side off, so really a toddler daybed) with Luna. She must have had too many cookies at daycare, because she was sleeping as stiff as a board until she would fart and then curl up. Then slowly she would go stiff again, fart and repeat. Poor kiddo. Daycare had a Thanksgiving event yesterday. I read about it Sunday night. Monday: we get some sweet potatoes from the store and boil them, whip up with some butter and brown sugar and yummy! Whipped sweet potatoes.
Our work computers are almost recovered. We will have the hideous task of dealing with the mess when they recover our last disk, but that’s tomorrow. I can wait until then!
Life has been fast and furious lately. I don’t understand it. We’ve been swamped with life. First, my parents’ visit. That was fun and frustrating at the same time. I love my parents, but there is some good to the fact that they live in North Carolina and we live in Massachusetts. Next week, my in-laws visit. We are not sure for how long or anything on that order, but hey, we’ll try it!
The girls are so glad to have us home. The virus that swept through our house was nasty. That part is clear. Also, Jay and I avoided it. Whew. Luna was very clingy to me on Friday and that was okay. She is normally a "daddy" girl, but during this trip away, she wanted mommy. She even got Jay on the phone one day and said "Hi Daddy, I want to talk to my mommy". Ah, to be loved! We had 3 days of sleep, but the past two nights have been terrible. I have a honking bruise on my left leg where I walked into the corner of the bed last night when I was carrying Soleil back to her bed. I suppose "Son of a Bitch!" is not appropriate language for my girls to hear. Why yes, Luna was in our room when I said that!
I have several posts stuck in my head….
What do you want to hear?
1) The girls and why I worry about school days.
2) School shootings and protecting our children.
3) Why spanking is not allowed in our house
4) If I won the lottery, what would I do?
5) the housing crunch in the Boston Metro area.
I have some code to design… Gotta run!
Fat???WTF? November 14, 2006
Posted by spacemom in : Kids , 2 commentsLooks like the computers are behaving better.
I was informed last night, that my 4 year old, 34 lb daughter told Dr. Jay, "Daddy, I am so fat"
WTF? Seriously folks, WHAT THE F*CK? Where did she get this from? Sure, I am not thrilled with the soft rolls of my tummy, but I don’t rub it and say "mama’s gotta few pounds to lose!"
I am VERY VERY VERY careful to not make stupid body image comments around my girls. That is very important to us.
I wonder if my parents said something to her while I was gone. She is going to have body image issues being a woman in the United States. Do we really need to start it when she is 4?
Sigh…
Where oh where is Spacemom? November 14, 2006
Posted by spacemom in : Spacemom , add a commentHa! As if anyone cares!
Okay- got home Friday morning, spent Friday being attacked by two small children. Spent Saturday helping a friend blow $500 at Ann Taylor, a birthday gift from her husband, Spent Sunday, ducking the rain and trying to keep the kids happy! Spent Yesterday dealing with a major issue at work.
They moved our computer systems across Cambridge Mass over the weekend. We lost a disk in the move. We are screwed. Majorly… I will be spending this week fixing things so we can work okay….
I will post when I can, because I have some very interesting thoughts in my head…
PSA: To the Southern United States November 8, 2006
Posted by spacemom in : She Blinded me with Science , 2 commentsAttention those of you south of the Mason-Dixon line all the way across the US.
Will you please consider using a warmer setting on your A/C? We do not need this meeting room to be set to 68 degrees. Hello? Are you listening? Do you realize how much energy you are wasting by having the temp so low? Do you realize how much $MONEY$$$ you would save by raising the temp to, let’s say 72? I could live with 72, but I am fricken FREEZING here!
BTW: Congrats to Governer Elect Daval Patrick! The first African- American Governer in Massachusetts. Way to go! Way to go!
Barf…. November 7, 2006
Posted by spacemom in : Kids , 2 commentsSoleil vomited on the ride home from daycare.
Grandma is also sick.
So, I guess Luna wasn’t sick from the candy and sugar….
I just wish I was there to hug them. I feel horrible. The best I could do was sing to Soleil while standing on the corner in Pasedena….
Sometimes it is hard to be a mom
Brahhahahaha! November 7, 2006
Posted by spacemom in : Seeing the World Through Astronomy, She Blinded me with Science , add a commentOh My G-d. If I have to sit through another hour of Brown Dwarf talks that show images of Disney’s 7 dwarfs, I am SO going to puke. Hello? That joke was worn out YEARS ago!
The meeting organizers finally got about 10 more wireless routers. Thank goodness for that! Now, it is just my email that is screwed up. Not terrible. I can get my thespacemom@comcast.net, but not NANCEREALLASTNAME@comcast.net
Sigh…
Oh, and I got my work email to behave! Whew!
The girls are actually doing really well with my parents. I am feeling much better about this. The girls are happy and getting some relationship time with the grandparents. My mom tried to “give them a treat” by buying some chocolate munchkins (donut holes) and Luna ate 3 AND 1 peice of Halloween candy at bedtime. Guess who was up puking her chocolate stomach contents up all night? Hmm? Did I NOT mention to mom that too much sugar gets them sick? Hello? At least they had to deal with the consequences.
Other than that, the girls are doing great. They are at daycare for the next three days and I am taking the red eye on Thursday, so I will be home with them on Friday. Jay returns Saturday night. (he has more to do on Friday here).
I normally don’t do this weirdisms, but Luna is just really starting to scare me. On Saturday, we had the following conversation at home:
I pulled a 1/2 gallon of milk out of the fridge.
Soleil: “Why do you have that kind of milk?”
SM: “remember you dropped your sippy on Thursday? We bought this to replace your milk”
Soleil:”Why?”
Jay:”When your sippy fell, what happened to your milk”
Soleil:”It spilled on the parking lot”
Jay:”yes”
Luna:”The milk vanished”
Soleil:”what does vanished mean?”
Luna is 2.25 and she used the work Vanished in context! OMG. If my parents weren’t there as witnesses, I swear no one would believe me.
Okay- I better try to catch up on bloglines and to listen more to the brown dwarf talks (although, I really couldn’t care less about brown dwarfs…sorry)
Two more things:
VOTE TODAY!
And please go Mrs. Figby some love. Her daughter, Apples, burst her appendix and needed some surgery. Any mom hates to see her children hurting and it is even worse if they need surgery.
The Internets hate me! November 6, 2006
Posted by spacemom in : Weblogs , 4 commentsHi! Here I am in Sunny Southern Ca! Very nice weather! 85 in November? Who wuddah thunk?
The internet, is not so nice.
My email is FUBAR. The wireless network here sucks at the meeting and is okay in the room, but Jay’s needed the computer most of the day.
I have a question. Why do people in California have no accents? I mean, Boston,Maine, New York, Philly, accents abound. The Southern US, oh yeah, Texas? Sure. The mid-west, Um, not so much, but California? These people have no accents! This is interesting!
Any thoughts?
If I get a moment I will post tomorrow. If the internet obeys.
I can’t even get bloglines to help me, so I can’t check blogs….WAH!!!!
Landscape? November 4, 2006
Posted by spacemom in : Seeing the World Through Astronomy , 1 comment so farI am busy printing up boarding passes and my printer is in landscape mode. Go figure.
I am "checked in", but no seat assignment. This worries me!
I was worried about leaving the girls for San Francisco, but even more worried this time. I think I am jsut worrying for no reason. Oh well.
Sigh…
California, here I come!
