- Two weeks into the semester, and I love it except when I'm beating back my anxiety with a figurative broom. The students are responsive and engaged; they ask a ton of questions and they laugh in the right places. I'm doing better with pacing my lectures and I'm feeling less overwhelmed.
- School is going better than I expected for the kids. My first-grader is really enjoying his teacher; my fourth-grader who has often been restless in the classroom tells me every day that he really likes school this year. The transitions to junior high and high school seem to be going well also, though I haven't checked grades online to see if the teachers' perceptions square with my kids' perceptions.
- This business of being able to check my kids' grades from my own living room-- I'm not a fan. My parents had NO IDEA what was going on with me at school, and I think there's much to be said for letting kids be responsible for their own schoolwork. Thoughts?
- Item: the schools have banned all homemade treats. If your child has a birthday or you want to contribute to the Halloween party, you must bring in individually wrapped treats with nutritional labels. And yeah, I get it that allergies can be a problem, and that some people are careless about food safety in their home kitchens, but are HoHos really the kind of thing our kids need to be eating more of? My boys have so enjoyed being able to choose the treat I'll bake for them to share with their classmates, cupcakes with real chocolate and real eggs and some sneaky whole wheat pastry flour. Plus I have this Baking = Love thing wired deep inside me. Love ≠ Buying HoHos. I do not approve, she said grumpily.
- You know what else makes me shake my head, and perhaps my cane, in fetching get-off-my-lawn fashion? My kids need a signed waiver in order to bike to and from soccer practice. There is SO much to be said, if you ask me, for teaching kids to get around on their own, to navigate their neighborhoods, to be responsible for getting themselves places on time -- as well as for reducing gas consumption and time spent elbowing siblings in the back of the van while mom gets progressively shriller. The form from the soccer league says "We do not encourage players biking to and from practice." Harrumph, she harrumphed grumpily. Two of my boys have soccer practices that are easy biking distance from our house, most of it along a beautiful paved bike trail. They're biking, dang it, no matter what the league encourages.
- Tomorrow my husband is taking the four boys on a bus trip with Scouts. They'll be gone from 5:15 in the morning until about 10:15 at night, so it'll just be Stella and me here in town all day. I bet you a dollar she'll be up for the day when they leave at 5:15.
- Which means I should get to bed pronto. G'night.
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