I Told My Son Leprechauns Are Pretend… And Now His Class is Making Leprechaun Traps… Woops!

March 16, 2010 by · 1 Comment
Filed under: Kindergartners, Parenting, School 

leprechaun So I’m The Grinch…

I didn’t mean to be, but I am…

A few weeks ago my son and I read a book before bed about St.Patrick’s Day, and he asked me,

“Mom, are Leprechauns Real?”

My answer, “No sweetheart, they’re not real, they’re pretend.”  And he was fine with that and I didn’t think another thing about it.  He wasn’t upset or anything.  And I didn’t think I was violating any ‘unwritten rules’ of childhood…

So last week a project sheet was sent home in his backpack announcing that all the kindergartners were to make

Leprechaun Traps

at home, and bring them in on St. Patrick’s Day… to try and catch a… Yep, a Leprechaun.

My son and husband have been working on a ‘Trap’ for a few days now.  It’s sitting on our Dining Room table.

Now here’s the clincher: I haven’t ruined anything for my son by telling him leprechauns are just pretend because…

wait for it…

His teacher told the class they are real…   so my son thinks I’m just misinformed… wrong even.

My son totally thinks Leprechauns are real…

Whew!  Thank God for 6-year-olds’ suspension-of-disbelief!

But, just a question: Where is it written that leprechauns qualify for the

‘Yes, they’re real, sweetheart, always BELIEVE’ category…

I wish there was a book.

My Son Has Decided to Stay In School

September 9, 2009 by · 1 Comment
Filed under: School 

pencils     Well, It’s Official!  

After the first day: my son has decided he likes Kindergarten,

and that he will finish grade school,

and go to high school,

and go to college!!!!!

(He had been undecided about college before.)

**  But, as of today, he wants to go to college close by so he can still live with Daddy and me.

That’s fine.

We’re making progress… Yey!

 

 

My Son Started Kindergarten Today

September 8, 2009 by · 3 Comments
Filed under: School 

books      My Son started Kindergarten today. I dropped him off about an hour ago.

He’s wearing a uniform.  His lunch is packed.  And I’m not picking him up until 3pm…

Sounds like a lot for a 5-year-old…

But he barely turned around to say bye as he entered his classroom, due to his excitement.

Now I’m the one who has to hold it together.

This is the first day of the rest of my life.

 

 

School Starts at 8am ?!

February 4, 2009 by · 2 Comments
Filed under: School 

Yesterday, filled with excitement and joy, I went to the open house at the school my son will be attending next year.  It’s a wonderful school and a great community and I am really looking forward to being a part of it for the next 9 years, from Kindergarten through 8th grade.

The principal talked to us ‘new parents’ about curriculum and special projects and hot lunch, the usual… And then she went through a typical day for kindergartners-

“Children can start arriving at 7:45am… and we officially start our day at 8am.”

I had seen the 8am on the sheet that was handed out, and hoped it had been a misprint…

Click here to continue reading this post at DC Metro Moms…

WHY CAN’T I SPELL?

October 31, 2008 by · 3 Comments
Filed under: School 

I was just emailing and typed the word ‘similiar’. My spell check UNDERLINED it in red. I went to my dashboard and brought up my dictionary and thesaurus and found that ‘similiar’ is spelled ‘similar’, as in things ‘resembling each other but not identical’.

Did this spelling just change? I have been freelance writing, producing and reporting for about 15 years and I’ve always spelled similar- similiar… And I’ve never been corrected.

WOW! Good thing I was never in a Spelling Bee. How embarrassing would it be to get a simple word like ‘similar’ wrong in a Spelling Bee…

But really, how even more embarrassing that I am in my thirties and just now realized that I’ve been spelling this word wrong all my life!

This is embarrassing… why am I writing this? I’m ending this post.

Note: The word ‘similar’ originates from Northern India… who new knew?

MY SON IS NOT A STALKER OR SNOB

September 25, 2008 by · 1 Comment
Filed under: School 

Next week I have our moms meeting for my son’s preschool class.

I have already prepared a very short speech, so parents are not frightened or offended…

It goes like this:

“Ladies, so nice to see you all that I know and so nice to be able to meet the rest of you.  You may know my son already, he’s probably introduced himself in the morning when you’ve dropped off your child.  If my Little Man approaches you, recites your address to you, then tells you the best way, in his mind, to get to your house… don’t be alarmed.  He is not stalking you or your child.  He just loves maps and has been studying the class list and everyone’s addresses.”

I’ll then have to go on and say:

“Ladies, just one more thing.  If my son asks you what kind of car you drive, or has already memorized what kind of car you drive, and comments on it, he is not being a snob.  He has no idea how much a car costs… any car.  He simply LOVES CARS… ALL CARS.”

I purposely never discuss prices of cars with him.  I don’t want him to even unconsciously start thinking 1 car is better than another because it is more expensive.  Or vice versa.

I think the speech will do the job.  Of  course, the girls moms will not really understand what I am talking about, but the boys moms will all just nod their heads.

TAKING CARE OF SPECIAL NEEDS CHILDREN

September 23, 2008 by · 1 Comment
Filed under: School 

I don’t usually touch on news stories here but people have to know about this. A fellow mom and Silicon Valley Moms Blogger shared this story.

A young man with Down Syndrome, 16 years old, was put in a closet for ‘outbursts’ during class. Teachers and school officials then called the police on him when he refused to GO BACK INTO THE CLOSET after using the restroom.

Every child must get the chance to learn… and I understand that all children are at different levels of intelligence and that maybe this child was disruptive to the ‘class learning experience’…

But who are we kidding here? You don’t put a Down Syndrome young man in a utility closet!

You don’t put ANY child in a closet!

The education system in CA and here on the other coast and everywhere in-between needs to figure this out. It’s not that hard. This story makes my heart ache.

Finally… as the banner at the top of this page reads, this blog concentrates on the ‘good stuff';
in keeping with that:

Let us not forget that every child on the planet deserves the right to learn.
This should not happen anywhere, but especially here- this is America.

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