So here we are at the last week of school for my older two. My son is wrapping up 6th grade with a picnic tomorrow and a pool party field trip on Friday. Recent highlights have included an orchestra concert for the parents (pictures to be posted soon on the family blog) and a competition at the Pride of Texas Festival in Austin, where his school's orchestra received the highest scores possible. The students were also able to play games at the festival for only the cost of the field trip, part of which was offset by the candle fundraiser earlier in the year. He tried out today for the Varsity orchestra at the Middle School, which would mean that he was in 8th grade orchestra as a 7th grader. We have hopes for next year that perhaps the Middle School curriculum will be a bit more challenging. I remain disappointed by how little writing they do. By 4th grade, I was writing book reports. In 6th grade, he has only had the most basic writing assignments, usually composed of answers to specific questions. His final book project was a powerpoint (UGH), and this was ADVANCED English. I understand why the college students' writing skills are so poor, as this is a very good school district by all accounts. He scored well on the benchmark standardized tests (UGH UGH UGH), receiving commended in Language Arts and Math, and scoring 100% correct on the reading section. This reminds me of all of the papers my honors students wrote in the fall condemning standardized tests. Moving on now. . .
Doodle had her last day of montessori preschool today. It was water day and a half day. Unfortunately, she was not in top form. She had a slight fever later in the day that I did not realize earlier. But she still seems to have had fun. The year was good for her, though punctuated by frequent illness from November through March. April was her first full month at school without missing multiple days since the fall. When she finally was able to return to school, she had many mornings when she did not want to leave me and there were tears. While I hated to see her upset, I knew that she would have a good day, and that the staff were caring and competent. It is wonderful to have her somewhere where I can trust the staff implicitly. Of course, Phelan spent 5 years there, from 4yo to 3rd grade, so I know the owner of the school and many of the teachers. I finally figured out that giving her allergy medicine at night allowed her to sleep and she was happy in the morning--no more tears. She had her end-of-the year program on Monday night, which was a treat, and the Mother's Day tea a few weeks ago, which is the nicest event of the year. Doodle will be attending the same school in the fall, even though the tuition has gone up by $100 and it is considerably more expensive than our parish child development center. Unfortunately, I am not as comfortable with the curriculum, methods, or director of the parish child development center, which is where Chiclette will be in the fall.
While Doodle attends 2 full days and 2 half days in the fall, Chiclette will be in mother's day out in our parish 2 days, from 9-2:30. I am not crazy about the idea, since I think closer to 3 years is ideal for beginning any kind of "school"/daycare situation, but it will be necessary. She will be turning 2 years in the fall, and will be in the toddler class (18-24 months), which is one of the issues I have with the parish child care center. They measure every child, from 6 weeks to Pre-K, by the ages they will be according to the public school cut off date. So Doodle would have been in the 2 year class with children a full year and more younger than her, most of whom would have been in diapers. She needed to move on, and it was an excellent decision for us (though hard in the making, as the potty training was stressful!). At Chiclette's age, I do not think it will be as crucial. And since she is over a month past the "cut off" for birthdays, the case is harder to make than with Doodle's 4 days. I do think we will end up having issues with Chiclette's birthday holding her back in school, though. . . She is able to comprehend most of what is said to her, and communicate her response in a way that can be understood, and she is only 18 months.
Next semester, I will be teaching 3 classes for the first time, so child care is a necessity for me at last. It probably would have made my life easier this semester, but I wanted to delay having her in the care of strangers and exposed to more illnesses than she was exposed to already through her sister and brother. Not to mention the behaviors of other children. I simply can not believe that unrelated children under a certain age--and that age is variable and may well be over 4--benefit from each others' company for hours on end and on consecutive days. At the very least, you might convince me that it does no harm. But I don't want to belabor the point. This semester, my sister watched both girls while I taught, but I was always conscious that she didn't want to stay much past my class, which meant that I was away from home only 3 hours at a time, twice a week. All of my work still had to be accomplished at home, which was not always ideal. At any rate, there was a lot of balancing. There will still be a lot of balancing, but perhaps a few things might make it easier. . .
We will be moving in August to a slightly smaller, considerably cheaper place. The idea was either to gain space or money in our overall budget. We will accomplish neither. What we will accomplish is having our overall budget *only* increase by $95/month, though I have added an additional child care cost and the existing tuition has increased by $100. That's pretty good, considering! The place we're moving to is closer to campus, but further away from the girls' preschools. My son will be taking the bus, which will mean one less person who needs to be dropped off & picked up. My husband may take a bus home also, as biking might not be plausible. That's still up for negotiation! My schedule does allow me to have some time during the day on my teaching days for prep & grading. I hope it works out that way. I will be stopping in the middle of the day to pick up the girls, and then resuming my teaching after my husband gets off of work, which may prove to be a challenge. Or it might keep me busy. Who knows? I'm starting to feel like I need to keep busy in order to avoid succumbing to moodiness. Not that I'm not busy now, but it's, well, different. I have too much time to brood--philosophize--whatever.
This may well be a problem this summer. Because I have distance/online classes, and only half of my accustomed salary of the past 9 months, I will not be putting the kids in any summer activities. I was lamenting earlier that today was my last half day of Chiclette-Momma only time for a while. Doodle will be in Vacation Bible School for one week, but that's the extent of our summer activity planning. I don't like outdoor summer heat (confidentially, I don't like outside--never have), but the apartment complex has a pool (which I will miss next summer), and I might be convinced to go to a park in the early-ish morning. I called a friend whom I was going to meet late in the morning at 9:30 last week, and when she remarked that it was early for me, I informed her that that hasn't been the case for 4 years now. Truly, I am not a morning person, but necessity and obscene amounts of Mystic Monk coffee are helping. I will try not to let a relaxed summer be a brooding, morose summer. My sister will be babysitting twice a week so I can get some work done, and with the flexibility of the online class, I should be able to sew and enjoy a bit of free time. I do need to try to write a bit, which always feels like somewhat of a chore. I had some ideas after the campus visit, but they were drowned out in the noise of daily/weekly/end-of-semester concerns.
I am planning a trip to New Orleans at some point, but that's as far as the planning has gotten. I will sew. I should write. I should prepare syllabi (including one for the second survey of British Lit!). First, I should order my textbooks for the fall. . . I will grade, though I'm not sure how much conventional teaching I will be doing. I hope not to think about the job market, though I may be applying for another job or two in the next week or two, as a few have appeared. And finally, we will pack.
I will be updating my family blog more often, for those interested. I have discovered a feature that allows me to email posts to my blog, which allows for a much easier upload of image files. That was the obstacle that was most formidable to my keeping that blog up to date. I can't email images and words, or the images to not show up, so I email the pics and add the narration after. That makes for shorter narration, but again, that might be a good thing.
I know that my writing on this blog is not what it once was. I may still have the occasional weighty post--especially with the email feature enabled. But I have moved a bit away from the semi-essay format, at least for now. But it's comforting to know that a blog is, essentially, wherever you are at a given moment. I'm hoping that I will take an academic turn soon and bring the blog along for the ride.
9 comments:
Isn't Doodle's birthday in October? (Not sure what you meant by her birthday being 4 days after the cut-off date, unless I'm remembering her birthday incorrectly.) Sophia's birthday is Sept. 14, 14 days after the cut-off of Sept. 1, but I am inclined to think that extra year of development will be good for her. Academically she would be ready for kinder this next fall, but emotionally/maturity (especially in confidence) I don't really feel that she's ready.
Yeah, I was thinking the cut off was September 30. Soon it will be August 1. It's such an individualized thing, really. It's hard to say if Doodle will be ready emotionally, since it's so far away. It may be no big deal--especially if she stays where she is now (though that's not likely). But I don't want her to be bored, which is what has happened to P. His birthday is in January like mine. I started Kinder when I was 4 and was always a year ahead. P started when he was 5 and turned 6 in January (is that a year ahead these days??) and was O.K. early on, but he is advanced and there is no chance for challenge or enrichment in the public schools here. But the real question I have is--WHY does a Mother's Day Out situation have to bind itself by the public schools, whose developmental concerns are so different?
I have heard directors say that the state licensing agents check the daycare's records to make sure the children are placed in the age-appropriate classes, but that might just be a cop-out. When Sophia should have been in the 2yo class (but turned two weeks into the school year), the MDO placed her and a few other kids in the 3yo class because of class sizes. But then they refused to do that again this past year when she was already 4 and they needed to move 3y-olds around--moving her back from the "older 3s" to the "middle 3s." I think Nicolas is bored sometimes, but he is being challenged in some ways. I'm expecting him to be more bored as he gets older, and I have to admit that I've thought about seeing if he could skip a grade when we finally move somewhere. I decided that it would be better for him to skip a grade when he's a little older than when he's in the early grades. I also think we'll be supplementing things at home, but that may be too much when there is already so much busy work to do.
They seem to have a stronger excuse than last summer. I don't believe it, and I unfortunately think the director will say whatever she thinks will get people to do things her way.
It may not be necessary if you move outside of Texas. They seem to aim for the middle-of-the-road here. In Louisiana, the education was awful--or so we always heard. But when you were in an advanced class, it was truly advanced. I got a pretty good education in the public schools. I'm just thankful P has orchestra.
Also, I have to say--at least there were "older 3s" and "middle 3s"!! I also think there should be a "potty trained" 3s and near 3s group! Doodle, at 34 months, would have been with kids who were just turning 2. I wouldn't have minded a smaller range of ages, or a situation in which she wasn't the OLDEST in the group, influenced by younger, less mature rather than older, more mature kids. I'm just a montessori Mom, what can I say! ;)
I'm getting more reluctant thinking about sending Chiclette in the fall. As I have already indicated, I don't think much of the director of the parish program. :P Trying not to think about it. Especially since others I know will have their children there. *sigh*
For P, as for me, bored=>lazy, unmotivated. THAT is the problem. :(
I was pleased in the fall when our old program (not STA) had three 3s classes: older, middle, early. And I especially liked that the older 3s were following the 4s curriculum, albeit at a slower pace. But then in January, they put half of the older 3s with the middle 3s, and half of the older 3s with the younger 3s, and went backward to the 3s curriculum (which wasn't really a "curriculum" at all. Doing the thematic units, certainly, but not doing any of the letters, sounds, writing, etc. that they were doing at the beginning of the year. I don't know yet what to think of the director at STA, but I have agonized over my decision to move Sophia there this coming year. I can see how they would have difficulty breaking the classes into younger and older kids, since their two classes/age are divided into full-time and part-time. But at this point, I've paid the registration fee, and I hate to lose it or have to pay another $100 or more elsewhere. I'm also realistic enough to know that I'm going to have concerns and frustrations no matter where we go. I would also say that while age differences can make quite a difference in the early years, by the time they reach 4, the differences between the older and the younger ones aren't quite as noticeable as when they are, say, 2--so the fact that she'll be with younger 4s this year doesn't really bother me as much as it did when she was 2 and even 3.
You should talk to Dr. Robinson about the program Emma is in. She started public school in 8th grade (in Bryan), and it sounds like she's doing a lot of challenging work. I am aware of the stereotypes that we are fed about CS schools being so much better than Bryan, and I think that some of that is misplaced. At the very least, I think the problems in CS are played down while the problems in Bryan are played up.
LC, I've been reading along with these, and wanted to let you know that I'm praying for you in your struggles. And it's OK that your blog has changed...you're right; that's what a blog is. And, after all, it's YOUR space. :)
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