« September 2003 | Main | November 2003 »
Our school recently banned all sweets, meaning no candy at Valentine's Day parties, no cookie decorating at holiday parties, etc. I think this is going to extremes. I mean, can't a kid be a kid from time to time? This is breaking a tradition that's been standing for generations!!!!
Tell me what you think!
We've had a rash of break ins in our neighborhood. Guys with guns break in and pistol whip families to within an inch of their lives and run off with jewelry and other valuables. Don't these idiots know the meaning of valuable? As a mom, it makes me livid to think that someone might threaten the well being of my family--an for material possessions, no less. I bet some of these perpetrators actually have children of their own, so why don't they get it? How can they sleep at night knowing the damage they're doing and the fear their causing even in those whose homes they haven't violated? Why have possessions raised in ranks to a level far above the sanctity of human life? Thugs. Hope Karma bites them in the ass.
Is the same with all dad's out there? My husband became a quivering mass of paranoia once he became a father. All of a sudden, Acts of God could be as common as meatloaf for dinner. Trouble was his children's constant companion, ready to take over their souls or wreck their lives. He won't let them bike the one mile to school, because god forbid a car might swerve 20 feet to pick them off the bike trail. Or a tsunami might just sweep them away, even though we're 100 miles from the coast. When his daughters started getting phone calls from boys, he'd answer the phone and, once he identified the voice as postpubertal, he'd hang it up without uttering a peep. My kids wear insect repellent in the dead of winter, even to go out and get the paper. They're slathered with sun block before they play outside under the street lights after dinner. Every sniffle and sneeze is some terminal disease. Fortunately, parents often balance each other out. So my kids realize his fears are, if not a little annoying, unfounded. They also realize that they're all based in love.
Sure, I've written three books on parenting, but my kids constantly keep things in perspective for me. It's challenging raising five kids--heck, even one was a handful. And even though I give all sorts of tips and suggestions to other parents, I find myself breaking my own rules on occasion. And don't you think my kids don't pick up on it. The other day, I started hollering at one of my kids and he turned to me and, with a very solemn and knowing expression on his face,said, "Mommy, you better go read your book again." Parenting isn't for the weak at heart. It humbles even the greatest egos.
My husband and I try to take our kids to the Air Show in Houston every year. It's loud (yep, even louder than my house!) and impressive. My husband, now a stock broker, use to be a commercial pilot--and in fact was my flight instructor when I got a wild notion to learn to fly. (What was I thinking???) Anyway, the kids loved every minute of the show. And I felt kinda choked up watching our military men and women demonstrate their skills. I'm so proud of America and the soldiers that are willing to risk their lives for our freedom. For years, my 14 year old has wanted to be a career soldier. Now, my 17 year old, who for years has wanted to becme a plastic surgeon, wants to go to the Air Force Academy. Sure, they won't make a bundle of dough, but we've always taught our kids that money is not as important as doing what you love and doing what can contribute to the world. I'm glad they've taken that to heart.
What is it about getting kids up for school? In my household, it's like waking the dead. They all have two alarm clocks; one has three, and the sounds that come from all of them are as annoying as is humanly tolerable. I have to dubious honor of the making the first round of wake up calls. I try gentle measures at first (ever the optimist) and then I gradually go to louder and rougher measures until, gazing into the countenances of children in vegetative states, I surrender. In come the cavalry--my husband. He resorts to yanking them out of bed and tossing them outside in the cold.
It doesn't matter how early they go to bed the night before, it takes three or four attempts, each louder by several hundred decibels, before they walk, like zombies to the breakfast table. But, today, we have a holiday for teacher inservices and waking them us early was a breeze. My secret? I announced: "Whoever wants to go to Shipley's for donuts, it's now or never." It sounded like a herd of rabid buffalo trampling down the stairs. There voices were clear and lively, not the slur of mumbling on school mornings, and their eyes were actually open. Most of my kids come down stairs with tehir eyes shut, cocooned in a blanket, only to flounce themselves onto the nearest couch and start snoozing again. In other words, they go back to bed, but in a different bed. From know on, I'm going to give them one wake up call. Then, I'm only leaving with those in my car by 7:45 A.M. It'll be lonely at first, but sometimes, that's the nature of a mother's life, isn't it?
Because my entire body is a cross between walrus lard and jello and because when I walk, my butt looks like two hogs fighting in a gunny sack, I made the decision to work out every day--no small miracle given my busy day as a homeschool mom, physician, author, and obseesive compulsive paper stacker and organizer. For moral support, I recruited my kids as well--they fell for the ol' "it's for health fitness credit for homeschool."
We joined a local club whereupon I suffered the extreme shame of having my body fat measured (I was afraid they'd charge me for two memberships, my hips, waist, and bust measured (alittle fip flop action going on between two of these areas--I won't say which), and my total body, lean body and fat mass weight calculated. Naturally, my trainer ushered me urgently off to the torture machines that, by taxing your heart to the point of explosion, somehow melts away the fat--as if I'd live long enough to see that happen. Meanwhile, my kids went throught the same process. Sure, I was glad they were lean and mean, but 7% body fat! I eat that much fat for Thanksgiving, for god sake!
While I was sweating on my Elliptociser watching Greta Van Sustren lip synch to my heart beat, I saw my kids lazily slump from one machine to the next, casually doing a couple of reps, then, overcome with boredom, figuring out creative ways to turn a 5000 pound machine that cost more than one year's college tuition into some sort of play toy designed for their thrill and amazement. Who am I kidding. My kids spend hours every week roller blading, skateboarding, biking, playing tag and running after each other with the intention of throttling a sibling within an inch of their short lives. But, I'll make sure they continue to come with me because I love to watch them torture the equipment--payback time. Anyway, I've already paid up for a whole year.
In homeschooling my kids, I decided to take the opportunity to teach them how one person can make such a huge difference and how this can create such a positive feeling within them. They plan to think of their own commmunity service project, but do any of you have any great ideas? They can either join an existing effort or create their own grassroots service project.
One of my teenage girls wants to apply for the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. Anyone know much about it? I understand it's difficult to get accepted, but what do you think will better her chances?
Cheating amongst students isn't a new phenomenon, but it certainly is on the rise, thanks, in part, to the availability to resources on the Internet, including sites like schoolsucks.com and The Evil House of Cheat. 75% of college students admit to cheating within the past year. One in three say they have plagiarized papers from the Internet or elsewhere. WOrse yet, the prevailing attitude is that it's acceptable. Now, however, universities are clamping down by scanning the students' papers and comparing them with a database of tens of millins of Internet papers. They are using thumbprint scanners and digital cameras to stop test-taker impersonations. They're using software to put a stop to computer based test taking. These may be stopgap measures, but what we really need to do is encourage integrity in students rather than motivate them to show character through external threats. Of course, that's a tougher assignment--one you won't find the answers to on the Internet.
Homeschooling has been a wonderful experience for my family and I. Many of my children are visual learners,meaning they think and learn with pictures rather than words. They also learn best with movement and using their senses, meaning they use touch, smell and body movement to learn new concepts. Two of them twil around with their head tilted while reciting spelling words in preparation for a test. Unfortunately, nearly all traditional schools teach to auditory learners. Let's face it, you can't have 30 kids twirling and sniffing and touching at the same time! But with homeschooling, I can teach to their learning styles. I use the curriculum from Laurel Springs School in Ojai California as well as the teacher support. Our teacher had us check my learning style and theirs to help customize the curriculum and anticipate and avoid conflicts caused by any differences between my learning style and theirs. For instance, instead of doing worksheets or writing an essay about the Bill of Rights, my kids researched, wrote a script, rehearsed and videotaped a show on it. I help them with their writing skills by using Inspiration Software (a visual web planning program with tons of different preset templates for different writing and planning projects. I have them play tic tac toe to learn teir spelling words. I have them make clay models to learn new vocabulary words. I use different colored pencils to teach math--for instance, when combining like terms in algebra. We go on lots of field trips and in general have a blast learning.
If only there were schools that had a class for each learning style led by a teacher with that same learning style. Kids would bounce out of bed and rush off to school eager to learn rather than drag their feet and complain because they're being forced to learn in a way that their brains aren't wired to learn.
By the way, more children are visual spatial learners than before. An evolutionary phenomenon? A reflection of prenatal or postnatal factors? Too much TV early on? Who knows. Comments welcome.
A new study came out that shows anecdotal evidence that kids today get too much homework may be overexaggerated. What do you guys think? Could it be our kids just complain more or have such trouble staying on task that it seems to take them longer? Could the results be false--maybe those surveyed weren't being truthful? Could it be that our kids are involved in too many structured after-school activities so they're too tired to do homework at night--making it seem like forever to us parents who must light a fire under them every day? Could it be that kids do some homework, take a break, do more homework, take a break, etc. so that it seems like more hours are spent on the work than in reality? Give me your feedback. My kids generally have 1.5 hours of work a day.