Posts from the “School” Category

Average day…at least for today.

Posted on April 22nd, 2013

I am starting to read homeschooling memoirs and tips but, because I have a five year old (and not a fifth grader), most of what I’ve found doesn’t apply to our situation. (I continue to despise the word homeschool. If I contribute nothing else meaningful to the world, it will be a new word for what we’re doing. Just give me time to think of one.) In all honesty, I don’t know what an average day for us looks like, let alone a day in the life of an average homeschooler. As much as I love organization and would like to say “Monday is for reading, Tuesday is for music, Wednesday is for math,” that isn’t pragmatic. For one thing, I may wake up…

Categories: General Parenting, Good day, School

And the verdict

Posted on March 7th, 2013

We pulled her. I made up my mind Tuesday night and did it formally yesterday. As many people pointed out and I concluded, there are other ways to teach responsibility and follow through. Friend RGP pointed out there is value, too, in teaching Pea when to stop doing something that isn’t working. I was taught to mindlessly follow through with everything and doubt my own judgment. Additionally, my parents rarely stood up for me, but when they did — generally in a school setting — it made a huge impression on me. So, long story short, yesterday I was cornered by both kindergarten teachers (I had perhaps exchanged ten words with the other one, total) when I went to pick up Pea. They accused…

Categories: Good day, School

Should she stay or should she go?

Posted on March 5th, 2013

I am seriously considering pulling Pea from kindergarten. (I have only barely vented on this blog, but these are some of the reasons why.) Kindergarten isn’t mandatory in Oregon, and the only thing this kindergarten is inclined to do is teach preparedness for first grade in this school…which is to say, how to sit down, shut up, and not ask questions. This is antithetical to everything M and I believe in. There are three months left. 1/3 of the school year. I don’t know what to do. Part of me thinks, well, it’s about time. That meeting with the principal? Yielded nothing but the principal no longer making eye contact or responding to “good morning” from me. He does still tell Pea to have…

Categories: Disasters, School

The Wolf and the Beast

Posted on March 4th, 2013

Rather than bore you with my Weltschmerz (which I am weary of, and is there a word for that in German? Weary with weariness?) here are some Pea stories: Pea: “Why does a pack of men say ‘Hup, hup, hup’ when they run to the general?” Me: … (Wondering where does this come from? and Hell if I know.) Pea: “I think because they found something.” ** She made up a song in a minor key today around 11, when she was supposed to be brushing her hair. (Why so late? She had a hard time getting up for school, her forehead felt warm, and I figured meh, it’s not like she’s missing calculus. Also, after weekend teacher communications relaying how having messy hair…

Categories: General Parenting, School

And I don’t know if I can do it

Posted on February 12th, 2013

The next time Pea’s teacher decides to talk to me about how I need to have the archdemon child in her class over for a playdate, I am not going to be as polite as I was today. (I was very polite. I explained why, I explained the history, and I explained that I would not violate any sort of implicit covenant with my child by bringing home her nemesis and forcing that social interaction on her.) That was twenty minutes of my life gone, twenty minutes when I was sick and tired and cold at the park, sitting on a bench because I was too exhausted to stand, because I’d promised Pea that even though I was sick, if no other parents volunteered,…

Categories: Hard days, School

School. Pea. Neanderthals. Parliament.

Posted on January 15th, 2013

We had a meeting with Pea’s principal Monday. The upshot is we have determined her school goes beyond a bad fit. (Remember in torts when you learn the difference between negligence and intentional torts? And if you have a professor who likes to go off into the world of public policy, he or she will like to discuss the sort of sliding scale of mental state between the two? And how annoying that is, especially if you have gunners or Riddlers in your class? All of my 1L eye-rolling aside, I’m pretty much sure there IS a middle ground, and Pea’s teacher’s level of teaching is somewhere between negligently bad and intentionally bad. Also, if I hear that anyone else has hit Pea or…

Categories: Epiphanies, School

Foolish consistency

Posted on January 11th, 2013

You guys, this week. This. Week. First, there is ever-present school drama, which is…um…really starting to be annoying. (I know, like it wasn’t before?) I finally went ahead and scheduled an appointment with the principal because I have had it to here. It’s Monday. I am just…done. Hobgoblins of little minds. Speaking of hobgoblins, you will never have a more entertaining email exchange than when you ask someone who believes in fairies for curriculum based measurements and methodology for normalizing age and temperament in making academic readiness assessments. (Short answer: We don’t like your cold, hard science.) We took her to her pediatrician for a reality check. Guess what: the kid who dances with swords does, in fact, have decent gross motor skills. Go…

Categories: Disasters, Editing, School

School, scones, skates, and general updates

Posted on January 4th, 2013

Pea tells me how she hates school. I don’t know how to answer this. Truthfully? “So did your father and I.” “I know, but you have to go, anyway.” “This is part of growing up.” “If I had to go to your class, I’d hate school, too.” I haven’t said the last one. Yet. This morning, I said, “I know, but if you hurry you can have a pumpkin scone for breakfast.” (I made them last night. They’re only okay, but then, I couldn’t find any cranberries in the house and I can’t add walnuts on pain of death, so perhaps just the addition of golden raisins do not make a good enough pumpkin scone.) She seems to like them, anyway. I am happy…

Categories: Hard days, School, TMI, Writing

Happy Monday

Posted on December 10th, 2012

Yes, indeed. I was chosen as the weekly “laundry fairy” on Friday, was sick all weekend, washed and dried over a hundred napkins plus assorted towels (okay, that part was M), folded over a hundred napkins plus assorted towels (that part was me) Sunday night… …only to wake up Monday morning to discover Pea was too sick to go to school. But still I had to wake her up, get her dressed, hair brushed, teeth brushed, ready to go — all to drive about seven miles (trip time: 20 minutes each way) to her school at 8:15 to drop off over a hundred napkins plus assorted towels. Yes. At least we stopped for coffee (and hot chocolate) on the way home. It helped.

Categories: School, Sick kid

#MomFail

Posted on November 15th, 2012

I’ve written before about Pea’s school and my unhappiness with it. I’ve written about the racially motivated bullying I witnessed, the mean girls, and how it feels to have your volunteer efforts denigrated…well. I’ve not written about a lot, too, because I hoped things would improve. It hasn’t, not really. She’s bored. They do nothing academic, because that’s not the method. So everything that interests her — zoology, paleontology, geology — is irrelevant. And it isn’t fun to play with kids a year+ older than she is (hello, redshirting) who form cliques and call her stupid. When she goes off and does her own thing, I get told by the teacher that I need to be more proactive and schedule playdates with the mean…

Categories: General Parenting, Hard days, School