My neighbout 2 doors down is at a major trauma centre waiting on the outcome of her husband's surgery. Yesterday a car pulled in front of his motorcycle and nearly took his life. He is 33 years old with two young children. At worst, he may not survive. At best, he has months, if not years of recovery ahead of him.
I feel just sick for them. I've experienced family traumas in the past and remember well all those hospitals, doctors and always, the uncertainty.
I made Rob promise he would never put me through that. Irrational, I know.
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Monday, March 29, 2010
I Love 'The Onion'
Increasing Number Of Parents Opting To Have Children School-Homed
WASHINGTON—According to a report released Monday by the U.S. Department of Education, an increasing number of American parents are choosing to have their children raised at school rather than at home.
Deputy Education Secretary Anthony W. Miller said that many parents who school-home find U.S. households to be frightening, overwhelming environments for their children, and feel that they are just not conducive to producing well-rounded members of society.
Thousands of mothers and fathers polled in the study also believe that those running American homes cannot be trusted to keep their kids safe.
"Every year more parents are finding that their homes are not equipped to instill the right values in their children," Miller said. "When it comes to important life skills such as proper nutrition, safe sex, and even basic socialization, a growing number of mothers and fathers think it's better to rely on educators to guide and nurture their kids."
"And really, who can blame them?" Miller continued. "American homes have let down our nation's youth time and again in almost every imaginable respect."
According to the report, children raised at home were less likely to receive individual adult attention, and were often subjected to ineffective and wildly inconsistent disciplinary measures. The study also found that many parents expressed concerns that, when at home, their children were being teased and bullied by those older than themselves.
In addition to providing better supervision and overall direction, school-homing has become popular among mothers and fathers who just want to be less involved in the day-to-day lives of their children.
"Parents are finding creative ways to make this increasingly common child-rearing track work," Miller said. "Whether it's over-relying on after-school programs and extracurricular activities, or simply gross neglect,† school-homing is becoming a widely accepted method of bringing children up."
Despite the trend's growing popularity, Miller said that school programs are often jeopardized or terminated because shortsighted individuals vote against tax increases intended to boost educational spending.
"The terrifying reality we're facing is that the worst-equipped people you could possibly imagine may actually be forced to take care of their children," Miller said.
Parents who have decided to school-home their children have echoed many of Miller's concerns. Most said that an alarming number of legal guardians such as themselves lack the most basic common sense required to give children the type of instruction they need during crucial developmental years.
"It's really a matter of who has more experience in dealing with my child," Cincinnati- resident Kevin Dufrense said of his decision to have his 10-year-old son Jake, who suffers from ADHD and dyslexia, school-homed. "These teachers are dealing with upwards of 40 students in their classrooms at a time, so obviously they know a lot more about children than someone like me, who only has one son and doesn't know where he is half the time anyway."
"Simply put, it's not the job of parents to raise these kids," Dufrense added.
Though school-homing has proven to be an ideal solution for millions of uninvolved parents, increasingly overburdened public schools have recently led to a steady upswing in the number of students being prison-homed.
WASHINGTON—According to a report released Monday by the U.S. Department of Education, an increasing number of American parents are choosing to have their children raised at school rather than at home.
Deputy Education Secretary Anthony W. Miller said that many parents who school-home find U.S. households to be frightening, overwhelming environments for their children, and feel that they are just not conducive to producing well-rounded members of society.
Thousands of mothers and fathers polled in the study also believe that those running American homes cannot be trusted to keep their kids safe.
"Every year more parents are finding that their homes are not equipped to instill the right values in their children," Miller said. "When it comes to important life skills such as proper nutrition, safe sex, and even basic socialization, a growing number of mothers and fathers think it's better to rely on educators to guide and nurture their kids."
"And really, who can blame them?" Miller continued. "American homes have let down our nation's youth time and again in almost every imaginable respect."
According to the report, children raised at home were less likely to receive individual adult attention, and were often subjected to ineffective and wildly inconsistent disciplinary measures. The study also found that many parents expressed concerns that, when at home, their children were being teased and bullied by those older than themselves.
In addition to providing better supervision and overall direction, school-homing has become popular among mothers and fathers who just want to be less involved in the day-to-day lives of their children.
"Parents are finding creative ways to make this increasingly common child-rearing track work," Miller said. "Whether it's over-relying on after-school programs and extracurricular activities, or simply gross neglect,† school-homing is becoming a widely accepted method of bringing children up."
Despite the trend's growing popularity, Miller said that school programs are often jeopardized or terminated because shortsighted individuals vote against tax increases intended to boost educational spending.
"The terrifying reality we're facing is that the worst-equipped people you could possibly imagine may actually be forced to take care of their children," Miller said.
Parents who have decided to school-home their children have echoed many of Miller's concerns. Most said that an alarming number of legal guardians such as themselves lack the most basic common sense required to give children the type of instruction they need during crucial developmental years.
"It's really a matter of who has more experience in dealing with my child," Cincinnati- resident Kevin Dufrense said of his decision to have his 10-year-old son Jake, who suffers from ADHD and dyslexia, school-homed. "These teachers are dealing with upwards of 40 students in their classrooms at a time, so obviously they know a lot more about children than someone like me, who only has one son and doesn't know where he is half the time anyway."
"Simply put, it's not the job of parents to raise these kids," Dufrense added.
Though school-homing has proven to be an ideal solution for millions of uninvolved parents, increasingly overburdened public schools have recently led to a steady upswing in the number of students being prison-homed.
A Movie and Some Chicks
We took the kids to a 3D viewing of How To Train Your Dragon. I absolutely adored it. The kids liked it too. I had Alex read the book first and it turns out it was nothing like the movie.
Afterward we went to White Feather Farm, about a 1/2 drive South into the country. Aside from picking up some yummy food and fresh eggs, the kids got to hold on to baby chicks, an Easter tradition at the farm. They were cute little things.
Afterward we went to White Feather Farm, about a 1/2 drive South into the country. Aside from picking up some yummy food and fresh eggs, the kids got to hold on to baby chicks, an Easter tradition at the farm. They were cute little things.
They are Just so Darn Big!
I really should be in bed but I can't sleep. Instead I will entertain myself musing about the kids and how gosh-darn-big they are getting.This is a recent photo of my nephew Liam with Alex. Alex just turned 7 and Liam turns 7 in April. It is hard to believe how old these boys are getting.
Rob came downstairs this morning saying he had to let out the elastic liner in Alex's jeans from Old Navy. The elastic that holds up long pants on skinny kids. While Alex has never been skinny he still could always use a little support. Anyway, the pants Rob was referring to were the new, not-yet-used size 8 pair that I had picked up on sale and threw in the back of the closet. Size 8 pants! With his giant head he was already 8/10 in shirts but this...
It isn't surprising that they are growing. Just that it seems to happen over night. I just went through this with Izzy. Less than two months after refitting her closet with size 4 clothes, she jumped to a 5.
These kids are starting to cost me a fortune in clothing. Not once have we ever worn out clothes in this house. I now have a 7 year old boy who is 4 1/2 feet tall, about 70lbs with a little sister coming up on 4 feet and over 40lbs.
Sometimes they still ask me to snuggle with them like I did when they were babies. It is near impossible to do now and always reminds me of that book by Robert Munsch, Love You Forever, where the older mom cradles her growing son. It is hard to believe these are the kids I could once cradle in one arm.
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Article Copied From Psychology Today
When Less is More: The Case for Teaching Less Math in Schools
In an experiment, children who were taught less learned more.
[By Peter Gray, a research professor of psychology at Boston College, is a specialist in developmental and evolutionary psychology and author of an introductory textbook, Psychology.]
In 1929, the superintendent of schools in Ithaca, New York, sent out a challenge to his colleagues in other cities. "What," he asked, "can we drop from the elementary school curriculum?" He complained that over the years new subjects were continuously being added and nothing was being subtracted, with the result that the school day was packed with too many subjects and there was little time to reflect seriously on anything. This was back in the days when people believed that children shouldn't have to spend all of their time at school work--that they needed some time to play, to do chores at home, and to be with their families--so there was reason back then to believe that whenever something new is added to the curriculum something else should be dropped.
One of the recipients of this challenge was L. P. Benezet, superintendent of schools in Manchester, New Hampshire, who responded with this outrageous proposal: We should drop arithmetic! Benezet went on to argue that the time spent on arithmetic in the early grades was wasted effort, or worse. In fact, he wrote: "For some years I had noted that the effect of the early introduction of arithmetic had been to dull and almost chloroform the child's reasoning facilities." All that drill, he claimed, had divorced the whole realm of numbers and arithmetic, in the children's minds, from common sense, with the result that they could do the calculations as taught to them, but didn't understand what they were doing and couldn't apply the calculations to real life problems. He believed that if arithmetic were not taught until later on--preferably not until seventh grade--the kids would learn it with far less effort and greater understanding.
Think of it. Today whenever we hear that children aren't learning much of what is taught in school the hue and cry from the educational establishment is that we must therefore teach more of it! If two hundred hours of instruction on subject X does no good, well, let's try four hundred hours. If children aren't learning what is taught to them in first grade, then let's start teaching it in kindergarten. And if they aren't learning it in kindergarten, that could only mean that we need to start them in pre-kindergarten! But Benezet had the opposite opinion. If kids aren't learning much math in the early grades despite considerable time and effort devoted to it, then why waste time and effort on it?
Benezet followed his outrageous suggestion with an outrageous experiment. He asked the principals and teachers in some of the schools located in the poorest parts of Manchester to drop the third R from the early grades. They would not teach arithmetic--no adding, subtracting, multiplying or dividing. He chose schools in the poorest neighborhoods because he knew that if he tried this in the wealthier neighborhoods, where parents were high school or college graduates, the parents would rebel. As a compromise, to appease the principals who were not willing to go as far as he wished, Benezet decided on a plan in which arithmetic would be introduced in sixth grade.
In 1929, the superintendent of schools in Ithaca, New York, sent out a challenge to his colleagues in other cities. "What," he asked, "can we drop from the elementary school curriculum?" He complained that over the years new subjects were continuously being added and nothing was being subtracted, with the result that the school day was packed with too many subjects and there was little time to reflect seriously on anything. This was back in the days when people believed that children shouldn't have to spend all of their time at school work--that they needed some time to play, to do chores at home, and to be with their families--so there was reason back then to believe that whenever something new is added to the curriculum something else should be dropped.
One of the recipients of this challenge was L. P. Benezet, superintendent of schools in Manchester, New Hampshire, who responded with this outrageous proposal: We should drop arithmetic! Benezet went on to argue that the time spent on arithmetic in the early grades was wasted effort, or worse. In fact, he wrote: "For some years I had noted that the effect of the early introduction of arithmetic had been to dull and almost chloroform the child's reasoning facilities." All that drill, he claimed, had divorced the whole realm of numbers and arithmetic, in the children's minds, from common sense, with the result that they could do the calculations as taught to them, but didn't understand what they were doing and couldn't apply the calculations to real life problems. He believed that if arithmetic were not taught until later on--preferably not until seventh grade--the kids would learn it with far less effort and greater understanding.
Think of it. Today whenever we hear that children aren't learning much of what is taught in school the hue and cry from the educational establishment is that we must therefore teach more of it! If two hundred hours of instruction on subject X does no good, well, let's try four hundred hours. If children aren't learning what is taught to them in first grade, then let's start teaching it in kindergarten. And if they aren't learning it in kindergarten, that could only mean that we need to start them in pre-kindergarten! But Benezet had the opposite opinion. If kids aren't learning much math in the early grades despite considerable time and effort devoted to it, then why waste time and effort on it?
Benezet followed his outrageous suggestion with an outrageous experiment. He asked the principals and teachers in some of the schools located in the poorest parts of Manchester to drop the third R from the early grades. They would not teach arithmetic--no adding, subtracting, multiplying or dividing. He chose schools in the poorest neighborhoods because he knew that if he tried this in the wealthier neighborhoods, where parents were high school or college graduates, the parents would rebel. As a compromise, to appease the principals who were not willing to go as far as he wished, Benezet decided on a plan in which arithmetic would be introduced in sixth grade.
As part of the plan, he asked the teachers of the earlier grades to devote some of the time that they would normally spend on arithmetic to the new third R--recitation. By "recitation" he meant, "speaking the English language." He did "not mean giving back, verbatim, the words of the teacher or the textbook." The children would be asked to talk about topics that interested them--experiences they had had, movies they had seen, or anything that would lead to genuine, lively communication and discussion. This, he thought, would improve their abilities to reason and communicate logically. He also asked the teachers to give their pupils some practice in measuring and counting things, to assure that they would have some practical experience with numbers.
In order to evaluate the experiment, Benezet arranged for a graduate student from Boston University to come up and test the Manchester children at various times in the sixth grade. The results were remarkable. At the beginning of their sixth grade year, the children in the experimental classes, who had not been taught any arithmetic, performed much better than those in the traditional classes on story problems that could be solved by common sense and a general understanding of numbers and measurement. Of course, at the beginning of sixth grade, those in the experimental classes performed worse on the standard school arithmetic tests, where the problems were set up in the usual school manner and could be solved simply by applying the rote-learned algorithms. But by the end of sixth grade those in the experimental classes had completely caught up on this and were still way ahead of the others on story problems.
In sum, Benezet showed that kids who received just one year of arithmetic, in sixth grade, performed at least as well on standard calculations and much better on story problems than kids who had received several years of arithmetic training. This was all the more remarkable because of the fact that those who received just one year of training were from the poorest neighborhoods--the neighborhoods that had previously produced the poorest test results. Why have almost no educators heard of this experiment? Why isn't Benezet now considered to be one of the geniuses of public education? I wonder.
For decades since Benezet's time, educators have debated about the best ways to teach mathematics in schools. There was the new math, the new new math, and so on. Nothing has worked. There are lots of reasons for this, one of which is that the people who teach in elementary schools are not mathematicians. Most of them are math phobic, just like most people in the larger culture. They, after all, are themselves products of the school system, and one thing the school system does well is to generate a lasting fear and loathing of mathematics in most people who pass through it. No matter what textbooks or worksheets or lesson plans the higher-ups devise for them, the teachers teach math by rote, in the only way they can, and they just pray that no smart-alec student asks them a question such as "Why do we do it that way?" or "What good is this?" The students, of course, pick up on their teachers' fear, and they learn not to ask or even to think about such questions. They learn to be dumb. They learn, as Benezet would have put it, that a math-schooled mind is a chloroformed mind.
In an article published in 2005, Patricia Clark Kenschaft, a professor of mathematics at Montclair State University, described her experiences of going into elementary schools and talking with teachers about math. In one visit to a K-6 elementary school in New Jersey she discovered that not a single teacher, out of the fifty that she met with, knew how to find the area of a rectangle.[2] They taught multiplication, but none of them knew that multiplication is used to find the area of a rectangle. Their most common guess was that you add the length and the width to get the area. Their excuse for not knowing was that they did not need to teach about areas of rectangles; that came later in the curriculum. But the fact that they couldn't figure out that multiplication is used to find the area was evidence to Kenschaft that they didn't really know what multiplication is or what it is for. She also found that although the teachers knew and taught the algorithm for multiplying one two-digit number by another, none of them could explain why that algorithm works.
The school that Kenschaft visited happened to be in a very poor district, with mostly African American kids, so at first she figured that the worst teachers must have been assigned to that school, and she theorized that this was why African Americans do even more poorly than white Americans on math tests. But then she went into some schools in wealthy districts, with mostly white kids, and found that the mathematics knowledge of teachers there was equally pathetic. She concluded that nobody could be learning much math in school and, "It appears that the higher scores of the affluent districts are not due to superior teaching but to the supplementary informal ‘home schooling' of children."
At the present time it seems clear that we are doing more damage than good by teaching math in elementary schools. Therefore, I'm with Benezet. We should stop teaching it. In my next post--about two weeks from now--I'm going to talk about how kids who don't go to traditional schools learn math with no or very little formal instruction.
In an experiment, children who were taught less learned more.
[By Peter Gray, a research professor of psychology at Boston College, is a specialist in developmental and evolutionary psychology and author of an introductory textbook, Psychology.]
In 1929, the superintendent of schools in Ithaca, New York, sent out a challenge to his colleagues in other cities. "What," he asked, "can we drop from the elementary school curriculum?" He complained that over the years new subjects were continuously being added and nothing was being subtracted, with the result that the school day was packed with too many subjects and there was little time to reflect seriously on anything. This was back in the days when people believed that children shouldn't have to spend all of their time at school work--that they needed some time to play, to do chores at home, and to be with their families--so there was reason back then to believe that whenever something new is added to the curriculum something else should be dropped.
One of the recipients of this challenge was L. P. Benezet, superintendent of schools in Manchester, New Hampshire, who responded with this outrageous proposal: We should drop arithmetic! Benezet went on to argue that the time spent on arithmetic in the early grades was wasted effort, or worse. In fact, he wrote: "For some years I had noted that the effect of the early introduction of arithmetic had been to dull and almost chloroform the child's reasoning facilities." All that drill, he claimed, had divorced the whole realm of numbers and arithmetic, in the children's minds, from common sense, with the result that they could do the calculations as taught to them, but didn't understand what they were doing and couldn't apply the calculations to real life problems. He believed that if arithmetic were not taught until later on--preferably not until seventh grade--the kids would learn it with far less effort and greater understanding.
Think of it. Today whenever we hear that children aren't learning much of what is taught in school the hue and cry from the educational establishment is that we must therefore teach more of it! If two hundred hours of instruction on subject X does no good, well, let's try four hundred hours. If children aren't learning what is taught to them in first grade, then let's start teaching it in kindergarten. And if they aren't learning it in kindergarten, that could only mean that we need to start them in pre-kindergarten! But Benezet had the opposite opinion. If kids aren't learning much math in the early grades despite considerable time and effort devoted to it, then why waste time and effort on it?
Benezet followed his outrageous suggestion with an outrageous experiment. He asked the principals and teachers in some of the schools located in the poorest parts of Manchester to drop the third R from the early grades. They would not teach arithmetic--no adding, subtracting, multiplying or dividing. He chose schools in the poorest neighborhoods because he knew that if he tried this in the wealthier neighborhoods, where parents were high school or college graduates, the parents would rebel. As a compromise, to appease the principals who were not willing to go as far as he wished, Benezet decided on a plan in which arithmetic would be introduced in sixth grade.
In 1929, the superintendent of schools in Ithaca, New York, sent out a challenge to his colleagues in other cities. "What," he asked, "can we drop from the elementary school curriculum?" He complained that over the years new subjects were continuously being added and nothing was being subtracted, with the result that the school day was packed with too many subjects and there was little time to reflect seriously on anything. This was back in the days when people believed that children shouldn't have to spend all of their time at school work--that they needed some time to play, to do chores at home, and to be with their families--so there was reason back then to believe that whenever something new is added to the curriculum something else should be dropped.
One of the recipients of this challenge was L. P. Benezet, superintendent of schools in Manchester, New Hampshire, who responded with this outrageous proposal: We should drop arithmetic! Benezet went on to argue that the time spent on arithmetic in the early grades was wasted effort, or worse. In fact, he wrote: "For some years I had noted that the effect of the early introduction of arithmetic had been to dull and almost chloroform the child's reasoning facilities." All that drill, he claimed, had divorced the whole realm of numbers and arithmetic, in the children's minds, from common sense, with the result that they could do the calculations as taught to them, but didn't understand what they were doing and couldn't apply the calculations to real life problems. He believed that if arithmetic were not taught until later on--preferably not until seventh grade--the kids would learn it with far less effort and greater understanding.
Think of it. Today whenever we hear that children aren't learning much of what is taught in school the hue and cry from the educational establishment is that we must therefore teach more of it! If two hundred hours of instruction on subject X does no good, well, let's try four hundred hours. If children aren't learning what is taught to them in first grade, then let's start teaching it in kindergarten. And if they aren't learning it in kindergarten, that could only mean that we need to start them in pre-kindergarten! But Benezet had the opposite opinion. If kids aren't learning much math in the early grades despite considerable time and effort devoted to it, then why waste time and effort on it?
Benezet followed his outrageous suggestion with an outrageous experiment. He asked the principals and teachers in some of the schools located in the poorest parts of Manchester to drop the third R from the early grades. They would not teach arithmetic--no adding, subtracting, multiplying or dividing. He chose schools in the poorest neighborhoods because he knew that if he tried this in the wealthier neighborhoods, where parents were high school or college graduates, the parents would rebel. As a compromise, to appease the principals who were not willing to go as far as he wished, Benezet decided on a plan in which arithmetic would be introduced in sixth grade.
As part of the plan, he asked the teachers of the earlier grades to devote some of the time that they would normally spend on arithmetic to the new third R--recitation. By "recitation" he meant, "speaking the English language." He did "not mean giving back, verbatim, the words of the teacher or the textbook." The children would be asked to talk about topics that interested them--experiences they had had, movies they had seen, or anything that would lead to genuine, lively communication and discussion. This, he thought, would improve their abilities to reason and communicate logically. He also asked the teachers to give their pupils some practice in measuring and counting things, to assure that they would have some practical experience with numbers.
In order to evaluate the experiment, Benezet arranged for a graduate student from Boston University to come up and test the Manchester children at various times in the sixth grade. The results were remarkable. At the beginning of their sixth grade year, the children in the experimental classes, who had not been taught any arithmetic, performed much better than those in the traditional classes on story problems that could be solved by common sense and a general understanding of numbers and measurement. Of course, at the beginning of sixth grade, those in the experimental classes performed worse on the standard school arithmetic tests, where the problems were set up in the usual school manner and could be solved simply by applying the rote-learned algorithms. But by the end of sixth grade those in the experimental classes had completely caught up on this and were still way ahead of the others on story problems.
In sum, Benezet showed that kids who received just one year of arithmetic, in sixth grade, performed at least as well on standard calculations and much better on story problems than kids who had received several years of arithmetic training. This was all the more remarkable because of the fact that those who received just one year of training were from the poorest neighborhoods--the neighborhoods that had previously produced the poorest test results. Why have almost no educators heard of this experiment? Why isn't Benezet now considered to be one of the geniuses of public education? I wonder.
For decades since Benezet's time, educators have debated about the best ways to teach mathematics in schools. There was the new math, the new new math, and so on. Nothing has worked. There are lots of reasons for this, one of which is that the people who teach in elementary schools are not mathematicians. Most of them are math phobic, just like most people in the larger culture. They, after all, are themselves products of the school system, and one thing the school system does well is to generate a lasting fear and loathing of mathematics in most people who pass through it. No matter what textbooks or worksheets or lesson plans the higher-ups devise for them, the teachers teach math by rote, in the only way they can, and they just pray that no smart-alec student asks them a question such as "Why do we do it that way?" or "What good is this?" The students, of course, pick up on their teachers' fear, and they learn not to ask or even to think about such questions. They learn to be dumb. They learn, as Benezet would have put it, that a math-schooled mind is a chloroformed mind.
In an article published in 2005, Patricia Clark Kenschaft, a professor of mathematics at Montclair State University, described her experiences of going into elementary schools and talking with teachers about math. In one visit to a K-6 elementary school in New Jersey she discovered that not a single teacher, out of the fifty that she met with, knew how to find the area of a rectangle.[2] They taught multiplication, but none of them knew that multiplication is used to find the area of a rectangle. Their most common guess was that you add the length and the width to get the area. Their excuse for not knowing was that they did not need to teach about areas of rectangles; that came later in the curriculum. But the fact that they couldn't figure out that multiplication is used to find the area was evidence to Kenschaft that they didn't really know what multiplication is or what it is for. She also found that although the teachers knew and taught the algorithm for multiplying one two-digit number by another, none of them could explain why that algorithm works.
The school that Kenschaft visited happened to be in a very poor district, with mostly African American kids, so at first she figured that the worst teachers must have been assigned to that school, and she theorized that this was why African Americans do even more poorly than white Americans on math tests. But then she went into some schools in wealthy districts, with mostly white kids, and found that the mathematics knowledge of teachers there was equally pathetic. She concluded that nobody could be learning much math in school and, "It appears that the higher scores of the affluent districts are not due to superior teaching but to the supplementary informal ‘home schooling' of children."
At the present time it seems clear that we are doing more damage than good by teaching math in elementary schools. Therefore, I'm with Benezet. We should stop teaching it. In my next post--about two weeks from now--I'm going to talk about how kids who don't go to traditional schools learn math with no or very little formal instruction.
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Izzy'isms
Some gems I've been meaning to jot down. Some go back a ways, copied them from facebook.
On my birthday: Mommy its not fair that you and Alex have your birthdays near each other. I have to have mine with daddy. [insert pouty face] If you love me you will change it so our birthdays are together and Alex can go with daddy.
This morning after a particularly bad one, for all of us, as we are going out the door: (Alex) Mommy, I hope your days gets better! (Izzy) [Stomping her way past me] I don't!! That actually did make me laugh.
Last week: Mommy, how come I don't have back up dancers? I really need back up dancers!
In the car one day: She was telling Alex about a new game she invented: snatch-away. Her version of keep-away. She was mad when mommy and daddy wouldn't stop laughing.
Back in January: A child of the times? A computer/gaming addict in the making? (Izzy) Can E go on my sled with me tomorrow, even though it's not for 2 players?
On my birthday: Mommy its not fair that you and Alex have your birthdays near each other. I have to have mine with daddy. [insert pouty face] If you love me you will change it so our birthdays are together and Alex can go with daddy.
This morning after a particularly bad one, for all of us, as we are going out the door: (Alex) Mommy, I hope your days gets better! (Izzy) [Stomping her way past me] I don't!! That actually did make me laugh.
Last week: Mommy, how come I don't have back up dancers? I really need back up dancers!
In the car one day: She was telling Alex about a new game she invented: snatch-away. Her version of keep-away. She was mad when mommy and daddy wouldn't stop laughing.
Back in January: A child of the times? A computer/gaming addict in the making? (Izzy) Can E go on my sled with me tomorrow, even though it's not for 2 players?
How (Excessive) Reading Pays Off
It is amazing what reading can do! I have been quietly tracking what the boy has been reading. Thanks to Mommy's crackdown on television and video games, and the fact that we were home most of last week, I counted over 60 books read by the boy. Some were Dr. Seuss books. He also likes to reread Geronimo Stilton or non-fiction fact books. Other titles included Rowan of Rin by Emily Rodda, How to Train your Dragon by Cressida Cowell, a few of from The Boxcar Children series, biographies of The Wright Brothers and Albert Einstein, The Big Book of Gross Stuff and many, many more.
I would guess he averages 30-40 books a week, my little speed reader. He is a true lover of literature. It is paying off big time!
This afternoon he came upstairs with a sign that said "Bos's Room" and asked if he had spelled it correctly. I told him he missed an S but was super impressed that he knew possession required an apostrophe. I never taught him that. Not in a sit down and learn grammar kind of way.
It got me thinking about many little things I have been noticing these days. His spelling has dramatically improved over the last few months. This boy, who would misspell a simple word six months ago is spelling words like "ready" without help. The mistakes he makes are not the ones I would expect either. Great was "graet" which he knew looked wrong even though he had the right idea. Not too long ago he would have written "grate" instead.
He reads so much that he now recognizes rules of writing and spelling without necessarily knowing what it is called or why he has to do it. Pretty decent stuff for a newly 7 year old boy. He is finally developing an interest in writing too. And with writing comes a new need to be able to decipher what he has written down. Last year if he wrote "kat came bak" he would know exactly what he wrote. Now the mistakes would bother him and he would see there were errors, even if he wasn't sure how to correct them.
Great things are happening. I really hope Izzy embraces books like her brother. We are off to a good start. She is very proud to be a beginning reader. If I've said it once, I've said it a million times. reading has to be my absolute favourite milestone of all. So exciting!
I would guess he averages 30-40 books a week, my little speed reader. He is a true lover of literature. It is paying off big time!
This afternoon he came upstairs with a sign that said "Bos's Room" and asked if he had spelled it correctly. I told him he missed an S but was super impressed that he knew possession required an apostrophe. I never taught him that. Not in a sit down and learn grammar kind of way.
It got me thinking about many little things I have been noticing these days. His spelling has dramatically improved over the last few months. This boy, who would misspell a simple word six months ago is spelling words like "ready" without help. The mistakes he makes are not the ones I would expect either. Great was "graet" which he knew looked wrong even though he had the right idea. Not too long ago he would have written "grate" instead.
He reads so much that he now recognizes rules of writing and spelling without necessarily knowing what it is called or why he has to do it. Pretty decent stuff for a newly 7 year old boy. He is finally developing an interest in writing too. And with writing comes a new need to be able to decipher what he has written down. Last year if he wrote "kat came bak" he would know exactly what he wrote. Now the mistakes would bother him and he would see there were errors, even if he wasn't sure how to correct them.
Great things are happening. I really hope Izzy embraces books like her brother. We are off to a good start. She is very proud to be a beginning reader. If I've said it once, I've said it a million times. reading has to be my absolute favourite milestone of all. So exciting!
Friday, March 19, 2010
A Conversation Upstairs
There was a little bickering and then Izzy started crying. I didn't hear how it happened but the follow-up conversation had me cracking up!
Alex: "It was all my fault!"
Izzy: "No it was my fault."
Alex: "No, really it was all my fault!"
Izzy: "No, it was all my fault!"
Alex: "No, really, blame me..."
This went on for a few minutes, lol. Shortly after this was heard:
Alex: "You know if you say you can't do it than you can't do it. But if you think you can do it than you can do it. You have to think you can do it."
Izzy comes down the stairs a few minutes later and says to me, "I don't think I can clean my room by myself. Alex says I can't because I think I can't but I can. So I need to tell you the truth that I can't and I need help."
Oh, these kids crack me up. I told her to start with putting her dress up clothes away and than I would be right up to help her along. She shouted thank-you and was grinning ear to ear.
Funny, funny kids!
Alex: "It was all my fault!"
Izzy: "No it was my fault."
Alex: "No, really it was all my fault!"
Izzy: "No, it was all my fault!"
Alex: "No, really, blame me..."
This went on for a few minutes, lol. Shortly after this was heard:
Alex: "You know if you say you can't do it than you can't do it. But if you think you can do it than you can do it. You have to think you can do it."
Izzy comes down the stairs a few minutes later and says to me, "I don't think I can clean my room by myself. Alex says I can't because I think I can't but I can. So I need to tell you the truth that I can't and I need help."
Oh, these kids crack me up. I told her to start with putting her dress up clothes away and than I would be right up to help her along. She shouted thank-you and was grinning ear to ear.
Funny, funny kids!
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Alex's Birth Story - Part 2
There was always a debate over when Alex was due thanks to our finding out about him in the second trimester. My due date moved around by a few weeks over the course of my pregnancy. Eventually I think it was settled on March 5, his actual birthday but I was induced on March 3, a Monday morning. The doctor was getting anxious about my blood pressure and since we weren't firm on the due date, he was worried about an overly late baby. The boy was always measuring quite large but did that mean he was older than we thought or just a big baby. Rob and his sister, after all, came in at 9lbs5oz and 9lb12oz respectively. To a very tiny mother no less.
Monday morning at 8am I walked into my doctor's office where he took one look at me and grunted something about hoping I had already gone into labour. He told me not to take my coat off, that he was calling the hospital and sending me in asap. I called a cab, went home to collect Rob and my hospital bag and we set off immediately for the hospital.
By 10am I was hooked up to an IV and then the wait was on. I wasn't dilated at all. It was going to take a long time. A really long time. A whopping 41 hours in the end.
We started off in a recovery room with a mom that was being sent for a c-section. We checked in before her but she had her surgery and new baby long before I was even a few centimetres dilated.
Once a birthing suite became available, I was moved. The drugs kept coming. Around 2 centimeters I had an epidural. This was well over 20 hours of labour at that point. I was exhausted and had no idea what was in store.
I went through several shift changes. At one point I sent Rob home to change, shower and nap. They filled the epidural machine three times! Finally, not long after midnight on March 5th a doctor came in to assess me, again, and get the ball rolling for a c-section. He had paperwork for us to sign, a gown for Rob to change in to. Unfortunately, they had just topped up my epidural and not very happy doctor was going to have to wait for the medicine to wear off before they could take me upstairs for surgery. I remember feeling relieved. Though I wanted what was best for the baby I remember feeling quite upset at the idea of going through 30+ hours of labour just to get cut open in the end.
Well, Alex had timing. A few hours later I half-woke to the nurses clucking with disapproving tones because I started pushing. On a lark, one checked me to see I was fully dilated and the baby was on his or her way. I was fully wakened by a glaring white light and tons of new activity in the room. About 2 minutes into pushing I gave up. I wasn't exactly coherent, time was some abstract idea and I felt like I had been at it for hours. I was completely convinced the baby was stuck and told everyone so. I am sure it was a funny thing at the time. Finally I was cajoled (by what seemed like 20 people) into trying again and he was born about 3 minutes later.
Next, I remember one of the doctors holding up a scrunchy-face baby, then the alarms went off and the babe was shuffled away. Poor Rob was beside himself. With the alarm came more doctors and much more activity. It may have been the drugs but I was very calm and had complete faith our son was going to be just fine. Rob struggled with wanting to stay with me and heading over to the crew working on Alex. I remember taking his hand and telling him I was okay, just go be with our baby.
There was one funny moment we'll never forget! Alex's labour took so long (and his blood pressure was diving near then end of his birth) that they were already worried before he came out. I think he pooped on his way out so meconium was a concern too. His colouring was just awful. Yet his vitals were fine. They kept looking at him, checking his vitals (which were perfect) and shaking their heads in confusion. Eventually a nurse turned towards me and the next words heard were, "well look at the mom...she is gray too..." Poor pasty little man.
After all the fuss with his birth, everything had turned out just perfectly. Sadly I was one of the last people to hold my boy but his dad was by his side the whole time. He was taken, as a precaution, to the neonatal room for observation. It took more than five hours to have him in my arms. In that time I relaxed, chatted with the nursed and ate a little. Eventually I got to shower, visitors came and went...the whole day passed quickly. Just before midnight, still on March 5th, I passed my little Alex to Rob and complained about feeling quite ill. While settling back into the bed we realized that I had been up and about, without so much as a nap, since I had given birth more than 20 hours earlier! I got a little sleep that night and was finally discharged around lunch on Thursday March 6th.
The boy came into this world at 7lbs 15oz. A crabby nurse who was upset that I wasn't breast feeding him and must not have realized we were feeding him with formula we brought from home took him after chastising me for not feeding him enough. She told us he was going to get weighed and if he lost too much weight than we wouldn't be going home that day. Well, she sheepishly brought back our boy who had actually gone up to 8lbs 2oz. Seven years later, I can say this growth trajectory hasn't slowed one bit.
So that is how our boy came to be with us. It was an adventure. I haven't forgotten very much about that day. Hard to believe so much time has passed.
Monday morning at 8am I walked into my doctor's office where he took one look at me and grunted something about hoping I had already gone into labour. He told me not to take my coat off, that he was calling the hospital and sending me in asap. I called a cab, went home to collect Rob and my hospital bag and we set off immediately for the hospital.
By 10am I was hooked up to an IV and then the wait was on. I wasn't dilated at all. It was going to take a long time. A really long time. A whopping 41 hours in the end.
We started off in a recovery room with a mom that was being sent for a c-section. We checked in before her but she had her surgery and new baby long before I was even a few centimetres dilated.
Once a birthing suite became available, I was moved. The drugs kept coming. Around 2 centimeters I had an epidural. This was well over 20 hours of labour at that point. I was exhausted and had no idea what was in store.
I went through several shift changes. At one point I sent Rob home to change, shower and nap. They filled the epidural machine three times! Finally, not long after midnight on March 5th a doctor came in to assess me, again, and get the ball rolling for a c-section. He had paperwork for us to sign, a gown for Rob to change in to. Unfortunately, they had just topped up my epidural and not very happy doctor was going to have to wait for the medicine to wear off before they could take me upstairs for surgery. I remember feeling relieved. Though I wanted what was best for the baby I remember feeling quite upset at the idea of going through 30+ hours of labour just to get cut open in the end.
Well, Alex had timing. A few hours later I half-woke to the nurses clucking with disapproving tones because I started pushing. On a lark, one checked me to see I was fully dilated and the baby was on his or her way. I was fully wakened by a glaring white light and tons of new activity in the room. About 2 minutes into pushing I gave up. I wasn't exactly coherent, time was some abstract idea and I felt like I had been at it for hours. I was completely convinced the baby was stuck and told everyone so. I am sure it was a funny thing at the time. Finally I was cajoled (by what seemed like 20 people) into trying again and he was born about 3 minutes later.
Next, I remember one of the doctors holding up a scrunchy-face baby, then the alarms went off and the babe was shuffled away. Poor Rob was beside himself. With the alarm came more doctors and much more activity. It may have been the drugs but I was very calm and had complete faith our son was going to be just fine. Rob struggled with wanting to stay with me and heading over to the crew working on Alex. I remember taking his hand and telling him I was okay, just go be with our baby.
There was one funny moment we'll never forget! Alex's labour took so long (and his blood pressure was diving near then end of his birth) that they were already worried before he came out. I think he pooped on his way out so meconium was a concern too. His colouring was just awful. Yet his vitals were fine. They kept looking at him, checking his vitals (which were perfect) and shaking their heads in confusion. Eventually a nurse turned towards me and the next words heard were, "well look at the mom...she is gray too..." Poor pasty little man.
After all the fuss with his birth, everything had turned out just perfectly. Sadly I was one of the last people to hold my boy but his dad was by his side the whole time. He was taken, as a precaution, to the neonatal room for observation. It took more than five hours to have him in my arms. In that time I relaxed, chatted with the nursed and ate a little. Eventually I got to shower, visitors came and went...the whole day passed quickly. Just before midnight, still on March 5th, I passed my little Alex to Rob and complained about feeling quite ill. While settling back into the bed we realized that I had been up and about, without so much as a nap, since I had given birth more than 20 hours earlier! I got a little sleep that night and was finally discharged around lunch on Thursday March 6th.
The boy came into this world at 7lbs 15oz. A crabby nurse who was upset that I wasn't breast feeding him and must not have realized we were feeding him with formula we brought from home took him after chastising me for not feeding him enough. She told us he was going to get weighed and if he lost too much weight than we wouldn't be going home that day. Well, she sheepishly brought back our boy who had actually gone up to 8lbs 2oz. Seven years later, I can say this growth trajectory hasn't slowed one bit.
So that is how our boy came to be with us. It was an adventure. I haven't forgotten very much about that day. Hard to believe so much time has passed.
A little late...but Happy Birthday Alex!!
We had the family over on Sunday to celebrate Alex's 7th birthday. I made him a LEGO Atlantis underwater birthday cake. He was happy with it! He was happy for two reasons, he told me. The first because now he was more than half way to being a teenager. (Made me kind of miss the birthday where he cried because he was getting older and never wanted to leave home, lol!)The second because he got a raise on his allowance on his birthday. They get their age in dollars every two weeks - or half their age a week, depending on how you want to look at it. I just find it easier to pay them when Rob gets paid.
So, now I have a seven year old boy and I couldn't be prouder! I adore this kid, which I know every mom says, but he is just such a kind-hearted boy and a treat to be around. His aunt gave him two books for his birthday and he jumped up and down like he had just been told he was going to Disney. He is always so gracious and considering how spoiled he is, he takes little for granted.
I know I did a birth story for Izzy and would like to try and piece together the fragments of my memories from Alex's birth. I am in between computers right now and when I regain access to my photos I'll post one of the not so teeny, tiny boy as a newborn.
To say that finding out we were expecting Alex was a surprise would be an understatement. Eight years ago I sat in a doctor's office being told how difficult it would be for me to get pregnant and that I needed to go home and decide when we were going to start pursuing aggressive options. I was 27, so it wasn't a dire situation but there wasn't a lot of time to lose. My doctor didn't want me coming back at 35 feeling like I had really missed the boat.
I went home, had a good cry and Rob and I decided we would do what we needed to do when the time came. Some fertility treatments, perhaps look into adoption if that didn't work. At any rate, we were still going to wait another year or two before we proceeded with any plan.
Several weeks later I was talking to my pharmacist, talking about my PCOS and why the birth control wasn't regulating my period as it had done in the past. She told me to grab a pregnancy test so I could officially rule it out when I went back to the doctor. Sure thing!!
When I got home that night I told a distracted husband that I was taking a pregnancy test, hardy-har-har, and that if he heard a scream and a thud he should come check on me. Well, a few minutes later there was more of a yelp and a whole lot of "Oh My Gods" going on. Rob came running towards me having totally forgotten (or not even heard) what I had said to him and only registered what I was saying when I started waving the pee stick in his face. I totally freaked out. I couldn't have been less prepared for that possibility.
I was up all night googling possible reasons a pregnancy test would come back positive because I couldn't possibly be pregnant. As soon as the stores were open, I was at the front door with a full bladder to purchase another couple boxes of tests. All of which told me the same thing. I was pregnant!
It was a Friday morning in August, which I remember because I begged to see my doctor that afternoon and my blood work wouldn't come back quickly because it was the weekend. She did immediately book an ultrasound just to see what was going on. On my way to that Friday afternoon appointment I remember telling Rob that I would call if she heard a heartbeat, thinking what a great joke that was. If only I had known...
So I was pregnant and had no idea how far along I was. We had the ultrasound booked a week after discovery. Well, not only was there an audible heartbeat but the screen showed us a very well developed baby - around 18 weeks along. We were dumbfounded! Into the second trimester without even knowing I was pregnant. Heck, I was pregnant the day the doctor told me I may never even have kids!
He was the easiest pregnancy. Never gave me a problem until the end when he didn't want to come out. Since this post has gotten so long I will leave his birth day for another post. It is nice remembering. Feels like a million years ago though.
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Not Feeling Bloggy Lately
I have a ton of posts to catch up on. Birthdays have come and gone. Activities are about to take a short break. Rob's been ramping up at work again.
Anyway, I will hopefully post a lot next week. I have new incentive too. The nice delivery man dropped off my new hp laptop today. After I finish 'tweaking', I should be ready to get this puppy to work.
Anyway, I will hopefully post a lot next week. I have new incentive too. The nice delivery man dropped off my new hp laptop today. After I finish 'tweaking', I should be ready to get this puppy to work.
Monday, March 1, 2010
A Birthday and Some Gratitude
I turn 35 today. Half way to 70 is the big joke around here. I can no longer deny that if I am not "middle aged" now, I am certainly on my way. I am happy today. Not just because it is my birthday but because life just seems pretty swell all the way around. I've had a fair share of bumpy years so I will gladly embrace this feeling.
In this vein, I want to list some of which I a grateful for:
My kids are happy, healthy and thriving.
Rob loves his job (most of the time) and is succeeding in ways we never imagined. He is being groomed at work for bigger things to come and just got managements approval to change 50% of his job to something he found lacking in the company. Great things are coming his way.
The kitchen reno is almost done. After a year long break, the details are being tended to and I must say the final picture is stunning!
I feel healthier than I have in years. I am down about 20lbs and counting. I need to exercise even more and am working on this around hubby's more hectic schedule.
I have a lot of great people in my life. Homeschoolers, neighbours, old friends and new...I have a lot of support and people to turn to when I need it. Friends are truly what keep you going!
Homeschooling is about 90% of what I imagined it to be way back in the early days of deciding to head down this road. In the last three (official) years of homeschooling the kids are learning what I had hoped they would learn and surpassed in some areas. I imagined time for family dinners and lounging on the bed reading great books. I imagined the kids taking music lessons, art classes and hanging with their friends. All of this is happening just like I had hoped. We are living the life we had hoped to create, which is awesome!
Life is good right now. Everyone has their share of bumps along the road but I am glad I can see the good times for what they are and just be happy.
In this vein, I want to list some of which I a grateful for:
My kids are happy, healthy and thriving.
Rob loves his job (most of the time) and is succeeding in ways we never imagined. He is being groomed at work for bigger things to come and just got managements approval to change 50% of his job to something he found lacking in the company. Great things are coming his way.
The kitchen reno is almost done. After a year long break, the details are being tended to and I must say the final picture is stunning!
I feel healthier than I have in years. I am down about 20lbs and counting. I need to exercise even more and am working on this around hubby's more hectic schedule.
I have a lot of great people in my life. Homeschoolers, neighbours, old friends and new...I have a lot of support and people to turn to when I need it. Friends are truly what keep you going!
Homeschooling is about 90% of what I imagined it to be way back in the early days of deciding to head down this road. In the last three (official) years of homeschooling the kids are learning what I had hoped they would learn and surpassed in some areas. I imagined time for family dinners and lounging on the bed reading great books. I imagined the kids taking music lessons, art classes and hanging with their friends. All of this is happening just like I had hoped. We are living the life we had hoped to create, which is awesome!
Life is good right now. Everyone has their share of bumps along the road but I am glad I can see the good times for what they are and just be happy.
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