Jack volunteers 6 hours at the BBQ sale January 29, 2009
Posted by irisia in jack, jack boy scouts, Jack community service.Tags: kids community service
add a comment
I’m at our national sales meeting and I’m having a great chance to not only talk to our franchise owners about business but to talk to them about fun and family. I was talking to one of our brand new franchise owners who is only 23. I asked him if he and his wife might have kids some day. He said he has a lot of thoughts and questions before they make their decision. One of the questions was how do you ground children when kids these days seem to have so much compared to what a lot of us had when we were kids. I admitted that although we are SO far from comfortable financially, that we still spoil our kids in comparison to when Howard and I were kids. If the kids need gym shorts for school, we send them with money the next day. If they’ve had a growth spurt and need a couple new outfits, we go out and get them the next weekend. When I was young, each of these purchases would have been planned – and that was more the mode at that time. I generally received one new outfit as a back-to-school outfit and the rest of the year, I leaned on hand-me-downs and clothing I bought myself as soon as I could get jobs.
But, back to the subject at hand. What we try to do is introduce the kids to as much commuity service opportunities as possible. We want them to not only go tit-for-tat for what they’re given but to begin to truly love giving ther time and energy as much as possible.
Jack seems to truly love giving his time and this 6 hours helped him meet his rank advancement goals for boy scouts.
Matthew makes the 24 math contest again January 29, 2009
Posted by irisia in matt, Matthew Educational.add a comment
Matthew is so excited that he made the 24 math contest. About 150 people tried out and 33 made it – and Matthew was one of them!! They are going to practice every other Tuesday.
Here are the details about the 24 game:
Participants play the 24 Game, which involves a deck of cards, each showing four whole numbers between 1 and 9. When presented with a card, the players strive to be the first to combine the four numbers to make 24 using only addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division. All four numbers must be used once and only once, but it is not necessary to use all four operations. Many cards have more than one solution. The game can be surprisingly challenging.
I’m glad the kids got math smarts from their dad!
Mom, are you reading my blog? January 24, 2009
Posted by irisia in mom, musings.Tags: blog diary, blog private, blog public, family reading blog, mom reading blog
add a comment
So I have this blog that I really enjoy writing in. It’s really personal but I want total strangers to read it if they enjoy it. At the same time, I feel really funny if my family reads it. It’s not that I write about them – although sometimes I do, it’s just a diary of sorts. Isn’t it funny how we’d let the world read our diary but feel funny if our own family reads it? Howard knows I have a blog but I’ve never shared the address with him. And, he hasn’t asked. We have a great relationship that way. It’s not a don’t ask, don’t tell. It’s just that we know which things each other would rather keep private and we really respect that – for the most part. OK, here’s one of his that I have trouble respecting. He hates to tell me when he’s off from work because he thinks I will manipulate his time – which I do. But, just the same, I wish he would tell me. So I know this is one of those things that I should just respect as his.
The other day I wrote a blog about my having really blonde hair at the time. All of the sudden my mom starts texting me about hair and long hair and such. I want to ask her if she’s reading my blog but then she won’t respect that I want it to be private from family and she will pester me to deather for the address. But, I think I might have sent her a link at one point and she reads it. It’s all family G-rated so I guess I shouldn’t care but I would still write differently somehow if I knew family was reading it. Strange huh?
AlphaInventions seems to be really cool January 24, 2009
Posted by irisia in mom.Tags: alphainventions.com traffic
add a comment
Yesterday I wrote a post about teachers and how hard they work. About an hour later, I had over 200 reads because of a site called AlphaInventions.com. I initially thought that it was spamming my blog but it’s really legit and it’s great. Blogs are a strange thing because even though they’re private, you’d really love for lots of people to enjoy reading them. So I spent some time on AlphaInventions.com and I really enjoyed it. It’s fun to see the mix of blogs from those including personal stories to those that have less personal stories. I like it.
Matthew, 12, makes videos in PowerPoint January 24, 2009
Posted by irisia in matt, Matthew computer skills, Matthew creative.Tags: powerpoint animation, Powerpoint movies, ppt videos
add a comment
Matthew was in computer class yesterday and they had free time to work on computers. Matthew has learned to make animations in PowerPoint and was making one of a fish being plunged out of a toilet. The teacher commented on what Matthew was doing and in a Meg Ryan moment in When Harry met Sally, another kid in the class said “I want to play what he’s playing”.
Matthew re-made the video at home. Take a look at this:
I’ve been using PPT for, what, 12 years and I had no clue you could make movies in PowerPoint. Matthew is really talented. I’d love to be able to get him a real video editing program. I wonder what Macromedia program would be best?
What do you do when a crook moves into the neighborhood? January 24, 2009
Posted by irisia in lamentscha, mom.Tags: burglar, crook, irresponsible landlords, juvenile delinquent, neighborhood, renters, teen armed robbery, teenage crook, teenage robber, warning when criminal moves in, when renters move in
1 comment so far
A family moved into my neighborhood with a minor who had a criminal record – of armed robbery! Since they moved in, he got out of prison and has burlarized at least 7 cars and at least 2 homes. He is currently back in jail but the parents have always bailed him out. Here’s the deal. The parents are renting the house from our former neighbor. Knowing that this kid has burlarized more than a handful of cars in the neighborhood, the old neighbor renewed the lease!! Do we have any recourse whatsoever? I’ve thought about calling him but I don’t really think there is anything we the neighbors can do except for possibly educate each other and be on the lookout for if/when he gets out of jail again.
How can our old neighbor sleep at night knowing that he let a burglar move in our neighborhood who had a criminal record for armed robbery? And even worse, how could he renew the lease?
It doesn’t seem possible for teachers to do it all January 23, 2009
Posted by irisia in mom.Tags: not enough teachers, teacher overload, teachers are heros, teachers ratio, teachers too much work, teachers workload too high
3 comments
My viewpoint on teachers has changed completely in the last couple years. It started when I had a chance to chat with my SIL who is a teacher. I asked her to tell me if teachers tell the teacher who will have their students the following year about the students – like how is their disposition, strengths, etc. So, she said yes. But to my surprise, she also said that one of the big things they tell eachother about is when the kids have difficult parents. So, it made me think twice about haranguing the teacher when my child gets a bad grade or something because I don’t want my kids to carry a legacy of overzealous PITA parent because of me. So, it was pretty much about that time that I started to keep my mouth shut and not pester the teacher about every little thing my child did not do correctly.
But now my biggest realization is that there can be now way it’s humanly possible for teachers to teach all those children. Kate’s teacher has 21 children in the class. They’re in the third grade. I worked in the classroom this morning for 2 hours. During that time, the teacher asked the kids to turn in 2 things. On the 2nd thing, there were 6 turned in and 3 had no names. So the teacher had to stop teaching and give the 3 3-rd graders personal best awards because they turned in a simple paper that was requested of them.
So, it’s nearly impossible for her to even get through her list for the day when the kids don’t even do simple things like turn a paper in and write their names. This wasn’t even a paper they had to fish out of somewhere. It was something right there in their desk.
Then there were all the kids that needed help. She had to keep about 8 kids from going to computers because they were so behind in their work. She asked me to help one boy who could barely read. I know he has learning disabilities but he was supposed to look for 4 dates in a reading passage and it took us about 30 minutes. There were other students that were having tremendous difficulty on other things. If she took even 10 minutes to work with each of them, and had no other interruptions, we would be talking about 80 minutes she would have to take out of her teaching time.
She is just sick and so completely sad that so many of the kids are not doing well. It’s not for lack of great teaching. It’s not for lack of care. I can’t see anything else at all she could possibly do more than she’s already doing. And, this doesn’t even count grading homework which she must spend HOURS on each weekend.
But I know there is no solution to this problem. If your child is able to do well, you and your child are SO fortunate. If your child needs someone to be with them for extra help, and the teacher does not have an assistant, then who is supposed to help the kids? If the one teacher is giving personal assistance to one child, then she can’t be available to teach the rest of the class the new lesson. It makes me so sad.
I have this other friend. She says the most terrible things about her son’s teacher. She complains constantly that her son needs to learn in a self-directed manner. Of course she doesn’t put it that way. She says the teacher just runs through the lessons and doesn’t take time to make sure the children really learn. I get so frustrated with her but I don’t say anything because I figure if she feels that way, she’s not going to change because I give her my insight. I think all parents should be teacher for a day. Teachers are heros.
The purple menopause minivan January 21, 2009
Posted by irisia in mom, travel.Tags: vegas cabs, vegas cirque du soleil, vegas phantom of the opera
add a comment
I’ve never been to Vegas before this week. I had all of these visions in my head of glitz and every aspect of every visual thing being decorated and painted and unusual and unique.
So I get into the airport and there’s this huge, huge screen showing previews of all the shows. The volume was loud but not overbearing and the spots were so exciting that everyone’s eyes were glued to the screen. They showed clips of the Phantom of the opera show, Cirque du Soleil, and other shows. It didn’t matter at all the the luggage took a while.
So on to the cab line outside the airport. This line had one of those winding lines they set up at amusement parks that I’m not kidding was at least a good half mile walk up and down these lanes of people traffic. But, the good news is they moved about as fast as you could walk so it was good to get in a half mile of exercise after sitting on the airplanes for all those hours.
When we got up to the front of the line, it was like a multi- bus stop. There were numbered posts which I think went from 1-20. Cab director guy would give you a number and you would run up to the post with your number on it. All of the sudden, cabs went zooming up to position #1, position #2, position #3 as quickly as you could watch. They’d throw the luggage in and you were out of there like that.
As they zoomed up, I saw these wonderful designs. One of the cabs was painted in roses. Another had lots of pink and sparkles. Another was decorated to match one of the shows. And they weren’t just cab cars. Some of them were small SUV’s and other new cards — I guess never miss an opportunity to advertise.
So I’m #7. The new lineup of cabs comes zooming into place. They’re painted with Bette Midler and so many awesome designs that I can’t even keep track of them. Within seconds all the little cab stops have a waiting cab. I turn to look at mine – the purple menopause minivan!! I am not kidding. This cab was not only a minivan but it had the word menopause painted across the side and it stretched from bumper to bumper. If #8 wasn’t already jumping in their cab I might have tried to fenagle a switcheroo. What a way to start my Vegas trip!
What to do when you’re in charge and parents don’t pick up on time? January 13, 2009
Posted by irisia in lamentscha, mom.Tags: babysitters for late parent pick-up, parents picking up late
add a comment
Myself and two other moms are cheerleading coaches for a recreational league. We have a fairly large squad of 18 girls so it’s important for us to coordinate evening off-site practices well. The practices are 1 hour and we want to get the most out of them so it’s important for the girls to be on time. We don’t let out until 7:45 and it’s also important for their girls to leave on time. Earlier in the season we had trouble with parents dropping off, and being late to pick up. This was especially troubling to my assistant coaches when I’m out of town and they run practices.
One week, a girl I’ll call K noted that her dad would be late picking up because he was going to a town about 30 minutes away to run errands during the 1-hour practice!! He had already left for his errands. So, we talked to him when he picked up very late and I also created a sheet for each and every parent to sign requiring that they would stay on-premise during the relatively short 1-hr practices. He signed this.
So last night, practice ended and her father was not there to pick up. She called home and they said he was in town somewhere and did not have a cell phone to call. I waited with her for about 10 minutes but Kate had a lot of homework so I told her I would take her to my house and she could call to be picked up there. She’s been on my squad before and has been to my house before. My house is very close to hers and in-between the practice site and her home. Her parents have been to my house to drop-off and pick up before and I know them personally.
So, when she called home, I spoke with her grandmother who told me she is very ill and I felt so terribly. But, when her dad picked up, he was furious with me for taking his daughter to my house and causing him so much worry without communicating with him. My intent was not to worry the father but I did desire to make an impression on him. He signed a rule statement indicating that the parents would stay on premise during practice. He left and was late. I feel really badly. I know I was wrong in leaving after only 10 minutes. But I felt if I waited until he finally arrived, I would be reinforcing his behavior. If it were my child, I picked up late and my daughter was gone, I would have called the police and sent out the troops. I would have blasted them for scaring me to death. But I also would not have left a one-hour practice when I had agreed to stay on-premise. Really, this is not worth this much time but at the time, I did not even think about the fact that I would scare him. I just thought about myself getting my daughter home to do her homework and facilitating a way for the other girl to get picked up that did not interfere so much in my life. I was wrong. I did the wrong thing. Then, I was not gracious to her at my home. I was not rude but I did not entertain her. I focused on helping my daughter with her homework while the girl waited by the door for her Dad.
