Kid and Caboodle

Today A.J.’s English teacher sent home a note asking us to help him practice retelling stories using the “take-home reading” books she sends every day. The problem is that the books he brings home are so simple they don’t really have plots to retell.

For example, the entire text of tonight’s book reads:

Ten
Ten buttons
Ten needles
Ten pins
Ten pieces of cloth
Ten zippers
Ten pom-poms
Ten costumes

So what’s the plot in this case? Someone is assembling the materials to sew ten costumes?

This “take-home reading” project has been going on for several months. When it began, the teacher told us that the books she would be sending home would be below A.J.’s reading level “to build confidence.” Although I appreciate the intent, I think these books may be so far below A.J.’s reading level that he is becoming bored. At home he is reading the “Magic Treehouse” and “Curious George” series independently, as well as Dr. Seuss books. (The Sneetches is one of his favorites.) I don’t think confidence in his reading skills is a problem with him. But perhaps he is having trouble demonstrating those skills to his teacher?

Last week my 6-year-old son took a quiz at school on Martin Luther King, Jr. One of the questions he had to answer was this:

Martin Luther King, Jr. was a/an:

A. Canadian
B. Hispanic
C. African American
D. Native American

My son answered “Native American.” His teacher marked the answer as “wrong.” I understand her perspective, but I find myself absurdly pleased my son was unable to identify MLK according to his race.

This week my son’s school started a “Healthy Choices” challenge. Every single day, from October 1 to December 12, A.J. must read for 20 minutes, exercise for 20 minutes and eat a healthy snack or food. This doesn’t sound like much, but the last three days have been very tough.

The healthy food part of the challenge is no problem, as I can easily make my son eat a piece of fruit during dinner, but finding the time to fit in 40 minutes of required activities is really hard during the work week. The three or four hours A.J. spends in his afterschool care program running around the gym/playground or reading don’t count toward this challenge. This means that between the time I pick him up from school at 6:15 and the time he has his evening shower at 7:30 I have to prepare dinner, feed my son, make sure my son does his homework (yes, first graders get homework), and make sure he gets in at least 20 minutes of aerobic exercise. To fit in his 20 minutes of required reading, we have sacrificed the time we used to spend talking about his day as I prepare him for bed. I think both my son and I are beginning to resent these new requirements. I personally think they must have been set by someone who doesn’t have a full-time job outside of the house.

The new activities I have to fit in for A.J. every day are also hurting my own ability to stay healthy. I am having a very hard time finding time to exercise since I am so busy in the evenings before bedtime, and I never seem to get away for lunch. This means that I would have to exercise in the morning before getting ready for work; i.e. I would have to get up at 4 a.m. to get in a useful amount of exercise. I am starting to depend more on prepared foods for meals rather than cooking, and I am getting less sleep per night because I still have to do things like go through the mail and clean dishes after putting my son to bed.

Maybe I’ll have a chance to catch my breath this weekend.

Student Privacy Spotlighted in Va.
Manassas School Board, City Pay in Discrimination Suit; Policies Tightened
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/26/AR2008092603641.html?hpid=topnews

This story makes me hopping mad. How dare the school target students with Hispanic names and distribute information from their personal records? Even if they had the right, which they DON’T appear to have had, why didn’t the school look at the residency records for ALL students — who is to say crowding doesn’t happen for Asians, blacks and whites?

And who wrote that ridiculous residency law anyway? Rather than saying, “A house cannot have more than X residents,” it says the residents must all be parents and children. So a couple with nine children can crowd into a two-bedroom condo, but an aunt can’t take in her sister and niece. That is not the way close-knit families work.

September 2 will soon be here.  That’s the day A.J. will start at his new school; he will be going to his current school only 11 more times.  What a strange, sad feeling.   I feel as though we are about to lose a family friend.

After our recent trip to Taiwan, my husband and I have decided to start studying Mandarin Chinese again.  Both of us have studied it before, but not at the same time and not recently.  Our 5-year-old has expressed an interest in learning Chinese as well, so right now we are looking for a facility in the area that teaches young kids as well as adults.  In the meantime, we’ll probably start playing with the Rosetta Stone software I bought in January and dust off our old textbooks, tapes and flash cards (assuming we can remember where we put them ….).  I’m hoping that this will become a family activity that we will continue for many years to come.  I would like to become proficient, if not completely fluent, in Mandarin; I felt mildly embarrassed during our recent trip when people found out I could neither read nor speak Mandarin (although I do speak Taiwanese on a middling level).  I know this project will be tough to complete, but I think it will be worth it.