Tag: school (Page 8 of 13)

School Daze

September 29, 2016 / DB

Our academic year is off to a decent start. The girls got their mid-quarter progress reports a couple weeks back, and all three are doing well.

C has really taken to fourth grade, which is when the teachers at St. P’s begin pushing students to be self-motivated for getting their work done. Unlike the K–3 years, we don’t have to review her assignments and sign her folder every night. She’s done a great job of balancing her practices and games for kickball and cross country, getting all her school work done, and still having some time to herself each night. With fall sports winding down – she has one more week of running – I hope she stays as focused once she has more free time.

M had a good progress report, too. After those two years of getting more independent in 4th and 5th grades, the St. P’s middle school teachers really start hammering the kids to get them ready for high school entrance exams in 8th grade. M is never happy at how much work she has to bring home, but she does a pretty solid job of knocking it out between dinner and bedtime. A couple of her teachers are notorious for being extremely nit-picky when it comes to getting things turned in correctly. We know several families with very smart kids who have gotten horrible grades because they aren’t able to lock in those little details the teachers want. So far – knock on wood – M has yet to trip up on any of those little landmines.

From our perspective as parents, M’s school year has not felt all that different. Sure, she’s in middle school, but she’s in the same hallway she spent the past two years. We drop her off and pick her up at the same time and building as her sisters.

But over the past couple weeks it’s starting to hit home that she’s in a different academic stage than her sisters. She’s getting mail from the two high schools that the majority of St. P’s students go to, CHS and BCHS. Some of the mailings are just passes for sports events, which she had been getting for a year or so.

What’s been different this year is that she is getting mail – and I am getting emails – that are more formal recruiting pitches. She’s been invited to open houses at each school, to informational nights at St. P’s for both schools, and to private open houses at the homes of St. P’s families who have kids at each high school.

Getting so many of those in the past two weeks has been a big reminder of where she is in her academic life. She’s advanced beyond the building block years and is now taking bigger steps in developing her mind. Grades are beginning to mean something. Just showing up in class and being cheerful isn’t enough to keep you in the A-/B+ range. And for a lot of families, it’s time to begin weighing the different high schools choices available to them.[1]

There’s not much of a debate in our house. S and her siblings all went to CHS,[2] and that’s where we’ve always planned on sending the girls. After they spent some time on the CHS campus last winter when L played basketball there, they were all convinced that was the school for them. We do leave the door slightly cracked that the girls could attend BCHS. It’s a little closer, and way more convenient in the years we’ll have kids at two schools. It’s more affordable. They will have many friends who go there. There’s also a much newer Catholic high school, GCHS, just three miles straight up the road from our neighborhood that is fantastic as well. But it’s the opposite direction from St. P’s, so any advantage it gets for being more proximal to home is eliminated by how it would complicate our daily travel until L is a freshman.

So let’s say 90% CHS, 9% BCHS, and 1% GCHS.

It’s a fairly stress-free decision for us. We’ll make it once in the next couple years for M, and then her sisters will follow her.[3] Despite that lack of drama in our process, it’s still hard to believe we’ve reached the point where we have to start taking it seriously.

One other quick note about the early school year. At the risk of jinxing us, we’ve had pretty awesome mornings getting ready for school. My first alarm goes off at 6:40. I hit snooze once and get the girls up just after 6:50. We have a quick breakfast and then they get dressed, brush teeth, fix hair, etc. We meet back downstairs to get lunches ready on days they’re taking one. Bags get packed up, clothes for after-school activities set aside so I can bring them to pickup, and we review the calendar for what’s on the agenda for the evening.

I can drop them off any time between 7:30 and 7:55, and generally aim to get them there earlier to avoid the parking lot backup that begins around 7:45. Last year, we were often out the door between 7:25–7:30. Most mornings this year everyone has been ready to go by 7:20. This morning, they were all sitting around, completely prepped to leave the house, at 7:10! And I think we’ve only had crying in the morning twice so far this year. It wasn’t that long ago that we had tears more like four times a week.

Some of the credit for their briskness in the morning goes to Catholic school. They have uniforms, so there are no decisions to be made about what to wear. They can’t wear makeup, so there’s no lengthy morning bathroom time to get their looks just right.

But the bulk of the credit goes to them. Maybe it’s just done to avoid being yelled at when they can’t find their backpacks or shoes or jacket when dad is trying to get them out the door at 7:27. I think it’s more a matter of them maturing and understanding the morning is easier for all of us if they take care of their business without delay.

Best way to break the ice at a social gathering of private school families: ask what their high school plans are. Guaranteed 45 minute discussion if you can rope enough people into it. ↩
As did their dad. ↩
We have neighbors who sent their kids to CHS a decade ago. The first son picked it but then the second fell in love with the Jesuit school across town. They told him unless he could scrape up 100% financial aid at the Jesuit school, and find a ride every day, he was following his brother’s footsteps. He ended up doing just fine at CHS. ↩

End Of Summer

August 11, 2016 / DB

Summer is done. At least the school vacation part, that is. The girls went back to school this morning. They were excited to see their friends, find their school supplies on their desks, and get back into their routines, I think. There certainly wasn’t any grumpiness this morning. I bet that changes early next week. Sixth, fourth, and second grades this year. Good times.

So how was the summer of 2016? I think it was decent. We kicked it off with a bang, heading to Boston and Cape Cod as soon as the break began. There was swim team for six weeks, which the girls always enjoy. Two new cousins to play with. Lots of weekends at the lake. A few trips to local water parks and the zoo. Family visits from folks in Boston and Denver.

We closed out the summer with one more first. We spent last Saturday with friends who have a lake house down near Bloomington. We swam, ate dinner in town, and made a walk around the IU campus. After that, we headed to the local drive-in theater for our first family outdoor movie.

This place was awesome! Everything about it felt like we were back in 1975 again. The aging screen had visible seams where it had been repaired over the years, and one side of it was curling away from the parking area. I guarantee the building that held the concession stand and bathrooms has not been updated in any meaningful way since the Carter administration. There were hand-painted signs on the meandering drive to the viewing area reminding folks to keep their headlights off, no fireworks were allowed, etc. In fact, other than using iPad’s to take payment at the front gate and the lack of the old-school audio boxes you hung on your car window, it felt exactly like going to the drive in in Hays, KS when I was 4 or 5.

The other cool thing was this was a country drive in. Unlike those big urban ones that were generally built into hills that created a natural amphitheater, this one was carved out of a small, wooded area 15 minutes outside town. There were little rises built into the lot for cars to park on. The screen itself was tucked into the trees, aiming away from the road. Remember when we were kids and you could pass a drive in and see a few moments of the film? That wasn’t possible at this place.

The only downsides were the late start time and the movie itself. It was a double feature of Suicide Squad and Jason Bourne. With a 9:35 start time, we knew the kids wouldn’t last until the second show, so weren’t worried about them seeing that. I had read that Suicide Squad, despite being a DC Comics story, wasn’t the most appropriate movie for kids. There was lots of violence, but no blood at all. Plenty of adult language and sexual innuendo. Our girls all checked out within the first 30 minutes and were back in the car doing other things. Our friends have two boys – 12 and 10 – and the 10-year-old was the only kid of the five kids who paid attention the entire time.

We would have picked something else for our girls’ first drive in movie experience, but there aren’t a lot of options these days. They enjoyed playing in the lot for an hour before the film began, and the overall experience. After they had stopped watching, I pointed to the sky behind us and how the Milky Way was visible, something we definitely can’t see at home. They all thought that was pretty cool.

The only disappointment of the summer is we were a little lazier than normal. Last year we got out of the house and did something new almost every week, even if it was just finding a park we had never been to before. The girls learned to enjoy taking nature hikes at parks that had trails. We only did that a couple times, and there were a few ones I had hoped to hit that we missed.

As active as the school year is, though, I don’t really mind giving the girls 10 weeks where not every day has something on the calendar. Once you subtract trips, visitors, camps, etc., there really weren’t that many days when we had nothing to do or anyplace to be. Another week would have been nice, but I’m not super sad that the summer has ended.

Weekend Notes

May 31, 2016 / DB

We had a very solid, if slightly less hectic than usual, Memorial Day weekend.

L and I kicked it off Friday with her class field trip to [Conner Prairie]. This is the one field trip I’ve done with all three girls. As always, it was a lot of fun. The forecast has us worried we would get wet, but the storms never popped up and while it was warm, it never got super hot like it did for M and I four years ago.

Normally Memorial Day weekend is a lake weekend for us. This year S was on-call all weekend, which meant we couldn’t cut out of town. Well, we could have, but she would have had to drive back every morning to round on babies. Figured it was easier to stay home.

We did get some water time, though. Some friends have a new boat on the big, suburban lake that is about 15 minutes from us. We spent Sunday with them. We got on the water early, getting wet for the first time around 10:00.

M and C both tubed with their friends. M tried to water ski! I’ve only tried to water ski once in my life, and that was sometime in the early 80s. So I had no tips for her. And our hosts forgot to tell her that if you don’t get up, let go of the rope. So she got drug face-first for a bit until she realized she needed to drop the rope. It was good for her. We were just thrilled that she made the attempt. She’s come a long way with being daring enough to try new things over the past few summers.

Sunday also featured a very weird 30 minutes or so. During that span, I received two text messages. One brought exceptionally good news for a relative who has been waiting for good news for a long time. The other brought terrible, unexpected news for a very good friend. I got them both on the boat, so was feeling elation and excitement after the first message, and was stunned and saddened by the second.

Yesterday we began trying to get things together for our trip to Boston, which begins Thursday. It was in the 90s in Boston last week, but will only be in the 60s–70s during our visit. So it’s been a bit of a challenge to figure out what clothes to pack.

The girls are very excited. They will get to spend time with their one-year-old cousin and see their aunt and uncle’s new house. If the weather cooperates we plan on doing a lot of the traditional walking-tour stuff that Boston offers. We have duck boat tickets. I’m going to a Red Sox game. And we’re spending two days on Cape Cod. This will be my third trip to Boston, but first chance to spend time in the city. I’m pretty excited, too.

But first we have to get through the last two days of school. Today is field day and tomorrow is early dismissal at 1:00. Pretty much a total waste, but I guess we have to get to 180 days so the state is happy. C has her final softball game tonight and the girls will go to their first swim team practice tomorrow night and have their intra-squad meet the day after we get back from Boston. Straight into summer activities!

A Relic On The Calendar

February 16, 2016 / DB

It’s Winter Break time at St. P’s. Otherwise known as the most annoying weekend of the winter. For some reason, our school has scheduled a five-day weekend anchored by President’s Day as long as we’ve had girls there. Just over a month after Christmas break ended, and with two short weeks in-between. Some years spring break has been less than a month down the road, too. It’s kind of maddening for us – well for S. and I; I’m pretty sure the girls like it – but I imagine it’s an even bigger pain for families that have to come up with childcare plans for their kids in the middle of winter.

The good news is this is our final winter break. We have a new principal this year, and about a month ago he released the revamped academic calendar for next year. He eliminated winter break, tightened up the parent-teacher conference schedule in October, got rid of the monthly, early-dismissal Fridays set aside for teacher “professional development,” and made a few other minor changes.

Being a good dad, I shared this news with the girls after school without giving them the payoff up-front.

“So, no winter break next year!”
“AWWWWWW!”
“No early dismissal Fridays!”
“AWWWWWW!”
“Parent-teacher conferences are just one day instead of two!”
“AWWWWWW!”
“But guess what? You get out of school a week-and-a-half earlier than you ever have before!”
“WHAT?!?!? HOORAY!!!!!!”

Our girls have always complained that St. P’s gets out later than just about any other school. They’ve had to miss the first few days of swim team the last two summers because they’ve still been in school. But next year, baring a bunch of snow days, they’ll finish up on the Friday before Memorial Day. Which we all think is awesome.

Despite the long weekend, we’ve had a rather quiet break. L. had a birthday party to go to on Friday. Saturday S. continued her project of revamping each girl’s room, painting M’s room. Sunday we had volleyball and basketball games. We got enough snow that afternoon that the girls could play outside for a bit after their games. And yesterday we just ran some errands. We know lots of people at St. P’s who squeeze a trip into this weekend. But with two trips on our calendar already, we figured we would just relax at home.

We’re heading to Orange Beach, AL over spring break, which is late (for us) this year. We won’t leave until April 1 or 2. And we just scheduled a week-long trip to Boston for right after school ends in June. We’ll get to hang out with our family up there and explore the city, something we’ve never had a chance to do in our two trips there over the years. And hopefully I get to go to a Red Sox game.

Pitchers and catchers are about to report. College basketball is entering crunch time for conference races. There is a little more light each evening. By Friday we’re supposed to be over 60, with two days in the 50s right behind it. Winter’s not done with us, but all the signs are there that its days are numbered.

The Week So Far

December 22, 2015 / DB

Just a few days into the Christmas break and already the stories are piling up.

We ended the calendar school year Friday with L. playing one of the lead roles in the first grade living nativity program. She was one of the cows that were annoyed by all the animals and people who were crowding into their stable in Bethlehem. She did a fine job, not missing any lines and getting laughs when she was supposed to.

From school we were off to the library, where the girls were allowed to pick out as many books as they could carry. L. and C. dumped their book bags in the back of the family truckster and filled them to the point of bursting. M. just walked out with a big stack in her arms. I told them between books, movies, holiday shows on the DVR, games and toys, and visiting cousins, they would have plenty to keep them occupied and no excuses to say “I’m bored.” I have yet to hear that phrase, but they’ve come close a few times.

Over the weekend we made two airport trips. Saturday we picked up my brother-in-law and his family, which meant we got to meet the newest cousin, baby L., who is seven months old. She was very smiley and happy to see everyone, which was nice since one piece of their luggage didn’t make it and we had to hang out longer than planned.

Then we went back Sunday night to pick up a sister-in-law and her kids who are making a quick pre-Christmas visit.

In between those trips we knocked out all the cookie baking and got them packaged up for delivery around the neighborhood.

Monday night was our annual family bowling night, which was fun as always.

Tonight the girls and cousins and some aunts are going to see the new Chipmunks movie. A couple of the adult relatives and I are going to see The Force Awakens next week.

The only negative came a week ago. As the kids were heading to bed on Monday, M. informed us that she no longer wanted anything on her Christmas list. She had decided the stuff she originally listed was too young for her. Which I had mentioned might be a problem a month ago, but she didn’t have time to hear me then. At first we were annoyed, as much at ourselves for always buying the gifts early as at her. We had in fact just wrapped and tagged everything earlier that day.

But after we put her to bed and S. and I talked about it, we realized M. was firmly in that awkward, pre-teen phase. Little kid toys still hold some appeal, but when you start talking to your friends at school about what you’re asking for, you realize maybe you should be interested in different things. Only you’re not sure what.

Since she told us she was scrapping her list, we’ve found a few blank lists lying around. But she’s never told us exactly what she wants. Which is a little sad. Every kid should have a lengthy list full of ridiculous requests. Her sisters both filled up a whole page with their lists.

We made a few executive decisions, placed some orders, and – knock on wood – the final replacement gift should be here later today. We think she’ll enjoy being surprised, but you kind of never know.

As always, this month is racing by. It’s hard to believe we’re just a couple days away from all the mysteries being revealed, our Christmas Day gluttony, and the Christmas music station going back to soft rock and old American Top 40s.

Kicking Off The Last Week

December 14, 2015 / DB

Last week of school before the holiday break. I could sense some anticipation as I drove the girls to St. P’s this morning. There are a series of parties and other holiday activities scattered through their weeks, and then they all get extra early dismissal on Friday. The first graders do an annual Living Nativity program that day, and then they, and their siblings, can leave school early.[1] So we’ll leave right around 11:00. All the spelling and math tests that usually fall at the end of the week are clustered around Wednesday this week. So it’s going to be a pretty easy academic ride for them.

But overall the girls seem pretty chilled out about Christmas compared to recent years. Perhaps that is just them getting older. And/Or having the riddle of where gifts come from solved. Or maybe it’s just the weather. Other than that surprise snowstorm the Saturday before Thanksgiving, and a few cool days at the beginning of the month, it’s often felt more like April than December. We’ve had heavy clouds hanging over us that look like they could dump snow at any moment, but the temperature has been well into the 60s for most of the last week. I’m all for snow around Christmas, but admit I’m fine with an unseasonably warm end to the year. And mild winter for that matter. The last three have sucked.

The girls have also been more interested in TV shows that are not primarily aimed at kids this year. If there’s a holiday bake-off type show on, they are glued to the TV. They also are enjoying the Christmas lights competition shows. I think they’ve been watching all the traditional shows I’ve recorded, but they often do that on their own.

“Hey, anyone want to watch Rudolph?” I’ll ask.

“We already watched it,” will be the reply.

L’s mood may be altered a bit because she got an early Christmas present last week. After seeing C’s list, which included an iPhone, an iPad, and an iPod,[2] L. added an iPod as item #11 to her list. She lucked out as one of her aunts brought a box of old electronics over for me to dig through and see what could be given to Good Will or put into a yard sale and then what should just be pitched. There was an old 30 GB iPod in the box. I charged it up, let it play for a few hours to confirm it worked, and then passed it along to L. The case is cracked a little, but it plays just fine.

At first she wasn’t sure what to do with it. She probably hand’t seen an iPod of that generation in years, if at all. But once I showed her how to operate it, she began taking it everywhere. She struggles a bit to keep earbuds in her little ears, though. So I found her some over-the-ear headphones in the Target dollar bin. As soon as she gets home from school, she changes her clothes, throws on her headphones, and walks around listening to her tunes. She even falls asleep with them on. The look fits her hip-hop personality quite well, even if she’s mostly listening to Kids Bop and Christmas music.

The last school day of the calendar year is always an early dismissal at 1:00. ↩
Whose daughter is she? ↩

End Of Summer Catch Up

August 17, 2015 / DB

A very busy couple of weeks. I thought I was alone in trying to cram 857 activities into the finals days of summer break, but it sounds like that’s par for the course for the modern parent. Glad I was not alone.

We hit approximately 83 different parks over the final two weeks of summer. Parks we had been to before this year, parks we had not been to in years, and parks we had never visited before.

We went to the big city water park one afternoon. It was kind of nice to be able to just turn M. and C. (and C.’s friend) loose and tell them to check back in every half hour or so. The only bummer of the day was that L. was about two inches too short to do any of the really fun stuff. The “plunger,” the water slides, the surfing pool, etc. The lifeguards were letting kids who were right on the borderline through, but she was noticeably shorter than the little “You Must Be This Tall…” signs. So we went through the lazy river about 30 times and she sucked it up and played on the kiddie slides for, likely, the final time in her life.

The girls and I took a four-mile bike ride one evening last week. It was, by far, the longest ride of any of their lives. They all did well, although there was one extended, steady climb that pushed L. pretty hard. Fortunately she still falls for the “We’re almost there! Just a little farther!” line from me and powered through.

We also took a long hike through the nature trails at Holliday Park. At first the girls just wanted to play on the awesome playground and were complaining about the hike. When they saw we could hike down to the river and then up the sides of some very steep hills, they decided the hike was awesome.

title

While it came after school began, we took the girls to an Indianapolis Indians game yesterday. It was Kids Eat Free day, so they were excited about getting a hot dog, water, and chips without having to pay. M. sat by me and paid the most attention to the game. We were fortunate to be in the shade the entire day. We left after the seventh inning and there’s no way they would have lasted that long had we been in the sun the entire time. The only negative on the day was there was a meltdown just as we were leaving, so I wasn’t able to get a picture of them lined up against the outfield fence on our way out.

It was also pretty fun to wear one of my Royals jerseys to a game when I was supporting a first-place team, not just showing my hometown some love like the last time we went to an Indians game a few years back.

We also squeezed in a quick, one-day visit to Bloomington with some friends who have a lake condo. We went to dinner in town, and it just happened to be August 1. I laughed at all the random, old furniture that had been tossed out of apartments as college students moved out before their leases expired on July 31. I bet I have a few pieces of furniture still floating around somewhere that were discarded in the same manner.

My final lake weekend of summer break was a week ago, when three friends from KC flew in for a guys’ weekend. We had a fantastic time lounging in the water, drinking many beers, and listening to my ancient cassette tape collection, which I just realized I still had a few weeks earlier. Our lake radio actually has a cassette player, so we were able to play several of them. However, between the age of the tapes and what I’m pretty sure is a slightly defective player, most of them sounded pretty terrible. That didn’t stop us from enjoying them, though.

The first (short) week of school went just fine. The girls all like their teachers, two of whom are new to us. L. has the same first grade teacher both of her sisters had.

The two older sisters have started practice for their fall sports. Both are doing different things than we planned last spring.

As I shared already, M. took one short run with me and decided cross country was not for her, so she’s back in kickball. She’ll be playing against both fifth and sixth graders this year, so she’s going to have to step up her game. She’s kicking better, but the coaches have also been teaching them how to bunt effectively. L. got to practice with the team a couple times when girls were still gone on vacations or at camps, and loved every second of it.

C. was supposed to play softball again. The league she plays in does not normally have a fall league, but decided to try one this year. They didn’t get enough girls to sign up, though, and ended up canceling. When we found out one of her closest buddies from school was running cross country, C. decided she wanted to as well. So we signed her up. Apparently her first practice was really rough, as was to be expected. So I went with to her second and third practices with her. The second practice was all track work, which she did great at. One of the coaches, not knowing she was my daughter, even said, “Who is that? She is fast!” to me when she raced by in a relay. The next night she had time trials and I ran with her. She really struggled in the warm-up mile, but did much better in her timed mile, knocking it out in 9:30. I figured out her problem was she was trying to keep up with her buddy at the start. That buddy ran a 7:30 mile (!!!) in her time trial, so I told C. just to let E. go and she would be fine.

L.’s soccer team is still a week or so away from starting practice. She’s up to U8 this year, and should have most of her spring team back with her. She’s excited to get to play on a bigger field, with goalies, and against bigger kids. She’s always been the best kid on the field in her three seasons. I’m excited to see how she reacts when that’s not the case anymore.

While I was at the lake, the girls did their fall school shoe shopping. M. got some bright pink New Balances. C. got some bright blue Asics with pink accents for cross country and black Chuck Taylor low tops for school. L. got gray Chuck Taylor high tops. She had designed a pair online that were in school colors (purple and gold), and they looked a lot like 1980s-era Converse Weapons, which I loved. I showed her pics of the old Weapons and she thought they were awesome. The customized Chucks were $70 and wouldn’t be here for three weeks, so she was fine with getting some single-color ones at the store.

Now for the first full week of school. Maybe I can finally get the house completely cleaned for the first time since May!

First Day

August 13, 2015 / DB

This morning, the alarm went off at 6:20. I roused the girls about 10 minutes later, they shuffled down for breakfast, then back up to get dressed. We cut tags off of new pairs of shorts, found skirts that fit correctly, and laced up new shoes so they were nice and tight. Snacks and lunches were packed, book bags loaded up, and obligatory pictures snapped.

The school year has begun.

M. wanted me to walk her to her class only, not inside. But when she ran into a classmate she had not seen since spring, she kind of took off and lost us in the crowd. [1] While heading to M.’s class, C. somehow slipped away to her class on her own. So I was left to help L. get to her room and get started slapping labels on her school supplies. Once she was occupied, I walked down to C.’s room to make sure she was doing ok. Before I could find her, one of her buddies, who I coached in soccer last year and has joined us at the lake each of the last two summers with his family, came over and gave me a big hug. Neither M. nor C. gave me a hug!

Anyway, it looked like all the girls started off their first morning just fine. Last year was a little emotional for me, with it being L.’s first year of full-time school. This year no emotion at all. In fact, with a short day today, and then the weekend right around the corner, it feels like it won’t really hit me that they’re back in school until next week. I even have a couple writing projects to work on in the next couple days, so that should make this short week fly by even faster.

So the 2015–16 school year has begun. Summer sure went fast.

Her friend was lugging a book bag and a grocery sack full of supplies. I laughed when she said, “I’d hug you, but my hands are full,” to M.. ↩

Summer Begins

June 4, 2015 / DB

Day one of summer! It’s right at 8:00 as I start this. Two of the girls beat me out of bed, despite letting them stay up late and being told to sleep in, but one is still zonked out. Of course, we could still hear noise from that one’s room after 10:00 last night. I, happily, slept in until the time we would normally be walking out the door for the trip to St. P’s. And since Thursday is not a morning swim practice day, we get to lounge around for the first part of the day.[1]

So why, the question has been posed often over the past couple weeks, are our girls out of school so late? Especially since we’re still on a traditional schedule, rather than a balanced one. We started at roughly the same time last August as kids who have been out for a week or longer. Looking back at the calendar, we had a few extra Mondays off that public schools did not have. And there was a long weekend in February that was built into the schedule to make up snow days before Spring Break. But we had zero snow days this year. So that’s why our girls are out a full week after the neighbor kids.

At the end of every school year, I read through the girls’ report cards and say, with much enthusiasm, “Oh thank goodness, you passed!” For some reason they don’t think this is very funny. Which guarantees I will continue to do it each June.

I think all three had really good years. L. LOVED her first year at St. P’s. She loved her teachers, her friends, getting up in the morning and getting ready for school, Sunday nights because going back to school was one overnight away, etc. From talking to other parents who help out at recess, she is always in charge of games and spends just as much time with the boys as the girls. St. P’s doesn’t have a student council, but it did, I’d guarantee right now that L. would be class president one day.

One more funny note about her I can share now that the academic year has ended. Her teacher was new to St. P’s this year. At an early kickball practice the fourth graders got an sneak look at her before the rest of the school. When we picked M. up, she said to L., “I saw your new teacher. She is soooo pretty!” Turned out her teacher was indeed pretty. And about 15 years younger than I am. At some point early in the school year, L. told me that if anything ever happened to S., she would want me to marry her teacher. I told her not to repeat that at school. That’s how dangerous rumors get started. Which S. would just laugh at. But still, better to knock that shit down before my library shifts came with whispers that I’m the dad who wanted to marry Ms. H.

C. had a solid year, too. Her grades reflect her personality perfectly. They’re generally good, but kind of drift as her attention drifts. We know that she has been extra nice to a couple girls in her class who need a little help in school. She’s a friend to just about everyone, although we’re beginning to see some separation between her and the boys in her class. She’s getting more artistic every day, did terrific with math, and loves to read.

And M. had a tremendous end to her year. Her grades had been very good every quarter, especially back in the first quarter. But each quarter she had one grade that was relatively poor. She struggled with math a couple quarters. She blew one assignment in science and social studies in different quarters that pulled those grades down. But this quarter she rocked it. She missed one point total in both social studies and vocabulary. With one exception, all her grades were above 95%.[2] And she worked hard and kept her math grade above 90% as well. We were very proud of her work to end the year.

I think school sports were good for her, too. It really pulled that whole group of girls together. It’s nice that they’re all super close for just a while before they begin separating into groups.

Oh, and while we were leaving C.’s softball game the other night, a boy from M.’s class who was one field over was yelling goodbye to her as we left. Her cheeks got rosy and she had a weird look on her face. She did not respond. Now, I have no idea if he was just being silly, or if he wanted her to notice him. She’s shown no outward interest in boys. But it’s right around the corner. Shit.

So good academic years all around. The girls swam for the first time with their new team last night. Summer has begun.

Which is exactly what I need. My motivation to do pretty much anything dried up about three weeks ago. ↩

That’s what you need for an A these days. Am I remembering wrong, but wasn’t it 90% and above to get A’s when we were growing up? ↩

June???

June 1, 2015 / DB

Jeez. Another month that just flew by.

Games, practices, birthdays, the first couple lake weekends of the year. And the winding down of the school year. Cram it all into a 31-day stretch and we’re turning the calendar seemingly moments after we last did so.

L. wrapped up soccer yesterday. She enjoyed this season, but also developed some bad habits that were inevitable when she was, at times, playing against four-year-olds. Both she and we are glad that she’ll be moving up to U8 in the fall.

Her coach also coaches a U8 team and had her play with them in their final game of the season a week ago. She hung right in there, showing no fear against one kid that was much bigger than her.[1] When he had the ball, she dove in and tried to steal it. When he tried to stop her, she moved her body and tried to work around him. This was her first time playing against a goalie, so the couple times she got near the goal, she often shot from too-far out and the balls either went wide or were easily collected. She also made some great passes to space where other teammates could collect them. Late in her second quarter, she got the ball just inside midfield and took a mighty kick. It wasn’t a terrible shot as there was no one between her and the goal. And the goalie just happened to be staring at his belly-button.[2] Unfortunately the ball slid just wide of the goal. There was a gasp among the parents as they realized the tiniest kid on the field might kick it in from 40 feet away. In her final period, she got to play goalie, which she’s never done before. She came charging out when the best player on the other team had the ball and he whistled a shot over her shoulder and into the goal. But she handled a couple other loose balls well and made quick throws downfield that got her offense going. She had a lot of fun that night.

C. still has at least five softball games left. We’ve been rained out two of the last three weekends, plus did not play over Memorial Day weekend. So she got a bit rusty. After going through a five game stretch where she reached base 19-straight times, she took the collar and struck out in all three at bats last Tuesday. She was very upset after the game. We worked a lot over the weekend and she was back to smacking the ball over my head. Knock-on-wood she’s able to do that again tomorrow night.

I believe I mentioned a week or so back that M. has declared that she wants to run cross country in the fall. We pulled out good, old Google Maps over the weekend and plotted a couple courses through the neighborhood that she can begin run/walking with us. Her aunt and uncle just happen to live exactly a half mile away. So if we can get her able to run there-and-back she should be in good shape to begin practice in August and work up to the 1.8 miles she’ll need to be able to run in September. Of course, this is all theoretical at this point. She may hate it once we’re forcing her to run and yelling at her when she whines about being tired.

Memorial Day weekend was our first, full lake weekend. Gorgeous weather, good friends joining us, and a generally successful start to the summer season.

Now we’re in the final countdown of the school year. The girls get out at 11:00 am Wednesday. Today is desk cleaning day, tomorrow is field day, and I think there is a lot of movie watching in between. The girls keep asking why they get out a week after just about everybody else, both public and Catholic schools, around us. It’s those damn random Mondays we get off throughout the year, plus the mini-break that’s built into February to make up snow days before spring break. While the other kids on their swim team are in the pool this morning at the first practice, they will have to wait either until tonight’s session or Thursday morning. It all depends what the weather is like this evening.

Anyway, it’s June. Which is freaking hard to believe. We’ve been working on a list of things to do over the summer to keep us busy. The girls have been calling it their Summer Bucket List, which makes me laugh a little bit. I guess they are things we want to do before the summer dies, so that name seems appropriate.

This kid was a normal-sized 8-year-old. When our coach told a couple of his smaller kids to “stay close to the tall kid,” he turned and said, “Hey! I’m not tall!” I think we just taught him a valuable lesson about perspective! ↩

Literally. He had his jersey pulled up and was picking at his navel. ↩