I had a long day. School starting means that my canyon of leisurely accomplishing my everyday tasks catapulted into the highest, steepest, tallest mountain and I can't really describe my job as being anything other than part teacher, part school counselor, part school administration, and part school secretary. There are lots tasks that are so mundane I don't think about them everyday and there are tasks that accelerate at exponential speed when school counselors, principals, and students are back in their brick-and-mortar buildings - tasks that still exist when we have the valleys, just not as frequently. Instead of a steady pace of hitting the mountaintop peak, it is a catapult up to the top with no incremental steps.
Couple the spring of hitting the mountain peak with the implementation of new processes and what I need is an exponential growth of my patience. Instead, I am short with my husband - because he doesn't ask if there's anything he can help me with. I am short with my kids because they can't read my mind and understand that we need to leave for gymnastics now. I am impatient. I am tired. My house is a mess - dishes haven't been done this week and my laundry is vomiting out dirty clothes. I also haven't slept well. And the work processes? Well, they will get better - but to keep the majority of people happy with the data-processes, we had to implement the change at about the worst possible time for me.
What should reduce duplication of efforts has not proved to reduce my processes yet. My process worked before - it worked because I was able to delegate tasks and knew how to complete them in a pinch, but right now, the process has slowed me down. It won't always, but I like to live with the Amazon philosophy of customer obsession. I have communicated the hiccup to the superusers of my program and I am exercising my patience with those that I rely on to do my job - but for my family - my patience is gone.
I didn't have sidewalk chalk for our annual tradition of drawing the grade level around the child and taking photos this morning. So I bought some after work. I got the kids. I got home. Immediately we went outside to sidewalk chalk it up. My daughter didn't wait for me to get her brother's K done before jumping in and my son was blinded by the sun - so my pictures turned out crappy.
The two around my daughter was not filled in and I was beyond done in waiting on her to do so - so I left her outside. When they look back at their pictures, they'll be disappointed that for Kindergarten and 2nd grades their back to school pictures are pretty crappy - because mom had a crappy day.
Thursday, August 23, 2018
The First day of School - Morning
My children start their first days of kindergarten and second grade today. I am sending them on the bus. As much as I would love to be there when they walk through the doors, they need the independence today. It is probably harder for us, as parents, to let our kids grow up, than for our kids to be independent.
They've both ridden the bus before. They will be fine. They have a bus attendant and a bus driver - so all the mistakes that could be made will probably not be made - unlike when I started school. I walked on the bus confidently my first day of kindergarten, but didn't know that you shouldn't sit more than three people in a seat. I just saw a bus full of students and picked a random seat. Now, there's someone guiding my children, so I know that they'll be fine.
Once they walk in to the school, they will either wait for their teacher, or they will go eat breakfast. The second grader has been to this school before, so I have no doubt she will bossily, and possibly in a helpful way, show my son how things are done. Thankfully they will head to their classes at 8:40 and each of them will be able to be independent.
Through the day, they will find routines. They will learn the expectation of their classrooms and their school, and they will review the JSA Way - I am kind. I am calm. I am a listener. I believe I can, I KNOW I can! (Words that we should all live by).
They've both ridden the bus before. They will be fine. They have a bus attendant and a bus driver - so all the mistakes that could be made will probably not be made - unlike when I started school. I walked on the bus confidently my first day of kindergarten, but didn't know that you shouldn't sit more than three people in a seat. I just saw a bus full of students and picked a random seat. Now, there's someone guiding my children, so I know that they'll be fine.
Once they walk in to the school, they will either wait for their teacher, or they will go eat breakfast. The second grader has been to this school before, so I have no doubt she will bossily, and possibly in a helpful way, show my son how things are done. Thankfully they will head to their classes at 8:40 and each of them will be able to be independent.
Through the day, they will find routines. They will learn the expectation of their classrooms and their school, and they will review the JSA Way - I am kind. I am calm. I am a listener. I believe I can, I KNOW I can! (Words that we should all live by).
Wednesday, August 22, 2018
Back-To-School
I took a day of vacation today. Guess what? It was important, but it wasn't vacation. It was filled with volunteering for the school PTA. I happily do so, but I also am craving some time away on a beach with a book or two and no obligations. I am guessing that won't happen now that school is starting on Thursday.
I eerily had almost no new email messages when I had to take an unexpected day off to take care of an ill child on Friday. I haven't checked my work email today. Once school starts my average emails rise from 20 per day to 100+ per day and I keep my inbox virtually empty. I am wondering how many new rather important messages I will have when I login tomorrow, but for today, I enjoyed time with my son.
I walked into the school this morning, dropped my son off in a kindergarten classroom for Kindergarten JumpStart. The friendly teachers of @JSAMagnet greeted us and we made connections between brother and sister and I disappeared to do things that a PTA mom does like man a registration table. Then kindergarten parents were ushered to a different part of the building and were given a tour, told the importance of letting kids be independent, and the critical nature of sleep. I went to see if there was anything I hadn't heard before (after 15 years in education, I am pretty versed in education-ease, so nothing super surprising).
My son was excited to see me, nearly two hours later, and he came out smiling. He found his picture of Ms. Bindergarten and came running toward me. He was not at all unhappy to be there, but he wasn't at all unhappy to leave either.
We did some errands, ate lunch, and he said he wanted to pick up his sister. So we did. Then we packed backpacks up for Back-to-School night. I didn't have all the supplies, but they are communal supplies anyways - so when it is February and they run out, I'll send some.
So at about 2:30 this afternoon, we headed back to school. Armed with a Microsoft Surface tablet and an iPAD, my grandiose idea of having prospective PTAers fill out an online form was partially great and partially a fail - because technology is great - when it works, but with WiFi not working and the HotSpot not picking up more than 2 bars, the ability to complete the online form was not super powerful within the school. (Even the IT expert [husband] could only troubleshoot that it was a connection issue).
From 2:30 to 4:30, I sat at the PTA table. I tried to have people fill out the online form and it worked about 10 percent of the time. Many people opted to just leave their emails with the paper form and it is hopeful that they will go ahead and fill out the online form anyways.
At 4:30, I found my way to the kindergarten classroom and second grade classroom. I introduced myself to the teachers, caught up with other parents and grandparents that I knew from the community and spent time chatting with another mom that have children in daycare with my two and who will be riding the same bus.
By the end of the day though, I am tired. I am ready to wind down and I still had to do bedtime. But we got it all in and I don't think any tears were shed.
I eerily had almost no new email messages when I had to take an unexpected day off to take care of an ill child on Friday. I haven't checked my work email today. Once school starts my average emails rise from 20 per day to 100+ per day and I keep my inbox virtually empty. I am wondering how many new rather important messages I will have when I login tomorrow, but for today, I enjoyed time with my son.
I walked into the school this morning, dropped my son off in a kindergarten classroom for Kindergarten JumpStart. The friendly teachers of @JSAMagnet greeted us and we made connections between brother and sister and I disappeared to do things that a PTA mom does like man a registration table. Then kindergarten parents were ushered to a different part of the building and were given a tour, told the importance of letting kids be independent, and the critical nature of sleep. I went to see if there was anything I hadn't heard before (after 15 years in education, I am pretty versed in education-ease, so nothing super surprising).
My son was excited to see me, nearly two hours later, and he came out smiling. He found his picture of Ms. Bindergarten and came running toward me. He was not at all unhappy to be there, but he wasn't at all unhappy to leave either.
We did some errands, ate lunch, and he said he wanted to pick up his sister. So we did. Then we packed backpacks up for Back-to-School night. I didn't have all the supplies, but they are communal supplies anyways - so when it is February and they run out, I'll send some.
So at about 2:30 this afternoon, we headed back to school. Armed with a Microsoft Surface tablet and an iPAD, my grandiose idea of having prospective PTAers fill out an online form was partially great and partially a fail - because technology is great - when it works, but with WiFi not working and the HotSpot not picking up more than 2 bars, the ability to complete the online form was not super powerful within the school. (Even the IT expert [husband] could only troubleshoot that it was a connection issue).
From 2:30 to 4:30, I sat at the PTA table. I tried to have people fill out the online form and it worked about 10 percent of the time. Many people opted to just leave their emails with the paper form and it is hopeful that they will go ahead and fill out the online form anyways.
At 4:30, I found my way to the kindergarten classroom and second grade classroom. I introduced myself to the teachers, caught up with other parents and grandparents that I knew from the community and spent time chatting with another mom that have children in daycare with my two and who will be riding the same bus.
By the end of the day though, I am tired. I am ready to wind down and I still had to do bedtime. But we got it all in and I don't think any tears were shed.
We Learn By Messing Up
I dabble in about everything, but one of my truest passions is teaching (well, and writing). Beyond just teaching, I love teaching swim lessons. (It's been two decades and I am still doing it - so I must love it right?) I have had the same swimmer since May and he is a child who is a) an extremely good listener and b) quite insightful for his age.
Rotary breathing is probably the most difficult skill to teach a swimmer. Other issues, such as relaxing enough to float or putting your face in the water come with exposure and a true acceptance of the water being helpful for you. But rotary breathing is a different story. It is hard. It is hard to teach because there are so, so, so many things for your body to remember before you move from the cognitive stage of learning to the autonomous stage of learning.
Tonight, we worked on the very beginning piece of rotary breathing. It was a lot of imagination - talk to the fish, listen to the fish. Use a blowing arm and a breathing arm. I demonstrated. I let my swimmer try. I knew he wouldn't be perfect, no one is on his/her first attempt.
I looked at him and said, "I'm glad you tried." His look told me that he was trying and knew that it was messy.
He said, "We learn by messing up."
Yes, kiddo, we do. And you will too. Rotary breathing takes practice, but once you get it - you will have the hardest part of swimming mastered and I bet that you'll be doing flip turns like the swimmers that you are fascinated by when you walk out of the pool.
Rotary breathing is probably the most difficult skill to teach a swimmer. Other issues, such as relaxing enough to float or putting your face in the water come with exposure and a true acceptance of the water being helpful for you. But rotary breathing is a different story. It is hard. It is hard to teach because there are so, so, so many things for your body to remember before you move from the cognitive stage of learning to the autonomous stage of learning.
Tonight, we worked on the very beginning piece of rotary breathing. It was a lot of imagination - talk to the fish, listen to the fish. Use a blowing arm and a breathing arm. I demonstrated. I let my swimmer try. I knew he wouldn't be perfect, no one is on his/her first attempt.
I looked at him and said, "I'm glad you tried." His look told me that he was trying and knew that it was messy.
He said, "We learn by messing up."
Yes, kiddo, we do. And you will too. Rotary breathing takes practice, but once you get it - you will have the hardest part of swimming mastered and I bet that you'll be doing flip turns like the swimmers that you are fascinated by when you walk out of the pool.
Monday, August 20, 2018
My Baby Goes to Kindergarten
Tomorrow we start the official back-to-school process where I will take my son to Kindergarten JumpStart. We will meet my son's teacher, find out about the school, and get acquainted with a new-to-him school. I'm invested in this school, serving on the executive committee for the PTA and participating in a lottery to even be able to have my children go there.
Cedar Rapids Public Schools do things right when it comes to the magnet schools. They are first, and foremost, neighborhood schools. After that, it is by chance that students get accepted into the schools and we were lucky that the STEAM magnet school had room for us. Once you are accepted though, you become part of that school's family.
It helped that there were other families from other networks that my husband and I associate with to keep us engaged in the PTA, but to be part of the parent leadership team while my son is starting kindergarten and my daughter is in 2nd grade, it is a little awe-inspiring. I say kind things about all the schools my children have attended in Cedar Rapids, but I say exceptional things about the amazing school culture at JSA. All the teachers are invested. They want to be there and their attrition rate recently has been due to leadership opportunities - not because they disliked the school.
So as I reflect on the past 6 years and how my baby is now going to be walking into his first day of kindergarten this year, I wonder what growth I will see in him this year. Six years ago, next week, we made it home from the hospital after a 50 day NICU stay. Five years ago, next month, he took his first step. Three and four years ago, I really don't remember that well. Two years ago, he started preschool. A year ago, he rode the bus for the first time to alternative kindergarten. Thursday, he'll walk through the doors of a new school and begin his kindergarten year.
Will he surpass his sister with his reading skills?
Will he be even more engineering-minded when he enters first grade?
Will he love ST Math? (Likely, yes - since last week he said to his sister, "I am a Johnson student now; you have to let me play ST Math.")
Will he love kindergarten?
Will he keep his hands to himself?
I'll keep you posted on the answers to these questions, but for now I just want the wonder and awe of remembering that my once 3 lb. 3 oz little boy is now an energetic, fun-loving, inquisitive almost-kindergartner.
Cedar Rapids Public Schools do things right when it comes to the magnet schools. They are first, and foremost, neighborhood schools. After that, it is by chance that students get accepted into the schools and we were lucky that the STEAM magnet school had room for us. Once you are accepted though, you become part of that school's family.
It helped that there were other families from other networks that my husband and I associate with to keep us engaged in the PTA, but to be part of the parent leadership team while my son is starting kindergarten and my daughter is in 2nd grade, it is a little awe-inspiring. I say kind things about all the schools my children have attended in Cedar Rapids, but I say exceptional things about the amazing school culture at JSA. All the teachers are invested. They want to be there and their attrition rate recently has been due to leadership opportunities - not because they disliked the school.
So as I reflect on the past 6 years and how my baby is now going to be walking into his first day of kindergarten this year, I wonder what growth I will see in him this year. Six years ago, next week, we made it home from the hospital after a 50 day NICU stay. Five years ago, next month, he took his first step. Three and four years ago, I really don't remember that well. Two years ago, he started preschool. A year ago, he rode the bus for the first time to alternative kindergarten. Thursday, he'll walk through the doors of a new school and begin his kindergarten year.
Will he surpass his sister with his reading skills?
Will he be even more engineering-minded when he enters first grade?
Will he love ST Math? (Likely, yes - since last week he said to his sister, "I am a Johnson student now; you have to let me play ST Math.")
Will he love kindergarten?
Will he keep his hands to himself?
I'll keep you posted on the answers to these questions, but for now I just want the wonder and awe of remembering that my once 3 lb. 3 oz little boy is now an energetic, fun-loving, inquisitive almost-kindergartner.
Sunday, August 19, 2018
A Lemonade Stand
We have heard for six weeks nearly every weekend, "Mom, can I have a lemonade stand?" (It's never "Dad, can I have a lemonade stand?" but that's another post). I caved today. I said yes.
If my daughter's name began with a P, we'd call her Persistent Patty, but it doesn't. The child has the persistence of a puppy dropping the ball at your feet literally every time you throw it. When she wants something, it is unrelenting until she gets it and if you say no, you better have every ounce of willpower to follow through on saying no.
So today, we embarked on the lemonade stand adventure. It lasted more than five minutes, which was a relief. She even had one paying customer besides mom, dad, and brother, but she has yet to grasp the whole planning stage of entrepreneurship. Instead, she sees her objective, conquers it, and then asks me, "Mom, why are there no customers?"
I referenced a book that we read, "Froggy's Lemonade Stand" by Jonathon London, and asked what happened during that book. Froggy drinks all the lemonade while waiting on his friends, so I asked my daughter to think about how people were generally busy in the mornings and told her to pick it up again about 3 PM. When we returned home from a little family outing at 3, she was no longer interested.
So now, we have a pitcher of lemonade in the fridge and a lemonade sign that says, "Lemonade 25 cents." I have no idea if we'll use the lemonade sign again, but I'm sure that we'll drink the lemonade - because who doesn't love a cup of lemonade on a warm summer day?
If my daughter's name began with a P, we'd call her Persistent Patty, but it doesn't. The child has the persistence of a puppy dropping the ball at your feet literally every time you throw it. When she wants something, it is unrelenting until she gets it and if you say no, you better have every ounce of willpower to follow through on saying no.
So today, we embarked on the lemonade stand adventure. It lasted more than five minutes, which was a relief. She even had one paying customer besides mom, dad, and brother, but she has yet to grasp the whole planning stage of entrepreneurship. Instead, she sees her objective, conquers it, and then asks me, "Mom, why are there no customers?"
I referenced a book that we read, "Froggy's Lemonade Stand" by Jonathon London, and asked what happened during that book. Froggy drinks all the lemonade while waiting on his friends, so I asked my daughter to think about how people were generally busy in the mornings and told her to pick it up again about 3 PM. When we returned home from a little family outing at 3, she was no longer interested.
So now, we have a pitcher of lemonade in the fridge and a lemonade sign that says, "Lemonade 25 cents." I have no idea if we'll use the lemonade sign again, but I'm sure that we'll drink the lemonade - because who doesn't love a cup of lemonade on a warm summer day?
Saturday, August 18, 2018
Waste Time at Aldi?
When I started out on this whole adulting thing, I refused - vehemently refused - to shop at Aldi. It was not a store that I wanted to waste my time at because I was perfectly willing to pay for convenience. After my son was born and we moved to a larger city, I found my way to Aldi.
What I also found was that it wasn't a waste of time, but a huge time saver. They don't have multiple brands (aside from special buys), so I have no decision fatigue in navigating the right value for the food I am purchasing. They no longer operate on a cash-only basis, which helps with the whole convenience thing too (because who has cash anymore?).
Today, my six year old and I headed to Aldi for some ingredients to make eggplant parmesan. The eggplant already existed on my counter and I needed to do something with the obscene amount of vegetables that we have collected from our CSA over the past two weeks, so tonight's menu - eggplant parmesan. So my son and I journey to Aldi where the requests for cheesy crackers and chocolate syrup can be indulged in because the total of my bill will still be thirty to fifty percent less than if I were shopping at a different supermarket.
So now that I'm well into my thirties and definitely much more seasoned in this adulting world, I find that Aldi may not have all the bells and whistles of a bigger supermarket chain, but I guarantee you that I am not waiting in line wasting my time any longer at this wonderful grocer than any other larger grocery store.
What I also found was that it wasn't a waste of time, but a huge time saver. They don't have multiple brands (aside from special buys), so I have no decision fatigue in navigating the right value for the food I am purchasing. They no longer operate on a cash-only basis, which helps with the whole convenience thing too (because who has cash anymore?).
Today, my six year old and I headed to Aldi for some ingredients to make eggplant parmesan. The eggplant already existed on my counter and I needed to do something with the obscene amount of vegetables that we have collected from our CSA over the past two weeks, so tonight's menu - eggplant parmesan. So my son and I journey to Aldi where the requests for cheesy crackers and chocolate syrup can be indulged in because the total of my bill will still be thirty to fifty percent less than if I were shopping at a different supermarket.
So now that I'm well into my thirties and definitely much more seasoned in this adulting world, I find that Aldi may not have all the bells and whistles of a bigger supermarket chain, but I guarantee you that I am not waiting in line wasting my time any longer at this wonderful grocer than any other larger grocery store.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)