To the beach!

Allison came home on Tuesday - super excited - because Wednesday was Beach Day.  There was even a note in her folder to "dress for the beach" but no swimsuits allowed.

Initially I thought, "well, that's cute!"  It's been so very cold, and I can appreciate the school's lighthearted attempt to think of warmer weather.

Then, I realized the impossibility of dressing a child for the beach, when the child had to endure freezing temps getting to school, from school, and at recess!  Especially Allison, who clings to the "5th and 6th graders DO NOT have to wear their snowpants" rule like gospel.

So, we settled on a long, knit, strapless dress with flip-flops in the backpack, a sweater to wear to and from school, and a beach towel to wrap up in.  All set!  This probably would have been fine for the day - had they not decided to have a fire drill.  Because it makes total sense to ask the school kids to dress like they are going to the beach in FEBRUARY in WISCONSIN and then send them all outside (without coats) for a FIRE DRILL!

And, exactly where in the common core curriculum is the material on logic?

Allison's Math Test

Allison nearly aced her last math test.  Congrats!  The topic was multiplication with decimals and the test was pretty much just about the math and not about hokey math concepts and twisted word problems.  Support for my theory that Allison would be a much "better" student had she been born 20 years earlier....

But I also took a picture of the grading sheet.  It must really kindof suck for the teachers.  Each question with it's targeted objective.  Each (multiple choice) problem graded on a scale of 1-3.  Seriously, the benefit of multiple choice tests is that they can be graded quickly with one pass of a red pen.  No More!

Pinewood Derby Time!

Yesterday was the Pinewood Derby.  This is Jacob's den (gotten a little bit smaller this year).

 Jacob and Brian worked on Jacob's car this past week.  It came in at a perfect 5.0 ounces (it's the red car in the blue lane below).  Jacob was pretty certain it would win, but after watching a few practice runs beforehand, I was much less certain.

 None-the-less - he scored a first place win in his den, which means we got to stick around for the finals - where he raced all the ones he raced before the derby and didn't place at all.  But he was excited!

And here is Jacob with his friend Ian.  Immediately after the derby, Jacob and Ian headed over to their soccer game.  We got home and to bed around 9 pm, only to get up for the 8 am basketball game Saturday morning (honestly, the YMCA said "Games at 10 am *but the time may change."  Yeah - talk about a crappy time change!  Jacob asked which game the whole family was going to make it to and I was like.... uh, none.)

Cold

Yeah - the arctic can keep it's air, thank you very much.

Although, I took the recycling out today in knit pants and a sweater and said to myself "this isn't so bad - they canceled school for this?" 

Then I decided my brain must be frozen.

Conjured a spirit

It's like writing about the principal Jacob was so scared of must have conjured up some bad mojo.  I got a call from Jacob's teacher today that he got into a little bit of trouble.  Apparently they use this card flip system (I say "apparently" halfway through the school year because Jacob has never had the need to bring up their classroom behavior management system before) and Jacob went from green to yellow and then in Spanish class - to red.

What are the horrors that happen at Red?  You have to spend 5 minutes of your recess talking to the teacher and "debriefing" about what happened.  OMG!  Tragedy!

Well, I guess Jacob got really upset, didn't eat lunch, stayed out in the hallway, wouldn't talk to the teacher, the (different and seemingly very friendly) principal, or the guidance counselor.

So, I'm at a loss.  On the one hand - Yay!  He doesn't like to be in trouble (which is a good thing, right?).  OTOH - he freaked out about a relatively minor consequence.  Like, is that so terrible?  Why all the anxiety?

He hardly bats an eye at consequences at home.  In fact, he often weighs them against his behavior ("hum..... this is super fun, but is it no-minecraft-for-the-rest-of-the-weekend fun?"); so I know he doesn't harbor some secret fear of getting in trouble with us when he gets home from school.

And since he's in trouble at school relatively infrequently, I had hoped he'd simply outgrown this.  Or, maybe now that he knows getting in trouble at his new school does not mean the world comes spinning to a stop - the next time won't be as bad?  I dunno. 

Sometimes I think it might be nice to take some traits in the kids and average them.  Like - subtract a little "trouble anxiety" from Jacob and give it to Allison.  In exchange, take some of the "Oh is that all?  No biggie" from Allison and give it to Jacob. 

dinner humor

I realized something at dinner tonight - a small bit of broccoli goes a long way when you have to pick the kids servings out around the offending broccoli.  That leaves ALL the broccoli for you.

Then Jacob said the following: "I bet it's not as good as Daddy's, because Daddy is a chef and you are obviously not."

(I think it would have been ok without the "obviously" in there).

And then this description from Jacob: "There were four drops.  One was short.  One was long.  One was longer.  And one was the longest."

A-hole, yes; Criminal.... idk

A letter came home today that the principal of Allison's school is going to trial for his role in the teacher abuse that happened at the school in 2011.  It's a long and weird story that I won't rehash here (you can Google it).

But the man was first suspected of wrong-doing in 2011 and suspended.  Then found to not have committed criminal wrong-doing and was reinstated.  Then charges were refiled in 2013 on the wrong-doing, and he was NOT suspended (on the assumption that they would also be dropped).  Now they are going to trial in 2014 and he's "reassigned."  I think one difference this time is that it's him and not him + his boss + the superintendent + the district.

I STRONGLY dislike this principal - just go back and read the post from when he suspended Jacob.  I think he's a bully and an a**.  I am totally not sad to see him leave the school and I support his removal as principal in general.  I mean, really - your role in reporting abuse of students has to be "criminal" before you are not allowed to be Principal?  I think there can be a level below "criminal" which is still "not fit to lead a school."

Anyway, we shall see where this goes.  Hopefully, it makes everyone more likely to act quickly when abuse is suspected.