Soccer trophies!

Maxim's first soccer trophy

Cool hairdo courtesy of misty rain on the soccer field on Sunday as the spring in-house soccer session was closing. Kids didn't mind the rain and the parents got enough good entertainment to forget the spray. It was fun!

All-inclusive

Here I go again getting all thoughtful and things.
I just read a post from a blog which talked about the Christmas season and the not-so-secular connection to public schools.
Indeed, throughout the curriculum there seems to be a fairly broad cultural spectrum encompassing different beliefs (including those of non-believers). Yet, when Xmas comes around, this consistency breaks down, and the school becomes all about Christmas. Granted, it's not always – and probably quite au contraire – not about the Nativity scene, but rather about the other stuff that surrounds modern Christmas celebration, such as Snowmen, trees, and the most baffling to me, Santa's reindeer. That's in addition to the conversations about present expectations and wishes. Talk about equity now!
So, the point is really how does your school make sure that other beliefs are included?
The post I referred to in the beginning, also talked about the fact that we need to – and do – teach kindness and compassion. This should be the season to emphasize compassion and kindness – and does holding a Christmas celebration but not any other help with this?
You see, I don't belong to a religion, nor do I believe in Santa, in fact, nothing stresses me out more than having to compromise my ideas about raising children and having to play along with the Santa story (my main opposition is really about the commercialization and the fact that Santa is so unnecessary!) that the people around us pressure us to comply with. Talk about peer pressure!
Yet, I play along and we attend events, but my heart is not in it. I am trying to find ways to connect with the community but do I have to compromise that much? Are there other ways?
How does your school teach kindness? What does your school do to include and welcome everyone?

Do something!

Some of us have found themselves in a situation when they - voluntarily or involuntarily - are staying increasingly home, and if you feel like getting involved in community life on your terms, you may find this resource useful:
http://www.dosomething.org/actnow
Do something!

Update on parent involvement meeting

I have just come back from the parent involvement meeting hosted by WSD at Congin School. One thing is sure, the school building is the safest place to be in a severe thunderstorm unless you are sitting next to an open window and lightning interrupts what you are saying.
Anyway, some of the ideas (a more comprehensive list will soon be available through your principal) included starting up Odyssey of the Mind and/or Destination ImagiNation. Both have corresponding websites. Check them out for they may be coming to a school near you.
Please share your ideas and thoughts below.

Everyday Math comes to my Mac finally!

About a week ago, my son brought home a login info for everydaymathonline. I am a sucker for such things, besides I had heard a little bit about Everyday Math, in somewhat disapproving way, and was intrigued to see what it really was.
I logged in, using the info from the printout (with good visual memory, it's pretty easy to remember the login credentials, helps if you know your child's name, too!). I have a Macbook, and we used Firefox v3.0.10. So, it worked all right. This is what I saw after I clicked on the games.

Speaking of selective vision, I saw the grades buttons only! Until today! Today I also realized that Early Childhood is its own button! I guess I assumed, from the adult point of view, that until they are in high school, students are very much of the early childhood type. Anyhow, I didn't see the K level that time, and we tried Grades 1-3, of which only certain things my son could do. I wasn't excited, as this appeared to be beyond his level. I had dropped the subject, in the hopes of getting further instructions at some point.

This morning, I discovered the other, biggest and right in my face, button, and tried it. I have three browsers on my Mac, Google Chrome, Firefox and Safari, latest or quite recent versions. I tried all of them. They all refused to cooperate with the website, screaming for a missing plug-in which wasn't even available for automatic download. I gave up and proceeded to manual, not expecting much success, yet it was easy. Despite naming it "manual install", it found the missing plug-in on its own (Shockwave, in fact, if you bother to read the system requirements on the site, they tell you Firefox 1.0 and Safari 1.2 or something like that, for Mac OS 10, and please install Shockwave), then I did have to run the installer, which is not a big deal.

Upon installation, I discovered that Firefox doesn't really run it very well. The shockwave gadget keeps disappearing when you mouse off it or over it, or simply click. Not good. Safari seemed to work much better. Google Chrome continued to ignore the gadget.

It would be nice if these instructions came along with the login info, making my life a little bit better. Of course, I am still puzzled why it worked last week, although a bit unreliably, and today it just wouldn't until I installed the Shockwave plugin.

Anyway, now we are all set and ready to use this. My son will be excited - he is easily excited, in fact, you should have seen him help put up the Xmas tree! - about the newly acquired and found online math games, finally appropriate for his level! Phew!

Hope this information is helpful to other parents - who may find this blog via Google search or some other engine search I bet. I am hoping to share this blog with other parents.