Reflecting, Projecting, Protecting

MICROMAN: Straight out of the gate this a.m. (that would be before 6 a.m.) CJ was begging to use the new microscope MPA acquired as part of its headmaster's 44th birthday. Since it's a non powered model, requiring sunlight to run, I told him he was going to have to wait awhile ... Once the sun finally peeked up over Queen Anne Hill, we gave it a whirl. With no luck. I was doing something wrong. And before I knew it, it was time to rush off to music. Unfortunately, the science lesson would have to wait. And wait they did - until their dad got home and got the thing working. CJ was underwhelmed at first. He was expecting to see cartoony, mustachioed germs squiggling around on the slides. A fiber of cotton is significantly less enthralling. ... So, Christian put a hair on a slide and the kids were a bit more interested in that (because they could relate to what a normal hair looks like, so by contrast a super magnified hair was of interest). Next, Christian thought to swipe some saliva on a slide and THAT, my friends, was very interesting. Or, "amazing!" as Annabelle exclaimed. You could see individual cells, and since we've done some cell exploration, they were jazzed to see actual ones close up. Cool!

THE SOUND OF MUSIC: Friday is music morning and this a.m. when I went to pick the kids up from their session, the teacher was letting everyone have a turn trying to play a cornet. What a neat opportunity to not just see and hear the music, but to get to hold that big brass instrument and try to make it sing. The kids quickly learned that it's much harder to get a cornet to produce a note than it is a recorder. Fresh from their newfound realization of/appreciation for the instrument, once home I scoured YouTube for some cornet music. I found a lovely song, but made the mistake of letting the kids see the video that went along with, which for most of the song did not really go with the music, so it was distracting. So we moved along to a real treasure - a 1920s ragtime recording featuring the Halfway house Orchestra. How great that this music is preserved.

TAKE ME TO YOUR BALL GAME: On the way to the store to get fixins for Bee's birthday cake, CJ and Annabelle played out what wound up being a comedy routine in the backseat. Annabelle was wearing a headband with baseballs on springs and she took on the character of an alien who had just arrived on Earth, and the alien was trying to learn the game of baseball from Coach, played by CJ. Coach was telling Alien how to play, and when he's telling her the simplest things, like "grab a bat" she would come back in a robotic, monotone voice and say things like, "Do you mean that black thing flying around in the sky?" To which befuddled Coach responded, "No, you don't bat with a crow. ..." Of course Alien would have to clarify, "No, I mean the black thing that flies and uses echolocation." Another highlight was when Coach told Alien to go sit in the dugout and Alien asked for a shovel, so she could start digging. High comedy, I tell you. If my other camera weren't broken, I'd film them and embed it here and put it on YouTube.



DISCO DUCKS: By consulting the History Channel, I learned that Disco Duck topped the charts today in 1976. (That's right, 33 years ago. Now doesn't that make ME feel old?) Anyway, knowing the kids have heard and like the song, I shared the news with then and then served as DJ for a mini Disco Duck-a-thon, during which certain members of the family who shall remain nameless shook their tailfeathers.

HEARTBREAKER: This a.m. I (along with a few other parents) received an email from the parent of a child CJ and Annabelle went to preschool with. The emailer's child had started kindergarten at a local public school this September and things aren't all sunshine, lollipops and rainbows. He reports it has been "kind of tough," that his child is losing weight, and that no one at the school has told them how/when/what special ed services the child is receiving. He closes with, "I hope you guys have better experience(s) than us. " Heh, yeah, well, not exactly.

I had to write him back, of course. My opening:

It breaks my heart to read your email, and it takes me right back to CJ's
kindergarten experience. In fact, the email reads like I could have written
it one year ago, when CJ was about a month into his kindergarten experience
which was, I think it's safe to say, the worst year of my life.

I went on to share with him some of the trials and tribulations we/CJ experienced (them losing him on the first day of school, the near-daily physical attacks, the lovely special ed assistant who, with a smile, predicted none of the kids in the inclusion program would ever live independently). You know, those kinds of things. ...

After the email I wrote, I'm sure this parent thinks I'm insane (I've never even really had a conversation with him before - we've just smiled and nodded at open houses and birthday parties) and I hope I didn't scare the bejesus out of the guy. That said, there are some VERY legitimate reasons to be alarmed about kindergarten gone wrong and I swear I felt a moral obligation to share our experience, because who knows. If things go just bad enough, you could wind up with a 6 year old with post-traumatic-stress-disorder related to his or her kindergarten experience. Or so I'm told. ...

I tried to end on a positive note, by including a list of resources, as well as "the moral to my story:

• Trust your gut. If you think something's wrong, find out what that something is and be like a dog with a bone until that "something" gets fixed or eliminated


• Listen to your child. Take everything they say seriously and listen for messages they're trying to send you, even if they don't quite know how to tell you


• Be on the scene. A lot. Frankly, if someone had told me this stuff was going on at CJ's school, I don't think I would have believed them. I saw it for myself and I still can't hardly believe it ...

THESE ARE A FEW OF MY FAVORITE THINGS: Here's a scene from today. CJ and Annabelle spontaneously counting and sorting and making patterns, just because it's fun. : )