The Angel Forever

A fun afternoon with water

Posted on July 17, 2010 10:29 am by TheAngelForever

Dear NHL and JSL,

We had a pretty good week. NHL really enjoyed camp, and JSL and I found things to do most days while you were away. Thursday, JSL and I went out in the morning. We were on a mission. We had to find some inexpensive paint brushes to use for water play. Someone had suggested that we get them for painting with water on the driveway. It seemed like a great activity for the two of you.

After picking NHL up from camp Thursday afternoon, JSL was roaring to go and paint with water. Thanks to a nap, you had lots of energy to go into the 90 degree heat. Lucky for you, NHL was willing to go outside again. We went inside to put sunscreen on everyone and got our supplies. Since I could not haul out your swimming pool, I found a bucket to use with the paint brushes.

Within seconds of putting it out, the two of you were experimenting. At first, you were curious about painting with the water on the driveway.

Then it got a little more interesting when one of you realized that you would fling water at the other with brushes. Of course, then you also noted you could paint one another with them as well.

The sun was really getting warm and I told you to try putting your feet in the water bucket to get cooler. By this point, I had put my camera away and using only my cell phone to take photos.

From this point on, the camera and cell phone went away. When I went to get more water in the bucket, I changed things up a little. I surprised JSL and tossed a bucket full of water all over his legs. He liked it a lot. NHL, by the time you arrived on the scene I had the hose working. You were the lucky recipient of this. We played by the hose for another 15-20 minutes laughing and giggling up a storm. By the time we were done, two of us were soaked from head to toe and the other close behind. At this point, we packed up and went inside for a little something different. It was time to soak in the tub for a while and use some soap and shampoo.

Thank you both for memories that I will always remember. I hope that we can do this again a few more times before the end of the summer.

Love,

Mommy

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Categories:
brothers Dear Kid Saturday fun jsl nhl photos play time summer

Drama at schools

Posted on July 16, 2010 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

As a former teacher, I am quite used to drama at schools. It can happen at all levels and I even remember some as a child. Still, I was lucky enough never to deal with the scenario that is playing out for my son. You see, once again there is a threat to close his school down.Yes, they are threatening to close a school that has had a steady increase in enrollment, high state test scores and a phenomenal community spirit. I am blown away with the so called rationale and backhanded politics behind some of the reasons. Of course, none of these things are really new in the area. The problem is that the state of the economy in New York has made this boil on our bottom even closer to the point where it will burst. (Can you tell I am in a mood?)

So yesterday, after digesting more uncertainties at the school board meeting, I had to take a minute and get some things off my chest. I wrote about it here: Education funding crisis – save our school.

Obviously, I am being a bit vague about things. Since I try to protect my son, I can not go into all of the details, or it will be obvious which school he is in. So this week my question to you is:

Did you or your child ever go to a school that was constantly threatened to close down or get shut down? If you have any experience, I would love to hear suggestions on things to do to help our school and especially my son who will be devistated if this happens.

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Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the linky there if you are participating.

Aloha #108

Categories:
Aloha Friday Educational losing my mind me moments school stupidity

Education funding crisis – save our school

Posted on July 15, 2010 11:23 am by TheAngelForever

When my son left school on his last day of first grade, we assumed he would be back there in September to see his friends, teachers and other members of this amazing school community. This assumption came to a screeching hault on Tuesday afternoon. After a fun filled morning out, I arrived home to a rather disturbing e-mail. Nothing could prepare me for this as I let out a rather frightening scream and tears fell down my face.

It seems our dear governor had pulled some powerful punches that would pretty much screw our entire school district. Rather than think about the children that this move would hurt, he kept signing off on item after item. Once again our district was being forced to make some rather disturbing decisions which may include closing one or more elementary schools, including ours.

I do believe that fire burst from my eyes as the anger increased. No, I never thought we were 100% safe until my child walked into school in September, but I NEVER expected this on going roller coaster. My son heard me and saw that I was upset. I had to explain in second grader terms that once again we did not know if his school would be opening again. My child asked me why. This was a tough one. I told him that for too many years members of the powers that be have sat back and allowed some businesses to come into our district and take children away from us. I told him that they pretend to be schools, but most of them are not. I promised him that I would do everything in my power to:

I asked NHL to go into the other room and play with JSL. I had some important phone calls to make. I started with the mayor and moved on down my list of community politicians. I left messages, talked with some people and then called a representative of our school district. I wanted to know what a concerned parent/citizen could do to wake up our community. Enough is enough! The truth needs to be heard and people need to stand together to stop the insanity. If we do not do this, not only will my son’s school be on the chopping block, but our entire public school system could be in danger. Our community needs to be the example to other parts of our state and I dare say the country. We need to get the right people to hear us and see how these money hungry businesses that are dressing up as educators are killing public schools across the nation.

Previous posts about the battle to save our school:

Categories:
bad news decisions Educational looking back losing my mind real world news school vent

Disappearing Buzz Lightyear

Posted on July 14, 2010 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

Categories:
Disney jsl Wordless Wednesday

Introducing Tuesday Tales

Posted on July 13, 2010 4:33 pm by TheAngelForever

I have a confession, I am addicted to books. These are just some of the books that our boys have. Some were mine from teaching, others ones we have bought or received over the years. There are many other chapter books and adult books in storage for another day.

Of course, this is not really surprising since I am a teacher, but something you may not really know about me. My favorite class while getting my undergraduate degree in Elementary Education was Children’s Literature. Where else could you spend an entire semester talking about favorite childhood books, characters and authors? In addition to reading a lot of children’s books for the class, we also had to do a presentation on a picture book author and one on an author that writes for older children.

Who would you have picked for each of these?

For the first of mine, I wrote about Arnold Lobel. He is the author behind the long time favorites Frog and Toad. While Lobel is possibly most famous for the stories about this famous duo, he also won the 1981 Caldecott Medal for his book Fables. I learned a lot about his career and grew to love Frog and Toad even more.

My second presentation was on Lois Lowry. When I was in elementary school, I adored the Anastasia Krupnik. They were the books that I went to when I was older and had finished reading Beverly Cleary’s Ramona series. While in college, I found another book of Lois Lowry’s that will forever be one of my favorite books, Number The Stars. This historical fiction book about the Holocaust won the 1990 Newbery Medal. It is a powerful book that teaches children about the topic on a level that is perfect for them. I adored this book so much that I did several projects in college about it and then did a unit on it when teaching Language Arts a few years back. After looking over her website, I now see that I need to catch up on some of her latest books.

For many years, all I read were books for college, my classroom, and my own children. Even when I had time over the summer, I would sit down with a children’s chapter book to see what my students had been reading – you know like Harry Potter, The Series of Unfortunate Events and the list goes on. These days I do stop and read my own books by Debra Macomber, Mia King or dive into a little vampire life with a Sookie Stackhouse book, but the teacher in me always moves toward books to read with my children.

So now each Tuesday, I hope to bring you some books that we have read. Whether they are old favorites, newly released or something a little different we will be sharing them with you via:

I hope you will join me each week to share a favorite story and link up what you have been reading, whether with your children, at school or on your own. All books are welcome. See you next Tuesday when we share with you The All-American Jump and Jive Jig by M.P. Hueston.