Category: Elementary School

Far Off Giggles

My home office is a vigorous stone’s throw away from the campus my children went to for their primary years. Even in the cacophony of little voices I used to make out their laughter from my window facing west. Now that they’ve moved on to bigger challenges my ears can’t detect them.
It’s sill nice to hear the occasional booming sounds of little people coming from down the street it just doesn’t have that last bit of twang that made it all the sweeter.

Stay Sweet and Not As Smelly

It saddens me a little sometimes when I do drop off and in the course of the morning circuit I have to return to the Elementary School after dropping off the older one at his campus just a few blocks away. 
Whenever I can quickly contrast the difference between the ages at each school I awe at how much these little people change in a short amount of time. The little dramas they concoct at the younger grades are more male belief than the concerns the bigger ones face that could have actual consequences. The tiny ones are still in awe of us so-called-adults whereas the pre-teens keep us at a safe distance. 
I sometimes wish they didn

Locked Out of Heaven

The kid sank deeper into the back seat with worry. At the wheel, the father was making wild gestures with his face and the most rapid articulations with his arms. There was sincere pleading from the concerned tyke but they were being ignored. The other more experienced kid in the passenger seat sat in resolved silence. “This will pass like it always does” he muttered to himself. Finally at the drop off the younger kiddo fumbled fast to unlock the backdoor and escape to her campus and away from the mad-energy. 
To outsiders, once the car door opened the deafening beat of Bruno Mar’s Locked Out of Heaven wailed out and the dad inside kept on Car-Dancing with Muppet like precision. 
The child still within the vehicle and the one that had escaped exchanged glances…first a glare then pity.

Grad Information Nite

So here I sit. 
Among a throng of about 30 other shell-shocked parents about to discuss the last 30 days of Elementary school life for our children. How fast a half dozen years went by! How common did these school grounds become! How invested did we get in the daily ebb and flow of PTA and more. How familiar are we with many of the faces in the room. 
I find myself in awe of the family we have become as time has passed by. I also now realize that we are due more shell-shock in a few months

iPads for All?

I heard through the grape-vine that my child’s school could be implementing a program where he and his future classmate could be receiving iPads for educational purposes.

I was/am thrilled.

Then it was rumored that some parents were concerned by the program because a damaged or broken machine could put a heavy financial burden on a family.

Though I understand the concern, I feel it’s a mistake to not provide our children access to a technology simply because we as parents are afraid of costs. In essence, we are putting a price limit on our children’s education and it lies in the range of $500 or less.

That low?

Today, any one of us adults, could get a parking, speeding, texting while driving ticket that would cost as much if not more than the iPads we are worried about loosing. Should then we stop traveling our byways so as to avoid the heavy financial burden?

What about the cost associated with our children not having another educational opportunity that will help them accomplish more in the years to come? Is the potential $500 investment not worth the reward?

Are some parents simply giving up before we’ve even started and admitting that they have no intention of monitoring their child’s use of the tool?

I stand with giving children the opportunity to handle, work and become comfortable with a technology that will become more and more relevant in the years to come. The costs is real but our potential loss in education is more troubling.