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Monthly Archive for November, 2012

We have some resolution to Simon’s recent bout of perfectionism and in-school collapse. Last week I wrote his teacher, told him about the anxiety I was seeing at home, and asked if we could stop taking away dollars for falling apart in class and instead offer stickers for holding it together. His immediate response was […]

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Executive Function

Last week I was marveling at how young and idiotic I sounded as a teenager to my grown self. This week I’m marveling at how my son’s idiotic decisions remind me so much of my own at the same age, at how idiocy repeats itself. When my brothers were in their late elementary years, I […]

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Historical Sources

Once upon a time, I was a historian who regularly thought about primary and secondary historical sources. In my new life, this doesn’t come up unless I run into a fellow academic (former or otherwise) or something historical hits the news. Until it comes time to clean my attic, that is, an occasion marked by […]

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TGIM! Or Not.

Between Simon’s soccer game and drum practice on Saturday, picking up a file cabinet from a friend, clearing out my attic in preparation of making it into a play-room, piles of laundry, grocery shopping, and dealing with the annual leaf deluge in our yard (So pretty in full color! Sooooo much work once they all […]

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Legacy of Tears

True story. When I was in second grade, my mom thought I should be tested for our school system’s accelerated academic program. My teacher, Ms. Harmon, did not. She thought I was bright enough, but that I got too upset when I did not understand something perfectly right away. (Like borrowing in subtraction. Thirty-three years […]

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Reading Redux

Nine and a half months ago, Simon began to read. It was so exciting! Short little words to be sure, but the beginning of a fabulous adventure. By February or so, he worked through Hop on Pop. And then… well, and then a whole lotta nothing happened. Unless you count regression. We definitely had some […]

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To the Geek Goes the Spoils

What? You thought you’d get through the entire 2012 election cycle without my blogging about politics? Come now, you know me better than that. But barring one teeny-tiny paragraph, I’m going to spare you talk of policy and discuss something else, something that is—or should be—politically neutral. My teeny-tiny paragraph first: Unlike many on the […]

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Great Minds

While enjoying a sleepover at his grandparents’ house Sunday, Simon lost his second tooth. It had been loose for ages, and I had predicted it would go as much as two weeks earlier. Instead, it waited until he was eating a S’more, came out with the tug of tooth on marshmallow, and like the first […]

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El Niño Dificil

When I agreed to take over teaching Spanish at KIP about six weeks ago, I assumed that the hard part would be whipping my atrophied Spanish back into shape. So two weeks ago, I made a trek to Barnes & Noble and bought a Spanish grammar review. I have yet to crack it open. On […]

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