Fast times and wild living with (the former) Baby Whozit…
Posted in First Grader, Friends, Jessica, Uncategorized on Apr 11th, 2014
This week I began to teach Simon an important life lesson: When to deploy vagueness or the white lie in conversation. The need arose when one of Simon’s friends, Griffen, complimented him on a play-date. “Simon, you’re my best friend!” Griffen happily declared. “You are in my top 3,” Simon replied, which I suspect was […]
Posted in First Grader, Friends, Jessica on Apr 6th, 2014
It’s been ages since I’ve posted a recent picture of Simon. This one isn’t the greatest—I’ll get some better ones up shortly—but it’s sweet. I like to call it “Future USTA Mixed Doubles Champions”. That’s Simon with his bestie, Caroline, of course. The pair played something called “Canadian Singles” in which one player plays against […]
Posted in First Grader, Friends on Apr 3rd, 2014
Earlier this winter, I thought Simon was over-scheduled and was a little concerned about the effects on our home life and his school work. That’s when things looked like this: Monday: home after school Tuesday: team soccer practice from 6-7 Wednesday: home after school Thursday: Soccer extra practice (Talent School) from 5:30-6:30 Friday: home after […]
Posted in First Grader, Friends, Jessica on Mar 27th, 2014
Sometimes I am amazed by young children’s capacity for empathy and kindness. Very happily, I’ve had three occasions in the last week to feel as though children were setting an example for everyone else to follow. The first incident happened at the preschool. There is a boy in one of the classes, I’ll call him […]
Posted in First Grader on Mar 22nd, 2014
At this past Thursday’s talent school (an extra weekly soccer practice), Simon was on fire. After nine weeks of agility drills, passing drills, and coordination exercises, Coach Darren let loose and joined the kids for an hour-long scrimmage. It was the last practice of the Winter II session, and Darren wanted the kids to have […]
Posted in First Grader, Jessica on Mar 7th, 2014
At last night’s soccer practice, Simon made me about as proud of him as I’ve ever been. On Thursdays he has a non-team, extra practice that focuses on footwork and agility. That class runs from 5:30 to 6:30, after which we sometimes stick around to watch the adult leagues play. Our friend Keith plays in […]
Posted in First Grader, Jessica on Mar 5th, 2014
At the end of the last grading season, my attention turned to the notion of paying kids for grades after the subject came up on Facebook. Now I’m just thinking about grades in general: what they mean and whether and how much Simon needs to know about them. Let’s start with what they mean. At […]
Posted in First Grader, Friends, Jessica, Simon says... on Feb 27th, 2014
Up ’til this year, Simon has had a knack for choosing friends he’s not completely compatible with, while I’ve (largely fruitlessly) attempted to steer him in other directions. For three of his four years in preschool, he most loved a couple of boys who were much rowdier than he was. One of these boys was […]
Posted in First Grader, Jessica on Feb 7th, 2014
Sometime in these past 1,048 posts (Geez, do I ever shut up?), I wrote about the odd juxtaposition of little boy and big boy qualities in Simon. Actually, now that I find it, it was about Simon’s ability to vacillate quickly between his little boy and big boy selves and how fascinating it was to […]
Posted in First Grader, Jessica on Feb 5th, 2014
Historically, this is not Simon’s strong suit. I’ll give you exhibit A: Today we were playing Yahtzee together when I rolled a five 6s. This good roll ensured my victory and came after at least three losing games in a row. “You’re going to win,” Simon sulked. “I don’t want to play anymore.” I understand […]