Fast times and wild living with (the former) Baby Whozit…
Posted in First Grader, Jessica, Simon says... on Sep 26th, 2013
I’ve just finished reading Brian Epstein’s book, The Sports Gene, which I recommend highly. Among the most interesting parts for me were the discussions concerning the physical traits required to become an elite athlete in a given sport. Distance runners need long, skinny legs and some exposure to moderate altitude. Think Colorado or Kenya as […]
Posted in First Grader, Friends, Jessica on Sep 20th, 2013
It’s Simon’s birthday in a few weeks. Last year, owing to his being at a new school, we skipped the class birthday party and stuck with a family one. Having now gone to at least a dozen class parties in the last year, it’s Simon’s turn to host his school friends. So I booked a […]
Posted in First Grader, Friends, Jessica on Sep 16th, 2013
If you’re on Facebook, you know that Simon ran a 5K yesterday. You also know that the event was a charity run for Dare to Care, and that Simon raised $510 for Louisvillians in need of food assistance. And you may have noticed that I was completely shameless in my shilling. Completely, utterly shameless, for […]
Posted in First Grader, Jessica on Sep 11th, 2013
I learned a little about how Simon thinks at his school open house last night. The children all keep regular writing journals, math journals, and science and social studies journals. Which means they write a lot, and at open house the parents were invited to rifle through the children’s’ desks and peek into their journals. […]
Posted in First Grader, Jessica, Uncategorized on Sep 7th, 2013
If the whole Simon messy desk incident from last week was shades of young Matthew, on Friday I heard a report that took me straight back to my own school years. When I was in elementary school, I was a good student. By middle school, I was a very good student. And by the time […]
Posted in First Grader, Jessica on Sep 5th, 2013
Happy New Year! I took a picture of Simon on the front porch today, all cleaned up and ready for services. For Yom Kippur, we’re going to get fancy and debut a tie, which I am somewhat ashamed to admit the boy has never worn. As for the shoes . . . I’ll give you […]
Posted in First Grader, Jessica on Aug 22nd, 2013
Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose. Simon’s life is beginning to remind me of the movie Groundhog Day with its endless repetitive looping. Tuesday the kiddos within Jefferson County Public Schools all returned to school. Just like last year, I went to help sort the buses and arrange and/or verify afternoon transportation at […]
Back from vacation, with thoughts about the visit from my Israeli house-guest, whom I will now refer to as Daphna so as to avoid awkward Internet searches in the future. My main takeaway from hosting Daphna was the sometimes disorienting feeling that resulted from being on an unfamiliar side of a class divide. You see, […]
Posted in First Grader, Jessica on Aug 13th, 2013
Any time I’ve read about testing disparities between socioeconomic classes, I’ve always assumed that it boiled down to educational support at home, enrichment opportunities, and the like. I had read that standardized exams were also culturally biased towards middle-class white kids, and while I didn’t dispute that fact, I couldn’t quite picture where culture came […]
Two weeks ago, I was worried that after a laid-back summer of hitting the pool on the rare days it was hot enough, going for leisurely runs and hikes with Simon, kicking a soccer ball about, and otherwise enjoying the best summer weather we’ve had in years, I would find it really hard to get […]