I have no shame in admitting that I watched some Royal Wedding coverage today. It all actually worked out perfectly as today is a crazy school day. Zach has Insect Day at the park and his teacher asked that I come and get some photos and then we have our last POPs Rally (6 week award ceremony) this afternoon, which means I needed to get my work done early.
Let's just sidebar here for a moment to talk about the fact that there is only one month of school left! How can that be? JT will move to 3rd grade, which we all know is just 2 grades away from 5th and there is no way in hell he can be that old. And Zach is very confident that if he and his buddy Bobby can continue to be good in class, they will get to go to 1st grade. Both boys have talked about their top teacher picks and I have to admit I am bit antsy as due to budget cuts the school is making some changes, one of the biggest being the removal of the Autism Inclusion Program (yes, the very one that the school is well-known for) and the addition of a group they call PACE kids (which someone defined as emotionally disturbed children). I don't really know exactly what this means and I reserve the right to change my opinion but based on my one conversation, with one parent, I don't like the sounds of a child disrupting class with an emotional outbreak and the teacher having to stop and work with said kid. I am not 100% clear but I don't think these kids come with aides but they may leave at set times to work with a special teacher. I need to do more research before I get too worked up. I am sad about the Autism program leaving, not because I have a kid that gets to be part of the program but because of the incredible environment of inclusion the school has created. Okay, as I am typing, thinking this one over I realize there is a possibility of me being a tad bit hypocritical as I am heralding the awesomeness of autism inclusion but leery of emotional disturbed behavior inclusion. I guess it is the unknown that frigthens me, the self-ish fear of how it will affect my children, the lament of losing fabulous teachers and aides as well as the loss of a program that not only educated me about a disorder but also my children and the frustration that a group of children who thrive in an environment that offers them security, comfort, and repetition will be tossed in to various schools throughout the district.
Stepping off my soap-box now and back to part of my original train of thought about the boys' teacher wish lists, we also have lots of teachers that are being moved around not only within our school but the possibility of getting moved to other schools. There are only a few teachers that I am not sure I am sold on so I feel certain things will work out but that unknown factor always worries me. And yes, I do have an entire summer to worry about so no need to stress too much right now.
School and kids is tough. I find myself always questioning whether we are doing the right thing and if they are getting what they need to succeed. I feel like my education was so special and of course only now that the boys are in public school do I feel this way. I imagine I hated most days and at some point envied the non-uniform wearing kids. Actually, I am not really sure I was aware there were other schools until 7th grade when we got bussed to a local junior high for science classes. It was such an odd feeling to get off our St. Mary's Catholic School bus right in front the courtyard while the North Pines kids were on their lunch break. We were mocked of course and we all quickly rushed in to the building to our assigned class. I wonder what the teachers thought about us? If they disliked that they had to teach us? I think that experience made me fear public school.
We have some great friends that homeschool (in a liberal arts, non-religious, cool way) and Rick and I have talked about it some but I know I could not handle it and honestly I think the boys may go insane. I think they like the structure and the social aspect of school. Not that we couldn't and wouldn't provide that at home but I think they like being away from us for some of their day too. JT's only interest in homeschooling, is the belief that he would get to dedicate the majority of his day to baseball related activities. The other day he mentioned that a Tuesday night Rangers game in Arlington was a jersey give away night and that if it wasn't for school, we could just all take off and go.
So here I am now, taking a break from work, wedding watching, and scone eating (total dork alert but since we had all the right supplies I made a batch of strawberry scones last night - they aren't worthy of the royals but JT and I liked them).
We have a low key weekend with a small baseball tournament on Sunday. From what I gather there are only 4 teams playing so we will just play three games and from that pick a winner, winner, chicken dinner.
Happy Weekend peeps! My big "project" for the weekend is to get all my baseball and school photos organized and loaded on some sort of public/private free site so parents and teachers can view/use them. So keep your fingers crossed and you too could be going through countless number of photos of kids you don't know.
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