Kids

I’m Not Sure He Can Say “The Dog Ate My Homework” Just Yet

/ Dawn Kasal-Finley / Leave a comment

Noah has summer homework each year of pre-school.  It’ pretty intense.  We have to make a summer book.  Okay, I’m lying.  We so don’t have to make  the book–they do provide that for us and they should for the tuition we pay, but we do have to write in it and fill it out.  It will be of no surprise that I waited until the last minute to begin even thinking about the book.  I started to print out pictures for the book last night (it is due in school tomorrow).  What happens?  I run out of ink.  My printer has 6 cartridges and I usually have a bunch of extras.  So, I went down to look through my extra 8 cartridges that I have and did I have just one of the photo magenta?  NO.  Of course not.

So now, I am leaving work to run to get a cartridge to finish printing out pictures for the book that Noah has completely lost interest in.  He has written on a few pages and isn’t really that into it anymore because now there is stuff to look at and who wants to fill in empty pages when one particular 4-year-old who will remain nameless filled up two whole pages with superhero stickers.

He will “read” the stickers like a story, but when I ask him “tell me a story.”  He simply replies in the most annoying whine ever “I don’t know any mom.”

UGH!  So, tonight I will torture him by forcing him to “tell” me a story and to write the Spanish words he knows an when his birthday is.  So that we can bring our book in to class.  Ours won’t be the most creative (there are some who take this project/assignment a little too far–I’ll be keeping an eye out for those parents when science projects come around) but it will be filled with sticker and pictures and maybe more than a few words.  But it will be totally ours.

Why We’ll Never Have That Vacation Home

/ Dawn Kasal-Finley / Leave a comment

Just when I think that maybe, I could not sent my kids to the private school Noah attends.  Maybe we could then buy that vacation home we want (okay we really don’t want one–but we could have one).  Maybe Bill could get a new car.  Then I listen to something like this and am reminded of all the reasons why I decided to send my kids, not just to any private school, but to this private school. This was about the importance of kindergarten (a good kindergarten–the kind where kids play and learn) but applies to so much more.

The guest on Radio Times, Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, spoke directly to the reasons my children are at TCS.  In research, she and another psychologist, have come up with what they call the 6 C’s.  This is based on both psychological science. learning outcomes and the business world–that place so many of our kids will try to get jobs.  As I listened, she could have been describing Noah’s school.

  • Collaboration–it is imperative that our children learn how to work in teams and to build community
  • Communication–not just speaking but also listening.  Being able to write (not the 5-paragraph essay so many schools teach) but persuasively.
  • Content–content is important but it can’t be the only thing.  Reading and Math scores are not all that matter–and really barely matter outside of schools.  Content should include music, history, STEM subjects.  The information/content of our world is said to double every 2 1/2 years–can we really drill all these facts into our kids?
  • Critical Thinking–need to be able to create “recipes” for problems.
  • Creativity–we can’t only be analytical.  We need and the business world wants more creative innovation.  Look how long it took BP to come up with a solution–we need to teach our kids to be creative innovators.
  • Confidence–the students need confidence to try, not to fill in the right blank.  They need to have the confidence to know there are many, many routes to get to the same destination.

So, I’m happy to know my kids are getting the best education they can.  This isn’t to say that their school is the only place they could get this education but it is the only place I can guarantee they’ll get this education every year in everything they do at their school.

Really Not A Vacation

/ Dawn Kasal-Finley / 1 Comment

Travel with little ones cannot be called a vacation–there was super little vacationing that occurred during out time in Cali.  Very little.  One night–a mere 2 hours of vacation in the 7 days we were gone.  Not bad considering.  But I am exhausted.  Even my toes are tired.  These kids wear us out.  The one night in Santa Barbara was gorgeous.  We sat on our patio, drank wine, and listened to an up and coming singer/songwriter put on an impromptu show for the 8 people hanging out in the pool (our patio faced the pool).  It was great.  Almost like we were on vacation.

Here are a few photos–I’ll post more about the trip later (although it was fairly uneventful–as my children were extremely awesome the whole time–it was scary how awesome they were).

On The Right Side of Crazy

/ Dawn Kasal-Finley / 1 Comment

We are leaving in a few days for out family vacation to California.  We’ll only be there for 5 days (not including travel days).  We’ll be spending all of our time in Southern California.  As someone who live in California we just have too much we want to squeeze into our short time there.  We will of course be visiting Disneyland (even though we were just at Disney World last year) and Legoland.  I’m excited that Legoland actually has a water park now–that should be fun.  There are too many friends to see–sorry to most of you and of course we are planning on hitting our old stomping grounds in Santa Barbara–where it all began.

We’re lucky (I guess) to be staying with my mother-in-law for most of our trip.  We are going to stay one night in Santa Barbara for a family day/night.  That should be fun.  This will certainly be a whirlwind trip that will certainly tire us more than it refreshes us.  But I am so excited about taking the kids to Disneyland this year.  Noah can ride nearly all the rides (depending on how accurate their height things are) and Zoë is so excited about seeing Princess and she can talk and experience so much more and ride rides.  Last year when we went the only thing she did was Pirates of the Caribbean and The Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse.  It’ll be much more fun this time around.

I’m getting ready to pack but have to remind myself of So Cal’s wonderful weather.  I think I’m going to be chilly while I’m there.  Have to remember to pack pants for the kids.  When you are use to 3 digit heat indexes and oppressive humidity (don’t get me wrong I love the heat), one tends to be chilly when the high is only 81 and the lows are in the 60’s.  I don’t remember what the 60’s feel like.

So, things are going to get crazy as we pack up and load ourselves onto that plane for 4 hours and drive in that great LA traffic (have I mentioned how much I despise LA traffic?) and wait in line for rides and characters, etc. But it’ll be a blast because my kids are awesome and my hubs is awesome.

Can’t wait to get there and have fun away from work with the kids.  Will try to post several times while on vacation.  I’m sure there will be much to write about.

The First Taste Of Summer

/ Dawn Kasal-Finley / Leave a comment

Summer is certainly in full-swing here, even though it doesn’t officially start until June 21 (?).  I’m working and for the first time and really missing being a teacher.  I loved having the option of having my summer off.  But now that I am working a full-time gig and Noah’s in summer camp and Zoë will start school next year, I am already starting to be sad that I won’t be off in the summer to hang with them.  It’s crazy I know.  But, I want it all.  I want to hang with the kids and I want to work.  It’s depressing to realize that you can’t have it all no matter how bad you want it.  It’s all part of growing up, yada, yada, yada…

Noah is loving summer and camp.  He has his first swimming lesson through camp yesterday and he thought it was awesome.  He put his head in the water and blew bubbles, floated on his back and did a few other things.  He thought it was really cool and was proud that he wasn’t even scared.  He is certainly one of those kids who does better with new things when mom and dad aren’t there.  He also got to go on his first field trip and was so excited about getting to ride on one of his schools’ 3 buses and wants to do it everyday. I certainly love that I can pick him up from Camp and spend some time with him in the afternoon end evening–I really do want to be able to have it all. He has started tennis lessons as well and thinks that is great.  He and Zoë both have swimming lessons starting in a couple weeks together.  That’ll be fun.

Zoë is starting to potty-train.  She is ready and wants to wear underwear really bad.  She is quite different than Noah was.  When he was ready–he was ready and that was it.  He put on underwear and went forth.  Zoë is requiring quite a bit more work than Noah did–or is that just my mom memory where you forget how hard a stage is until you go through it again?  She goes 1000 times once we are home from the babysitter and it is hilarious because one drop of pee comes out and she is all “me peed on potty.” I just smile, hug her and tell her yes she did.  She can’t wait to be a big girl.  She is great at the sitters with peeing on the potty (she knows she can’t start school next year unless she is potty-trained).  She won’t be going to Noah’s school next fall–I just don’t think she will be ready yet.  But she is going to start going to the university’s child development center–which is located on the campus I work at.  It’s top notch and uber-convenient (unless, I am traveling for work and Bill has to bring her–than not so much).  We certainly love her current baby-sitter but I am a huge proponent/believer in early-childhood education and do believe it is the absolute most important indicator of future student success.  So, we’ll see if they have room for her in the fall.

I’m teaching my last class at the community college for a while–I’m just too busy and it’s not fair to the students to get a teacher who only has time to give half of what needs to be be given.  I love my class this semester–they are all older and many of them older women.  But they are all so eager and serious and really want to learn to write better.  They don’t believe that they are going to get better no matter how much I promise them.  They talk and debate and have opinions.  It is refreshing and awesome.  It’s going to be a great 7 more weeks with them.

How is your summer shaping up so far?