A Day With My Oldest

My daughter was having trouble controlling her temper.  She arguably has many stress causing reasons for this, namely her three younger siblings.  I read a little story about a man who made his son hammer nails into the fence whenever he lost his temper and then take one out for every day he didn't.  I don't have a fence so I got a scrap of 2x4 and a box of nails.  I told my daughter that when her board had no nails we would spend a day just the two of us. She was hovering consistently around six or seven nails for several weeks until one Thursday when it jumped to 23.  Then, my lovely daughter made a decision to not lose her temper.  She removed 23 nails in a row and kept them out.  So, last Saturday she got a day with me. 
We started our day with a two mile run.  She kicked my butt.  I think we both learned how good it feels to not quit on something.  We did intervals the last half mile and we were exhausted.
After our run we went to buy new underwear for her.  It seems that she's been needing some for a while but didn't want to buy it with her brother there.  I tried to explain that he's four and really wouldn't know what we were doing but it was a big deal to her.  This really made me think that she is growing up.  We had a nice discussion about how much boys stink and boys her age are silly.  It's funny because they didn't used to be any different from girls, but I guess that is another sign that she's getting older.
Then we met the rest of the family for Monsters University.  AWESOME!!!  I am a big Monsters Inc. fan even though I've seen it about a hundred times I still enjoy it.  This was arguably better.  And the short before the movie you ask.  Can you say "show-off"?  That was an amazing short, the skills of those artists at Pixar are simply awesome.  Needless to say my children loved it too.
After the movie we all went out to sushi, we laughed, we cried, we fed the baby wasabi, it was a typical lunch at sushi.  Then we watched my four year old eat more than a normal four year old.  That boy can pack it away.  I'm thinking his food fund might trump his college fund.  I really hope he gets a scholarship.
Then my daughter and I went to tea.  It was lovely.  We had two hours to eat way too much yummy food and drink way too much delicious tea and talk about everything that has her worried about the future.  Then we talked about her career plans and what she wants to do after college.  I was glad that visiting me made the list, she's going to leave me way too soon.
We stopped by the bookstore on the way home because a new book is the best way to end a great day.  She talked me into a whole American Girl series, but they were used so I think I got off easy.  We spent the last two hours of the day reading side by side, it was lovely.  I hope I can reward her with a day again.

Summer

So I often get depressed in the summer.  I know this is strange because most people find the winter depressing.  I think they are crazy.  The winter is way more fun, there's hockey and skiing, and snow, and cold and it's just so darn nice out.  Summer is not my friend.  I don't like heat, I don't like sun, it gets a little much for me.  So, I've started doing things I enjoy and forcing myself to like summer.  I'm almost to the point where I can tolerate it, if it doesn't last too long.  A friend of mine starting writing about things that make her happy here http://everydaytrish.com/ this made me think that I need to work on that, especially in the summer.  This summer is no different so I am trying to focus on what makes summers not so bad. 

Here's what I came up with to start out my looking on the good side of things.

In the summer I can grow my own food.  It's really yummy.  Now before you get all upset because I grow my own food and you don't or can't or whatever, let me give you the disclaimer.  I mostly tell my uncle what I want to grow and he tells me exactly what to do and I do exactly what he says and I get food from my yard.  The work level is not zero, but it's not that hard.  Oddly enough I am actually finding great joy in watching things grow.  We have two grapevines and they are really fun to manage.  I actually have to plan out where they are going to go and wait for them to grow and tie them up and wait and move the ties, it's really relaxing and I have a reason to get out of bed before it gets hot every morning. 

I'm not saying I am enjoying summer, let's not go crazy, but I am enjoying growing food.  That's fun.  So, there's one reason to enjoy summer.  Oh, and all you people who say ice cream and frozen desserts are reasons to like summer, let me just point out that you can eat those all year, and I'd rather have a chocolate chip cookie any day.

Standardized Testing

A few weeks ago my husband and I started discussing standard tests and what to do about them.  We are undecided about how to deal with standardized testing.  It's becoming very common for colleges and universities to look at these tests as a measure, sometimes the only measure, of a student.  In order to prepare my children to be successful in college I probably need to teach them to pass standardized tests.  Does that mean that I need to make sure I cover all the information they are likely to see on these tests or do I have to teach them how to take tests well?  These seem to be two different skills.  One is the ability to remember and regurgitate information, the other is more of a problem solving psychology. My husband and I have been debating what to teach, when to teach it, and how much emphasis to put on it.

So, that's what I wrote when I realized I was out of tea, I went into the kitchen to get more when I noticed that the dishwasher was ready to be unloaded.  I started unloading the dishwasher as my sons walked by in their cute house shoes (think Spiderman and lightning McQueen shoes).  I stopped to take a picture on my phone.  I went to post the picture and my phone died, I need a new battery.  I went into the bedroom to plug in the phone and noticed my bed wasn't made.  This is the only chore I do every day so that I feel as though I did something, also so I don't go back to bed.  I made the bed and realized that I hadn't finished sweeping the bathroom, stopped to sweep the bathroom and noticed the trash can was full.  I took the trash to the garage and washed my hands in the kitchen sink where I noticed I hadn't finished unloading the dishwasher.  I finished the dishwasher and saw my tea cup, which was not full.  I refilled my tea and remembered that I hadn't finished my entry about standardized testing.  Maybe I should teach my children how to focus, or multitask.

In an ideal world standardized testing would test how well students can learn and teach themselves new ideas because ideally this is what we are striving for as people.  To be able to learn in any environment and knowing how to learn are really the keys to a successful life I believe.  Then we can talk about how to define success, but that's another entry altogether.  Anyway, I still don't know what to do about standardized tests, anyone have any thoughts?