Because natural isn't always possible — or easy.
Posted in Friendship, Safety, School and education on Oct 20th, 2010
The notebook lay open on the counter. I didn’t recognize Big Girl’s scrawl so I picked it up for a closer look. There, on the page, was the following: “Bring it tomorrow and you said if you don’t I could punch you thank you good night.” WTF?!? I called Big Girl into the kitchen. What [...]
Posted in School and education on Oct 18th, 2010
I became Stalker Mommy today, taking the long way home from picking up Little Girl from school so I could pass by Big Girl’s school. I knew it was recess time, and I wanted to see if I could catch a glimpse of her playing outside. (Like you’ve never done the same — or wished [...]
Posted in Education, Food, Safety, School and education on Oct 6th, 2010
I wasn’t surprised when I heard that birthdays are food-free celebrations at Big Girl’s new school. I had run into the mom who I suspect is behind the policy, and figured something like that was in the works. We were at the park and recognized each other. The kids had been in nursery school together. [...]
Posted in Consumer Packaged Goods, Eating Healthy, Environment, School and education, Shopping on Sep 22nd, 2010
One of the most wasteful places, in my opinion, is the school lunchroom. Lots, and I do mean LOTS, of single-serve containers, wrappers, and packages. Take fruit leather, for example. They usually come in a box, each fruit bar individually wrapped. The boxes cost $4 for eight. (Or about $.50 each.) Recently, I came upon [...]
Posted in Education, parenting, School and education, toddlers on Sep 14th, 2010
This morning I dropped Little Girl off at preschool. It was her second school in as many weeks. The first one didn’t work out. It was a Montessori. I dropped her off and was jarred by the atmosphere. Very chaotic and more like a daycare than a school. The room wasn’t neat and tidy. No [...]
Posted in Education, School and education on Sep 8th, 2010
Because of my mini nervous breakdown this week (please, please people who don’t know me very well — understand that I am not usually this nuts!), I have been thinking about everything and decided to focus on the good. There are plenty of good things that came out of Big Girl’s first week of school. [...]
Posted in parenting, School and education on Sep 7th, 2010
My husband, who read my last blog post, asked me to take it down. His words: “She hasn’t been in school a day and you have passed judgment on it, her classmates, and the families and values of every person who sends their children to public school. The only person who sounds like a stuck [...]
Posted in Education, Emotional development, parenting, School and education on Sep 7th, 2010
Today at 9:18 a.m. I got into my car and cried. I had just dropped Big Girl off at the big, scary public school. Today I picked her up at 3:15. I want to cry again. Our conversation: Me: How was school? Big Girl (BG): It was good. Some things were the same, some were [...]
Posted in Eating Healthy, Education, Food, parenting, School and education, Siblings on Aug 20th, 2010
That’s a pretty bold thing to say, right? School lunches were never really on my radar before this summer. They were something I never had to worry about. Big Girl was in private school. A very nice private school without a cafeteria. We were instructed to send in whole, healthy fare — vegetarian if possible. [...]
Posted in Emotional development, Play, School and education on May 27th, 2010
My big girl’s play was today. I missed the 1 p.m. performance. I had a meeting I couldn’t get out of. She was the narrator. She was supposed to run onto the stage and start the play. Instead of running, though she tripped, or so my mother and husband told me. She went down hard, [...]