Sunday Morning Shout Out

“A Recipe for a Perfect Snowday”

One vast lake

A polar vortex

Blizzard warnings

The ghosts of Western New York blizzards past:  Irv Weinstein, Jimmy Griffin, Susan Banks, mixed with today’s Andy Parker, Kevin O’Connell, and Mary Alice Demsler*

• A smattering of Twitter and a whole lot of Facebook
• Boards games, dress up clothes, cookbooks, kindles, movies, and a little television
• Popcorn
• Hot chocolate

Image Source: http://www.ebay.com

1. Mix one ominous sky mixed with some lake effect snow sunshine and sub-zero cold.
2. Prime the parents and children of Western New York to incite a rush to the grocery store; children unable to settle back into school after a long break; and create a celebratory/manic feeling in the air.
3. An hour before school lets out, stir up the winds and start the white out machine
4. After everyone is home safely, reduce the visibility completely.
5. Start reminiscing about past snowstorms.
6. Post blizzard warnings
7. Make the winds howl!
8. Notify parents there is no school; parents electively tell children the night before or wait and increase the excitement by telling them in the morning.
9. Sleep on it; wake up to the same weather conditions as the night before.
10. Keep children and parents home together.
11. Issue travel bans.
12. Make popcorn and hot chocolate for breakfast.
13. Allow for extra television and kindle time than normally allowed.
14. Parents sneak off and read a book
15. Get the board games and dress up clothes out.
16. Play and read away the hours, while glancing outside.
17. Call distant relatives and tell them it’s “blizzarding”  here.
18. Reduce their five inches of snow to nothing.
19. Eat macaronic and cheese when not eating popcorn.
20. Repeat the following day.

If bickering begins and everyone starts to grate on each other’s nerves by the next day, add sunshine, blue sky, and normalcy to the mix…in other words:

No More Snow Days…Back-To-School!

Sunday Morning Shout Out

If you can believe it., it’s half time in the school year.   With the holidays behind us, perhaps it is a good time of year to take stock.  What do you want for your child academically?  What is working and not working out so well for your children in their classroom or at home, with their homework and studying routine? Here are some more in depth questions to consider:

1. Is my child a happy student? Outside the normal ups and down, do they typically, contentedly go to school each day?
2. Does your child have a hard time getting up and out the door, but do fine once they are at school?
3. Conversely, is your child fine at home, but forever struggling at school?
4. Which subjects do your children like and dislike?
5. Are you actively involved in your child’s work? Do you know what they are studying? Do you know what their homework consists of at night?
6. Do you regularly communicate with the teacher? Are the open and available?  Are your child’s administrators open and available?
7. If your child is struggling, have you spoken to her teacher? Is extra help available? What does this look like at her school? Is a tutor something to consider?
8. Do you feel there is a good balance of core subjects and more auxiliary subjects? Have the extras been cut at your child’s school?  Is there a way to make up for this through community assets, such as libraries, free music programs, free physical education activities or  extra exercise at home?
9. Does your child have access to the right amount of technology?
10.  Does your child get to go outside? -Into the community for field trips?
11.  Are vocational options as strong as more traditional educational options  in the higher grades?
12. Have your children been introduced to different vocations at a young age?

While the answers for these things look different for each child and family, and for each school district, every parent must play their part in helping their child succeed at school.  The schools cannot do it alone, nor can parents do it without the help and involvement of the school.  We must take stock of ourselves and our role in our children’s education from the home level to the school.  What can we do better at home with their routine and with helping them have good study habits, good life habit?  We must investigate, advocate for our children, and communicate for our children, to their schools ,so they learn to do so for themselves.  Students and schools are most successful when it is a partnership.  I believe we are most successful as parents when we regularly reflect on the many dimensions of our children’s lives and how we can make it better….

 

Sunday Morning Shout Out

Twas a few nights before 2014 when all through the house

Not a child was stirring, not even our two year-old who likes to get up during the night still, and crawl around like a mouse.

 My children’s’ favorite dress up clothes were hung, no make that crumpled on the ground without a care. 

In hopes that mermaids, fairies, knights, princesses, princes, and the odd pop star would soon be there.

             

Daddy in his earplugs and I the complete sap

Had just settled down for some grown up time and a chat.

 

When out on our lawn there arose such a clatter

I sprang from my armchair to see what the heck was a matter.

 

Away to the window, I bolted like a flash

Sprung up the window and wanted to dash

 

When what to my sleep deprived eyes should appear.

Something that any parents in their right mind would fear.

 

The children were stirring, not inside but out

Bellowing bad boy band songs; looking like Elton John in the 70’s, and dancing no doubt.

 

Yelling nine year-old, six year-old, and two year-old, please stop!

If you continue, there will be a call to the cops

When does school resume, I say, it has been a long break

We don’t know how much commotion; pleas for inside voices, even when outside, we can take!

 

While your breaks are good, your time in school is also a pleasure.

Two weeks off has given us measure.

 

The sight of your school buses and the normal routine, we will treasure.

From our house of Elton John’s to yours, Happy Holidays and Happy 2014!