XOXO

Girls came running out happy today.

Clem said she got a hug and kiss from her teacher.

"I told Ms. A that I told you I loved my teacher and she gave me a hug. And THEN I gave her the flower and she gave me a KISS!"

Clem also reported that she had made a special friend called Anabella.

Evelyn said her day was GREAT! Turned out this was primarily because at recess she found a bird skull with the vertebrae attached and managed to smuggle it home folded in her crazy shirt.

"I can't believe I got this all the way from recess to home! I was sure if someone discovered it they would say it was dirty and make me throw it away."

I asked if they did any work, she said no, but they did lots of fun crafts. Evelyn said she had made friends with everyone in her class except for a grumpy girl at her table who didn't "like people to say anything wrong about her, even if it was just an accident." Nor, it turns out, did she like critical evaluation of her drawings, even when input was solicited. She drew a face and then asked Evelyn what she had left out. Evelyn told her that she had placed the eyes and nose too high on the face. "But it was too late to fix that."

It was Greta's first day at school, today. As soon as the girls finish piano practice we'll be picking her up.

Oh, one bad note...All 26 registered kids in Evelyn's class were present today. Overloading to another school seems likely.

No Happy Face for Me

I didn't finish my homework.

Evelyn chose a wacky stretchy shirt that I only noticed had holes in it after she got to school.

The worst part of this so far is feeling like I am back in school and about to get in trouble.

Homework

Yesterday Clementine ran out of class and said, "Mom YOU have homework!"

Disaster info forms, permission to go to the library (!) forms, district residency info, etc.
Well, I didn't do it yesterday so I've had to get up at 6am to finish my homework.

School Days, Rule Days

The first day is over. I think I wrote two paragraphs on my novel. Spent a long time coming up with the name of a mountain range. I've called it the Slinnery Pikes.

We had friends over for dinner and I was talking about my school worries. Clem ran up to me and hugged me and said, "Don't worry Mama, I love my teacher, she is really nice." She loved recess, and even liked all the controlling rituals like making kids who misbehave sit on a red dot on the blacktop. She wants more peanut butter for lunch tomorrow, more than the quarter cup she had today. I am sure kids will be going into anaphylactic shock way down the hall.

Evelyn reported that it was BORING, BORING, BORING. "All the teacher did was lecture." Ms. Q talked about the rules, and about a lot of exciting things they would do, but they didn't get to do any of them. The only work Evelyn did all day was read the word "extraordinary", but that wasn't really work at all. Some kids thought "stupendous" meant "stupid." They didn't even write anything.

Clem piped up that she had written two sentences.
My name is Clementine.
and
I feel nrvos.

I guess I can put my handwriting worries to rest. Clem said she finished the first sentence and the other three children at her table had only written M. Of course, maybe they were taking great care with their penmanship.

The most exciting part of Evelyn's day was spotting a crushed owl pellet on the sidewalk on the way home. Big bones, lots of ribs. Ev said it was a rat and pointed out some tail bones.

Evelyn thinks she'll get to stay with Ms. Q. When we checked the class list there were 24 kids, but Ms. Q said she had 26 on her list. Only 22 showed up. Evelyn concluded that two had registered after they posted the sheet last Friday. If those two showed up today and some other 4 were absent, then she would not be overloaded. (It goes by date of registration). I hope she was right. She says Ms. Q is too serious.

If she does get overloaded I might just give up on the project and have her do some online classes and read quietly while I write.

The kids didn't make their lunches, nor did they set out their clothes. I don't feel like doing it tonight and I have to drop Mike at the Park N' Ride at 7:30am. It is going to be a scramble to get them to school at 8:20. Already the shine is off our shoes.

Over the Drop-Off

A wee quotation to start the day. To be honest the quotation is long, but the font, at least, is wee.


Is it not ironical that in a planned society of controlled workers given compulsory assignments, where religious expression is suppressed, the press controlled, and all media of communication censored, where a puppet government is encouraged but denied any real authority, where great attention is given to efficiency and character reports, and attendance at cultural assemblies is mandatory, where it is avowed that all will be administered to each according to his needs and performance required from each according to his abilities, and where those who flee are tracked down, returned, and punished for trying to escape - in short in the milieu of the typical large American secondary school - we attempt to teach 'the democratic system'?

Royce Van Norman, "School Administration: Thoughts on Organization and Purpose," Phi Delta Kappan 47(1966):315-16

Well, the dropoff is done.

Clem was awake and dressed before I woke up this morning. Evelyn was proving that she doesn't need to go to school by rising bright and early and working on her story which is 2500 words or so at this point. Her typing has gotten quite good, so she types it in gmail and sends me the new parts as she goes. That makes it easy for me to include the beginning of her story at the end of this post.

At 8am Edward from next door knocked to see if we were ready to go. Ev and Clem's hair was wild and witchy after sleeping on it wet with new haircuts. I still had to tame the hair and appease Greta ("Brush Greta hair." "Greta backpack where are you?"). Ok, I also had to find my own shoes.

We set off and picked up poor little Courtney, the girl on the corner whose single dad hadn't gotten her any school materials, on our way. Soon the sidewalks were thick with kids and parents. Everyone seemed to be shuffling very slowly forward. Yes, I did feel like part of the herd.

Ev and Clem were bouncing along happily, though. Clem's bounciness increased when I relieved her of her very heavy backpack, chock full of paper towels, baby wipes, crayons, glue, markers, scissors, ziplock bags. Evelyn is proud and thrilled to be allowed to have a rolling backpack. They are forbidden for first graders. I explained that she would have a lot of heavy books to put in it but failed to dampen her enthusiasm.

At school everyone was milling about until the bell rang. Teachers were blocking the way so you couldn't go to line up at your classroom number before the bell rang. After the bell we shuffled through the gate and lined the kids up at their numbers. 29 for Clem. 12 for Evelyn. I followed Clem to her class. Ms. A seemed nice but a bit serious. She asked us all to leave promptly so the kids would know "they were here to stay and couldn't go home."

I ran over to Ev's room and watched as Ms. Q taught the kids what a parade wave was and had them turn to their parents crowding in the door and parade wave them goodbye.
Must find way not to get overloaded to different school. I had to dash forward and introduce myself and explain that it was Evelyn's first day at school. If Evelyn had ever been at school before she would probably have been embarrassed.

Worries for the day: Someone will make fun of Evelyn for having a Triceratops lunch box.
Clem's teacher will be shocked at her handwriting.


The Prologue to Evelyn's story


The Lost Shifters

Prologue


It was a warm summer morning in Morning Meadow and Crystal, a filly, was taking a cool drink from a pond. She had nothing to worry about and she had anything she could possibly want . Crystal had lots of flowers and she had a nice, loving mother and a protective father . Crystal had other colts and fillies she could play with and lots of sweet grass . Yet she was still not happy . Crystal knew the valley had not been found out by the hunters yet and she knew the stallions could protect it but Crystal sensed being watched every minute and she didn't think the others did. Crystal decided to ask her best friend if she felt like someone or something was watching her . Her friend said "What are you thinking! This is the safest place in the UNIVERSE !! " and trotted away . Then Crystal whipped around to see a ghost-like stallion rearing and then disappearing . She was scared . She thought ghosts were just supposed to be some scary bedtime stories but now she wasn't so sure . And that was the start of her troubles .

New Life Eve

I just finished putting out clothes for tomorrow and packing lunches. I made a big deal about how the kids were going to have to pack their own lunches every night and put out their clothes for the next day before bed. We got back late from the Monterey Bay Aquarium and I decided that the girls absolutely positively had to have haircuts before tomorrow morning. Mike dashed them out to Supercuts while I took lunch orders and went through the folded laundry for clean outfits. Good start. Sigh.

Then we realized that they had no good shoes. Both had blisters from too-small shoes at the aquarium today and Evelyn's good shoes are stranded at the side of the American River and Clem's in some shoe purgatory from which they will emerge only after she has outgrown them. The shoe selection was quite picked over at Target, so we'll see tomorrow if the new ones even work.

I admit to being nervous and thinking that it will not be a restful night.

A Schoolhouse Named Desire

So I embarked on this thinking, well it probably won't damage the children permanently and I'll have time to finish my novel. I know it won't be a great experience and it is too late to look for a private school (also, I might find it paralyzing to think how much money I was spending to have the luxury of writing) but it is just for 3 months. We'll suffer through.

Then while waiting to register I met a mom I knew from an old playgroup with sons, Logan and Daniel, Ev and Clem's age. Gee, it would be nice if they ended up in classes with her sons. Then I talked to our doctor's nurse (turns out she lives right around the corner) and she said that she liked all the 3rd Grade teachers but that Ms. Q was the best. And there it was.

Desire.

All of a sudden a hope that things could go well. This is dangerous because you start to get invested. So I google Ms. Q and wouldn't you know. She is google-able.


EACH november students have a chance to honor
their favorite teacher by submitting an essay or a draw-
ing to the "American Education Week Favorite Teacher Essay
contest." Middling Elementary School third-grader Alta
Hassan won the contest in her grade for writing the following
essay about her teacher, Ms. Q.

My Favorite Teacher

My favorite teacher is Ms. Q. I like Ms. Q because she explains our homework, so we know what to do. She also tells us many funny stories about her childhood ­ like the time she told us these dogs were chasing her brothers and sisters with her after they were being naughty teasing them. It was so hilarious!

I loved it when Ms.Q taught some of us to Salsa dance. Every day when I come to school, her clothes look so pretty. I wish I was in her class last year too, because she has a cute little library.

Most of all, I love her because she is a great singer. She even sings with her class in the morning right when we get to school. That is everything I want you to know about my favorite teacher, Ms. Q.

I'm fairly certain that salsa dancing is not in the curriculum. This does not sound like a teacher who spends all her time teaching to the test. Desire gets stronger.

They posted the assignments at 5pm Friday. Clementine has Ms. A. We haven't heard anything about her. But, hey, Daniel from her old playgroup is in the class. And there are only 17 kids in her first grade class. She won't be overloaded to another school.

And Evelyn has Ms. Q! And Logan is in her class as well. But there are 24 students. Four will be overloaded to another school if everyone shows up.

Drat.

Reality Injection

So, the kids weren't up-to-date on their shots and needed physicals for school. I already had
an appointment for Greta, so I asked if they could fit the other two in at the same time.

This was a big mistake.

It was a little tricky coralling baby while big sisters got their hearing and eyesight checked, but the real trouble didn't start until they whipped out the needles. Why didn't it occur to me that getting shots for three children at the same time would not be fun? Evelyn got completely bent out of shape and tried to refuse to have them. When it came to it, she was brave, didn't cry but hid in the corner for Greta and Clem's shots. Greta was not at all brave. Clem was a trooper. But even though she had her head in the corner, Evelyn was going green at the gills. Everything
would have been ok, had not the next words come.

"Now it's over to the lab for blood work."

Clem went first. Brave girl. Then Ev. The nurse dug and dug for that vein and Evelyn was really brave. At one point she said, "It feels like Clementine pinching me as hard as she can." But when the nurse came up dry and said she had to try the other arm, well, that is when the wailing began. Greta started to wail for good measure. I called for the most experienced nurse.
The kindest woman in the world came to the rescues. Thankfully, she made good on her pinkie promise to make it not hurt if Ev held still. Maybe she had allergies, but I think she actually cried because Evelyn was so distraught. That made two of us.

If Evelyn turned sallow at the shots she was pea green after the blood draw. I tried to take her for the urine sample but she could hardly walk, so she had a rest on the couch while I helped Clem. We made it out of there, but not before Greta had secured herself a urine sample jar of her own to press between people's legs.

Home. We pulled into the driveway. Just enough time to pack things up and head to the park for homeschool creative writing club.

And then Clem slammed Greta's fingers in the car door.

Day One of The Experiment featuring Snide Comment to Principal

After homeschooling my kids to 3rd and 1st grade I need some time to finish that novel.
So off I go to register. In the office they are so worried that I am going to sneak my kids into
this utterly average school that I have to provide five forms of proof that I live where I say I do.
Checking in all the forms takes a long while and my 1 1/2 year old starts to get cantankerous.

She is screaming at half volume and trying to drag me to the door. Principal bolts out of her office. She is very young and long-legged. "Can you ask your child to be quiet? I am on the phone and I can't hear anything." Me (in too chipper voice): "Hi 18-month-old! Can you please be quiet?" Stunned silence ensues (on the part of the principal). The baby went right on hollering.

Oddly enough the serious woman checking in my paperwork seemed warmer after that. Is the principal not beloved? Then she informs me that one of my kids will likely be overloaded to another school that has room. Gee, could that be the one that is on probation? This may be a short experiment.