Democracy - Six Year Old Style

Lately whenever Lauren complains about not wanting to do what her parents want to do, we have been telling her that "it's two to one and the majority rules".  Last night on our way to the caucus, we explained the reason for it, why it's important, and why so many people were on their way there. After Lauren indicated that she understood, the conversation went like this:

Lauren: Dad, who are you voting for?

Tony: Obama

Lauren: One for OB (her nickname for Obama). Mom, who are you voting for?

Me: I think I'm going with Hillary.

Lauren: (happily) Well, I vote for OB. That's two for OB, so you lose. OB will be president.

 

 

Magic Bullet
Mood:  silly
Topic: Lauren

It is definitely time to have a talk about marketing with Lauren. Just about every Sunday morning after the few cartoons are over and she is flipping through the channels, Lauren will happen upon an infommercial. I can tell when it happens because my leisurely reading of the morning paper is interrupted by "Mom, come in here! Quick! You have to see this!". By the time I get in there, she can recite the whole schpeel and becomes insistent that we buy it. Sometimes, when I come right out and say no, she actually gets upset.  One product in particular that she absolutely will not forget about is the Magic Bullet Blender. You know the one. It chops, it grates, it blends. It whips, it grinds, it steams. It's microwave and dishwasher safe.  Even knowing what she knows -  "You could mix vegetables in with fruits to make a delicious drink. Kids won't know vegetables are in there! But I will know because I saw the commercial." - I believe she could actually sell them herself.

Snow :-) Traffic :-(
Mood:  irritated
Topic: Rants

After my 14 mile, 2 HOUR commute home – 40 minutes of which was ONE city block long -  I have only one thing to say…

Stay the fuck out of the intersection if there’s not enough room for you to make it through before the light turns red!

Bastards! It was only about 5 inches of snow, traffic didn’t have to be so bad.

Interesting Similarities
Topic: Family and Friends

My mom was the only daughter of her mom. I am the only daughter of my mom. Lauren is my only daughter.

When my mom was a few months old, WWII started. When I was a few months old, Kennedy was assassinated. When Lauren was a few months old, terrorists flew into the Twin Towers.

 

Two Extremes, One Day
Mood:  hug me
Topic: Family and Friends

In City Slickers Billy Crystal's character asked Bruno Kirby's character which day was the best day of his life. Bruno answered that it was the day his father left his family, never to be heard from or seen again. Appalled that that would be a "best" day, Billy asked what was the worst day. The answer was the same day.

I have my own best and worst day and like Bruno's, they are the same day. It was seven years ago today. It was the best day because after a year and two miscarriages, I found out I was pregnant with my daughter. It was also the worst day because just after 10pm, I said goodbye to my mother forever as her 7 year battle with breast cancer ended.

If only the two of you could have met in this lifetime...

My Kind Of Man
Mood:  flirty
Topic: Lauren
We'd been talking to Lauren about the Beatles for a while which caused her to keep asking to hear some of their songs. So the other day I popped The Best of The Beatles into the CD player in the car and listen we did. Lauren seemed to be enjoying the music and I could tell she was really listening. How do I know? Because after Can't Buy Me Love finished she said "He is definitely not the man for me!" Between chuckles I had to ask whyand without hesitation Lauren replied that it’s because he wouldn’t be buying her diamonds and things. Wait you say, as I did, the lyrics are that he’ll buy a ring or anything that would make her feel alright. Well, that’s true it does say that but it goes on to say he would prefer that she say she doesn’t need a diamond ring and that she asks for things that money can’t buy. See? She was listening…all the way through. I was truly surprised. 

It doesn’t stop there either. The next song was A Hard Day’s Night after which she piped up. "He’s the man for me…maybe". Obviously unlike the man above, this guy would work all day to get money to buy things. She continued on "I like things. I want someone who is rich. He can go to work all day and I"ll stay home. Then when he comes home, I’ll make him coffee." Actually quite appalled at the thought of my daughter waiting on a man, I had to do my best to nip that notion in the bud. I pointed out that there are many other more important characteristics like if he’s nice to her and helps her. I even brought up the fact that she wants to be a scientist when she grow up. She wouldn’t go for it. For her, things, especially bright, sparkly things take precedence over all else and for that she'll need a rich man indeed.  Hey! Maybe she could put in a good word for the mother-in-law! 

The Dry Sponge Curriculum
Mood:  down
Topic: Rants

Just after we had eased by the "Reading is boring" situation, Lauren came home from school and announced, "Math is boring". And, really, who can blame her when the lesson of the day was which number is higher?

During Curriculum night, the teachers had mentioned that they use a system called everyday math which is supposed to help kids see how numbers fit into the real world. At the time I thought that sounded well and good. Then came the homework and I knew it was not going to be well and good. The number order homework was followed by: tally marks (i.e. lll = 3), find and count the thermometers in your house, write your phone number, and count the clocks in your house. 

These kids are 6 and 7 years old for crying out loud. Which number is higher...hmpf! They should be doing addition and subtraction! Everyday math is fine and dandy, but why can't that be supplemental to some good old fashioned math?  These kid’s brains are sponges ready to soak up anything and everything, why not throw in something more complicated than which number is higher? Time is being wasted here and the sponges are slowly drying out.

After the tally marks I decided I was going to have my own math lessons with Lauren. She was already doing simple addition and subtraction, so I added easy double digit addition and subtraction, then double digit addition with carrying the tens and for good measure, I even threw in a double digit addition that resulted in a triple digit sum. I even had her adding fractions! I drew four pies, a whole, one in halves, one in quarters, and one in eighths and we did things like how many eighths would it take to make three quarters? She got it people...she got it all. And many times on the first try. I haven't yet gone to the double digit subtraction with borrowing a ten, but that time will come. There will be no dry sponge on my watch!

First Grade Curriculum
Mood:  surprised
Topic: Lauren

With the class list under our belts, it was on to First Grade Curriculum Night.  On our way in to the parents-only meeting, Tony just happened to mention that Lauren had come home from school that day and announced that they had had reading and it was boring. Apparently, the teacher would read a sentence and then the students would repeat it back to her. For someone who is able to read chapter books, it must have been torture. We knew Lauren was reading above her grade level, but we had no idea it was so much higher until the meeting began. Imagine our surprise when they had us pull out a sample reader and it read "The fat cat. The fat cat sat." Lauren was reading such stories two years ago in preschool! Tony and I just looked at each other. Lauren's teacher, who was sitting in the front facing the audience, must have seen us because after the meeting she made a beeline for us and said "Don't worry. Lauren will be in another class. I'll call you."

So Lauren's new reading class started two weeks ago.  Besides reading at their level, they are also covering parts of speech: nouns, verbs, and the like.  This is much more to her liking...and to ours.

Good Dancer
Mood:  cheeky
Topic: Lauren

With dance class about to begin, Lauren was feeling so excited she could hardly contain herself. She jumped off the school bus shouting, "Dance class tonight. Yay!" It's nice to see her so excited about something and to have that excitement carry over from year to year. The difference for her this year though, was that she wanted to be good. Like Rudolph.

Huh? I didn’t remember Rudolph doing any amazing dance moves in his Christmas special. Nor did I remember any of the other characters doing any kind of dancing in the show. When I asked Lauren to refresh my memory, she mentioned him leaping and spinning while traveling in a large circle. Well, for the life of me I still couldn’t come up with the clip. Then it dawned on me. We had recently watched a PBS special on Nureyev... Rudolph Nureyev. You know…the ballet dancer. 

Back To School
Mood:  a-ok
Topic: Lauren

I have to admit I was a bit worried when I learned that most of the girls from Lauren's Kindergarten class now have Mrs S. whereas Lauren and a couple of girls that she didn't really associate with much during Kindergarten have Mrs. K.. I imagined Lauren feeling a bit left out, but I should learn not to project my childhood feelings onto Lauren because, apparently, it didn't phase her at all. She was just happy that there were a few kids that she knew whether she had played with them last year or not.

I was also worried about how she would do with the full days, but it seems I didn't need to worry about that either. I had heard all of the horror stories about kids arriving home to eat a snack and go to bed for the evening, or being holy terrors, but Lauren has done well with this too. Oh, there are days when she is crabby or weepy, but for the most part she doesn't cause too much of a problem or come home ready to fall into bed.

So, school has been in session for about a weekand I'd say things are going fairly well.