Life With Frenchie

How very apropos, considering my earlier post about No Child Left Behind. This young man has definitely not been left behind!

Stumble it!

Okay, so technically I don’t get a summer vacation. Actually, as a parent, I think we get double duty during the summer! This summer was no different. Well, maybe it was because we had a crazy busy schedule! So much stuff went on, I think I will need to break this up into multiple posts - for my own sanity as much as for yours’!

Last year, we were supposed to go to Virginia for a week to visit EP’s family, my mother, and our friends. Unfortunately, I ended up having surgery and we never had another week where we could make the trip last year. This year, it was a priority on our list!

So, the week after school was out, MM, EP, and I packed up and headed north. It was a great trip because I got to meet most of EP’s friends from childhood through college at our engagement party. My maid of honor was also there. I was so excited to get to see her because I haven’t seen her in almost 2 years and she is also engaged and I had yet to meet her fiance, even though they’ve been together for about 4 years now! We had so much fun those first few days. We went into D.C. to have dinner with my MOH and her fiance. We went to EP’s high school (his mother still teaches there) and ran into some of his former colleagues from his teaching days. We attended a lunch in honor of his mother for her hard work as head of her department at the school. We had dinner with his father. We spent a wonderful evening with his friends and our families celebrating our engagement and just having fun. It was a great start to our summer!

After the first few days, EP flew out to Las Vegas to help his cousin ring in his 50th birthday. While he whooping it up on the strip, MM and I ventured an hour or so north to visit with my mother. Originally, we were supposed to go to National Zoo with my MOH and her fiance, but my mother wanted to take us to Williamsburg, VA so no zoo for us (can you believe I have never been to a zoo before?!?!). The last time I was in Williamsburg, I was just a year or two older than MM. MM has read the American Girl books and she really enjoyed Felicity’s story, so I thought she would enjoy seeing the city where it all took place. Although she did enjoy seeing the Governor’s Palace, touring the historic buildings, and seeing people dressed in period costumes, she did not like the walking! And we walked….A LOT! At one point, she was complaining so much, I had to resort to drastic measures and lock her up! We planned to go to Jamestown as well, but we got there very early and after waiting around a while for it to open, we decided we were tired and just headed back to my mother’s place.

Bright and early the next morning (about 3 AM actually) I headed out to make my way back home. At the same time, EP was on his way back home from Las Vegas. We both had a very long week and by the time I made it home (about 4 hours after EP, who waited at the airport for me) we were pooped! MM stayed in MD with grandma for the rest of the month while EP and I enjoyed some more summer “vacation”!

Well, I think that’s enough for now. Next time, I’ll share with you MM’s summer at camp and our first of three weddings that we have to attend this year!

Stumble it!

It’s not the whole story. Apparently, “No Child Left Behind” does not mean that the educational system works to help students excel in academics - it means that they make sure the smarter kids don’t get too far ahead of the rest of the class. *eyes rolling*

I try not to be “that mom” that insists my child’s a genius. Actually, I don’t even think that. I do, however, think she is a smart child and know that she is capable of excelling academically. This summer, EP gave her math work to do every day and made it very challenging. She worked through 6th grade math review, learning decimal functions, percentages, etc. Now, we are well aware that this is above her current grade level (she just started 5th grade), but we had no idea how pathetic the curriculum was in our system (and it seems like the whole state!). She is in her 3rd (I think) week of school and her math homework is not encouraging. Today’s homework, for example, reads as follows:

672 - The __ is in the hundreds place; the __ is in the ones place; the __ is in the tens place.

I poop (yeah, I’m trying to keep it clean) you not!!! It got challenging *serious eye rolling* when they gave her numbers in the thousands to work on. Come on!!! What is this crap? In the meantime, EP is still giving her daily math problems to work on. Today, she had six problems. An example:

Find a number so that 17.8% of it is 115.

What is 4.4% of 25?

She needed the first type of problem explained to her, but was able to do the second type with no problem.

Her spelling/reading is no better. Her spelling words for the week?

Oak, Tow, and the like

What. The. Hell? I know that the beginning of the year is usually review for a while, but who are they reviewing? This is like 2nd grade stuff!

Seriously, I’m so disappointed in our schools! We have had her tested for the gifted program, but that won’t solve anything because, at her grade level, it does not give her advanced work in her regular academics. So what are we to do? For us, homeschooling and/or private schools are not an option– at least not at this point. I’m just so frustrated I can’t even put my thoughts together to make sense!

Stumble it!