The Glowing Edge

Tag: public school

  • Drawing is Relaksing

    Drawing is Relaksing

    The Maker is new to public school, and one of the delightful things he’s discovered is that his teacher has a “Read, Write, or Draw” period every day. The first time she introduced this he made himself a book, of which this is the first page. He’s been a book-maker for years, and loves to compose and illustrate them. This one in particular tickled me because of the phonetic spelling.

    My favorite part is the very “relaksing” visual. Ahh, just feel the peace.

  • First Dance

    The color is called Green Grind

    The Ice has just started public school and his first school dance was a week or so ago. In order to get ready, he got his ear pierced, then we had to shop for the perfect shade of green hair dye (Green Grind, by Color Fiend, available at Hot Topic).

    When I asked him if he was going to ask a girl to the dance, he sighed and explained his problem. Apparently there are (were — this was more than a week ago, and things move quickly in middle school land) FIVE girls who like him, and he didn’t want to risk offending any of them.

    “So what are you gonna do??” I inquired.
    “I’m just gonna go by myself and talk to all of them,” he told me.
    “Okay, but I don’t know if that will work. You may be in for a rough day after,” I said.

    But he seemed willing to take the risk.

    And it worked! They all came, they all loved his hair (don’t think they noticed his earring), and he talked with each of them. He even danced the Cupid Shuffle, he said, and it went great.

    I can’t tell you how relieved I feel.

  • Second Day of School

    And this is what comes downstairs in the morning, “ready” to go. I said, “Dude. Your head.”
    Ready for school?

  • woot is the new sweet

    The First brought home a math test with a grade of 95 written in red across the top. I knew how hard-won that grade was because he had written “Woot!” next to it. For a long time “Sweet!” was my primary expression of joy. If I had been blogging in 1990, I could show you that I’ve been using this word since then, but if I had been blogging in 1990 you would would have seen a viler vocabulary as well, since at the time I was working as a wait slave in a high-dollar restaurant while attending grad school, a double potty-mouth whammy. Suffice it to say that I was using “sweet” well before you see it posted in UrbanDictionary.com, yet I am obviously behind the times. I may still put two spaces at the end of every sentence I type, but even I know (now) that woot is the new sweet.

    Let the new millennium begin! Oh, wait…

  • Report: First Week of Public School (or: girls, food, and fire)

    I asked the First, first time public-schooler and seventh-grader, for the lowdown on his first week of school. The report falls into three categories: girls, food, and fire.

    1. Girls. They have some cute ones there.

    Mom: So do these cute girls know your name?
    First: Yes.
    (long silence)
    Mom (once it’s clear no more information will arrive unsolicited): Do they sit by you in class?
    First: No. We have assigned seats.
    Mom: Bummer.
    (short silence)
    Mom: Is it a bummer?
    First: Nah. It’s okay.
    Mom: Oh. Okay.

    2. Lunch. They offer it there, and it’s pretty much about eating.

    First: Lunch is good, you can sit anywhere you want.
    Mom: If you are in the lunch room with no one to sit with, what do you do?
    First: I invite people to sit with me.
    Mom: Wow! You invite strangers to sit with you?
    First: No, I invite people I’ve met.
    Mom: So do you ever make new friends at lunch?
    First: No, you make new friends at the lockers.
    Mom: Oh.

    3. Fire. Where the real education began.

    Mom: What was the strangest thing about this week?
    First: The fire drill.
    Mom: A fire drill the first week of class, woo-hoo! You get to get out of class… Why was it so strange?
    First: Well, when they first told us we were going to have one, I thought they meant we were all going to run out of the building as fast as we could. But what they actually made us do was line up at the door and walk out very quietly. It was weird.
    Mom: Hm, I didn’t realize we had missed that in our homeschool curriculum, but I guess we did.

  • Five Ways the First is Cool

    Last week the First attended a public school for the first time in his life. He’s in seventh grade. When he came home I asked him what the best thing about his first day was, and he told me he had participated in a game in one of his classes in which each student had to tell five interesting things about themselves to the rest of the group. Here’s the First’s list:

    1. I’ve flown a plane by myself before. (True, when he was 10 we sent him up with a friend of ours who is a pilot. It’s been his favorite experience of all time ever since.)

    2. I broke my nose playing golf. (Sort of true. When he was five, he and some friends were whacking stuff with golf clubs in the back yard — unbeknownst to me — and one of the older boys wasn’t looking when he swung, and cracked the First right between his eyes. Very bloody, long day in the ER, purple glue instead of stitches, you can hardly see the scar anymore. Don’t let your little boys play with real golf clubs, buy them the plastic ones. Also no bats, no sticks, no spoons, forks, or knives. Never mind, it’s pretty much impossible to avoid this stuff if you have boys.)

    3. I once went 25 mph on my skateboard. (Um, unknown and unknowable. However, he was skateboarding down the hill in our subbie when a generous neighbor went by in a car and “clocked” the First doing 25. Interpret how you will.)

    4. I’ve been homeschooled all my life. (Yep.)

    5. I don’t have a TV. (Also true, and a continuing source of annoyance to our three boys. Although not as much an annoyance as our lack of a PSP, Wii, and/or XBox. I think the First won the Pity Vote with this one, if he didn’t already have it with the nose-broken-while-playing-golf story.)