School Family

Sometimes the simple, direct stories are best. Think that’s the case with this very straightforward look at how parents should proceed when their kids’ grades disappoint. No magic potions or cures.  But good solid, step-by-step advice.

Am glad to see some sanity injected (from a college admissions officer, no less) into the discussion of how much we need to schedule our kids.  The popular myth seems to be that if Johnny isn’t in every club and activity (or traveling team), then Johnny isn’t going to get into college.

But this expert advises moderation in kids’ schedules.  Phew!   Sounds like the prescription is: active, healthy kids = great.  Over-scheduled, stressed-out kids = not the best idea.  The good news is that this particular prescription can wind up easing a lot of parent pain, as well.  

Kind of ironic that I’m writing about this, considering the fact that I desperately need “Time Management for Tim”, but this morning routine/time management for kids blog from the San Francisco Chronicle really sucked me in.

We’ve gone from 2 kids to 3 kids in school this year, and I still haven’t accurately factored in extra time for one more sandwich and one more snack and two more shoes to be tied and 6 more missing notebooks and 14 more forms that I need to sign each morning.  For our night-owl family, the goal seems to be to wake up as late as possible while still getting the key morning steps accomplished without being too insane and still making the bus 9 times out of 10.  That too much to ask?

We’re getting there, but it’s a work in progress.   How about you?  And what are your best tricks of the trade?

While there are lots of joys and smiles that go along with back-to-school season, heading back to lice ground zero (the school closet) isn’t one of them.  To make matters worse, now we’re talking about Super Lice. Are they serious?  I think the little buggers were super enough already. I haven’t put my many wishes for this school year in priority order, but — if I did — no lice would be fairly high up there.  Just sayin’.

This story half-intrigued me and half cracked me up. We’ve all heard about kids staying after school to get extra help, right?  Well, here’s a twist — this Ohio district is giving parents the extra help, so that parents won’t be so flummoxed by the kids homework!

I must admit, I can see the need. My oldest is just in 4th grade, and I had to do some serious thinking last night about compound subjects and predicates while helping with homework.  I’m already a bit worried about those word problems with the trains heading in opposite directions.

Do you need this kind of help?  Are your teachers providing it?  Is it a trend?

It’s a fair question (and one of my pet peeves) asked by this Detroit Free Press blogger: why do the first two weeks of school have to be fundraising ground zero? 

I know the two biggest reasons: 1) Schools need the money more than ever; and 2) there’s almost a race to beat the other fundraisers that will be dipping into parents’ pockets, but I still think a bit of patience is warranted. Wow me. Get me (and the kids) to love school. Impress us with your commitment to education and our families and kids.  Make me love you.  And then ask me for my $10!  Not vice versa.

If you’re a features writer for a local paper, here’s my response to the column you’re about to write trashing all fundraisers. (It happens every year.) I wrote it for our ptotoday.com site (for PTO and PTA leaders), but it works over here, too.

What’s your take on the influx of fundraising?

Before school started, how many of us had resolutions to make school lunches work better for our kids this year?  We certainly had/have great intentions this year, but — wouldn’t you know it?  — school’s only a week old, and already reality has snuck in.  Five days. Three kids.  Fifteen peanut-butter-and-jellies. (Full disclosure — I think there may even have been a peanut-butter-fluff thrown in there. Ouch.)

For those still fighting the good fight, this article from the San Francisco Chronicle is one of the best we’ve seen this year. Solid content. Variety.  And multiple good recipes and options for healthy school lunches.

Several of the commenters on that article cite the same concern I have — how do you balance no time and morning/night craziness with these kind of healthy options?  Fact is that the biggetst reason for our P,B & J binge is the convenience of it. Bus is coming, trying to get the kids dressed and fed in the morning — just no time for mixing up a salad and mixed berries and a wrap sandwich.  Never mind the time to shop for all those ingredients well ahead of time.

So my big question: how do you balance the time crunch with healthy lunches?  I, for one, still need to know.

How cool is this?  Was randomly surfing the web, when we ran across this back-to-school story from Connecticut. Was about to move on when I ran across this quote:

“As I surfed the Internet to find some of the most practical advice, I found a wealth of information and some excellent Web sites with advice on almost every area of concern, with tips covering the years from beginning pre-school to college. 
Some advice came from education experts, administrators and teachers, and some articles were written by parents who have been there. Some Web sites even feature question and answer and blog sections, where parents can communicate and ask for specific advice.
I found SchoolFamily.com to be most comprehensive and helpful.”

Nice. We agree.  If she loves it now –wait ’til she sees what we have in store for later this year and beyond. Be sure to bookmark this site (and maybe share with a friend or your whole school community?), because we have tons more resources coming up.  Idea is to make SchoolFamily.com the most comprehensive solutions/info/tools site for school moms and dads on the entire Web.  And according to Ms. Manciero — we’re getting there pretty quick!

Short and sweet — and right on the money!  CNN’s Roland Martin makes an impassioned plea here for parent involvement.  Love it.  As he says:

Show up on the first day and do not make it your last. There is no greater gift you can provide your children.

Couldn’t have said it better myself. Great message for back-to-school.

Here’s an interesting twist — do you have a business card for your mom career?  I can see both sides to this one.  On the one hand - especially as the new school year approaches — there’s a convenience to simply handing over the contact info all those times you’re signing up for the PTO or PTA event or the band parents or the birthday party list or you name it.  On th other, has it really come to this? Have we so businessed-out the family life around town that we all need DayTimers and business cards for the carpool line?  Not sure… interested in your thoughts.