School 180

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School gets out early on Wednesdays - leaving time for all sorts of "extra-curricular" activities. Big K shares some her thoughts on the day and even breaks out into song!

We all know that kids in "well-to-do communities" have tons of advantages in school, but I think what happens outside of school is even more telling. My kids and all their friends are busy with so many great, enriching activities that parents worry more about how to keep their kids from being "over programmed" rather than worrying about what they'll be doing after school.

Nationally - the after school picture is very different, with over 15 million parents still looking for strong after school programs for their kids. This one stat alone highlights the massive socio-economic disparity we have in the U.S.

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I'm a HUGE fan of the ol' traditional "oral report." There's nothing like it to practice so many skills at once: brainstorming, organizing, writing, speaking, etc.

Big K's second oral report this year was called, "Me in a Bag"... where she had to bring-in personal items in a bag and discuss them. Of course, she carefully selected each one and had a blast sharing them with her classmates today at school. And she graciously recreated the presentation for the "home-viewing audience" this evening - it was adorable. A simple, powerful reminder of how kids think and the importance they place on their personal objects.

I was particularly touched by the pride she felt over her basketball trophy. She realizes that every player got one (that's what she means when she says she "I didn't win a game"), and yet she's so proud just to have earned it for just being herself ("I just got it"). At the very end, you can't hear it, but she quietly says, "I love it", as she looks at it with 100% honest affection.

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A few classic moments on the morning before homework is being turned-in for the first time this year...

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Just a few random moments from a typical Thursday morning...

Notice the blood red sky as the cars pull up to school, the result of two very large regional fires - one of which is over 180 miles from our house!

Thanks Jeff for being the school's "professional door opener", official morning greeter, and my personal news feed. Without you, it probably would have been days before I found out that the smoke filled air wasn't coming from a huge neighborhood BBQ!

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Excerpt from "Little Rose"
By Blackwood's Mag
From my grandmother's book simply titled, Favorite Poems

She comes with fairy footsteps;
Softly their echoes fall;
And her shadow plays, like summer shade,
Across the garden wall.
The golden light is dancing bright
'Mid the mazes of her hair,
And her fair young locks are waving free
To the wooing of the air.

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