I visited with my parents over the weekend and somehow we got on the subject of public schools and the challenges many school districts across the country are facing when it comes to budget cuts, teacher layoffs, and eliminating programs and classes, ranging from theater and music to physical education ( Read more... )

Thursday is the last day of school for our two little monkeys. Its a half day, designed mostly for games and saying goodbye to their friends, though I suspect they will see plenty of them over the summer. For me it means the end of the newfound peace and quite I got from having two kids in school from 8 until 2:30 (Gavin went full days, 3 days per ( Read more... )

We had parent-teacher conferences for both the kids today. This was the first one ever for G (our 5 year-old kindergartner) and the first one we've had for B (our soon to be 9 year-old 3rd grader) since we moved and switched elementary schools. I don't get nervous about these conferences, I guess because I'm confident in our kids and how smart and ( Read more... )

Today it finally happened: Both of our children now officially attend the same elementary school. G had his first full day of kindergarten and will be attending 3 full days a week (Monday, Wednesday, Thursday) instead of the 5 half days program. We dropped him off at his classroom this morning and were joined by several other parents who, like us, ( Read more... )

Today was back-to-school day for B. Every new "First Day" is a big deal, of course, but this one stands out because he is at a new school with new friends he has never gone to school with before. Prior to yesterday, when we went to the school's open house, he had no idea where the classrooms were, where the library is, or the cafeteria. He got to ( Read more... )