Being green

Most people who have or have had a child in kindergarten are probably familiar with the color system for communicating behavior. Each day, the kids are given a color based on how their day went - Green for a good day, Yellow for a bit of trouble, Orange for more trouble, and if you get Red, you probably visited the principal. Each day, the color is marked on a calendar, and a parent must sign to show they've seen it.

When school first started, it was fun (is that the word?) to hear the stories of other people's children coming home with a rainbow-colored calendar. Boys (and maybe girls) all around were getting yellows and oranges (not sure I've heard about reds, but maybe that isn't something anyone would talk about.)

My child, of course, got greens. Every day.

These other children have learned from their mistakes and are much more inclined to get green these days. Now I see them after school proudly announcing to their mothers, "I got green today." Then Ben makes the same announcement to me, and I'm thinking, "of course you did! What other color would you get??"

I realized the other day that I should probably be a bit more enthusiastic about Ben's green-ness. I know that I am lucky to have a child who can keep it together while at school (at home, sometimes notsomuch) and he deserves to be praised and encouraged.

So today we celebrated four weeks (almost) of greens with dinner of his choice. His choice? McDonalds. I need to start thinking of a "better" prize for next time!

Football for kindergarteners

Football has started and is off to a good start. One game down, seven to go. Hopefully we'll win at least one!

The thing is, if you start your boy in football when he starts kindergarten, you are already late to the game. Some boys already have two seasons under their belts. When it comes to throwing, catching, flag pulling and knowing which way to run, that can make a huge difference.

Coach Brad started up with all kinds of great plans all diagrammed out in PowerPoint. He made it look so easy - even I could understand! But one of his greatest challenges has been getting the boys to line up on their own. In the same.spot.every.single.time. It is not as easy as one might think.

But no matter their ability, its a fun thing to do on a Saturday morning. Our team has cheerleaders (only 6 of the 12 kindergarten teams have them) and they add a lot to the atmosphere, plus they bring their families so a lot more people are at the game.

And even if they never win, Coach Brad is determined that they learn about football and learn to love football. He's giving everyone a chance and teaching them to play fair. I'm not quite sure all the football coaches in this town could say the same.

Back to school 2010

Today was the first day of school. Both kids were more than ready to go and couldn't wait to get there and get started. They saw the school and their teachers for the first time last Thursday. The school looks great and is just about ready to go.

Both of them already have two friends in their class. There are so many kindergarten-age boys in our neighborhood, so Ben is lucky that two are in his class. Susanna has two friends from her soccer team - all three of them were at different schools last year, so that was a happy coincidence.

Ben is so happy to be going to the same school as Susanna. I am sure there will be lots to talk about when they get home everyday. Susanna will really feel like the big kid with a brother in kindergarten.

I think we are off to a great start!

Ready for some football

After a successful season coaching baseball, Brad has decided to switch gears and become a football coach. Originally he had planned to wait another year or two to start Ben in football. But when it came time to decide what to play in the fall (for football you need to decide by the end of May) he decided to go for it.

So Ben will play flag football (tackle starts in 2nd grade.) His team will be the Gators. We have 12 boys on the team - some from baseball, some from preschool, some neighbors, and a few extras. There will even be cheerleaders.

And I get to be the Team Mom. While I took on this role unofficially with baseball, with football it is an actual position, and every team must have one. It seems to be mostly to handle administrative details. I get the impression they don't trust the football coaches to worry about the details, like picture day, etc. We are also expected to fund raise for the league - I am not really thrilled about that, but we'll see what happens.

This is Texas, and Texas is football.

The half-way point

Today we have reached the half-way mark of our summer vacation. Five-and-a-half weeks down, five-and-a-half to go.

Its gone much faster than expected. So far we've had one week away (California) and two weeks of summer camp. We've also had soccer - Susanna is playing on an indoor team for summer), yoga (also for Susanna), practice for fall sports, the pool, and playing outside most nights until late. Occasionally I can get my kids to sit down and do math worksheets (they prefer math books to others at the moment) and they've been to the library twice so far (should be more, I know.)

I'm sure the next half of summer vacation will go faster than the first. Lots to do before school starts. Both kids are enjoying the break but are looking forward to starting school again, especially Susanna. I, on the other hand, would like to put off the 6:30 wake up calls as long as possible!

The tooth fairy returns

Tonight we had corn for dinner. It didn't occur to me until I was cooking it that this might be a challenge for Ben.

One bite was all it took!

San Diego Zoo

We spent a day at the San Diego Zoo. The zoo was as wonderful as we've always heard. We didn't quite see the whole place, but we covered quite a bit during our day there.