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25
Jan 2010
12
May 2009
Nine and a half minutes. That’s how long it takes for the entire rotation of school closings to flash by the bottom portion of my TV screen. They’re in alphabetical order and I managed to turn the TV on just in time to see “Interlochen” is closed.
Of course, I’m looking to see about Houghton Lake Schools. And so I watch, unable to leave my warm bed, mesmerized by the listing of schools scrolling along the screen. I’m not sure if I’m hoping the schools are closed so I can stay in my bed or if I’m hoping they are open so I can have a productive work day at home.
The names go by and they are schools all around me: Kalkaska, Lake City, McBain Public, McBain NMC…. The names scroll on as I battle with myself. Do I want the schools to be closed or not? With just my head uncovered, I can tell the house is cool. The nighttime temperature combined with the dwindling pile of wood in the stove and the turned down thermostat have all combined to make our house a bit chilly. Especially compared to the warmth of a homemade quilt I’ve been sleeping under for the last 8 hours. A day off work wouldn’t be so bad, I think.
My husband gets out of bed with a groan, putting on his slippers. “They’re going to be open and then send the kids home at noon,” he predicts. He breaks the trance, and looks away from the TV screen. He knows that the name of his work isn’t suddenly going to appear on the screen. He leaves our room to go add wood to the stove, turning up the thermostat for the propane-fired furnace on his way.
I hear the furnace kick on and see the curtains move as the warm air courses through the ductwork. I turn back to the TV. My day was still up in the air. Would I have a work day or a mom day? The school names scroll by, again all schools immediately to our east and north. Wexford Missaukee ISD…. Cadillac Public, Cadillac Heritage,… Crawford AuSable….
The memories flood in. I remember the days, and it really doesn’t seem nearly 15 years ago, when that school’s name held magical appeal. I definitely didn’t have mixed feelings about whether or not I wanted to see Crawford AuSable listed on the school closing back then. Crawford AuSable meant I had a day free to sleep in past noon. But this is nearly 15 years later and I’m still waiting for the school’s listing that matters today. I watch and notice that Gerrish Higgins isn’t listed. That’s not a good sign. Or maybe it is. I still haven’t decided.
There’s Hart, but no Houghton Lake, as I see Interlochen once again. Nine and a half minutes: a special kind of snooze button in northern Michigan. More than 100 area schools are closed, but my kids need to get up and at it.
My work day is salvaged, but that means I have to get out of bed. Now. Out from under the warm blankets and into the cool morning air. The temperature outside is below zero, I hear on the weather report. The wind chill dips even lower. I start the coffee pot and the space heater next to my computer. It says my office is a rather cool 56 degrees.
My daughters perch over heat registers as they dress. They decide to eat cereal instead of the warm oatmeal I try to coax into them. I rush them as minor squabbles break out over the valuable real estate in front of the mirror. I help them put on snow pants, coats, hats and gloves and kiss them goodbye. I watch through the door’s window as they make tracks in the pure snow on their way to the waiting warm bus. We were running late this morning. Or the bus is early. I glance at the clock.
We’re late, probably by nine and a half minutes I admit to myself as I pour my first cup of coffee. My day has started.
Copyright © 2003 Linda Sherwood
06
May 2009
Justin was in the fourth-grade spelling bee today. It took place at the high school auditorium. There had already been preliminary rounds and only six representatives from each of the four fourth-grade classes made it to the competition today.
Justin (center) after winning as everyone collected their balloons and offered congratulations to Justin.
When it started, I wasn’t nervous, but I knew Justin was nervous. He wasn’t the only one. The very first kid who stepped up to the podium was asked to spell “ache,” and rushed his answer, added a k, and had to sit down.
At that point, I started getting nervous. I knew that Justin was a good at spelling, and I knew that he could spell almost every word on the second page including words like characterize and efficiency.
But every time a kid sat down because they heard the word wrong and as a result spelled the wrong word, my anxiety grew.
One boy, not Justin, was given the word “rare.” In the audience, I immediately wondered if it was “rear” or “rare.” I held my breath when the boy just started spelling without asking for the word to be used in a sentence. He was right, but I felt like I was going to start sweating soon, and it wasn’t even my kid!
I knew Justin would be very disappointed if he screwed up. Plus, the kids were good at spelling. I was impressed. Soon it was down to two boys and about six girls.
The competition began with four-letter words. It continued with five-letter words and then six-letter words. The list of possible words went all the way up to 12-letter words.
By the seventh round, there were just enough students to fill the front row — about 8 kids. There were at least two rounds without any eliminations and then a girl was out and then the other boy.
After 11 rounds, it was down to Justin and one other girl, Alexis. Both were awesome spellers. It looked like the spelling bee was going to last forever because the two of them weren’t making any mistakes.
It went 16 or 17 rounds with just the two of them. I was getting more and more nervous.
Justin wasn’t helping. More than once during his turn, he would ask the person to repeat the word. One time the word was “chatter,” and Justin asked it to be repeated. He still didn’t know for sure, so he asked if it meant when people talk a lot. The meaning of the word isn’t something that is provided, so the person saying the words used it in a sentence.
I think Justin was just showing off. He spelled the word “chatter” without any problems.
Alexis was up, and the word was “promote.” I wasn’t close to the stage. She didn’t clarify the word, and she started spelling it.
One of the spelling rules is that once you start spelling the word, you can restart, but you can’t change any letters.
Alexis (according to Justin) spelled “remote.”
It was just what I was dreading! They were both doing so well, and when it came down to it, it was a misheard word.
When it was just the two of them, they were in an elimination round. In order to win, Justin had to correctly spell the word “promote” AND spell the next word to take the win.
He spelled promote. The principal later complimented me on how well Justin pronounced his letters when he spelled them. He always made sure to pronounce them very clearly and loudly into the microphone. His teacher, Mrs. Harrison, really gave her students a lot of great tips for the competition (including to make sure you were spelling the word you needed to spell).
And then the heat was on — Justin needed to spell the next word right to take the win. If he was wrong, both kids would still be in it and the spelling bee would continue.
Justin, the Spelling Bee Champion!
The word was “peasant.” Very clearly and slowly, Justin said, “peasant – p-e-a-s-a-n-t- peasant.” The kids started whooping and yelling and so did I along with Justin’s grandma and great-grandma.
Justin had the biggest smile on his face.
His name will go on a plaque that hangs in the middle-school. He will also get his picture in the paper, and he received a my
lar balloon that said, “Congratulations! You did it.” (Which, by the way, he already lost when it came off his wrist and blew away.)
In celebration, I bought him a banana split.
06
May 2009
I write about my kids, and even though they are now old enough to read what I write (and object mightily), I continue to write about my kids.
There are some things I don’t write, and if they ask, I sometimes agree not to write about certain things. But most of the time, I write what I want to write, and they have to live with it.
It used to be that when I wrote about my children, it would be published in multiple places including 10,000 plus copies of the local newspaper that went to every household in the county. This resulted in things like complete strangers approaching my youngest daughter at the local ball field demanding to check out her newly shorn eyebrows. Or the oldest daughter sitting in class and having a teacher commenting on something he had read about her in the paper that she didn’t even know had been printed in the paper.
And one time, shortly after Mother’s Day, my husband used his lunch to go directly to the closest store and purchase a newspaper to read my latest column in order to figure out what he had done that had resulted in every woman he worked with giving him a lecture that morning. (He had told me he wouldn’t be buying me a mother’s day gift because, “You’re not my mother.”)
I write my side of the story. It is totally from my perspective, and I am more than willing to share my flaws, but in sharing my frustrations, I also share others’ flaws. And because the oldest tends to vex me the most, she is often the one I write about. And as I write about her, I write about others in her life — people who are not used to some one writing about them in a public forum as witnessed by the comments in an earlier post by the oldest child’s first boyfriend and her current boyfriend.
Last week, however, I learned there is a new accomplished writer in the family. I was sitting at a softball practice (the exact same practice I was at when I first spotted the hickey), and I was talking to a fellow mom who also works in my son’s classroom. She mentioned how much she liked reading my son’s writing journal. She said we have a lot of interesting things that happen at our house. His journal that day had been about the time his dad threatened to pour pancake syrup on his sister’s head, and the top to the syrup was loose, so it fell off, and his sister ended up with a head full of syrup.
I confirmed that it did happen, and I went on to explain that I was used to my kids sharing things even more embarrassing. And then, for some very weird reason, I related one of my most embarrassing moments — a comment my three-year-old child has said to her grandma that her grandma waited to share with me. Grandma asked me about the comment during a big holiday dinner with about 20 plus people present. (The almost 3-year-old had a new baby sister who breastfed and was a bit fascinated with the whole process. This usually meant she tried to breastfeed her dolls. While staying the night with Grandma, she asked Grandma if Grandpa breastfed and then went on to explain that Daddy breastfed. It was this story that Grandma shared at the family dinner. I know I turned several shades of red at the time, but I am now immune to the story because it has been repeated many many times.)
So, yes, I blog about my children even when my children don’t want me to, but apparently, it is a family trait.
Thanks for playing.
29
Apr 2009
Yesterday (Monday) was parent-teacher conferences for the two oldest children. This involves me showing up at the high school gym. All of the high school teachers gather in the gym. The teachers are lined up in alphabetical order around the three walls of the gym. The parents stand in the center of the gym floor and wait in line to talk to the teachers.
I brought the two children with me, and as I waited in line for one teacher, I had one of the children wait in a very long line for another teacher. This is a strategy employed by most of the parents there. It is necessary, especially when you have more than one child. The last time I went to this, I was alone, and it took me over three hours to see all 10 teachers that teach my two children.
I learned that I would soon be jumping through hoops to keep the oldest child from flunking her third trimester. This year, the high school changed its attendance policy when it switched from semesters to trimesters. The policy allows only 6 absences. For every absence over six, the student”s grade drops by 10 percent. Autumn (my oldest child) missed 10 days when she went to Florida to help care for her great-grandma.
Weeks prior to Autumn leaving, I read the attendance policy. It discussed what needed to be done for long-term absences (not vacations). We followed the policy. It involved filling out a long-term absence form and having it completed at least one-week before the absence. Autumn went to the school office and obtained the form. I read through the form, and we completed it correctly. Two weeks before she was to leave, Autumn started circulating the form.
When she left, she had most of her homework already. The rest was sent home with her younger sister, and Autumn completed it during spring break.
Last night (Monday) I learned Autumn”s grades were the following: 101.1 percent in Spanish, 93 percent in Language Arts, 79.8 percent in World History (which will round up to 80 percent), and the other class was in the B+ range if I remember right. According to her teachers, however, the absences penalty will lower her grades 40 percent. So that 101.1 percent grade in Spanish? It will become 60 percent. She”ll go from an A to a D.
One teacher told me that I need to make sure to appeal Autumn”s grades after the report cards are issued. She kept emphasizing that Autumn deserves higher grades than that for her work. Really? You don”t say?
The teacher suggested I wait until after report cards are issued to appeal the grades, and she warned the appeals process might go well into the summer. Excuse me?
I indicated I would make sure BEFORE the report cards are issued. I followed the procedures outlined in the handbook. The long-term absence form was a step to prevent the penalty. Why would it be happening?
So, I talked to the vice-principal who is in charge of the absence thing. When I mentioned the form, she asked, “What form? Where did you get THAT?”
Apparently the form the office gave us is the “old” form — that is, it was developed for the old policy and not the new one. I”m not even sure there is a new form. The vice-principal wanted us to give her a copy of the form, and she would need to look at what the teachers wrote before she would know anything.
We don”t have a copy of the form — we turned it into the office. I called Tuesday and requested the form be given to the vice-principal and also a copy sent home to me.
In the meantime, Autumn completed another assignment in biology, and her grade for that class is now an A- (without the absent policy).
From what I understand, the problem I am having is the result of a problem that arose involving another student. There was a student who missed a lot of school due to having mono. The student didn”t follow the policy and get the proper forms filled out. Of the student”s five teachers, only one teacher followed the policy (which meant the student flunked the class).
This apparently led to a meeting, and the teachers and the administration in the building are trying to figure out exactly what their policy is and how it works. This is why, I believe, that something that was OK before and during Autumn”s absence is now being questioned.
I am not waiting until report cards are issues. I want to have this settled before report cards are issued.
<em>Editor”s Note: I started writing this post Tuesday, and I finished writing it Wednesday morning. This is why “yesterday” is really Monday and not Tuesday. 
Thanks for playing.
