Last Day Of School

The good and bad of the last day of the school year. The good is that the kids need a well deserved break from school. The bad is that parents have to wait until September to get theirs.
School vacation is an opportunity for the kids to have some time to get away from sports except for summer basketball, basketball camp, football starting the beginning of August and ice hockey and soccer starting the end of August.
Okay, maybe they don't get a complete break, but the exercise will be good. It's also a nice diversion from boredom that will eventually come from all the time off and the lack of structure in their day.
It's also a good time to reinforce good eating habits. For example, "You need to have one healthy snack if your previous snack was goldfish or something like that." It seems reasonable. After all, there will be plenty of popsicles, fudgesicles and visits from the ice cream man. A banana, apple, melon, or pineapple isn't going to hurt. Parents get a break from making lunches, packing snacks, filling water bottles, checking homework and making sure that the kids are dressed appropriately for the weather. Maybe it is a bit of a break for us parents. I will keep thinking that too !

Are You Smarter Than A 4th Grader

The answer is clearly no. I found out a long time ago that even though you are the parent and you have the higher education, the kids have more parent street smarts than you do. I guess they have more time to spend analyzing and dissecting you than you do them. After all, they are just kids, what is hard figuring that out? When they are born, you feed them, change their diapers, hold them and tell them how much you love them. As they become more independent of these basic parenting acts, they spend their time manipulating your mind. It started with fashion and then "you didn't say I couldn't" or "that's not what you said".
I guess I always figured that I had it good until they would become teenagers, but after getting outsmarted on a regular basis in Kindergarten I came to realize that I was already behind and no amount of parenting books could help. I guess I will struggle along and at least act like I know what is going on and hope that I survive it?

Proud Dad

It's great to be proud of the kids for whatever they do whether it be good grades in school or their performance in sports. The hard part comes when you need to dish out equal amounts of praise and you want to be careful not to fill their heads with more than they can handle or you set them up to fail. It's important to be supportive and that helps them grow. For example, if they are struggling in school and they can use extra help than you help them through the difficulty to put them back on track. The idea is not to do their homework for them or to encourage them not to work on an area that may come easy for them. With sports it's the same idea. I was careful this week to encourage the kids when they performed well. His two goals in hockey and her back to back strikeouts in softball. I don't think they keep score, but I want them to feel that I watch and take an interest and that I don't violate any of the many documents that you sign as a parent about what you are allowed to do or say ! I guess that's where the balancing act comes in. Well, either way I am proud they belong to me.