Another Valentine's Day has come to an end. The paper bags, homemade boxes and piles of red and pink paper are littering your house and your kids are happy, tired, slightly grumpy and definitely having some sugar highs and lows.
How was it for you? And for your kids?
Does the phrase "boomerang lunch" mean anything to you?
If it does, I know that you can feel my pain. Our school has always had a no garbage policy, but now they have formalized it by calling it a "boomerang lunch" with posters and catchphrases. This means that everything that gets sent to school in the lunch bag comes home - including the garbage. There are no garbage bins available in the makeshift lunchroom -- not even for compost.
My daughter has the most hilarious school photo this year. She is wearing a black tank dress and a purple clip-on braid. She looks like a rocker and she is only five. I can't wait to use the photo in some future slideshow when she is older.
(And no I won't post it, sorry.)
Yesterday, my son threw the French reader on the couch and said "I hate reading!"
Oh kid, I hear you. Those readers are so, so boring. They could make a librarian hate books. But that is reading in primary school which is dominated by acquiring skills not by enjoyment (this is worse in French Immersion but that is another topic).
I hope that once he gets up to speed in both languages that he will learn to love to read, just as his brother did. But then this study came out that says only half of students like to read for pleasure, which is approximately a 25 percent decline from 10 years ago.
Two Catholic schools have been struggling with what the female students have been sporting on their bottom half and it has hit the news cycle.
The Durham Catholic District School Board ruminated about banning the classic schoolgirl kilt after complaints of the girls rolling them up to show some leg. The Board debated it for a "few hours" before deciding to keep the skirt.
I tune in to Saturday Night Live each week while my husband snores beside me just to catch Seth Myers on Weekend Update. (I know, we are a wild and crazy bunch!)
But this Saturday, through my sleepy haze, I heard Seth mention Toronto. He was taking a Toronto school to task for banning "hard balls" in the playground. He was wondering if the principal was going to put a hinge in the teeter-totter next. (Silly Seth, there hasn't been a see-saw in a school playground in years.)
Recently, I had the pleasure of spending time in a primary school that is a real community. It is in an impoverished area and the Principal has taken steps to bring the community into the building by setting up a parent resource centre and drop-in and encouraging integration with the community.
At that school, parents are welcomed and there is an understanding that if they feel comfortable in the school, than their children will as well.
This is in sharp contrast to my kids' school which is in a middle-class neighbourhood and has many stay-at-home parents and caregivers milling around the schoolyard.
France has made a unilateral move to ban ketchup in school cafeterias except when served with - wait for it - French fries.
Bruno Le Maire, the agriculture and food minister said the move was a way to instill a love of traditional French recipes into France's new generation: "France must be an example to the world in the quality of its food, starting with its children."
Mitchell Wilson was 11 when he took his own life. He had Muscular Dystrophy, was bullied,mugged and beaten in the months leading up to his death. His tormentor was caught but instead of pursuing criminal charges, Mitchell's father is asking for the tween to do community service with disabled kids.
He said he wants to “save the child, because he is just a child too.”
My kids have friends who have same-sex parents. When they have questions as to why Julian has two moms, we answer them. We treat it as normal, and so do they. We don't always handle the questions correctly but we try.
And when it comes to teaching sex education and tolerance in the classroom, the schools don't always do a good job either but at least they are trying. Because sometimes the school has to be a place that shows leadership and breaks down stereotypes.
Emma WavermanEmma Waverman writes five days a week about the chaos of modern family life here at MSN.ca. She is the co-author of the family cookbook Whining and Dining: Mealtime Survival for Picky Eaters and Families Who Love Them and is hoping to one day to finish her certification as a parenting coach. She lives with her three kids, ranging from tween to grade schooler, and husband in Toronto. Emma has written for a variety of national parenting and lifestyle magazines and papers. When she’s is not making typos, telling you what she thinks, and thinking about dinner - you can find her on Twitter at @emmawaverman. You can contact Emma at embracingchaos@hotmail.ca
Spoon feeding isn't making childeren obese!!! It is the garbage they are eating and the lack of exercise!
onMy daughter is 10 months and she is about 50/50 between spoon feeding and self feeding. She starts her meal with the goopy stuff that requires a spoon, and ends it with eating the finger foods. I can understand how spoon feeding could lead to obesity if its forced, but you've also got to teach your children to communicate/ learn how to read them. When I'm spoon feeding my daughter, when shes full, she tends to close her eyes and put her hand up. Try once or twice more, same reaction, shes done. Its not so much the method the food goes in the mouth, but the idea of "cleaning your plate" that creates the problem. If a person has a child self feeding, they can still make them eat beyond satisfaction. Not the method but the attitude!
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