Professor Mom

Aliki
Chronicles the life of a mom, teacher, and writer trying to stay sane amid the chaos of daily life.

archives

June 30, 2008
Getting back is hard to do
It was hard to believe, when my alarm went off at 6:15 this morning, that only yesterday morning we were undertaking that overburdened-by-beach-bags, heat-drenched, glorious clamber up the dune path--legs pushed against the slipping sand, bag handles dug into flesh. And then, just when we couldn't bear it a minute longer, the sand fell away and there was the sea in front of us, now gray, then green, then a tease of blue. It took me all of only a few seconds yesterday to realize for the thousandth time that a beach weekend was what we had needed all along this summer--what my son had...
Activities for Children. Family Activities, Children, Family Travel, Holidays, Summer
June 27, 2008
Have stuff, will travel
On Saturday we're escaping to the beach for a quick, overnight stay at our favorite tiny, unpretentious (read: bare bones) motel. This motel could be The Ritz, as far as the kids are concerned, even if Scott and I have been around enough to know the difference. For my kids, there is something magical about spending the night away from home, all crammed into one room, in a place where the soaps come in little wrappers, and if you wake up in the middle of the night with a panic attack--hey!--there's your mom and dad an arm's reach away! Scott and I will watch TV at night with the closed-...
Beach, Children, Family Activities, Family Travel, Holidays, Parenting, Summer
June 26, 2008
Winners
There was a big swim meet at our pool the other night. Not  long ago, I was talking with the mother of one little boy, who was going to participate in the six and under group. He's four. "We really think he can win!" The mom told me, excitement in her eyes. "I AM going to WIN!" The little boy confirmed, complete with little fist pumping the air, clearly thrilled by this idea. I wondered if he really knew what this meant--to win--or if he was only echoing his mother's words, mirroring her excitement. I tried to put myself in the mother's shoes. Would I want my four-year-old to win? Would...
Activities for children, Children, Growing Up Is Hard to Do, Parenting, Social and Emotional Issues
June 25, 2008
Don't be an island
Hold onto your seats, everyone--this will be another woeful post about being tired and sleep-deprived, at least in part. Last night, between 1:00 and 3:30 a.m., both kids managed--in their own special ways--to send me back into the days of interrupted sleep; those painful nights where all you are allowed to do is doze, fitfully, between bouts of waking up and tending to needs. And if I ever entertained any nostalgic, fleeting ideas of a third baby, that visit back into time last night was enough to quash them all. Back when we were new parents to both kids, we discovered quickly...
Children, Parenting, Parenting Advice, Sepcial Resources, Sleep, Special Needs
June 24, 2008
Doing things differently
I did an interesting exercise with my students yesterday. We had just finished reading a short essay by Amy Tan--a memoir piece recounting a childhood experience about feeling different, out of place. As the daughter of immigrant parents from China, Tan writes often of her childhood experiences growing up and feeling different from her peers. I asked my students to think a little about a time in which they too felt different, and to write about it. One student claimed she couldn't think of a single time in her childhood or adolescence when she had felt different from her peers. I tried to...
Family, Growing Up Is Hard to Do, Parenting, School Daze, Students, Teaching
June 23, 2008
No easy way out
We have cycled into a rut of poor sleep around here lately. Not too long ago, it seems, we were enjoying some lazy mornings and relatively seamless nights, but now we're back to middle-of-the night sleep issues rearing their ugly heads all over again. The other night I was awakened by bloodcurdling screams coming from L.'s room, and then heard the rushing of his feet. He burst into our bedroom, with the dog right behind him (wondering, I'm sure, what middle-of-the-night games were afoot). "Go BACK TO BED," I growled at the dog and, good dog that she is (not even the dog really wants to...
Early Learning, Lessons from Little Ones, Lessons to Live By, Parenting Advice, Parenting Books, Sleep
June 20, 2008
Arms and the boy
Ever since my son discovered Avi a few weeks ago, and Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys, and The Famous Five, it's been all spies and good guys vs. bad guys, and intricate scenes of smuggling and treasure-snatching being enacted all across his bedroom floor. He'll wake early, sometimes at 5:00 a.m., and sprawl across his floor, lining up complex patterns and formations of Playmobil figures, little guys like these whom he'll strip of their knightly adornments and outfit in new hats and/or beards, until they are suddenly transformed into what he calls "Modern Men." I bought L.his first...
Activities for children, Games and Toys, L., Lessons from Little Ones, Parenting, The Games Kids Play
June 19, 2008
Summer legacies
We are two and a half weeks into summer with the kids, and L. has about five and a half weeks left before school starts up again at the end of July. Our Professor Mom Family Summer Camp is in full swing, now. This past weekend we took our first "field trip" to D.C., and the kids were able to see museums, the U.S. Capitol building (note: if you stop in front of the Capitol in your minivan because your father-in-law wants to point out a certain flagpole above the building, it will take approximately 10 seconds before an entourage of U.S. Capitol police pull up behind you, lights flashing, ready...
Activities for children, Children, Family Activities, Holidays, Parenting, Summer
June 18, 2008
Surviving the IEP
A friend of mine, who lives in another state, emailed me recently to ask me some questions about the IEP process. With schools letting out for the summer, many parents are bracing themselves for the big yearly IEP meetings to set up school accommodations and modifications for next year. It's a stressful time, regardless of whether your IEP is lengthy and involved, or short and fairly simple. As a parent, it's daunting and frightening to imagine that you have two or three hours in which to pave the way for your child's success for the upcoming school year. You feel the weight of responsibility...
Children, Parenting, Parenting Advice, School Daze, Special Needs
June 17, 2008
Just like that
Father's Day last year found me driving to a grocery store to buy a phone card, which I then used--unsuccessfully, actually--to reach my dad, who was in Greece. I felt sad and down about it all day long. My grandmother had passed away only a few days before Father's Day, and it was hard to be disconnected from my family at that time. My father has always been that rock of safety for me, the fixer of all things, and surrounded by that empty feeling of loss over my grandmother's death, I just wanted to hear his voice, plain and simple. I think dads naturally become the fixers of all things,...
Children, Dads, Family Travel, Holidays, Parenting, Social and Emotional Issues
June 13, 2008
Who was that masked man, anyway?
I've written before about how we love the children's books in the CD section of our public library. There are shelves and shelves of CDs from books to listen to. We've graduated (thankfully) from Junie B. Jones and even Ramona, and moved on to real chapter books--ones that run hours in length and can easily occupy L. (and even T.) in the car for days. Listening to books on CD jump-started L.'s interest in reading this year. He's a rising third-grader now, so he's been reading for quite a while--and very well--but he doesn't process what he reads in typical ways and he has trouble keeping...
Activities for children, Books, Children, Family Travel, L., Parenting Advice, Reading and Language Arts, Special Needs
June 12, 2008
Lost in translation
Instead of typing up my students' final exam yesterday afternoon, I spent the time googling "speech therapy for kids" and "how to tell if your child needs speech therapy" and then reading lots of Internet articles and advice columns, until I knew more about the topic than I ever thought I would. I'm not an alarmist by nature; worry tends to creep towards me, like a slow-moving wave in the distance. I might keep a watchful eye on it, but I don't worry too much about its approach until it's right on top of me. But we've been burned by this approach before with L., waiting too long to address...
Children, Parenting Advice, Preschoolers, Social and Emotional Issues, Special Needs, T.
June 11, 2008
Too much
We've been having record heat for the past four days--triple-digit heat, in fact. When I open the back door in the mornings to put out the dogs (yes, dogs in the plural--we're dog-sitting my in-laws' early-rising beagle--I'm convinced he's part beagle, part rooster, actually), the heat hits my face like a blast from an exhaust pipe. The grass is brittle, the air is almost tangible, it hangs so heavily over everything. And even though we have air-conditioning, I still think the heat has seeped into our house somehow, sliding under the doors like smoke, putting nerves on edge, and turning the...
Character Sketches, Family Activities, L. and T., Life in General, Parenting, Portraits, Summer
June 10, 2008
Bag of tricks
Each time I click over to Amazon to ogle this book that's just come out with my essay in it (shameless self-promotion), I get a helpful handful of "suggested reading" titles along with it, and lately they've all been about traveling with kids--like this one: How to Fit A Car Seat on a Camel and Other Misadventures Traveling with Kids. I'm not sure what Amazon thinks the connection is, since the there has been no relationship whatsoever between that book getting published and an increase in our ability to travel to exotic places as a family. Coincidentally, last night my brother called me for...
Activities for children, and Automobiles, Children, Family Travel, Holidays, Parenting Advice, Planes, Trains
June 9, 2008
City mouse...suburban mouse
A new popular drugstore chain opened up a location only five minutes from our house. A few weeks ago they sent us several coupons to lure us over there, including an offer to give us a $25 gift card if we only switch our prescriptions from our regular pharmacy to theirs. I thought about it, weighing convenience and the temptation of that gift card. Our current pharmacy is in our old neighborhood, convenient to that house, but almost 15 minutes door-to-door now from where we live. But we've been using that old pharmacy for years now. I fill T.'s prescription for her migraine medicine there,...
Family, Greece, Growing-up Is Hard to Do, Parenting, Shopping, Traditions
June 6, 2008
Friday blues
Next week is the last week of this summer school class, and then the second round starts. I am half-hoping enrollment will be too low for the second section to run and that the course will be canceled. I'm tired and there just aren't enough hours in the day to get work done. And--can it be possible already? I'm feeling a tad burned out. This morning I was slicing bread for the kids while my coffee brewed, gurgling away, and I looked up and saw the dried bunch of Greek oregano my parents bring back for us every summer. I had it out last night, to add some flavor to a pasta dish I made (FYI--...
Family Travel, Greece, Holidays, L., Recipes, Summer, Thoughts from the other side
June 5, 2008
If not sewing camp, what about SLEEP camp?
Last night L. couldn't get to sleep until after 11:00, and then woke up twice with bad dreams. And T., who I hope so fervently is not gearing up for another migraine, woke up several times, thirsty and fussing in the middle of the night wailing that way small children have--the wails that cut through your dreams and shake you awake, to be worried and then grouchy, and then sleepless. I, of course, had to drag myself out of bed at 6:00 (still hoping to accomplish some work in the early morning hours--and look!--I am, I'm writing this post!) and T. proceeded to sleep until 10:00. At the pool...
Babies, Early Learning, L. and T., Parenting, Parenting Advice, Sleep
June 4, 2008
The walk
One year ago today, L. swam by himself at the pool for the very first time. He was almost seven and had been holding back for over three years—afraid, but also ashamed of his own fear. The water always tormented him, as did the kids—unintentionally—as they danced and played in the deep end, striking out across clear water, or diving below to retrieve coins and sharks and plastic torpedoes. But last year, on June 4, L. swam. As I watched from the pool's edge, it was unmistakably clear to everyone that his feet had indeed left the bottom of the pool. I looked and saw two slender ankles kick out...
L., Parenting, Social and Emotional Issues, Special Needs, Thoughts from the other side
June 3, 2008
R.I.P.: Cigars, dirty jokes and marching to the beat of his own piano
G’s dad, K-Man’s grandfather and my father-in-law passed away tonight. He lived an amazing 86-year life that was marked by experiences that the very best writers in Hollywood probably wouldn’t dare put onto paper for fear they wouldn’t be taken seriously. Some people are right-brained or left-brained. Felix was just brained. He used the whole thing. Felix was a Renaissance Man. As an accomplished pianist, he gave annual concerts on his birthday (yes, even last year on his 85th b’day). As a nationally renowned doctor and diagnostician, he helped heal tens of thousands of patients, trained...
Cigars, Death, Father-in-law, Grandparents, jokes, Piano
June 3, 2008
Golden times
At the pool this past weekend we met an interesting couple who also live in the neighborhood (thanks to T., who ended up joined at the hips with their two kids--the same ones who were frog hunting with her the other day). We've been meeting a lot of interesting people at the pool lately--people we click with immediately and have engaging conversations with. This couple appeared in deck chairs last weekend, as if blown in by the breeze, leaving us to wonder where on earth they were last summer, these interesting people, because it would have been nice to have known them then. What I...
Children, Family, Juggling, Lessons from Little Ones, Moms, Parenting, Work, Writing
June 2, 2008
Four going on fourteen
I love so much about our daughter. I love her free spirit and her people-person character. I love her sunniness and her desire to be friend to all, big or small, animal or person, insect or object--like the fragile blue robin's egg she found on the path the other day. But she's giving us gray hairs these days, keeping me awake at night as I toss and turn, not even sure why I am so bothered, when I can barely articulate what it is that has me on the edge. She's a free spirit, T. is--she drifts around in her own sunny and beautiful world singing songs and seeking out friends wherever she goes....
Children, Daughters, Family Activities, Parenting, Social and Emotional Issues, T.