Professor Mom

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

archives

November 28, 2008
The day after
I thought I could muster up a column of sorts for today, but a day spent happily cooking, then eating, then mediating hyped-up arguments between the kids, then more eating, left me feeling both content and depleted of brain cells. Thanksgiving lunch turned out perfectly--the Tofurky Roll was just as good as I remember it from last year, even if the whole meal was delayed because I forgot to make the gravy. We don't have too many Thanksgiving traditions: Before we eat we take turns saying a few things we're thankful for (this year T was thankful for fall leaves, her friends, Care Bears, and...
Family, Family Activities, Food for Thought, Growing Up Is Hard to Do, Holidays, Thanksgiving
November 26, 2008
Taking the "e" out of turkey
Thanksgiving is a strange time for vegetarians. Not because we don't know what to serve for the big dinner, but because people seem confused about how to talk to us this time of the year. Everywhere we go people sidestep around the topic of the Thanksgiving menu, dropping their voices to a hushed whisper when they say the word "turkey." The other day I went to the dentist for a routine cleaning and the hygienist, who has managed to perfect the art of timing her questions just right so I can answer between scrapings, asked me about Thanksgiving dinner. "Do you serve a whole turkey," she asked...
Cooking, Family, Food for Thought, Holidays, Recipes, Thanksgiving
November 25, 2008
Sleeping big
I haven't written anything about this, for fear of jinxing things, but for weeks now T. has been going to sleep by herself in her bed! She is still waking up every few nights to come running into bed with us, but I am no longer lying down with her until she sleeps, disengaging myself from the choke hold she has on my neck--even in sleep--and tiptoeing out of her room. I have those mixed feelings about this, although I thought I would feel more teary and nostalgic about this new milestone. T.'s been going to sleep with me (or Scott now and again) for four years and some months now, and it...
Children, Growing Up Is Hard to Do, Lessons from Little Ones, Parenting, Parenting Advice, Sleep, Social & Emotional Issues, T.
November 24, 2008
Where dreams live
The much-anticipated neighborhood soap box derby race we were supposed to have on the 15th was rained out and rescheduled for the weekend of December 6th. This Saturday the neighbors organizing the race held a "trial run" for all the eager kids who just can't--absolutely can't--wait another two weeks to race their cars. For a child (and for some parents who labored extensively over the car while battling the stomach flu), a two-week delay is just torture. So on Saturday we loaded up our derby car and headed over to the appointed spot. It was cold and windy, and L. insisted on not wearing...
Activities for children, Cooking, Family, Family Activities, Food for Thought, Home, Neighbors, Recipes
November 21, 2008
The unbelievable
My day started yesterday with the alarm ringing loudly at 5:45. The day before I had the brilliant idea that I would get up 25 minutes earlier than I usually do so I could...chop up vegetables. I've been trying to get back on that meal-planning wagon, and lamenting recently that I haven't used my crock pot much. One fatal flaw with the crock pot is that in order to have a nice, steaming vegetarian stew ready for you by 6:00 p.m., you have to actually start the thing in the morning before you leave the house. I didn't manage to get up at 5:45 because I forgot, when it first rang, why I...
Books, Children, Dads, Family, Lessons to Live By, Moms, Parenting
November 20, 2008
Weighty decisions
I know it's only the middle of November, but we're already beginning to think about the fact that T. will be starting kindergarten next year. We're thinking about where she should go, and yes, we have a creeping wondering about whether she should go. We're not planning on keeping her back another year. She'll turn five this January, and by the time she starts kindergarten she'll have at least six or seven months of being five under her belt. We honestly never thought twice about sending her to school next year. But lately, everywhere we go it seems, people question us about whether we'll send...
Kindergarten, Kindergarten Readiness, Parenting, School Daze, Siblings, Social and Emotional Issues, T.
November 19, 2008
Unplug those kids!
The other day I was in the waiting room at T.'s speech therapy place, grading papers and waiting for T.'s 45-minute session to end. T. was in the back with her speech therapist, and I was trying to make the most of the precious 45 minutes of child-free time I had. There were a few other parents there, in a waiting room littered with toys and books and puzzles. One mom, whom I had never seen before, was also waiting there with her young daughter, while her older child finished his therapy session. The little girl was about T.'s age. She kept climbing up onto the mom's knee for...
Activities for children, Children, Early Learning, Family, Games and Toys, Parenting, Parenting Advice, Video games
November 18, 2008
Back on the (meal planning) wagon
I'm getting really tired of how much we've been spending on groceries lately. Every week I feel like we're hemorrhaging money at the store, only to have us back where we started in six or seven days. Is this just us, or does this happen to you, too? I admit, we've gotten lazy/busy these past few weeks, and I haven't been able to meal-plan as carefully as I have in the past. I've noticed that when I am diligent--when I do sit down on a weekend and meal-plan the week and then go shopping, we spend much less on food than we do during those weeks when we're making two or three frantic dashes to...
Books, Budget, Cooking, Family, Family Activities, Food for Thought, Recipes, Shopping
November 17, 2008
Keeping the spirit, taming the trouble
This past weekend my parents and sister visited, and on Saturday, after a visit to the local art museum, we came home and ordered Chinese take-out. T. finished hers in record time and disappeared from the table. About five minutes later there was a crashing sound, a dreaded splashing sound, and then silence. Thirty seconds later we heard T. crying--not in the I've been hurt way, but in the oh my god, look what I did way. "I can't go in there," I told Scott."I'm very afraid," so he went instead. T., as it turned out, had decided she was still hungry (that Chinese food just doesn't stay with...
Behavior, Children, Dads, Daughters, Discipline, Moms, Parenting, Social & Emotional Issues
November 14, 2008
Storytelling
Apparently November is not only the month to write a novel, and a blog post/day (I've got that pretty much covered), but it's also Family Stories Month--the month you're supposed to focus extra hard on sharing the family stories that make up your rich family history, past and present. I love family stories. I like to hear my own family's stories, but I also love to hear the stories shared by others. I love to spend time with an older person in particular, and hear him or her unfold before me a colorful narrative, whether it be funny or sad or trivial. I think that growing up...
Cooking, Family, Family Activities, Food for Thought, Lessons to Live By, Parenting, Recipes, Social & Emotional Issues, Traditions
November 13, 2008
Lessons to play by
Yesterday afternoon I ate lunch with L. and then stood on the blacktop watching the kids race around the play structure, all of them engaged in various chaotic forms of organized play. As I watched them I realized that not only is it hard to see your own kids grow up, but it's also actually kind of hard to watch other people's kids grow up. With the exception of four kids who are new this year, I've known the entire third-grade class since they were five-year-old kindergarteners--such small, suddenly "big" kids, walking into the doors of the school for the first time, with their ridiculously...
Behavior, Bullying, Children, Growing Up Is Hard to Do, Lessons to Live By, Parenting, Parenting Advice, School Daze, Social & Emotional Issues
November 12, 2008
Quirks
If you are involved in the world of blogging for any length of time, sooner or later you will be invited to participate in a meme. A meme, according to the trusty source Wikipedia, is any idea or behavior that can pass from one person to another by learning or imitation. In the blogging world, you can pass along fun challenges, quizzes, and "getting to know you" questions as a way of fostering further connections and providing, frankly, sometimes very welcome fodder for blog posts. This is great when you're a little tapped out, like I was yesterday, and just can't come up with anything...
Blogging, Games and Puzzles, Life in General, Parenting, Quizzes, Writing
November 11, 2008
Home cooking
The particularly difficult week L. had at school last week, combined with my husband's stomach virus this past weekend, and the cold snap that swept through on Saturday evening, made my thoughts turn to the warm comforts of home. I remembered bad days I'd had at school when I was younger--unbearable days when no one seemed my friend, or the world seemed against me, or when I'd had a brush with a jerk of a student. On those days I remember wanting, with every bone in my body, the comforts of my own home. I longed for the end of school, when my dad or mom would pick me up, and I could be at...
Cooking, Dads, Food for Thought, Greece, Health, Moms, Parenting, Recipes, Social Emotional Issues
November 10, 2008
A different kind of soapbox
A type of strange stomach virus hit our household this weekend. My husband, who almost never gets sick, came down with it first. While this virus doesn't make you have to spend all day in the bathroom, it does swoop down and leave you feeling weak and tired and queasy and achy--all unpleasant things for a weekend. It's a good thing, really, that Scott hardly ever gets sick, because I tease him a lot about how, when he does get sick, two things happen: 1. The whole world must know about it immediately. 2. The whole world must also stop moving immediately (the rest of us, of course,...
Activities for children, Dads, Entertainment, Family Activities, Moms, Parenting
November 7, 2008
Bullies
One of the toughest parts of being a parent is that feeling of helplessness you get when you're trying to smooth the way for your child at school. You can do lots of things to help a very small child: You readily give out hugs and kisses for boo-boos, hold hurting heads steady when they wake up in the middle of the night, sick and vomiting. A hug and a kiss and a cuddle can go a long way toward righting any of the wrongs in a child's world. But from the day L. entered kindergarten, we've had to learn that there are some things we just can't fix. We can strategize for days about school work...
Children, Parenting, Parenting Advice, School Daze, School resources, Social & Emotional Issues, Special Needs
November 6, 2008
Fifteen minutes of fame
Earlier this week, we went to our first parent-teacher conference of the year for T. I love preschool parent-teacher conferences, don't you? They are always relaxing, and at T.'s school the teachers pull out their special padded regular chairs, so you don't have to fold your body into a chair made for people about three feet tall. You sit there, in the sunny and cheerful classroom, and hear (usually) nothing but good things: cute anecdotes about how your child is learning her letters, or mastering the art of scissor cutting, or learning to share. I always look forward to the preschool...
Children, Dads, Early Learning, Growing Up Is Hard to Do, Moms, Parenting, Parenting Advice, Preschoolers, School resources, Teachers
November 5, 2008
Winning and losing gracefully
This morning when I walked L. into his classroom, the atmosphere was almost electric. The kids were grouped around computers, the screens filled up with the red and blue images of the electoral maps--the same images that are now burned into my brain, after hours of staring at them myself last night (I stayed up until 1:00! I haven't stayed up until 1:00 a.m.--without a child being involved--in years). The teacher had given them sheets to fill out, and when the kids clicked on the different states they were able to see, in very visual ways, who had carried that state and how many electoral...
Children, Election Day, Parenting, Parenting Advice, School Daze, Social & Emotional Issues
November 4, 2008
Vote for the kids today (and then eat cookies)
Four years ago today, I left our local polling place, pushing ten-month-old T. in her stroller, with four-year-old L. beside me. I distinctly remember (as if it were yesterday, really, and not four years ago) telling L., "Next time we vote, you'll be EIGHT and your sister will be FOUR!" It seemed almost unimaginable to me, my four-year-old boy being eight some day, and my baby, who at that time was only four months post-surgery, being a great big little four-year-old girl. I was so proud that day to take both kids to vote, but I was even more proud of L., who at four was already asking tough...
Activities for children, Cooking, Education, Election Day, Family Activities, Food for Thought, Parenting, Recipes
November 3, 2008
Brave new world
As a teacher and parent, I'm hyper-aware of how much technology has impacted kids today. When I was in college, research and reading all took place in the library, or in a room, with piles of books stacked up on the desk, and note cards with citations and information stuffed into folder pockets and desk drawers. Writing papers was a long process in which you wrote first (sometimes even with a pen!), and then went back and carefully inserted sources and notes. These days, the process has become reversed--or skipped entirely. Just as certain developmental milestones are critical for a...
Computers, Education, Kids, Parenting, Parenting Advice, Teaching, Technology