3 Weeks and counting until school lets out.
This is always a mixed blessing. This means we do not have to get up at 7 AM every day and drive the crew to school. But it then follows that the crew is not in school.
After a week or two of this I begin to think that getting up early isn't such a bad trade off. Eleven weeks with the Bickersons (AKA Jeffrey & Katherine) can get a little tedious.
This summer we will add to fun by having the twins, Jacob and Olivia with us 3 days a week.
Double the noise, double the fun!
I plan on structuring their days so there isn't a lot of time for miscellaneous grousing, complaining, fighting and hollering. I think we'll make every Friday a beach day. We're about 1/2 an hour from Zuma Beach and I always complain I don't go enough every summer so this way I will be forced into doing what I wanted to do in the first place.
And at least one day a week I plan on an outing to someplace interesting. But after the Museums downtown, the La Brea Tar Pits and the Griffith Observatory I'm already out of ideas. Well, out of ideas that don't cost a small fortune.
Being the end of the year, the teachers are trying to squeeze as much into these last few weeks as possible.
This includes Open House which encompasses giving up your dinner hour to drive to the school, park 8 blocks away, fight your way through the crowds to your kids classroom, fight the crowds IN your kids classroom, spend 2 minutes with the teacher who tells you what a pleasure your kid has been all year before dashing off to repeat the same thing to the next parent in line, fight your way back through the crowds, walk 8 blocks back to your car and go home and wonder what you accomplished.
But I found out earlier this week that we will have the real pièce de résistance at the end of this year. Something I have never had the pleasure of experiencing before.
Because Jeffrey and Katherine are both in 4th grade, they both do the same projects and take the same tests and go on the same field trips etc. So if one of them is clueless to what is going on, the other one will probably know. It's been a nice little perk until now.
The last thing the kids are studying this year is the California gold rush. And to go with this unit they are performing a play complete with songs and skits and all the other stuff that accompanies an elementary school performance.
There are five 4th grades and instead of doing 5 separate plays they are combining the classrooms. 2 classes plus half of one class will perform at 6 PM next Friday followed by 2 1/2 half classes performing the exact same play at 7 PM the same day.
If you have even a single thought in your head you should know where I am going with this. That's right ladies and gentlemen.... Katherine and Jeffrey are in different performances.
This translates into 2 (count 'em.. 2) hours we will have to sit through watching the same show twice.
I asked Katherine what her part was.
"These are my lines 'Welcome parents and family. Thank you for coming to our show. Please sit back and relax and enjoy our performance.' I'm the Hostess."
"And what else do you do?"
"I sing in a couple of the songs. That's it."
"And Jeffrey, what are your lines?"
"I don't have any. I'm a dancer."
"You have no lines whatsoever?"
"Nope. And I'm not happy about it. Do I have to do this play?"
Don't I wish.
I saw this exact same play when Alex was in the 4th grade six years ago. And at that time I do not remember thinking that it was so good that not only would I want to see it again but I'd like to catch it twice in one night.
Now don't get me wrong, Jeff and I will both be there and cheer our kids on and never let on that we are suffering. But if I could just get my hands on who divided up the classes without regard to the parents of siblings, I would certainly give them a piece of my mind.
Of course I may not have much left after next Friday so maybe I just better grin and bear it.
I've become pretty good at that lately.
This is always a mixed blessing. This means we do not have to get up at 7 AM every day and drive the crew to school. But it then follows that the crew is not in school.
After a week or two of this I begin to think that getting up early isn't such a bad trade off. Eleven weeks with the Bickersons (AKA Jeffrey & Katherine) can get a little tedious.
This summer we will add to fun by having the twins, Jacob and Olivia with us 3 days a week.
Double the noise, double the fun!
I plan on structuring their days so there isn't a lot of time for miscellaneous grousing, complaining, fighting and hollering. I think we'll make every Friday a beach day. We're about 1/2 an hour from Zuma Beach and I always complain I don't go enough every summer so this way I will be forced into doing what I wanted to do in the first place.
And at least one day a week I plan on an outing to someplace interesting. But after the Museums downtown, the La Brea Tar Pits and the Griffith Observatory I'm already out of ideas. Well, out of ideas that don't cost a small fortune.
Being the end of the year, the teachers are trying to squeeze as much into these last few weeks as possible.
This includes Open House which encompasses giving up your dinner hour to drive to the school, park 8 blocks away, fight your way through the crowds to your kids classroom, fight the crowds IN your kids classroom, spend 2 minutes with the teacher who tells you what a pleasure your kid has been all year before dashing off to repeat the same thing to the next parent in line, fight your way back through the crowds, walk 8 blocks back to your car and go home and wonder what you accomplished.
But I found out earlier this week that we will have the real pièce de résistance at the end of this year. Something I have never had the pleasure of experiencing before.
Because Jeffrey and Katherine are both in 4th grade, they both do the same projects and take the same tests and go on the same field trips etc. So if one of them is clueless to what is going on, the other one will probably know. It's been a nice little perk until now.
The last thing the kids are studying this year is the California gold rush. And to go with this unit they are performing a play complete with songs and skits and all the other stuff that accompanies an elementary school performance.
There are five 4th grades and instead of doing 5 separate plays they are combining the classrooms. 2 classes plus half of one class will perform at 6 PM next Friday followed by 2 1/2 half classes performing the exact same play at 7 PM the same day.
If you have even a single thought in your head you should know where I am going with this. That's right ladies and gentlemen.... Katherine and Jeffrey are in different performances.
This translates into 2 (count 'em.. 2) hours we will have to sit through watching the same show twice.
I asked Katherine what her part was.
"These are my lines 'Welcome parents and family. Thank you for coming to our show. Please sit back and relax and enjoy our performance.' I'm the Hostess."
"And what else do you do?"
"I sing in a couple of the songs. That's it."
"And Jeffrey, what are your lines?"
"I don't have any. I'm a dancer."
"You have no lines whatsoever?"
"Nope. And I'm not happy about it. Do I have to do this play?"
Don't I wish.
I saw this exact same play when Alex was in the 4th grade six years ago. And at that time I do not remember thinking that it was so good that not only would I want to see it again but I'd like to catch it twice in one night.
Now don't get me wrong, Jeff and I will both be there and cheer our kids on and never let on that we are suffering. But if I could just get my hands on who divided up the classes without regard to the parents of siblings, I would certainly give them a piece of my mind.
Of course I may not have much left after next Friday so maybe I just better grin and bear it.
I've become pretty good at that lately.
