Lessons from My Tweens Learned This Weekend
Looking back on this weekend, I realize not only was it a busy weekend, but it was a weekend full of lessons to be learned!
Lesson #1 - Don’t go to the nurse’s office unless you are REALLY sick
Lesson one of the weekend was learned by my son - a really smart, easily bored, low maintenance, 5th grader. He was supposed to go to a friend’s house after school on Friday as I was taking the girls to a gymnastics meet.
Irritated by the relentless review for standardized tests at school, he proceeded to pitch a fit in his own little way - resulting in the nurse calling me to pick him up from school for being “sick”. As a result, he had to go to his Grandmother’s while waiting for my husband to pick him up after work instead of going to his friend’s house.
Lesson #2 - Things are only as miserable as YOU make them
After tantrum #1, my son threw a slightly louder tantrum over the issue of visiting his Grandparents instead of his friend. We had a little discussion about how you choose your own destiny and what a great opportunity this was to visit without two sisters in tow. The end result, visiting the Grandparents was more fun than he expected.
Lesson #3 - You only compete as well as you practice
My 8 year old daughter learned a tough lesson on Saturday - you can’t skate through weeks of gymnastics practice on auto pilot and expect to win the meet!
In reality, she did just fine, but she really wanted to place 4th, 5th or 6th in this meet - as awards for those placements were large swirly lollipops (it was a Wizard of Oz meet). She placed 7th overall - just .25 of a point away from a lollipop! Disappointment was soon forgotten as she went with a friend after the meet to a birthday party.
Lesson #4 - Mom means business
Sunday afternoon my daughters just couldn’t get along. They were tired and on each other’s nerves. Things got a little heated and I threatened to cancel a playdate with a friend later in the afternoon.
My warning was not heeded, fists and words began to fly, and I had to send them both to their rooms - followed by a phone call to the friend’s mother to cancel the playdate.
Lesson #5 - Leaving projects to the last moment is not a good idea
My son had a book report due today. How long does it really take to write a one page review of Holes and make a 3-D hole, shovel, and mount the report? In his world - too long. He started this on Friday (while at home “sick”) and finally finished last night after threats of computer/PS2 being gone for a long time. I wonder where he gets the procrastination gene from (blushes:: that would be me)?
So how was your weekend? I don’t know about you, but I was mighty happy to see Monday morning!
What pictures come into your mind when you remember your childhood? For me, I remember waking up to the sound of birds singing in the summer. And then my friends and I would play outside all day, only stopping into the house for meals or a quick check-in with Mom.
The only rule we had was, "Just make sure you come home when the streetlights come on." We’d ride our bikes all over the neighborhood, go across the street to play at the park and elementary school, and collect worms and bugs and other creepy stuff. My sister and I would take our bamboo fishing poles to the river with a can of corn to catch carp. It was an idyllic time.
In the winter, we’d head out at the first sign of snowfall. We’d build forts and snowmen, and make snow angels. We’d gather our sleds and head to the nearest hill.
We’d put on our skates and play hockey in the street. Even in the winter, we were outdoors much of the time. I rarely remember sitting inside glued to the television, and we certainly didn’t play video games.
Today’s children are missing out on all that. Sure, they’ve got their soccer teams and organized sports, but what children are often missing out on is just unstructured time to explore and discover.
According to Rae Pica, author of A Running Start: How Play, Physical Activity and Free Time Create a Successful Child, "Today, we have considerable research proving that . . . movement, play, and physical activity contribute to brain and intellectual development."
Too often, she contends, we’re so focused on "achievement" and "competition" that we’re not allowing our children just to have their childhoods.
We buy them the most high-tech gadgets and hurry them from one class to another, but "old-fashioned play and physical experiences offer the best opportunities for brain development"—NOT "the latest gadgets and gear."
In A Running Start, Rae Pica, an internationally recognized educational consultant in early childhood and movement education, shares her techniques for raising children "with the right balance of free play and structured activity." Topics include:
- Keeping It Real: How Kids Really Learn
- Ready or Not, Here Come Organized Sports
- Helping Your Child Master Movement
- The Real Standards for "Smart"
- Is Your Child Playing Enough at School?
- Finding the Right Organized Activity Program
- You’ve Gotta Have Heart: Why Compassion Matters More Than Competition
- Finding Creatures in the Clouds: The Value of Downtime
- Getting Back on Track: Family First
I especially like how A Running Start is sprinkled with "Play & Learn Activities" that provide some great ideas for parents to bring fun and play back into their homes and yards. As Pica reminds us, "The family that plays together stays together."
So, come on, grab those video controllers out of your kids’ hands and grab a butterfly net! Turn off the TV and head out to the stream to look for tadpoles! These are the memories that your children—and you—will cherish forever.
My 17-year-old had his wisdom teeth extracted this week. They were moving in on his other teeth, threatening to undo all the years of orthodontia he’d been through. Neither alternative was desirable – to repeat the braces or have the teeth pulled – but he wisely chose the short-term course of action, and the surgery was scheduled.
I, too, had my wisdom teeth out in high school, and I swelled up so badly that it broke all the blood vessels under my eyes. I looked like I’d been involved in a fistfight (and lost!). Fortunately for Dylan, he’s doing very well and has no signs of swelling.
They knocked him out in the oral surgeon’s office, and we were home ninety minutes later! He was very groggy that afternoon and took a couple of naps, but by evening he was back to his old self again.
I’ve always wondered why they call the third molars "wisdom teeth." According to Wikipedia, "They are generally thought to be called wisdom teeth because they appear so late—much later than the other teeth, at an age where people are supposedly wiser than as a child, when the other teeth erupt." Wisdom teeth most often erupt between the ages of 16 and 24.
I’ve also questioned why so many people need to have their wisdom teeth removed. If they so often cause problems, why do we get them in the first place? Again,
Wikipedia has an interesting answer: "Wisdom teeth are vestigial third molars. In earlier times, when tooth loss in early adulthood was common, an additional molar had the potential to fill in a gap left by the loss of another tooth.
It has also been postulated that the skulls of human ancestors had larger jaws with more teeth, which were possibly used to help chew down foliage to compensate for a lack of ability to efficiently digest the cellulose that makes up a plant cell wall. As human diet changed, a smaller jaw was selected by evolution, yet the third molars, or ‘wisdom teeth,’ still commonly develop in human mouths."
So, I’m grateful to know that my son hasn’t lost any of his wisdom with the loss of his precious third molars – and that I won’t be paying for any more orthodontic work! Now that Dylan’s had his wisdom teeth removed, I’ve only got three kids to go . . . !
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