Lost in education: Need directions

This was cross posted on DC Metro Moms a few days back when our topic of the day was education.

I was visiting my neighbor yesterday who has a kindergartener. She finally said they had to go inside and start homework. Homework for a five-year old? Yep, that's right, for those of you who don't have kids in school yet, apparently the schools give five-year olds homework. And at this school, homework means worksheets.

I cringed and flashed back to my elementary, middle school and junior high years when teachers thought mimeographed (remember that purple ink?) worksheets meant they were teaching us something. Please tell me kids are not still doing worksheets!

I'm a mom of a three-and-a-half year old and a two-year old. They will be in school fairly soon, so it's something always on my radar screen. The worksheet news wasn't good. It's bad enough kindergarten has gone to full day, which I understand makes sense to teachers and for most students. But the thought of my rambunctious preschooler having to spend an entire school day at school without a rest period quite honestly scares me. Then to think that there is homework on top of a full day at school. . .and not anything interest, but worksheets. When do kids get to be kids and learn by doing and exploring?

Quite honestly, I'm frightened by what I see coming out of the public education system year after year:

More emphasis on testing and less on learning in creative ways. The focus on paperwork means less time to teach. Sure, there are fabulous teachers out there, but when I think back on my whole public education career, how many good teachers did I have and how many bad ones? I can count the good ones on one hand. How scary is that?

When I hear other cultures are learning things like cooking, gardening, piano, or violin in school, I wonder what we've done with our education system where children drill on basics and still don't know the basics when they get out.

Fairfax County has one of the best public school systems in the country, which is one of the reasons we agreed to pay the high real estate prices when we moved here. But quite honestly, I find my attention turning toward private schools. The costs are insane, but when I think about my kids, especially my son's individual needs (my husband is sure he's a genius), I can't help but think that private school might be where he will excel the most.

The argument for public schools by many people is the increased diversity. Well, it's not like this area isn't diverse already with all the transplants from, well, everywhere. You can get diversity in just about every location in every neighborhood in the DC Metro area. It's one of the most diverse places--outside New York City--I would imagine you could live. We are fortunate enough to live in a community with not just the normal ethnic demographics, but we also get the diplomats and expatriates from new and exciting places. I wouldn't be surprised if they tend to send their kids to private schools as well.

I was hoping the Washington Post Magazine article a few weeks back would change my mind with the public vs. private decision, but it only solidified my leanings toward private schools.

The thing is, due to finances, we might be able to foot the bill for private school for a few years, but eventually our children will probably have to return to the public school system. Is that even worse? Perhaps there's a career out there for education consulting?

Thursday's Dish: Pasta Fagioli Soup

It’s been a long time since I posted a recipe. Why, you ask? Because my kids haven’t been eating what I make. That’s right, wasted attempts at trying to feed my monkeys something beyond pizza, chicken nuggets and meatballs. We’ve made a few attempts the last few days (or weeks) at trying to get everyone back on track with real food. Today we had a winner with my kids. Surprise, it was soup!

Pasta Fagioli Soup (From Cooking Light’s Weeknight Cookbook)

12 ounces of sausage (I used chicken, but wished I’d gone for mild Italian)
3 cups chicken broth
½ cup uncooked small pasta (I used the wagon wheel ones and convinced my kids it was training wheels.)
2 cups of coarsely chopped zucchini
1 can stewed tomatoes, undrained
1 tsp dried basil
1 tsp dried oregano
1 can of white kidney beans
½ cup Asiago and/or Parmesan cheese

Heat a large saucepan over high heat. Add sausage and brown. Add the broth and pasta. Bring to a boil Simmer for a bit. Add zucchini and tomatoes. Simmer a few more minutes. Add the basil, oregano and beans. Cook for another few minutes. Serve with cheese.

(Alex ate the sausage and pasta and Anna actually tried most of it.)

Finding light (and fun) in winter’s dark

The end to daylight’s saving time always offer a challenge to moms. For those of us who tend to migrate outside in the evenings to help pass the witching hours, darkness at 5 p.m. means we either have to park the kids in front of the TV sooner or be a little more creative.

I have to remember that it’s never as bad as our northern friends have it where it gets dark--and I mean pitch dark as early as 3 p.m. (dawn is usually around 9 a.m.) Only six hours of a daylight can be difficult and throw off your whole mental well-being. I took away a few things from my year in Sweden where I saw kids go to school and come home in the dark.

Here are a few ideas to help bring the fun indoors (or even outside) during the dark.

--With small kids (who still nap), see if you can play with naptime a bit and put kids down for a nap earlier in the day so you still have daylight on the other end of it. Waking up at 3 p.m. can still give you two hours or so of potential sunlight to play outside.

--Get your craft supplies ready. Our house is doing inventory on the playdough, markers, coloring books, stickers, beads, paints, foam crafts, etc. It helps if you can have them all in ‘see-thru’ bins near your kitchen/dining room. Mine are in a separate cabinet labeled and ready to play with and put back easily. If everything is right there at your fingertips you can go through all the crafts in one session sometimes—a good hour of fun!

--Use the evening hours to do preschool workbooks with the not-quite-school-aged kids. They think it’s fun and they are getting a little education at the same time.

--Even if it’s dark, go outside. Load them in the stroller, wagon or go for a walk and bring flashlights.

--Bake together. There are lots of great kid’s cookbooks with simple baking recipes for you and your child to do together.

--Bring out the instruments. Put on some fun music and get all the instruments in your house together and put on a show.

--Dress up. Snatch up a few leftover Halloween costumes now while you can at reduced prices or Goodwill. They make great dress up outfits.

--Host or attend evening playgroups or a play date. It’s OK to play in to the darker hours. Order a pizza and make it dinner for everyone.

--Let the kids play in the backyard even in the dark. Drag out the tent and hand them some flashlights so they can pretend to camp.

I’m not saying these few ideas will keep you busy all winter long, but every once in a while throw them a curve ball for a little fun.

Enjoy the dark.

Mesmerized by the 'Animals'

My kids love music. In fact, we’ve started using music as a substitute for the DVDs (since we don’t have TV) when my kids need some downtime. Children’s music is wonderful and there’s such a beautiful assortment to chose from. But strangely enough, Alex and Anna both seem to enjoy classical music in the background. I expect this from babies, but not necessarily from my overly active toddler/preschooler.

As an amateur musician (from years ago), I wanted to make sure that my kids were exposed to all types of music at an early age and instill in them a love for it. For Alex’s second birthday, he received a book/CD from one of Andrew’s aunts—Carnival of the Animals, by French composer Saint-Saens.

The piece is a musical suite of fourteen movements—lasting a little less than half an hour. Accompanying the CD is a book with wonderful illustrations of the animals played in the piece by flute, clarinet, violin, viola, cello, bass, glockenspiel, xylophone and piano.

When we first got the CD and book, we sat down to read the text with the CD playing. It was one of his favorites. Now, when we put the music on, he grabs the book and sits down to listen to the enire piece on his own, many times talking through it with Anna.

The longest day with no beginning

Ah, the end of daylight savings time. I’m not sure which I hate more, the end—when all the world grows dark for another six weeks—or the beginning—when I have to wrestle kids to bed because it’s still light outside. Nevertheless, the end/beginning of daylight savings means readjusting bedtime rituals and having low expectations on morning wakeup times.

But this morning, or better yet, last night brought some surprises. Planning ahead as I usually do, we let the kids take a little less nap and stay up extra late to compensate for the extra hour of sleep. This was to ensure that they didn’t get up at 5 a.m.

Alex put himself to bed at 8:30 or so claiming he was tired. (Note: We were spending the night at Grandma’s house last night in Richmond.) So after a full day of grandparents, complete with fishing other activities, he was well beyond tired. At 10 p.m., I climbed into the bed next to Alex. I heard him wiggle, cough, sneeze, snore, breathe, sigh, yawn and then start all over again. I lay there realizing he wasn’t really asleep.

With my own thoughts racing, I also lay there for a good while and each time I started to drift off, I would hear wiggle, cough, sneeze, snore, breathe, sigh, yawn occasionally with a kick from the trundle bed below. At midnight, Alex sits up with snuffy nose and asks to go to the bathroom. I lead him to the bathroom and finally cajole him into taking some Children’s Sudafed. His response: Can I have a treat? I knew at that moment, this was not a sleepy kid.

For two more hours, I listen to the same. At one point he was whimpering because he said his thumb was tired of him sucking on it. My response: Go to sleep and it won’t be tired anymore. Finally, at 2:30 a.m. I awakened my husband who was sleeping with my daughter in the next room and asked to switch. I finally fell asleep, kind of, around 4 a.m. At 5 a.m. I hear Alex sneezing and coughing in the hallway. He was ready to start the day apparently. What day? My day turned into night and now it was almost day again. And so began my first day of standard time, or was it yesterday or today? Who knows.

After a very long ride home to Reston and brief nap from everyone, my afternoon of picking up the pieces of the longest day ever—with no beginning—began with Anna puking last night’s spaghetti’s sauce all over my tan loveseat. I nearly passed out when the clock showed only 3:30 p.m.

Cold season and no cold medicine: Is that so bad?

This is not medical advice. I am not a doctor. I don’t have a medical background or training. However, living overseas forced me to become educated in basic health matters. (Many times it was hard to find a doctor right away or one that attended to a particular need.) So health care is a hobby and an interest more than anything.

Here it is cold and flu season. My kids are coughing, sneezing and sniffing already, and this week was the millionth article I’ve read (this time in the Washington Post) about pulling infant cold formulas off the shelves.

I have mixed feelings on this subject. Because we didn’t have children’s medicine overseas, we ordered them from home—mainly decongestants. It’s obvious a community can survive without them, and we did have a few more natural medicinal options in a few places we lived. Now that we’re back in the States, we can get children’s cold medicine, but one has to show ID, give fingerprints and take an oath that you won’t turn PediaCare into liquid meth in order to get some decongestant for a toddler with a runny nose.

I have several random thoughts with the current infant cold medicine recalls. The reason for the recall suggested by the FDA is two-fold: complications from unintentional overdose and the effectiveness in children.

I’m going to start with the latter issue. I don’t know what all the studies say about decongestants for children, but I will tell you pseudoephedrine--the now controlled drug in decongestants--does help my kids with their stuffy noses. It dries up extra boogies at night so they can breathe. It’s not perfect, but it helps. We do have a humidifier, and if I can get them to squirt saline, we do that too. But even I know a few Sudafed can least alleviate the stuffiness a bit. Another drug that is an active ingredient in almost all “cold medicines” is dextromethorphan. It’s in NyQuil, DayQuil, Robitussin, Dimetapp, Delsym, Tylenol Cold—both kid and adult formulas.

I can’t speak for everyone, but I will say this stuff that knocks me out and leaves me feeling in a haze the next day. It’s a cough suppressant that actually signals the brain to stop coughing. When you have a cold, the goal is to cough up the bad stuff so it gets out of your system faster. Taking away this natural inclination is obviously counter-productive. Suppressing a cough at night will help a child rest though—something a little Benadryl would probably do too. You’ll notice this is the ingredient of all but two of the medicines being recalled. Benadryl, however, was not one of the recalled medicines.

Now unintentional overdose. Since so many of these cold medicines have dextromethorphan them, I can see how it would be possible to administer two medicines—a decongestant and a cough medicine—that a parent thinks are a completely innocuous combination and wind up with an overdosed kid. But my question is this: is recalling the medicine the appropriate action to take? The number quoted in the Washington Post article this morning was 123 deaths between 1969 and 2006. While I’m sure those were horrible for the parents, I’m not sure 123 deaths in 35 years warrants all the media attention in the past few weeks. Perhaps educating parents at the doctor’s office is a more appropriate way to handle this, which I hope is the next step now.

One other interesting thing to note is that when a cough suppressant was advised by our doctor, it was just a smaller dosage of an adult cough medicine. I find it interesting you can still get the medicine you need . . . just not in the fancy, cute containers available in the children’s cold remedy section.

Perhaps the mistake is in the marketing here and not the actual medicines. As consumers, we’re sucked into packaging and assume the companies have done research for us. Pick up the liquid form of Delsym, a cough suppressant, and you’ll see the dosage recommendation for children over the age of two. This suggests you don’t need a separate kid’s cough medicine, except maybe for the “yummy” flavor. Many people don’t do research on what’s in cold medicines for themselves or their children.

So where does this leave us parents? Cold and flu season is upon us and there are no cold medicines? Stock up on your Tylenol and Motrin. Grab whatever decongestants you can from the pharmacy, while you can. Make sure your kids are hydrated. Have a humidifier ready just in case. And know that if your child really needs a cough suppressant, your doctor will suggest some kind of relief. No one wants your baby to suffer.

This article is also cross posted on DC Metro Moms.

Halloween Takeaway

Halloween was a huge success in my house--almost two hours of trick or treating. My kids loved the scary costumes and the spooky music.

Here are a few thoughts from the night that had me thinking:

The candy has gotten better—what happened to Smarties? My kids got nothing but the good stuff. Yay for them and us—Snickers, Milkway, Butterfingers and Reese’s.

Kids over 10 still should to dress up if they want candy. They are still kids too.

But 15-year olds shouldn’t be dressed as slutty Strawberry Shortcake just to get candy.

Daylight savings time makes for a shorter Halloween and over anxious kids.

Kids now take candy, as much as they think they should have sometimes, instead of waiting for neighbors to give it to them.

We only went to the houses of the people we knew instead of everyone on the street.

The majority of costumes are no longer imaginative. Old Navy and Target has replaced our creativity for costumes, even if it meant combining costumes pieces instead of just slapping on one. (I’m guilty of it too.) It’s a lot easier to spend $15 on a costume and just be done with it.

For the little kids, there is so much hype and pre-Halloween festivities (carnivals, fests, parties, parades) that by the time the day arrives, kids are tired of their costumes.