(no subject)
Crazy weekend. Heck, crazy spring.
Both kids had sports this weekend- Toby had baseball and Trevor had soccer. It went pretty well, and I had a nice long talk with Toby's coach's wife. I have been very, very, very happy with Toby's baseball coaches. This is Toby's first year playing, and we were kind of nervous about the whole thing. Baseball is a pretty big deal around here, and we've heard a lot of horror stories about psycho parents and coaches. A lot of people are really serious about it and a lot of eight year olds are already on travel teams.
I in no way object to the existence of travel teams- I think they're great for kids who truly love the sport. But it feels strange that we have to be worried about Toby starting to play baseball at eight, and that he was the least experienced kid on his team. I mean, it's not like he sat around doing nothing all these years- he's played soccer for three years, and decided he wanted to try baseball. Both Howard and I fully support this decision, because what are the odds that you find your favorite sport on your first try? Or that you will only have one favorite sport? Kids should be able to explore sports. (Although I wish certain sports didn't require a huge cash outlay on equipment. Toby sort of wanted to try lacrosse, but it would have cost close to $100 for him to get everything he needed for the clinic. So we showed him an actual lacrosse game on youtube and he changed his mind. We weren't trying to scare him (his buddy who plays hockey saw the same thing and only got more excited), but we know Toby and his aggression level, and we really thought he'd be a lot happier in baseball.)
Anyway. We really were hoping for a coach that knew Toby, and we ended up having two choices- someone from our neighborhood, or the two assistant Cubmasters from our pack. I think we would have been fine either way, but we chose the cubmasters and they have been SO GOOD. They are very focused on fundamentals, and while they encourage hard work and will offer the kids constructive criticism (and it's been very constructive, what I've heard), they don't put a lot of pressure on them. They're more concerned with the game than the contest, if that makes sense. They also make sure all the kids play, and if there isn't a field position for them, they have them play warm up catcher/pitcher and a coach works with them. (That might be association policy, too.) They've been so supportive of Toby, and we've been very happy. But I think the head coach has really been burned by the politics. His wife and I were talking and I was commenting we'd told Toby that while he'll get to play most of the positions, he probably would not play pitcher, catcher, or first base this year. They did put him in catcher and he did better than we thought he would (all that padding made him more comfortable about a ball coming to him!), but his skills are simply not good enough to play the other two on this team. And we are FINE with that. I want him to have fun, and what fun is it to feel like you're in over your head? (I know there are people who would think I'm underestimating him, or that I should let him try. Trust me- I am not underestimating him. There very well may come a day when he can pitch, but this is not that day.) But the coach's wife just expressed utter relief that we were all on the same page, and said that her husband was going to be SO relieved. Which, of course, made Howard wonder if he's been too intimidating, but no, it's there are parents that are that nuts around here.
So baseball's been going well for Toby. He seems to enjoy it, he's had some good moments during games, and he's really improving. He's got a team of nice boys and a wide range of skill levels, and he's talking about playing fall baseball instead of soccer. Fine with me- I just want him to enjoy what he's doing.
Trevor's playing soccer again, and doing a bit better at it this time around. He's at least getting in after the ball, and even occasionally kicks it during a game. He's doing a LOT better at paying attention and putting his effort in, which is what I really care about. I still don't know that he loves it, but for right now, it will do. I've also been very happy with his coach, whom we've had before, although we get less of a chance to see him because of how rainy it's been this year :P Also, they changed the format into one I really like. They have a bunch of teams practice at the same time, and they have a "head coach" (AKA, someone who actually really knows soccer) teach the kids some drills. Then the kids split into their own teams and the coach helps their team with the drills. They do that for 45 minutes and then spend the last 10-15 playing a little game on their own team, or having the coach work on whatever they want to work on. It's a great way to sort of make sure that no matter what kind of coach a kid's got (someone who knows soccer or just parent willing to help) the kids are all getting some skills education. I like that a lot.
I am very grateful we will likely never be doing travel, though. If one of my kids seemed really into it we would consider it, but my kids go to practice/games and play there, but when they come home, it's just gone from their minds. Travel ball would kill any love they have for the sports.
So the kids are having fun and we're running around like crazy, and all seems to be going well. We started having Toby tested for the gifted program at school. He passed the screening test, and now has to do the long test. It seems a bit excessive for the program (it's not very long), but hey. I'm just relieved he passed the screening test. Not because of Toby, but because I always worry when I try to advocate for my kid that people will think I am being a special snowflake. So even if Toby doesn't pass the full test, I feel like him passing the screening test says that no matter what the outcome, I had a good reason to ask for this testing. Actually, I hate that they put the burden of asking for the testing on the parent- I wish they just gave ALL the kids the screening test, and then went from there.
When I called the guidance counselor, I also talked to her about Trevor's math. Math comes super easy to Trevor- he can add double digits in his head and do partial sums in his head. We're working on subtracting (although he's got no problem with easier facts, like single digits or a double digit minus a single digit). I've asked his kindergarten teacher if we can do some stuff with him and she does try, but she has 19 kids and 3 hours a day, and she's got kids who are struggling to keep up. But I knew there are some kids in Toby's grade that are in 3rd grade math, and I heard NOTHING about how to get your kid advanced in math. It's not a big deal for Toby, because I think he's fine where he is, but it will be a big deal for Trevor. She says they were already planning on setting up an enrichment program, and that they'll definitely be considering Trevor. So that's good. I suspect I'll have to be riding on them next year about it. They did ask if I want him tested for gifted yet and I don't. They really encourage the parents to wait until late second/early third grade for testing, and I strongly feel a lot of the first two years of school are as much about learning how to go to school as anything academic. And I want to challenge my kids, but not push them too hard. And to top things off, they usually take the gifted kids during the reading time. Trevor excels at math, but he's right where he should be for reading. He's doing very well, but he needs his reading time. And socially, Trevor is VERY young and should not be ahead of where he is at all. He can get away with being behind on some of his social skills because he's just so relaxed and happy and likeable, but he is definitely young for his age.
Ah, school. Such fun. :P
Delaware full on Sunday. I'm starting to get nervous. I've only done one long run since the last marathon, although I have a couple of 7-8 milers. I'm feeling like I haven't run enough. I think this is a pretty common feeling though and I should be fine.
But I'm still worried. But this is my last super long run before the 50K. Which seems crazy in itself. Too bad my weight loss efforts aren't going better :P
I've been doing exchanges. Got my rarewomen and remix ones done (well, very, very roughly). I also did Ship Swap. I wrote Hope Is A Four Letter Word, which is Prim in the Hunger Games. My recipient wanted Prim/Rue, and I got this idea of putting Prim in the Games. Ideally, it was supposed to stretch beyond the Games, because I don't see Prim and Rue actually getting together then. My idea was that they made this alliance and they won, which was dangerous because the Capitol allowing both of them to live betrayed the fact that the Capitol was getting scared of the reactions if they killed both girls. So they were going to go on the Victory Tour together and get closer, and then having to go into the Games again. Prim was going to have to into the Arena again with Haymitch, which would have been interesting, and Katniss and Gale were going to be more of a team, and I planned on giving Seeder some interesting stuff, but I just could not make it that far. Oh well.
For a gift, I got Limited Options by lostinapapercup (who I had to look up because her two screennames are different). It's a lovely Cally/Chief piece, and does a great job balancing the whole "settling" feeling of New Caprica with genuine affection. It's very well done and I suspect there are a lot of people on my list who would enjoy it.
Guess I should go "polish" the rest of my fics. The only problem is I thought I'd escaped the 2048 craze, and then someone made a version that was Gaius Baltar's Fragile Emotions. God help me if anyone ever makes a secondary characters version.
Both kids had sports this weekend- Toby had baseball and Trevor had soccer. It went pretty well, and I had a nice long talk with Toby's coach's wife. I have been very, very, very happy with Toby's baseball coaches. This is Toby's first year playing, and we were kind of nervous about the whole thing. Baseball is a pretty big deal around here, and we've heard a lot of horror stories about psycho parents and coaches. A lot of people are really serious about it and a lot of eight year olds are already on travel teams.
I in no way object to the existence of travel teams- I think they're great for kids who truly love the sport. But it feels strange that we have to be worried about Toby starting to play baseball at eight, and that he was the least experienced kid on his team. I mean, it's not like he sat around doing nothing all these years- he's played soccer for three years, and decided he wanted to try baseball. Both Howard and I fully support this decision, because what are the odds that you find your favorite sport on your first try? Or that you will only have one favorite sport? Kids should be able to explore sports. (Although I wish certain sports didn't require a huge cash outlay on equipment. Toby sort of wanted to try lacrosse, but it would have cost close to $100 for him to get everything he needed for the clinic. So we showed him an actual lacrosse game on youtube and he changed his mind. We weren't trying to scare him (his buddy who plays hockey saw the same thing and only got more excited), but we know Toby and his aggression level, and we really thought he'd be a lot happier in baseball.)
Anyway. We really were hoping for a coach that knew Toby, and we ended up having two choices- someone from our neighborhood, or the two assistant Cubmasters from our pack. I think we would have been fine either way, but we chose the cubmasters and they have been SO GOOD. They are very focused on fundamentals, and while they encourage hard work and will offer the kids constructive criticism (and it's been very constructive, what I've heard), they don't put a lot of pressure on them. They're more concerned with the game than the contest, if that makes sense. They also make sure all the kids play, and if there isn't a field position for them, they have them play warm up catcher/pitcher and a coach works with them. (That might be association policy, too.) They've been so supportive of Toby, and we've been very happy. But I think the head coach has really been burned by the politics. His wife and I were talking and I was commenting we'd told Toby that while he'll get to play most of the positions, he probably would not play pitcher, catcher, or first base this year. They did put him in catcher and he did better than we thought he would (all that padding made him more comfortable about a ball coming to him!), but his skills are simply not good enough to play the other two on this team. And we are FINE with that. I want him to have fun, and what fun is it to feel like you're in over your head? (I know there are people who would think I'm underestimating him, or that I should let him try. Trust me- I am not underestimating him. There very well may come a day when he can pitch, but this is not that day.) But the coach's wife just expressed utter relief that we were all on the same page, and said that her husband was going to be SO relieved. Which, of course, made Howard wonder if he's been too intimidating, but no, it's there are parents that are that nuts around here.
So baseball's been going well for Toby. He seems to enjoy it, he's had some good moments during games, and he's really improving. He's got a team of nice boys and a wide range of skill levels, and he's talking about playing fall baseball instead of soccer. Fine with me- I just want him to enjoy what he's doing.
Trevor's playing soccer again, and doing a bit better at it this time around. He's at least getting in after the ball, and even occasionally kicks it during a game. He's doing a LOT better at paying attention and putting his effort in, which is what I really care about. I still don't know that he loves it, but for right now, it will do. I've also been very happy with his coach, whom we've had before, although we get less of a chance to see him because of how rainy it's been this year :P Also, they changed the format into one I really like. They have a bunch of teams practice at the same time, and they have a "head coach" (AKA, someone who actually really knows soccer) teach the kids some drills. Then the kids split into their own teams and the coach helps their team with the drills. They do that for 45 minutes and then spend the last 10-15 playing a little game on their own team, or having the coach work on whatever they want to work on. It's a great way to sort of make sure that no matter what kind of coach a kid's got (someone who knows soccer or just parent willing to help) the kids are all getting some skills education. I like that a lot.
I am very grateful we will likely never be doing travel, though. If one of my kids seemed really into it we would consider it, but my kids go to practice/games and play there, but when they come home, it's just gone from their minds. Travel ball would kill any love they have for the sports.
So the kids are having fun and we're running around like crazy, and all seems to be going well. We started having Toby tested for the gifted program at school. He passed the screening test, and now has to do the long test. It seems a bit excessive for the program (it's not very long), but hey. I'm just relieved he passed the screening test. Not because of Toby, but because I always worry when I try to advocate for my kid that people will think I am being a special snowflake. So even if Toby doesn't pass the full test, I feel like him passing the screening test says that no matter what the outcome, I had a good reason to ask for this testing. Actually, I hate that they put the burden of asking for the testing on the parent- I wish they just gave ALL the kids the screening test, and then went from there.
When I called the guidance counselor, I also talked to her about Trevor's math. Math comes super easy to Trevor- he can add double digits in his head and do partial sums in his head. We're working on subtracting (although he's got no problem with easier facts, like single digits or a double digit minus a single digit). I've asked his kindergarten teacher if we can do some stuff with him and she does try, but she has 19 kids and 3 hours a day, and she's got kids who are struggling to keep up. But I knew there are some kids in Toby's grade that are in 3rd grade math, and I heard NOTHING about how to get your kid advanced in math. It's not a big deal for Toby, because I think he's fine where he is, but it will be a big deal for Trevor. She says they were already planning on setting up an enrichment program, and that they'll definitely be considering Trevor. So that's good. I suspect I'll have to be riding on them next year about it. They did ask if I want him tested for gifted yet and I don't. They really encourage the parents to wait until late second/early third grade for testing, and I strongly feel a lot of the first two years of school are as much about learning how to go to school as anything academic. And I want to challenge my kids, but not push them too hard. And to top things off, they usually take the gifted kids during the reading time. Trevor excels at math, but he's right where he should be for reading. He's doing very well, but he needs his reading time. And socially, Trevor is VERY young and should not be ahead of where he is at all. He can get away with being behind on some of his social skills because he's just so relaxed and happy and likeable, but he is definitely young for his age.
Ah, school. Such fun. :P
Delaware full on Sunday. I'm starting to get nervous. I've only done one long run since the last marathon, although I have a couple of 7-8 milers. I'm feeling like I haven't run enough. I think this is a pretty common feeling though and I should be fine.
But I'm still worried. But this is my last super long run before the 50K. Which seems crazy in itself. Too bad my weight loss efforts aren't going better :P
I've been doing exchanges. Got my rarewomen and remix ones done (well, very, very roughly). I also did Ship Swap. I wrote Hope Is A Four Letter Word, which is Prim in the Hunger Games. My recipient wanted Prim/Rue, and I got this idea of putting Prim in the Games. Ideally, it was supposed to stretch beyond the Games, because I don't see Prim and Rue actually getting together then. My idea was that they made this alliance and they won, which was dangerous because the Capitol allowing both of them to live betrayed the fact that the Capitol was getting scared of the reactions if they killed both girls. So they were going to go on the Victory Tour together and get closer, and then having to go into the Games again. Prim was going to have to into the Arena again with Haymitch, which would have been interesting, and Katniss and Gale were going to be more of a team, and I planned on giving Seeder some interesting stuff, but I just could not make it that far. Oh well.
For a gift, I got Limited Options by lostinapapercup (who I had to look up because her two screennames are different). It's a lovely Cally/Chief piece, and does a great job balancing the whole "settling" feeling of New Caprica with genuine affection. It's very well done and I suspect there are a lot of people on my list who would enjoy it.
Guess I should go "polish" the rest of my fics. The only problem is I thought I'd escaped the 2048 craze, and then someone made a version that was Gaius Baltar's Fragile Emotions. God help me if anyone ever makes a secondary characters version.