Category Archives: Slice of Life

(This is the last part of the Slice of Life project at Two Writing Teachers)

The rain has been unbearable the last two days or so. Just deluges of downpour and along with keeping an eye on the rivers — the one down the street is near the edge of the bank — and the flow of water into my basement sump pump — it’s churning out a near constant stream, worrying me about the motor — we are just plain bored out of our skulls. And the kids have been at each other’s throats, too, as we wait for what they say will be record-high temperatures and sunny days ahead.

So, last night, we went to Blockbuster and rented The Fantastic Mr. Fox, which one of the few Roald Dahl stories that I don’t think I have read, although all three of my boys know the story of the wily fox who is torn between being the “wild animal” that he is and the family member he has become.

I love stopmotion movies and I sort of like Wes Anderson as a director, and while I was not blown away by Mr. Fox, it was rather quirky and likeable, and it definitely had that Wes Anderson feel to it. His movies always seem off-balance to me, in a good way.

It was nice just to have the four boys hanging out in the living room, with us cracking jokes and watching the flick. (My wife is away this week). I realized later that we never got the popcorn going. What I thinking?

Peace (in the last slice of the month),
Kevin

(This is part of the Slice of Life project at Two Writing Teachers)

Yesterday afternoon, my voice was almost gone, down to a bare whisper, because I spent the day loudly and enthusiastically encouraging my students in games of Quidditch and soccer and even Dodge Ball on a yearly field trip we take to an indoor soccer arena.

Some of you know that our school is now in its 11th year of playing a version of Quidditch that is complicated to learn and amazing to watch and allows for kids of all athletic levels to participate. In a few weeks, the four sixth grade classes will face off in a full-day Quidditch Tournament at our school.

This year, I have a homeroom that struggles to work together due to some personalities but they have been pulling it together lately in ways that have me smiling in satisfaction and they were wonderful yesterday on our field trip. They worked as a team (we are called Dry Ice, see logo). They cheered each other on. They didn’t wallow in mistakes or point fingers at each other.

I tried to set the example, of course, with my rousing cheers and pats on the backs, and doing that one-to-one coaching stuff around hints and suggestions for play, but they were right there with me. And so, tired out and almost out of voice, I felt as if we had accomplished something important as a class yesterday. We were working as a a team, and as cliche as that sounds, it is important.

Peace (on the field),
Kevin

(This is part of the Slice of Life project at Two Writing Teachers)

You should see our dog in the mornings. We let him sleep on our kids’  beds (not ours) and they have devised an elaborate system for who gets the lunk for the night. (They even have a theme song, sung to Eddie Money, about “Duke’s on my bed tonight, he’s gonna sleep right there until the morning light …”)

My job is to grab him in the mornings and get him outside, and he is often bunkered down hard, huddled up against the boy and reluctant to come with me. He”ll twist away, stretch his head, push his paws out, whatever.  I’m always amazed at how much bed he takes up with his long legs (he’s part lab and part hound, and he has this incredible long, lean body.)

In the dark, I am searching for his collar because the only way to get him is to slowly drag his prone body to the edge of the bed, hold out my hands to catch him (all 60 pounds of him) before he falls and then guide him downstairs. He’ll stretch and yawn and then, with the collar in my hand, he bobs and weaves his head away from me.

All the while, his tail is wagging. It’s an odd way to start the days, but there you go.

Peace (with the dog),
Kevin

(This is part of the Slice of Life project at Two Writing Teachers)

Yesterday, my students and I were reading aloud Time for Kids in class, which we do quite often for understanding non-fiction text and also to engage in discussion about world events and issues. The cover story in the magazine was about the amount of time that young people spend with media — television, mobile devices, gaming systems, etc.

We had some pretty interesting discussions about the emergence of technology in the lives of young people, including some debate about whether schools should allow cell phones into classrooms (my students: a resounding “no” because of distractions) and whether having the television on while doing homework is a good idea or not. What about music?

Since the TFK article used a recent survey by the Kaiser Foundation as its basis, I decided on a spur of the moment to survey my own students on a few of the same questions.

The questions were:

• Do you have a television in your bedroom?
• Do you have your own cell phone?
• Do you have an MP3 player/iPod?
• How many computers do you have in your household?

Here are our results. Click on the photo to get a bigger image.

(I used an online graph generator for showing our results, which are shown as percentages. But I can’t figure out why the graph has a 120 as one of the top lines, and there was no clear way for me to remove that data point.)

I guess it’s not surprising that 94 percent own a music device, but it was interesting how many (35 percent) have more than three computers (including laptops) in the house. Not one student did not have any computers at all.

The Kaiser study found that young people average about 7 hours of media/screen time per day. That includes Wii and gaming systems, computer work, mobile devices, and more. My students thought that was a bit excessive and while I did not ask them how many hours they do spend, my guess would be about three hours (based on conversations I have had with them).

Peace (in the data),
Kevin

(This is part of the Slice of Life project at Two Writing Teachers)

Yesterday, I wrote about the Greek Temples being created at my son’s preschool, but I should have mentioned that they went on a field trip this week to a planetarium at a local university. I could not go as a chaperon because  I was overseeing state reading testing of my students and boy, did I wish I were there with my little five-year-old during that time.

Yesterday, my son started to tell me all about the field trip again — it was very exciting! — and then grabbed some paper and began to draw. He’s been intro drawing everything these days.

When he was done, he proudly showed me his picture, which shows a scene of him and his best friend in the Planetarium, with stars above. I asked what some of the other things were, like the black lines coming down (I thought maybe they were meteors or something) and he said they were the levers that are used to make the stars. After the light show, the kids got to work the controls of the equipment and create stars in the fake sky, and he was trying to recreate that scene.

And there I was, in a room in another town, administering a long test to my students in complete silence. Darn it! I wanted to see the stars!

Peace (in the dark),
Kevin

(This is part of the Slice of Life project at Two Writing Teachers)

I love the school where my five year old goes, and we have been sending our kids to the same preschool for the past, eh, nine years (holy cow, how times flies) and my youngest son now has the same two male preschool teachers that his oldest brother had when he started at the school. These two guys — Paul and Scott — are amazing, and engaging, and really know how to reach the imagination of four and five year olds.

Lately, the class has been working on all sorts of projects ranging from Space (which was an offshoot on a boisterous Star Wars kick that my son and others suddenly got into that began to get a bit out of control) and Greek Mythology. That’s right. Greek Mythology for the five year olds! They are reading aloud (with Paul and Scott editing as they read) Mary Pope Osbourne’s young people’s version of The Odyssey and they are creating their own Greek clay sculptures (one of the teachers has access to a professional kiln.)

I had my camera with me yesterday and spotted this Greek Temple that the kids helped to build and then all around it are clay medallions that the children have been creating. It’s very cool, and we are a bit sad that this is our last year at this school that has nurtured our three boys with love and kindness and exploration.

Peace (in the minds of kids),
Kevin

(This is part of the Slice of Life project at Two Writing Teachers)

As I was thinking about how to write about the topic of youth baseball for my slice, it occurred to me that this is the third year in a row that I have reflected on my sons entering into the Little League season. The time falls perfectly in sync with Slice of Life and baseball will soon start to consume our days and nights.

Two years ago, I wrote about my trepidation of my oldest son, at age 1o, moving up into the older league with 12 year olds, even though he was and is pretty talented. Last year, I wrote about coming on as an assistant coach with my middle son’s team and sitting at the draft night table, sorting through names.

So, last night, after agreeing to be an assistant coach (and recruiting another assistant coach to help) for the team where both of my sons will play (probably the only time they will be on a team together in any sport, given the spread of years, and the middle son — like his brother two years ago — is moving up at a young age), I once again found myself at the Little League Draft Table with notes and names and wild guesses about kids’ abilities and personalities. The idea of a Draft for Little League is odd, but I have become convinced that it may be as fair as a system as any to provide fairly equal teams of talent.

I think we pulled together a pretty strong team over the 90 minutes of choosing and talking, and we seem to have a collection of kids who have good personalities. But of course, you never know. Our team had the first pick of the draft (our team was dead last last year) and we chose a kid that we don’t even know, but he seems like a great ballplayer.

We don’t know him because our small city is divided by baseball — and I am not talking about Red Sox and Yankees (no, that would be my home). Before my time in the league with my sons, a group of parents who were disgruntled with Little League branched off and started a rival Cal Ripken League. That means that the pool of talent is now shallow and small for both leagues, which seems unfortunate. Our top pick played in Cal Ripken, but shifted back to Little League this year because he and his family were unhappy with the experience in the other league.

Our head coach is the coach of the high school varsity team, which means he knows his stuff and we have easy access to the high school ballfield and pitching machines and more, so my sons are excited about that. And of course, baseball in april (an aside: the name of a collection of short stories by Gary Soto) is a time of possibilities and y0uthful dreams of home runs, shut-out pitching and spectacular fielding.

Everyone has the potential to have a good season right now (even the coaches).

Peace (on the field),
Kevin

(This is part of the Slice of Life project at Two Writing Teachers)

“Dad, how do you write your songs? Do you make the music first or the words first or do you just randomly write something?” my older son asked. I looked him over to see if he was serious or just pulling my leg (yeah, sometimes, that happens with 12 year olds), and, seeing he was serious to some degree, I gave him the honest answer.

“There’s no set way to do it. Every song starts somewhere different, I guess. I start with an idea, usually, but sometimes, I just play and see what comes out of my head.”

He complained in a good-natured way that his brother was all about “the random,”  left and the middle child (the one he was complaining about) came walking in.

“We’re starting a band.”

“Ummm. Really?”

“Yep. We’re the Egregious Tigger-oos.”

I spent a few seconds showing him how to pronounce “egregious” and noted, with support, the nice juxtaposition between those two words and the ring when you say it out loud. Egregious Tigger-oos!

The song they had first been planning a few hours earlier (I was eavesdropping) was called “Polka dot Bathrobe” but apparently, they were now moving on to other songs on a possible future  iTunes album tentatively being called “Cheesy Strawberries.” They weren’t making music, you know, just planning the whole project out. More like producers with big ideas than musicians with chords.

“And we rock,” said the older one. “Of course, we only have a ukulele, a keyboard, and some drum sticks.”

There have been bands with lesser talent on fewer instruments. I think. Anyway, who cares. Just go create music! I was about to give them fatherly support and maybe some musicianly advice when they walked away, mulling over the art work on some future album.

“It has to look good on the iTouch,” the older one said, as the middle one nodded. Kids, these days, it’s all about the device.

Peace (in the tunes),

Kevin