welcome autumn

China vs. Mexico, Spain and a host of other countries

As I mentioned in my previous post we are beginning to look at elementary schools. Our local school district has decided that every elementary school student should have the opportunity to learn either Chinese or Spanish.

So here are my questions. Should my two kids learn Spanish or Chinese? Which will be more useful? Which provides the most interesting window into a different culture? 20 years from now, which will be more beneficial in the job market? Which one will open the door to better trips for me when I retire?

Living what you believe

In 1990 I was visiting an elementary school in Alabama during recess. What I noticed was a bit shocking for me. The kids were all playing in groups. All of the groups were racially integrated, gender integrated and even, to some extent, age integrated. What determined the make up of each group was the clothes the kids were wearing.

Kids with more expensive clothes were playing with other kids who were wearing more expensive clothes. Kids with cheaper, more worn out and ill-fitting clothes were all playing together. The kids on the playground had literally grouped themselves based on family income bracket and I knew this by looking at the clothes they were wearing.

Ever since that day I've been a huge believer in school uniforms. I think they ought to be required starting in Kindergarten and ought to stay a requirement all the way through high school.

Tonight, however, I was looking at the website for the local elementary school my oldest child might attend next year. I was surprised to find that they require a school uniform four days a week. (Kids are allowed to wear their own clothes every Wednesday.) You'd think, given my strong belief in the importance of school uniforms I'd be happy, right?

Not me, my gut reaction was, "Screw them. They can't tell my kids what to wear." My gut reaction was to protect my kids' independence and freedom to choose to wear what they want to wear.

In the end, my head will over-rule my heart on this one and next summer I'll gladly shell out the bucks for the appropriate articles of clothing. But I'm not going to feel good about it. I'm going to feel like I did when I was a kid and my parents made me eat liver.

Making Grandma Margaret Proud...

I had Friday off so I took my kids to Broncos training camp. It ends up we live just a few minutes away from their headquarters and practice facility. We had a great time and the kids really did a good job of paying attention. I wasn't sure they would have much interest in watching practice. After about 90 minutes of watching we headed for the team store and then went home to eat lunch and get a nap.

As we were eating lunch, I asked my five year old son if anything at camp had surprised him. His response was, "yeah, I was surprised you actually bought us something."

My frugal grandmother will be proud!

Dress up clothes on a summer day

Senior Year

Has anyone read Dan Shaughnessy's book Senior Year? I've read one good review of it and it was enough to make me wonder if anyone else has picked it up. Peter King of Sports Illustrated recommended it in his blog.

She turned three this month!

Genetic Language

Subtitle: How to talk Minnesotan.

My four-year-old son tonight showed that language can be genetic. He's never lived in Minnesota but he came up with this classic gem.

Me: "Will you please take your red chair upstairs?"
Him: "Yep. You Betcha!"

Grandpa's birthday party

Sunday in the Park

Michael Jordan

Girls Got Game

So we did it. We went to a girls basketball game. Highlands Ranch vs. Ridgeview. Great defense wins games.

First, some meaningless thoughts on the game. #1 for Highlands Ranch just looks like a basketball player. At 5'10" she's listed as the tallest girl on the team but she's got a nice outside shot and can bury the three. #11 for HR played aggressive and was a lot of fun to watch but she wasn't concentrating and ended up on the bench with a bunch of early fouls. HR has a sophomore that got plenty of minutes last night but you could really tell she was a sophomore. This girl must be good to get those kinds of varsity minutes but I sure could tell the difference in approach and in the way she carried herself vs. how the seniors behaved. Finally, HR has a young team with only 3 seniors. They looked pretty good. Short -- but good.

Now to the important stuff. My 4 year old now knows that girls can play ball. More importantly, my two year old now knows that girls can play ball. I'm not sure if this next sentence is true or not but the two year old seemed a bit shocked by the aggressive and fast play. I'm not sure she'd ever seen other girls run and collide the way the girls last night were running and colliding. I'm glad she saw it.

I think we will continue to alternate between girls and boys games as the season wears on. We also need to make it to Boulder to see the Buffs play.

Boys vs. Girls

I have a four year old boy and a two year old girl. Friday night I took them to see a high school boys basketball game. This was a new experience for my daughter but my son has been to multiple high school games and two college games.

As we drove away from the game Friday night I mentioned that this time we watched boys play basketball but that next time we would probably go see girls play. I want to make sure my daughter sees games with girls playing.

My son, however, surprised me. He said, "Girls don't play basketball!" When I told him that girls do indeed play basketball he said, "That's strange."

Now fast forward to Sunday night. I ask my son and daughter if they would like to go to another basketball game. They both said, "YES!" Then I mentioned that this time it would be a girls high school basketball game. My son immediately looked disappointed. I asked him why and he said that watching girls play just isn't that exciting. I asked why not. He said because they don't dribble or block shots.

Hmmm.

He was surprised again when I told him that girls do indeed dribble and block shots.

Wonder where he picked up those attitudes?