Aaaaaaaargh!

Kami, that makes me SO MAD on your behalf. Argh! So frustrating!!! I wish I could write the school a strongly worded letter for you. >:(

Criminal Me

So I'm now into criminal activity. Yes, by keeping my daughter home for 8 days spaced throughout the school year, I received a letter today from my local police department informing me of my crime. And I quote, "This is a crime." Forget that Texas has THE MOST HOURS OF INSTRUCTIONAL TIME of any state in the country, (and one of the most in the ENTIRE WORLD) but I'm required to take my daughter to the school nurse to PROVE she's sick. And while I admit she wasn't sick all those days (she was some of them and oops, I didn't take her in--I QUIT jobs that required me to go in to prove I was sick) I did feel strongly that she needed a break. For example, two weeks ago after I got a note from the teacher that she hadn't been paying attention that day, I let her stay home, took her to preschool with her sister, let her play at the park, play with her friends, and spend almost the whole day outside. She's a bit temperamental (more so than my other kids) and had been screaming and upset at home as well. Problem solved, she was fine the next week and back to her normal self. But as the parent, I am obviously am so stupid and inept at raising my own children that I can't be allowed to give my 5 year a break from the long school day (more breaks are required by law for adult workers than my child gets). Because mental health is so OBVIOUSLY unimportant in this country, and no terrible crimes are ever committed because a child's mental well-being is ignored. 
http://www.centerforpubliceducation.org/Main-Menu/Organizing-a-school/Time-in-school-How-does-the-US-compare

Common Core Meeting

Thanks for the thought, Marilyn!!!  I didn't make it to the meeting but from what I'm hearing it was more of the same.  We don't want questions.  No straight answers.  Hoopla and hooey.

I did get a food order done, two sisters visited, my children fed, dog poo removed, and various and sundry other life details.

Good luck to us all tomorrow!

Andrea

I wish I could watch your kids for you.

Because I really want you to be at that common core meeting. And I am NOT good at things like that, I get flustered and cry. I would much rather watch your adorable children. :)

Mother's Day Talk

So now that I gave my bishopric the big lecture on getting high quality talks for mother's day--they gave me the opportunity to speak.  No pressure, right?  :)  Any suggestions would be appreciated.

I wish I had unlimited time to spend on preparing the talk but I am also teaching in RS the first Sunday in May and I'm supposed to be calling the sisters to repentance because nobody in our ward will accept callings.  (Currently the junior primary has teachers for only one class.)  I'm also supposed to be putting together an addendum to the visiting teaching message for May about the same topic.

I'm also supposed to be doing a ton of stuff for our combined RS/YW activity about self-reliance/knowledge.  I'll post details so you can offer suggestions when I have time.  Ha.  Time.

And this week I have three food orders to do and one commodities order and I handed off a needs assessment to my first counselor because I was feeling daunted by this week.  Plus we're supposed to do visits tonight in our meeting because the Bishop had a person that must. be. visited. this. week.

The bishop also wants me to meet with our prospective new second counselor to feel her out on whether or not she'd accept such an undertaking before the Bishop calls her in.

What I really wanted to do was attend a meeting tonight with the assistant state superintendent of education about the testing associated with common core.  I am vehemently opposed to common core and wanted to be on hand because I am pretty okay with speaking up in front of people and I'm not easy to push around on these issues because I'm a parent/teacher.  Can't pit me against myself.  :)  But . . . no babysitter to be found from 4-6 in the afternoon.  Wonder why they chose that time?  Oh yeah, they don't want people to actually learn about common core.  Sigh.

And I'm off now to tackle my day.  I came on to ask for advice for the mother's day talk and ended up rambling.

PS We're having our children's new favorite recipe for breakfast this morning: hulled barley cooked in blended up pears and water and cinnamon served with milk and craisins.  If you are interested in the details, let me know.  Barley has the most fiber of any grain and it is delicious.

Goodbye for real now.

Yes, my day does scare me, how can you tell?

Really now--I'm off.

My letter--any recommendations?

My name is Kami Latorre and I have two children in KISD and three more to follow. I am concerned about the enormous amount of time the K-5 children spend in classroom with only one recess.  I was dismayed when I received a minute to minute schedule of my child’s 7 + hour long Kindergarten day and found she had one 15 minute recess. 

As a nurse, I know that scientific research clearly shows that increased movement increases the blood flow to the brain, which in turn releases nerve growth factor which helps the brain grow, develop, and concentrate better.  It also releases hormones that counter anxiety, mellow moods, and increase happiness and self-esteem.  Even the CDC recommends at least 20 minutes of recess per school day.  Physical education classes are not held every day, so that does not make up the difference.

While I understand that KISD desires to educate children to a high academic standard and I support that, I do not believe that standard will be sacrificed by allowing the children a longer, or preferably, more recesses.  In fact, several academic studies, e.g. The Long-Run Impacts of Early Childhood Education, DeCicca & Smith, 2011,  I have researched have shown that many children, especially boys, are often not developmentally ready for long classroom days in Kindergarten, and their initial negative experiences leads to poorer academic performance throughout their primary and secondary education.  

Also, many countries that perform better than the US in international testing, have longer recesses and/or shorter school instructional time.  For instance, in Canada--which ranks higher and has a similar diverse population, school system, economy and culture--the province of Alberta requires 200 elementary school days a year and 950 hours of instructional time.  KISD has only 178 school days and Texas requires 1260 instructional hours. Hence, Alberta students are able to enjoy a relaxed schedule of starting later, releasing earlier, having two recesses and an hour long lunch break, while maintaining a high academic performance and healthy balance of work and play. 

I would urge you to increase the length and number of recesses in KISD for the K-5 grades.  If hours in the classroom cannot be sacrificed, then I would support lengthening the school year while adding more recesses and/or shortening the school day. I would also request that recess never be taken away as a form of punishment.  

My children deserve a robust education with opportunities for creative and engaging learning, as well as opportunities to release energy, move, be happy, and cope with stress naturally.  

Sincerely,

Kami Latorre

RS/YW activity

I am not chock full of ideas, but I can tell you a couple things I know.

One of our YW said that she wants to learn useful skills like budgeting, cooking, care maintenance etc., because she is recognizing that she will soon be living on her own and she wants to be prepared.

Fundraising in the church is discouraged, except under very specific conditions.  See Church Handbook 13.6.8, so anything you do there would definitely have to be cleared with the Bishop.  I'm not sure about soliciting materials - I know that the church is somewhat specific on that, but the paragraph about it was hard to find.  BUT, I love the idea of helping to set up the school room for the homeless shelter.  Are they gearing it towards adults or children?  You could make school supplies for kids like book bags, soft ABC books, etc.  Or make curtains or cozy cushions for seating.  Make mini chalkboards for practicing writing skills?  I don't know.  This is not my forte.

I like the idea of using your Dad as a speaker!  Especially if he's funny.  ;-)

Another educational topic would be First Aid, which is something from my growing up years that I have used over and over again as a Mom (thanks to the Red Cross babysitting class and Girls Camp for the knowledge!).

Your ideas so far sound great.  I am getting to be a bigger and bigger proponent of RS and YW meeting together more often.  I think YW need to think of Relief Society as an extension of Young Women, and not as a separate and totally lame program for old ladies. ;-)

Need Your Ideas

Hello Ladies,

I need you to get all creative for me.  Marilyn works in the YW program, and Julia and Kelly and Kami all have daughters in YW (or close to), so you should all have brilliant ideas for me.

The YW are meeting with the RS three times in May.  Our value is education.  Here are my ideas so far:

First meeting:

Opening exercises

Have someone (probably me) talk about the importance of an education and pass out a handout with various quotes from various church leaders about how critical it is for women to get an education.

Have a panel assembled of women with various educational/career backgrounds talk about why they studied what they studied and the pros and cons of their professional choices.  My sister did this when she was YW president and she had me sit on the panel.

I thought about closing with my dad or opening with my dad as the Dean of the college of Education at Weber and have him explain just how many women apply to his program who have met with some crises (divorced, widowed) and are trying to raise kids and go to school.  But . . . too much?  He's very funny.  I don't know--it was a thought.

Second Meeting:

No idea.  I mean, I've tossed around the idea of taking some tests that give career ideas.  I've thought about having my dad come that day and then when he was done talk about different career choices and how to apply for scholarships and how to graduate early or get college credit.  Too redundant with schools already talking about that stuff??

We also have to do a service project (guess we don't have to but it counts as their camp service project and we have tried to incorporate service each time we've met with the YW).  There is a homeless shelter in our area that is trying to set up a little school room so we thought we would find out what kind of supplies they needed and have the girls do something to raise money to get some of the items plus collect items from anyone in the ward that wanted to donate.

So maybe this night could be a bake sale or service auction--or a bake/service auction where the girls bring the items and then use the proceeds to help with the homeless shelter??  Could we do that as a ward activity on a Saturday?

Third Meeting:

Opening Exercises

Go to gym and play "The Price is Right" with a few of the YW.  Ask questions about laundry, cooking, organizing, cleaning, budgeting, menu-creation, etc.  Give prizes to the winners.

Have tables set up around the gym with one RS sister at each table (or at each end of a long table) showcasing one way that woman saves her family money by knowing how to do something or adds to the beauty/peace/enjoyment of her family by knowing how to do something.

After spending time going around to the tables, gather together again for a little 10 minute pep talk about how there are all types of education and every talent that you improve or every skill that you acquire will help you be more self-reliant, help your family be more self-reliant, and help you be more useful in the kingdom.

None of this is set in stone.  Just wondered, since you all know more than I do about this age group, what would be most useful for the girls.  ANY ideas would help me out.

(While you're thinking--we're meeting with the girls again the end of October and we've got nothing by way of ideas.  I think the value is good works.)

Loved this!

My cousin Steven Livingstone, posted this on Facebook, because he gets a lot of questions regarding natural remedies, etc.  He said this article pretty much matches his own feelings.  I loved it!!!  I guess it's the nurse in me.  I just wanted to share.  http://mobile.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/medical_examiner/2013/02/curing_chemophobia_don_t_buy_the_alternative_medicine_in_the_boy_with_a.html?fb_ref=sm_fb_share_toolbar&original_referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fm.facebook.com

Stewardship

I went to the temple on Friday night so I could get one last trip in before baby.  I paid a lot closer attention due to our discussions.  :)

When I left that night I was wondering a lot about stewardship.  We've talked about women's roles and whatnot, but the temple does indeed have parts that indicate men have an incredible stewardship/responsibility for their families.  For example, the new name.  We don't know our husbands but they know ours.

I haven't ever read about the priesthood with a husband's/father's role specifically in mind but I am curious about how that stewardship plays out or should play out in our home and in the eternities.

Does anyone have any good reading material about that?

Kelly,  I can't think of anything else we've done with the YW that would help you, but I am always trying to think of new ways to build the relationship between the two organizations.  In the handbook it says that one of a RS presidents main jobs is helping girls transition throughout their YW years into being RS members.

Everyone, this talk by Elder Bednar it is a game-changer.  For reals, man.  Read it.  Let me know what you think.