So both Alex and Melinda did incredibly well swimming in the swim-a-thon.  Alex swam 10 laps farther than he did last year and Melinda swam 30 laps more than last year.  Alex swam 2 miles in 2 hours and Melinda swam a mile in the same 2 hours.

alex putting in the last few laps

Melinda finishing strong

Melinda’s swimming has improved a great deal this year and she has been placing first or second in almost all of her competitions. Melinda has been training with the older kids this season and her confidence has improved greatly. Alex is obviously doing well again and is placing first in almost all of his races. The only one he has had trouble with is the butterfly stroke but I’m sure he will get it figured out in time. Both Alex and Melinda will be competing in the varsity all city meet and I’m sure they will both do very well.

getting it done

showing off her freestyle

working on that butterflystrong and ready for the race

Strong and ready for the race

 It is hard to believe that summer is almost over and school is about to begin.

Tags: Kid's and animals, Uncategorized, parenting by Randall
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  School out for the summer

Melinda is very excited about spending a day at school not doing any school work. I am not sure how I feel about another day of school without doing any studying. I don’t think it would bother me if it was just one day but the reality is that the whole last week is blown off. At any rate today was pirate day and Panayota put together a very fun outfit for her.

As for Alex he asked to stay home the last day as it was not going to be fun for him. His class is not going to be dong any studying to day ether but playing games. Most of the kids will be playing dodge ball an some how Alex did not get picked for any of the teams. Feeling a bit dejected he was not in the mood to go and watch the other kids he knew play while he was left out. I decided to let him off the hook and let him play hooky

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Tags: Public education RANT by Randall
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Building a brick patch work in front of the house…

It is wonderful how kids will take on a chore with pride.  We inherited bricks.  What to do?  Well – we hated the small rocks at the front of the house where we attached the garden hose.  A great location for brick work.  Alex seems to be enjoying moving around the sand and carefully placing each brick into place.  My job is to get the bricks from around the corner.  Melinda’s job is to dig into the dirt and place the edging in the right places.  Granted we may not be pros but it is great to see the pride on all of our faces as we work together.  Yes – the kids are working together.

Tags: Kid's and animals, chores, parenting by Panayota
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Alex’s B-day this year was at a hotel.

 Pattie got the idea from a friend at work. I don’t know – but I had never heard of doing this and thought it to be a bit odd. Alex had three friends spend the night with him and Pattie and (yes) I played chaperon for the night. We picked a business hotel knowing it would be cheap and thinking (wrongly) that the place would be all but vacant. The pool hours went until midnight so the boys would have fun swimming until late. There was also a game room and pool tables to keep them busy.

To my disbelieve, we were not the only ones having a party for kids at the hotel. I am obviously not up on things. A number of giggling girls of all ages were wondering the hallways all night because one of them was having her birthday party at the hotel as well. The real surprise for me was how packed the pool was at 11:30 pm. With families. Is our family the only family that tries to go to bed at a reasonable time? Even when we stay at a hotel we try to get our kids to bed. Well, this time we let the boys stay up until late to enjoy the time at the hotel. It was less expensive than taking them out someplace and it was something new for all of them. Although Melinda spent the night at grandma Judy’s, so as to not bother the boys, we of course, know what Melinda is expecting for her 13^th b-day.

Tags: Alex, new experiences, parenting by Randall
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So back to complaining about school!!!!

 Alex comes home very excited about a new program that he and a couple of his friends had found online, at school, during class. It was nothing inappropriate but when I asked him, what I thought an obvious question, Did you get all of your school work completed before playing with this new program? The answer: No not all of it, well not much of it. So what was the teacher doing during this time? She was doing something on her computer. Does she come around to see what everyone is working on? No. I have said it before – I can’t believe that teaching has become a completely passive process. I am going to look into the latest online school and see what they have to offer. Why take the time to take them to school to be TAUGHT, when they are so frequently just given some assignment and then no one checks to see if in class they are actually doing anything.

Tags: Public education RANT by Randall
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