At Lake Mohawk

We visited some good friends at Lake Mohawk. We had a great time on their boat, swimming on the lake, and hanging out at their beach.

More pictures below:

Sibling Closeness - Too Close, Or Spaced Just Right?

When I read Danielle Leshaw's essay in The New York Times Motherlode blog about her children attending overnight summer camp for the first time, and her response to the backlash I was really touched as I thought her story could so easily be confused with my own. I've often pondered the joys and fears of having siblings so close.

Letter To The New York State Education Department

Following the last School Board meeting of the year, with no word on how the board is planning on moving forward with the allegations of "testing irregularities" and two of our teachers left in limbo for the remainder of the summer with little hope of being able to return in September, some parents decided to write to the Commissioner of the New York State Education Department. Since the board is unlikely to make any changes or announcements until after the new school year starts, we're hoping that the state will investigate and set things right. (Please sign the petition.)

Here's the letter I wrote:

My Special Weekend

I had a great, long Independence Day/Birthday weekend. Besides the usual swimming, kayaking, playing, and "hammocking" my family made it all very special. My kids replaced my old work out beach chair with this awesome new one that reclines and has special holders for all kinds of goodies. Aviva made me my favorite birthday pie. It was delicious. And Babcia cut fruit for us as usual.

For my birthday tradition of giving people gifts that I want them to have I got everyone these customized wash cloths from Kid Kovers. Emily was very friendly and worked hard to get them to us in time for my birthday.

More pictures and video below:

Summer Learning Schedule

As the sign says, even though "school stops for summer, learning never should." And while there is all different kinds of learning, the kind that kids seems to slack off on during the summer is the academic kind. Apparently this is called the summer slide.

That's why its important to make a plan to keep kids practicing their academic skills throughout the summer. The worst case scenario is that they'll  be a little bored for the first few weeks while the class is reviewing what they learned last spring. If you're lucky, like we've been, their teacher will recognize where they are and let them move ahead at their own pace.

Speaking With The School Board, Part 2

A bunch of parents and I attended the June 25th board of education meeting to show our support for Mrs. Mehler and dissatisfaction with the way the district has handled the situation, again.

I was happy that so many people showed up to support Carin. It may have been more people specifically for her class, even though it wasn't as crowded overall. (You can watch all the commentary in the video below.)

Lying With Your Kids

There are many articles about why kids lie and teaching children to be honest. In Po Bronson's excellent piece Learning to Lie he said "Kids lie early, often, and for all sorts of reasons—to avoid punishment, to bond with friends, to gain a sense of control. But now there’s a singular theory for one way this habit develops: They are just copying their parents." Does that mean parents should never lie?

Father's Day

This is how I roll on Father's Day. It's my favorite day of the year.

More pictures below:                              

Speaking With The School Board

I went to my town's school board meeting to discuss the situation with our school's teachers being removed based on allegations that teachers provided improper coaching to a small number of students. It was the first time I had ever attended such a meeting and apparently it was unusually crowded. Many people showed up to demonstrate or speak out to support their teachers. The meeting started with tenure and congratulatory announcements to various faculty, including the retirement of our district's wonderful Youth Advocate, Mrs. Low.

Immediately afterwards the floor was opened for guests to speak at the podium, at which point most of the faculty, along with our school's principal left the premises. Right away some fellow parents asked me to speak, and fortunately I had gathered my thoughts earlier in the evening: (You can watch the video from the meeting below.)

MMA Ratings, Moving On

During my five years building and running MMA Ratings I poured a lot of time and energy into it. As time went on, it consumed and ever increasing amount of my time, and even though the site (traffic, audience, profit) was growing, it was not growing at nearly the same rate that the demands were. Ironically my first ever post about MMA was about the UFC's strategy to saturate the market and the potential negative impact it could have. Maybe it was a self fulfilling prophecy for me, though admittedly a lot of the demands on me were based on the type of site I was running.