Thursday, March 31, 2011

Spring Training


Markus had practice tonight for baseball. His team, the Red Wings, looks like it will be a good one. There are a few kids on the team that can really hit. I enjoyed sitting outside, watching him play and soaking up the sun. He and Max are upstairs fighting over who knows what as I am writing this. So I am going to go break it up now. Sometimes...

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Bright-On

Markus snowboarding on Friday

at Brighton

Doing his toe side turns are easy for him now

Max took him through the Jedi trees
Since the boys were out of school on Friday, Max of course wanted to go snowboarding. Markus agreed to come even though it is not his favorite thing and Morgen just wanted to stay home. It was a great day as far as the snow goes and it wasn't too cold either. Markus had a little melt down when we got there because his snowboarding boots were too small, but once I rented him some (two sizes) bigger ones, he was fine. I just stayed with him and Max went off to do his own thing for most of the day. Until the last run and then Max wanted to teach Markus how to board in the trees. I think he got stuck like 4 times and had to hike out, and 35 minutes later they made it down from crest. Crazy fun boys!

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

What are you proud of?


Max's Lightning Trophy
I don’t seem to have anything to post on tonight. No worries. It happens. And usually when it does, I let the blog sit blank for a day.


But on this the last Tuesday of March 2011, I want to hear your thoughts. I want to hear what went well or what you did well so far this month.

For Morgen it’s been a difficult day. The PS3 is broken; he is sick and just discovered that his girlfriend lied to him. He has broken up with her, again, and I think he means it this time. He changed his status on Facebook.

But there have been successes too, Max had his awards ceremony tonight where he received his trophy and Morgen is at a concert with his friend Austin, which he never would have gone to had his PS3 been working and if Brittani was still his girlfriend. But the most glowing, fantastical joy of March 2011 is my boy’s love for each other.

It’s been a long time coming. Kids fight; siblings compete. Three boys create a hug testosterone imbalance at my house (and their little dog Molly is just as wild). But my kids have finally caught the vision of working and laughing together, most of the time. Except for Saturday. Yeah, I almost forgot about that. They were fighting about who wanted to do which chore. Max wanted to still do the dusting and Markus wanted to trade picking up Molly's poo for dusting instead (can you blame him?) but it turned into an all out battle. I wanted to runaway, and I don't just mean in my car. It wasn't my proudest moment. Yeah, except for that I mean they have been better about working together.

Do tell. What has been your greatest success of 2011 so far?

Monday, March 28, 2011

Winding Down

Max had his last Lightning practice for this season tonight. He has his team party tomorrow night at Boondock's and another tournament this weekend. And then baseball starts on Monday. He had tryouts last month and his first practice for the White Sox team was last Wednesday. It's still pretty cold out there for baseball if you ask me, but 'tis the season, I guess. :)

Sunday, March 27, 2011

Had It With Homework

Max told me tonight before he went to bed that he hates school. It’s the homework. I’ll admit it—I am a conscientious objector when it comes to homework. I have had more than a few conversations in which I have questioned the educational value of the assigned work, if not questioned the practice as a whole. My second grader after being gone a full day, comes home with a packet every week. My sixth-grader’s folder usually runs in excess of five to six pages, sometimes up to ten. Which might include, say, mapping all of contemporary Central America, as well as all the major cities and landforms of the ancient Mayan, Incan, and Aztec Empires—and that’s only a portion of a single night’s work. It takes at least an hour for him to do homework, and that doesn’t include his mandatory fifteen minutes of math facts or silent reading time. I know this is the worst of it.

I am troubled by this trend. With the classes I took in child development, I am disturbed by this disconnect between theory and practice. In fact, I regularly have to talk myself out of marching into the principal's office for a polite, factually supported, educational smack down. Children, especially young children, need to be exploring; they need outside time, they need play time, and they need to develop social skills, not spend one more hour with a pencil in their hand or flashcards. When questioned about the homework, principals and teachers say, “Well they need to develop the habit early,” or “The parents expect it.” Really? At seven? The research does not support this and is considered, at best, to be mixed on homework as a whole. Policy seems to be more driven by popular opinion and myths rather than fact.

Morgen doesn't even have this much homework in high school, and even then it is minimal: he does some studying for AP classes, some math problems, a few book reports or projects, but he doesn't have a steady flow of daily hours of busy work. And he is managing just fine in school.

What troubles me is that I don’t see any benefit in it for our children. I do not think they are smarter, or happier, or more creative for it. Homework just seems to be a hassle for everyone—the kids, the parents, and the teachers. It just adds stress and headaches all around. It often feels like schools are trying to copy other cultural models of education, instead of admitting that busy work and skill and drill are not the answers.

What trends have you seen in homework?

Saturday, March 26, 2011

Four More Games

Max had four more games today in the 3 on 3 tournament that started yesterday.

Markus always wants to come watch

Game # 3

The Silver Snipers team

The Rhino team won it in a shoot out

Game # 4

vs. The Fighting Irish again

and the Irish won this time

Max awaiting game # 5...


which they lost in a shoot out to the Rhinos team again. Only this time Max was taking the final shot, and Connor blocked his shot.

Game # 6 vs. the Bruins ended in a loss as well 6-5.
He still had a fun time playing hockey with so many of his friends. And I always like to watch Max play hockey.

Friday, March 25, 2011

3 on 3

Max's 3 on 3 tournament started tonight

His coaches from last year invited him to be on a team called the Silver Snipers

They played great in the first game and beat the Fighting Irish but only by one point

Both teams had great players on them, including some of Max's team mates from this year and previous years

The next game was against the Bruins and I thought that we won but when the score came out it was actually a loss. Oh, well, it is hard to keep track of these fast paced half ice games. Max still had a great time.

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Art Works

Max's Art Work
I just received an email that the Art Works for Kids program will be available for another year at the boys school. It was granted another 4 million dollars from the state legislature.

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Fun, Fun, Fun!

Funny boys!
Max's Lightning coach, Volker, gave the boys these t-shirts and tickets to the Grizzlies game tonight. It was an exciting game going into over-time and then a shoot out with the Grizz losing by one.

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Spring

As the first day of spring has come and past I am feeling like this winter will really last until at least next month. Markus went to a birthday party for his friend McKay tonight at a place called Airbourne. He thought it was pretty awesome and didn't mind missing his awards night tonight since he already picked up his trophy last night when Max had his awards ceremony. After I finished teaching I went to pick him up and it looked like he had a great time, he was sweating and had a grin from ear to ear. He keeps asking me when he gets to go back! It looks like a fun place to spend these cold nights.

Monday, March 21, 2011

Awards Night

Max holding the "Sportsmanship" plaque

Austin and Max

Max receiving his trophy

with coaches Doug and Abel

The whole Sioux team
Max's fourth year of county youth league hockey concluded with awards night. He was laughing when he learned that his team had won the "Sportsmanship" award. Which was presented to the team with the lowest number of penalty minutes for the entire season (aka losing the most games!). He had a fun time playing with his friends Austin and Max this year. He and Markus also wanted to stay and skate with all the pee-wees in the league. They talked me into coming out on the ice with them and I had a good time playing around on the ice. Even though I am on the ice about five hours a day on most days, I really don't have the chance to skate that much. Not that I can really even skate any more, my body just doesn't move the way it used to when I was younger. That and my jeans don't stretch enough either. :)

Between snowboarding this morning with my friend Kelly and skating tonight - I will be sore tomorrow. Still it was fun skating with my boys.

Sunday, March 20, 2011

The Champs

{Some photos of today's games}

7:00 a.m. game vs. Boise Steelheads

Victory!

Championship Game

1:00 game vs. Idaho Falls Eagles

Max on Defense

Since I was helping out in the penalty box I had a front row seat for photos

Winners!

The undefeated team for this tournament

All the team awaiting their medals ceremony


Final score: Lightning 4 - Idaho Falls 1


Max after receiving his medal

Coach Volker with his son Cody

Max holding the championship trophy with coaches Shane, Volker and Noel
The Pee-Wee Champions!

Markus, Max and the captain of the team, Alex

Saturday, March 19, 2011

GOAL!

Max scored his first goal on the Lightning team tonight



He was pretty excited about it



The Lightning won the game against the Idaho Falls Eagles Black team 8-0.

Friday, March 18, 2011

Game vs. P.C.

Game Two versus Park City today

Thinking it was going to be an easy win...

Think again!

Park City was winning 3-2 but the Lightning pulled it out for a win

Final: 5-4

Markus, Max, Killian and Jack