Chalk and Cheese Chronicles

Recognizing All PeaceBuilders

A new crop of young PeaceBuilders was recognized today. The whole school, along with teachers, school staff and invited parents, attended the monthly ceremony.

PeaceBuilders are recognized for modeling various forms of kindness.

Today's line up seems to be a who's who of the model student roster. The quiet ones, the rule followers, the timid speakers, and the do-gooders. These are the children who never move off green (for best behavior) in the classroom behavior chart. These are the children who never stand out to me when I volunteer in the classroom, mostly because they are focused on quietly completing their work.

I applaud the children who do win this sort of recognition. They stay on green, they do their work, they aren't disruptive. But I worry that the more, shall we say, exuberant students, are passed over, their behavior clouding any act of kindness. I worry that boyish boys aren't seen as PeaceBuilders, and aren't they the ones who could use additional recognition and praise as we guide them along the path of acceptable behavior?

Some children bring stressful home life issues into the classroom. Some children have social issues. Some children are immature. Some boys are rambunctious. But a lot of these children have vastly improved their behavior during the course of the school year. These are the children whom I would like the teachers to really notice. I want these kids to be recognized for the effort they've put forth since the first day of school. Surely, these kids have shown PeaceBuilder qualities, but in the midst of "exuberant" behavior, is it ever noticed?

One day, I hope that these types of kids get the recognition they're due. Being a silent, model student in the classroom is not the only pathway to academic or job succes. Rote memorization and a tacit style are not the only means of learning. I want teachers to see worth and possibility in every single kid, not just the model student whose behavior best enables the teacher to get through a lesson plan. I want them to see the child who shouts out the answer as one who is excited about learning rather than one who is hell bent on disrupting the class. Guide that child, but reward him as well. I want schools to see that kindness is being played out even in what looks to be a rough pretend battle of Star Wars. These are the kids who really need that self-esteem boost!

My kids land somewhere in the middle. They are neither the best behaved nor the worst. But they have overcome obstacles such as immaturity (they are the youngest in their class), sibling rivalry (twin boys) and bullying (yes, my son was bullied and he learned to handle it amazingly well) - I know there were PeaceBuilder moments in their journey. While I don't want the world to revolve around my kids, I know a little recognition would go a long way.

There's a PeaceBuilder in nearly every child. Yes, it's more obvious in the obedient children, but schools should take the time to look for PeaceBuilder qualities where it's not obvious.

P is for (Dog) Poop!

Apparently, along with learning the letters of the alphabet, kindergartners at our school are learning the important life skill of how to avoid stepping in dog poop.

I know, I know - I have 7-year-old boys - poop is a really funny word. I hear the word 100x a day. BUT it's not funny when it's dog poop and it ends up on your kids' shoes, or in their clothes while they're at school. No, not funny at all.

Our school is an open campus; our city allows for the public to use the school during non-school hours. So they come in droves, to play baseball, to play basketball... and to walk their leashed and unleashed dogs.

Did I mention that dogs are not allowed on campus?

The school's perimeters are fenced, and the smaller kindergarten area in particular is fenced in on all sides, making it a desirable area for dog owners to unleash their dogs.

The kindergarten area turns into a dog run after hours. When the school children return to campus the next day, there's the inevitable squish of a tiny sneaker in a big pile of dog poop. It's in the grass, along the fence and even in the playground.

Over on the soccer fields, dogs also run wild, tails wagging and tongues unfurled as their owners toss them frisbees and balls. I've even seen what looks to be doggie playgroups meeting up on those fields.

My son plays soccer, and as he was running toward me, we both nearly landed in a big mound of dog turd. Lovely.

Some dog owners are responsible, picking up after their dogs with little plastic bags they carry with them; others just pretend they didn't see it. Still, one mom complained that even though a pile of poop had been picked up, there's still the residual poop that gets caked into the crevices of shoes and such.

There a few signs posted along the school entrance gates an image of a dog with a big red slash overlayed: No Dogs. But the signs depicts an image of a particular breed of dog, the doberman. I saw a pit bull strut right past that sign; he can't read, but clearly, the sign only applied to dobermans, right?

Even families of kids who attend our school bring their dogs there to play. I say, improve the No Dogs Allowed signs, circulate some flyers around the neighborhood (these are neighborhood dogs, after all), discuss the issue with the students, direct dog owners to a nearby park, and send out an email blast to the school community. No dogs on campus! Spread the word! Stomp out Poop -- figuratively speaking.

A teacher at school came up with the ingenious idea of what I call the Dog Poop Alert cone.

It probably takes some training to get the kids to stay away from this cone. After all, it's decorated in cute stickers of doggies. I even wanted to get a closer look! So the cone is not home base, or a place to collect cute doggie stickers - it's a warning that a mushy or dry pile of dog turd is either inside it, or just nearby. Stay away!

So dog owners (and I was once one of you), please, please don't take your fur babies to the school to run around, leashed or unleashed, poop pickup bags or not. The poop is nasty and it smells and it comes into the classroom. Please take your dogs to the dog park instead - and do pick up after them. Nobody likes to step in dog poop!

The New Birthday Trend: 7-11

The Pump-it-Up birthday party is so 2008.  This year, we're planning to do something a little different for my boys' birthday party. We're going to 7-11!

This is my husband's brainchild. Each party guest, he said, will receive a commemorative cup. Big Gulps and slurpees for everyone.

If you've been around my boys lately, you know that they are the have-nots when it comes to the contents of their lunchbox.  They don't get Lunchables. They don't get chips. They don't soda.

Whine, whine, whine. Everybody else gets Chips Ahoy in their lunch. Everybody else gets Gatorade in their lunch.

I'm not a great cook, but I put a considerable amount of thought into what I put in their lunch boxes. I do draw the line at making bento box style lunches, because I would have to make 200 tiny shapes out of carrots just to make one satisfying side dish for my hungry boys. I wouldn't say my boys' lunch box contents are pretty, but it's filled with whole grain goodness, fresh fruit, fresh veggies, and usually some sort of treat I've baked or cooked myself. For a beverage, there's water.

But I think my efforts at promoting healthy eating habits are backfiring, especially as my boys get older. Their classmates' lunches are filled with Doritos, Capri Suns and candy. Everywhere we go, my boys point out the kids around them who get to drink soda. "That 3-year-old has a soda," my boys wail, while looking down at their cups of tap water.

My boys are the first to devour any sort of junk food. It's as if they think they won't ever see it again.

"All we get is organic and whole grains," they lament.

So I've been giving them a bit of what they want. I'm not against junk. My kids occasionally get ice cream and cake and pizza and so on. I've even buy a bit of processed food for them, but I think they are growing sick of Annie's Cheddar Bunnies. They want Goldfish crackers in rainbow colors.

I'm tired of all the complaining. One day, I'm just gonna do it. I'm going to fill their lunch boxes with the stuff of junk food dreams:  Lunchables, a soda, Red vines for straws and Hostess Ding Dongs. Maybe I'll do it on their birthday.

Then we'll host a party at 7-11. It'll be a bit like that scene from Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Roddrick Rules where Greg and his older brother Roddrick go on a junk food binge in a convenience store. We'll have a hot dog eating contest. We'll  buy everyone Big Gulps and play a brain freeze game! We'll give away Slim Jims as prizes.

It'll be the party of my kids' dreams.

Then after that, what will I get? Either two kids who are sick to death of junk food or junk food devotees for life.

 

 

 

 

Ano Nuevo, Rain or Shine with Elephant Seals

Rain or shine, that should be the motto of Ano Nuevo State Park where we'd gone this past Saturday on the last day of guided tours which ran December 15 - March 31. It poured just for us that day.

Seeing the Ano Nuevo elephant seals up close had been on my bucket list of things to do around the Bay Area. I'd seen them serenditiously once a few years back near San Simeon; we'd looked out the car window from the road and there they were, hundreds of big testosterone fueled bulls, throwing their weight around. It was an awesome sight. Still, the experience left me wanting more. It felt like cheating seeing them from a roadside parking lot. 

Ano Nuevo is a state park in Pescadero, between Davenport and Half Moon Bay and a protected refuge for elephant seals. It's a beautiful drive to get there. I'd booked the 9:15am guided walk, the first tour of the day. The early morning sky was cloudy as we left our home and we drove through patches of fog over 17.

Bu just as we were pulling up to the ranger station to pay our 10 dollar parking fee, it started to rain. By the time we drove 100 feet to the parking lot, it was pouring. We parked and looked up at the sky, wondering if the rain would abate.

Soon, a few other cars started to arrive. Kids and parents huddled around their cars, like nervous water fearing cats.

My kids had on rain jackets atop layers of clothing, and rain boots. The husband and I were only semi prepared for rain; we had on water resistent jackets, but for shoes, we were wearing light mesh sneakers. Grandpa was the most prepared, clad in head to toe waterproof clothing. We had one umbrella among us. 

The rain was unrelenting. The rain was sideways!

The families with kids turned and fled, probably heading to Starbucks. This was a definite rainstorm. I looked at the emptying parking lot and thought we'd better leave as well. But grandpa and the husband had resolve. "We'll be fine," the husband encouraged.

I ducked into the gift shop and emerged with a two dollar rain poncho, in bright yellow. "Ok, I'm ready," I said, smiling weakly.

About eight other people also had resolve so we followed them, this group of 30-something singles, all dressed in hiking boots. They looked cold, but not bothered by the downpour. Then down the trail we went to meet our guide at the big tree on a distant bluff. That tree looked miles away.

We sloshed down the well marked and well maintained path, past and through puddle after enormous puddle. We were soaked. But as we walked, we got our mojo back. It was still pouring but it was exhillerating to be outside while mother nature did her thing, even if were soaked and chilled to the bone.

As this was the end of the elephant seal season, we saw only pups. They were in swim school! Our guide said the pups were the class of 2012. They were cute, looking back at us with their inky, curious eyes. As we walked through a couple of small dunes, I tried to imagine what the place would look like while crowded with adult elephant seals at the height of the mating season. We passed the skeleton of a pup who'd been probably crushed by the weight of an adult male.

Toward the end of the walk, the rain settled into a drizzle and we saw other groups heading up the trail. We passed a woman already carrying a small child which is something you probably don't want to do on a wet, soggy day. Parts of the trail were definitely slippery. I don't think I could have managed to carry a small child for 4.5 miles, even in dry weather. It's just too far of a walk for small kids. Strollers are not recommended, especially on sand dunes! There are no snack breaks either and food is not allowed on the trail. So if you have small children - wait until you know they can walk the entire way. My kids are 7 and adventuresome but it still felt as if we were holding up the 30-somethings in our group.

I'd looked into touring Ano Nuevo before the start of the guided season. At the time, there'd been plenty of space available, but then I got busy and forgot to book until it was nearly too late. The best time to see the Ano Nuevo elephant seals if probably toward the end of January, at the height of the land population. We'll go again next year. It's an amazing experience.

Ano Nuevo is a rain or shine destination. In fact, our guide said the elephant seals like the rain. So next season, go forth and book a guided walk with confidence, it will not be canceled, rain or shine. But heed the advice of the bring rain gear! We also packed extra day clothes, which we slipped into thankfully after the tour.

Don't let the rain deter you. When most everyone else packed up and left, we stayed... and had an adventure!

 

 

 

Boring little me gets censored

I am not a controversial figure. I don't start flame wars. I don't swear (in front of the kids). I don't hold extreme opinions. But when it comes to public school, it seems I belong in the corner.

This time, it's the school's Yahoo! group. Yes, they are still on Yahoo! groups and - it gets worse - it's a moderated group.  Every single post must past muster with a volunteer moderator. Every. single. post. This must mean that at one time, someone, probably a parent, said something unpopular. Perhaps they complained about Star Testing or about their kids having to make missions in 4th grade. I'm sure they were quickly quieted.  Negativity is unpopular.

I've posted twice to this group, and twice got rejected. The first time I posted a friendly reminder to please drive carefully around the school. My kids and I had nearly been run over by an inattentive mom who'd droppped off her kids at the curb and nearly sped right into us while we were in the crosswalk. She didn't look! But my comment was denied and that mom is probably still out there driving carelessly.

The second time I posted to the group was today. I wanted to reach the parents whose kids, like mine, participate in the after school soccer program. The after school soccer is run by an outside organization who'd somehow ended the 8 week session after just 7 weeks. We'd paid for 8 weeks, we got 7.

I emailed the organization until they finally replied that yes, there would be a make up practice and that they'd emailed us parents to let us know.  Apparently, nobody showed up because 1) The week of the makeup practice was an early pickup week and 2) I don't think any of us parents received that email. So I pressed them once more and the soccer coach in charge said he'd move the final practice to this week (today), again saying he'd emailed the parents once more. That email never reached me either.

Out of options and worried that no kids would show up, I posted to the school Yahoo! group that today would be the final practice. The message was directed at parents whose kids were enrolled in after school soccer. (I don't know these parents and have no other means of contacting them.) Just as I thought, the parents who replied seemed to have no idea there would be a final practice today; none of us seem to be getting emails from the soccer coach. I told myself it was a good thing I'd emailed the Yahoo! group.

A few of us parents went back and forth trying to clear up confusion. This is a pretty quiet Yahoo! group, so this little burst of email activity would probably feel annoying to some.

I replied-all to a question I thought had been sent to the entire group and the moderator turned me down. In fact, of my 3 or so postings to this thread, I think only the initial one made the list.

I come from the social media world, where it's all chatter, all the time. The people in my social media circles are all over the place; they are a noisy bunch of over-sharers.  They fill out their G+ profiles and pin and tweet and comment. I'm also used to moms in my twin's club and their lively and sometimes judgemental postings about anything and everything - bring it on!  I'm actually quite quiet in the social media world, comparitively speaking. But when outside of that bubble, and back in the world of public school, I guess I'm a bit of a trouble maker.

I find our school's Yahoo! group to be too confining. Really, I'm not out there complaining about school lunches -- though when I think about it, why couldn't a school parent complain about school lunches, or about teens who run along the rooftops at night? I figured out the posting guidelines there pretty quickly and that is, keep it inocuous, informative and positive. My humble opinion? Open up the forum to more conversation and you bring a community closer together.

But forget I said that. I'll be even quieter there now that I've left our school's Yahoo! Group. I don't think I will miss it.

 

 

 

My Favorite Film About Twins: The Parent Trap (1961)

When I was a kid, one of my favorite movies was The Parent Trap, the 1961 Walt Disney film starring Hayley Mills. I was fascinated by the parallel lives of identical twin teens Susan Evers and Sharon McKendrick, who were separated at birth by their divorced parents, each of whom took one child.

The girls led equally affluent lives on opposite coasts; Sharon in Boston, sophisticated and posh; Susan in California, laid back and casual. Not knowing they were twins, they meet by chance at summer camp, hurl insults at each other and soon discover the truth. A sisterhood blooms as a plan is hatched to switch places and trick their parents. 

As a kid, it did seem odd that each parent would split the twins at birth. But I didn't give it much thought, I was willing to accept the crazy premise just to see the shenanigans in action. I loved the whole switcheroo thing and could not believe that one actress (Hayley Mills) played dual roles. Thanks to split screen technology, I watched in awe as Hayley Mills stood next to ... Hayley Mills. I remember I had the Parent Trap chapter book, bought through Scholastic at school and I used to read and re-read that book, alternately imaging myself as each girl.

I loved the whole thing. Hayley Mills, her parents, the summer camp, the sophisticated apartment in Boston, the ranch style home in California, the practical jokes, the old-fashion speech cadences (if Anthropologie could bottle vintage speech patterns in an antique milk bottles, they would bottle this one) - the whole thing drew me in.

Now that I'm grown and have twins of my own,  I'm shocked that anyone would ever knowingly split up twins. In the Parent Trap, the parents never make an attempt to keep the girls together, or to stay in touch at all. Now that blows my mind. Here, you take baby A, and I'll take baby B - have a good life!

How could any mother be satisfied with raising only one of her twins, without any sort of relationship with the other? How could you knowingly raise twins apart without telling them? Personally, I would forever be curious about the twin I would not raise, I would forever have that deep maternal longing. And I would be sad that my twins would grow up without each other.

When the Parent Trap twins switch places, hilarity ensues. Neither parent initially suspects a thing. I laughed hard at this movie as a kid and I still laugh along with it now. But today, as a parent of twins, I start to question the premise, even as I'm laughing.

How can a parent of twins not know which twin is which (with the exception of the infancy stage where even partents of twins have trouble telling them apart), especially a twin one has raised exclusively? Wouldn't the twin you raised be easy to recognize, if not initially, then eventually? Identical twins have their own personalities, have mannerisms which are unique to each one and have slight to moderate differences in physical appearance. Perhaps Sharon and Susan were mirror image identicals, which would mean that Sharon would be right-handed and Susan left-handed! I just don't see how the parents could have been so easily tricked.

So while the Parent Trap remains one of my all time favorite family films, I do see it through two different perspectives these days, now that I'm the mother of twins.  Actually, the Parent Trap is the only film about twins that I have even seen. I skipped the 1988 Danny DeVito - Arnold Schwarznegger film, Twins. I didn't manage to catch Adam Sandler's latest film, Jack and Jill. But that gives me an idea. I think I'll line up a few of these films about twins in my Netflix queue and have my own little home film fest about twins!

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The Joy of Walden West Summer Camp Registration

The morning was not pretty for me.  Today was summer camp registration for Walden West, a date I'd had circled on my calendar for months, with auto-reminders coming at me once a week.

I remembered the date for weeks and then, this morning, I forgot. When I saw the reminder pop up on my phone at 7am, I flew into panic mode.

Registration opens at 7:30am and every session for 2-7 grades fills within minutes, with the exception of the week of July 4th.

I logged in, brought up the registration page and waited, my first choice session circled on the calendar beside me.

At 7:30 exactly, I refreshed my page. Scrolling quickly down to the session I wanted, I clicked the add button but nothing happened. The site was now live, but it kept asking me to enter a name.

I remember having trouble with this before -- and we've been to this camp two summers so far.

What was happening? I kept clicking add, hoping it would bring up another screen so I could then enter my kids' names, but nothing came up. I was stuck.

At this point, I may have yelled out some not-so-nice words in front of my kids. Mind you, this was at 7:30am, the time when most parents are busy getting breakfast ready and kids out the door.

So there I was, with this screen that was doing nothing while my kids were doing nothing when they ought to have been getting dressed for school. In a panic, I called my husband over. "Look at this screen, what do I do?" I cried.

"You need to put in their names in those fields right in front of you. Right there," he said, pointing out the obvious. But he added, "Welcome to a website circa 1998!"

Sure enough, the fields were there on the same screen I'd been staring out this whole time. It just doesn't pop out. All I saw was the "add" session button, that's it.

All the sessions were filling, spots left were zeroing down. The session I'd wanted was gone. The time was 7:32am.

So I went for another session and got in by the skin of my teeth. The rows of sessions were hard to eyeball and I very nearly registered my boys for two separate sessions. My hands were shaking.

I stumbled out of my office and down to the kitchen to finish making breakfast. I could barely think of what to do... my adrenaline was still racing. It's ironic to have to go through this stress just to register my sons for a week of stress free summer camp in the mountains!

Walden West is the only camp on our list that fills so quickly. The others usually have more availability because their programs are bigger and spread out amongst more locations. Walden West has one location for summer and that's it. Parents are limited to one week of camp per child unless there's availability later on.

It's crazy. I hate having to go through this just to get my kids into Walden West. But that said, even though we didn't get into my preferred week, they will have fun. Walden West is an amazing summer camp experience, the kind that kids will talk about when they're grown. It's a true summer camp, with no heavy curriculum, just kids and nature. It's probably a lot like Hidden Villa camp.

We are also going to Camp Galileo, a science camp with a curriculum. My kids love it there, too. I like to mix things up, a little bit of free roaming at Walden West and a little bit of structured camp at Camp Galileo, plus some other camps and mini vacations thrown in for good measure.

What are you doing this summer? If you registered for Walden West, do you have a method to the madness? Do you have two laptops going at registration? There was no joy in the process of registering for Walden West summer camp, none.

The take home message? For newbies, set up an account in advance so that all you need to do is the registration part on the big day. For returnees, make sure you log-in and do a registration run-through in advance, even if you've gone through registration there in years past. This will be our 3rd summer at Walden West and I still didn't remember what to do on registration day. I'd totally forgotten to do a run-through and registration day crept up even though I had reminders buzzing everywhere. I'm just lucky my laptop remembered my Walden West password.

See you at camp!

 

 

 

 

How Does a Mother Cope with Three Sons Lost?

Old images wave to me from the Super 8 film. It was a happy time, a father and his four children sledding down a snowy hillside behind their home in Southwest France. "Maman!" they wave as the camera follows them in a blur. Down they slide, sometimes alone and sometimes doubled up. Then, images of the father, dragging the sled up the hill, over and over again.

I notice blue sky above the scene and wonder, what might I have been doing as a child on that same day long ago, under that same sky, a continent away? 

Another reel of another day long since gone, and this time, it's Christmas morning. In every frame, the French father is looking down, puzzling over toy assembly, surrounded by kids. We are seeing this world through her eyes, the mother.

My father, too, probably spent that same Christmas morning assembling toys.

The reel flickers to an end and the French boyfriend smiles and says, "That is the life of P family," and I smile to see him dusted in happy childhood memories. I go to the window and spot the hill, the one made just right for sledding on rare snowy days. Happy memories happened right there.

I'm often struck by the stories behind old images of young families. It's the time before life happened and things perhaps got tricky. I'm drawn to those old images, wondering about the in between, from marriage to divorce, from birth to old age, from innocence to reality. Sometimes it was a path well chosen, and sometimes not. It's a bit voyeuristic in an Ebenezer sort of way.

There was a room in the old French house, the only one on an in-between floor. It was here that the oldest brother died, a few years before I viewed those Super 8 films. The door was always closed, as if shuttering off a life. In this room is where one of the boys on the sled ended up, dying of AIDS as young man. We sneak a peek and see the bed, dark like a tombstone. I was years away from being a mother, but my heart ached in sympathy for the mother and for the father.

The French boyfriend didn't last, and I moved on. Then, a few years later, a devastating call at work. "Did you hear about our friend?" the caller asked. "He took his life."

And the world fell from under me. It wasn't remorse over the demise of our brief relationship. It was more that I was standing at the abyss of loss beside his mother, feeling her pain.

Once in a great while, she creeps into my mind, this mother, and I wonder how she has been coping, if she has been able to cope. Now that I am a mother, I cannot fathom the sadness she must feel at two sons lost.

There is another son, and a daughter. Hope.

I've never known the details of how her youngest son left this world. I only know it happened in the adjacent guest house, the morning of a significant birthday. His dog had been barking and then they found him.

Recently, I wondered if anything had been written about him. Memoirs can be therapeutic, did they write one, his parents? I don't know them anymore, and barely ever knew them at all, but still, I do remember. So I threw his name out into the Internet and got... nothing. I remembered his brother's name, it was either this name or that name and so I typed in both and there, on the screen, I saw him.

It was the same face peeking out of his surviving brother, a face I hadn't seen in 15 years. The resemblance was remarkable. But it was older and lined, framed by long loose curls and flourished with mauve spectacles. Him! Well, not him, exactly, but the other older brother, who was now a SHE, a middle-aged she.

The surviving brother openly identifies as transgender, and recently came out. I skimmed the article, written in French. Her parents don't speak to her, her children don't speak to her.

I know -- good for her for being true to herself. But I can't help but think about the parents. That's three sons lost. Indeed there was a daughter found, but not without some pain, I'm sure.

This is why the past is sometimes best left in the past. The reality might have been different, but in the way back, forgotten part of my mind, it was comforting knowing the parents had two happy, healthy surviving children.

I wonder how they cope with three sons lost? One lost to AIDS, one to suicide and one to the opposite gender role? The cumulative loss must be profound.

My mind races back to that reel, back to that time before the darkness. I go back to that snow covered hill and see children playing, their parents by their side. They are young and fresh-faced and alive. They have no idea how it will turn out.

Like the Ghost of Christmas past, I want to tell them all to take a different path. I want to hug the parents, for I know what's coming.

I realize this is a downer of a post, and not in keeping with my usual posts about children's museums and tooth fairies, but it's a story of childhood and life and the road one family traveled.

I wish the mother of these three lost sons well.

 

Image: Microsoft Clipart

 

 

Camp Galileo: These Stars say it's all good!

It's February, the month I usually start thinking about summer camps.

This will be our second year of Camp Galileo (aka Camp G). Check out my son's video in that post and you'll see how engaged he was (at age 6) during his week of sleuthing about impressionist paintings as a "detective in Paris" this past summer.

My boys almost never vividly describe their day to me at pickup. They say that everything was "good." School was good. Camp was good. The birthday party was good. Basically, it means they're blowing me off. It means, I did it and it was GOOD and now I'm busy playing so leave me alone! I have to wait a few hours or days for the details to come pouring forth. Some details never come.

I mention this because last week, I recently had the chance to sit down with the team at Galileo Learning and explore beyond my kids' one word descriptor. Turns out the word "good" is just a springboard for the Galileo Innovation Approach which means, always: Be Visionary, Be Courageous, Be Collaborative, Be Determined and Be Reflective.

This mindset, repeated in the curriculem for every theme, at every camp, year after year is important. Children will learn, over time and with repetition, to use this mindset when faced with a challenge; and they'll learn how to gather knowledge in the process of creating and bringing a new idea to fruition.

School gives my kids the basics. Camp Galileo teaches kids what to do with those basics in a variety of disciplines such as art and science. I wish that Camp Galileo were an after-school option for kids, so that they could take what they've learned in school and apply it in a way that's fun and reflective of real life matters.

My kids are Camp Galileo campers, that is, they are between Pre-K and rising 5th graders. When they become rising 5th to 8th graders, they will be eligible for Galileo Summer Quest (one week format) where I'm sure they'll beg me to sign them up for Video Game Design camp. Rising 4th to 8th graders can apply hands-on learning in science and technology at The Tech Summer Camps. And new this year, is the Chabot Space and Science Camp for rising 4th to 8th graders. All of this falls under the guidance of Galileo Learning.

There are four Camp Galileo weekly themes lined up for 2012. Nebulas (pre-K and kindergartners), Stars (rising 1st/2nd graders, like my kids were last year) and Supernovas, rising 3rd - 5th graders) can look forward to themes that can be divided into art, science and outdoors.

Briefly, some highlights are:

Galileo Olympics: Greek Art and The Science of the Games

Nebulas will construct a leaf-adorned victory head wreath and make a foam stamps to embellish their ancient Greek tunic.

Stars get to mold their own gold and bronze medals and fling about new terms like "fluid design."

Supernovas will be crafting with paper-maché and using impulse force. My kids have never done paper-maché so I'm sure this will be a fun, messy project. Then they'll learn about owls and as any Harry Potter fan will tell you, owls are not only wise, but they're magical as well. Then, if that were not enough, my boys will have the chance to test out a bow and arrow during an archery event. 

I'm thinking we might go with this theme, as it might awaken an interest in this summer's 2012 Olympics in London.

Celebrate the Golden Gate: SF Art and Bridge Engineering

San Francisco is our backyard stomping grounds and I know it like the back of my hands. Sometimes, we go about as natives and other times, we just play tourist. I love how this theme is relatable to the day trips we make to San Francisco.

Nebulas will learn the history of the Dutch Windmill (the one out by Ocean Beach) and then make their own out of clay.

Stars will craft a Lombard Street collage and learn to build a bridge.

Supernovas will make a 3D painted lady (Victorian house) and engineer a suspension bridge. I'm sure it will all be trickier to do than it looks!

Leonardos's Apprentice: Renaissance Art & Inventions

Evidence of Leonardo's influence is everywhere. My boys and I recently watched a Nova episode called Mystery of a Masterpiece. I have a massive coffee table book on Leonardo which my grandmother passed down to me. My boys have read many books in which Leonardo appears as a character (like Monday with a Mad Genius). I like that I'll be able to round out what my boys learn during a week studying Leonardo just by looking around me.

Nebulas will embellish a Renaissance sketch book and explore the concept of sink or float, to name a few of the activities they'll be doing.

Stars will pratice shading and painting to make clouds. I'm an Art Vistas docent at my kids' school so I enjoy anything that ties into the work we're doing there, and yes, we have learned to make clouds!

Supernovas will paint their own frecoes.

Galileo Rocks! The Art and Science of Music

This theme links art masters like Picasso and Matisse to instruments depicted in their works.

Nebulas will make sea masks and design drums of different diameters.

Stars will use a kalimba to explore prong placement and length in relation to pitch. Then they'll get their groove on and practice rhythm and movement.

Supernovas will create a mixed media collage (think Kandinsky) and make a guitar out of nylon, cardboard and wood!

My kids will be doing two weeks at Camp G (some people do 4 weeks or more!). We've yet to nail down the themes, but one thing is certain, I will NOT be packing lunch! New this year to Camp G, lunch and snacks will be provided by ChoiceLunch. It's an additional fee, but after 9 months of packing lunches this school year, I am done. And it's not like I'm giving my kids the license to gobble down pesticide laden junk food, either, no - it's ChoiceLunch, which provides healthy, hormone and antibiotic free meats and dairy. We're going to give the lunch option a go.

The other thing I like about Camp G is the counselors. All the lead instructors are college graduates. With less than 10 percent of applicants accepted, landing the role of a Camp G leader is prestigious indeed!

A camp is a camp is a camp, right? Wrong!

So what I learned from my kids is that in its simplest interpretation, "good" equals fun. But what I learned from the hard working team at Galileo Learning is that good and fun equal the Galileo Innovation Approach. It means that slowly and without realizing it, my kids will pack along some helpful tools they'll need as they go out into the world. They'll learn ways to be visionary, courageous, collaborative, determined and reflective.

According to my Stars, it's all good.

Did I mention the discount? Refer friends and you both get $40 off. In fact, you'll get a $40 reduction with each referral. That's a crazy discount.

This is an original post to Chalk and Cheese Chronicles.

Disclaimer: Galileo Learning invited me to a discussion centered around the Galileo Innovation Approach. They are giving my kids one free week of camp each because they want to hear my feedback, both positive and negative. So stay tuned for our post-camp write up later in the summer!

Sea-Monkeys are Awesome First Pets

Dog.

Pool.

Stairs.

These are the Top 3 items on my kids' list of the things they want. I had the same items on my list as a child.

I never got the stairs or the pool but the dog came, although many, many years after I first started begging my parents for one.

I'm not of the "I never had that as a child, so why should you?" style of thinking. I'm more of the "I want you to have what I never had,"  parenting style. It's just that now is not the right time for a dog, a pool, or stairs. The dog? Well, maybe someday.

In the meantime, we've got a vibrant colony of Sea-Monkeys! I know, it's not a dog, but Sea-Monkeys make awesome first pets!

My last experience with Sea Monkeys was a disaster. My friend Owen had asked me, his trusted friend and co-worker, to watch over his tank full of Sea-Monkeys in my cube while he was away for a few days.

Things were going well and I was on my way to being the best pet sitter evah - that is, until I dropped them.

It happened in seconds, the rush of water, the panic, the helplessness I felt as nearly the entire population of Owen's Sea-Monkeys went plummeting into my cubicle carpeting. I swear I saw one trapped in a water bubble, giving me the evil eye and hurling curses my way as he sank into the thirsty carpet and vanished.

Oh, the trauma! Then I lied - I lied! - to Owen, shrugging my shoulders at the noticeable decline in Sea-Monkey population. I'd refilled the tiny tank with bottled water, hoping the frisky Sea-Monkey would repopulate before Owen returned.

It wasn't until much later, that I confessed. Not sure if Owen ever forgave me.

So now, here we are with our own Sea-Monkeys. They make me nervous. Where to put them, so they'll be safe? We might knock them over here, we might knock them over there. It's too cold the corner, it's too hot on the windowsill. So much worry.

They're a month old now, our Sea-Monkeys. They were a Christmas present to my son, who is 7. "Look, guys," I said to the newly hatched Sea-Monkeys, "There's your dad!" (knee-slap!) I pointed to my son who looked at me, rolled his eyes and said, "And there's your grandma!"

They were barely visible to the naked eye a month ago, but now there are about a dozen big ones, most of whom have paired up with a mate. Together, they perform water acrobatics through the water, like an x-rated underwater game of crack the whip. There are many mamas-to-be in our tank.

Not a single one of our Sea-Monkeys looks human, or even alien, as they are marketed to look. I think it's a rite of passage to feel that twinge of disappointment when kids realize their Sea-Monkeys' do not carry tridents or play checkers or wear clothes.

Just think, I've given my boys fodder to answer the oft-asked, online security question: What was your first pet? Sea-Monkeys! Isn't that awesome? Now maybe we should give our Sea-Monkeys names, because sometimes, the security question asks, "Name of first pet?"

So the dog, the pool, the stairs still remain on my kids' list of what they most desire. At least now, we've bought ourselves a little time. Sea-Monkeys are more like rock crystal growing kit than they are a dog, but I'm thinking we'll give our Sea-Monkeys canine names, like Marey and Gizmo and Bear.