Mid-Winter Break

I have a deep respect for teachers.... I think you're under paid, and under appreciated by parents. I think many parents believe you should be the one disciplining and handling their child, and while you're at it, make sure you also treat that child like the little prince/princess that they are. That being said.........

What is up with all these breaks from school? Mid-Winter break?? Really??? We just had 2 weeks off for Christmas / New Years. We now have THREE days off for Thanksgiving instead of the customary two. We have a week off for Easter. We have EIGHT WEEKS off in the summer. Not to mention our "restructured" school days, that consist of 15 extra minutes of school Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and one hour shorter on Wednesday's... so the teachers can use that time to work on curriculum. Last I checked, the teachers at my school use that time to walk laps around the building, so they can get their 1 hour of exercise in per day. Wish I was kidding about that.

My children THRIVE when we have structure. They tend to get off-kilter when we mess with their schedules. Everyone who has children knows this. Psychologists know this. All the behavior specialists, parent advocates, and pediatricians know this. So why doesn't the School Board seem to know this? Instead, they mess, mess, mess with schedules, until the children are ready to pull their hair out. Not to mention the parents.

If I had it my way, my children would go to school year round. They would get two weeks off, but they would align with MY time, and my husband's time off from work, so we can all take a vacation together, when it's best for OUR schedule.

School would last from 9:00am - 3:30pm Monday through Friday, with the only exceptions being holidays. ONE day off for Labor Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Veteran's day, Memorial Day, Forth of July, etc. If the holiday lands on the weekend, so be it.

Would teachers be pissed? You know they would. However.... this is the same schedule that the rest of Americans follow. (I can't speak for other countries.. I know they get a lot more paid time off than Americans do... but I think it varies, and it's not fair to speak from a perspective that I don't have)

The children would already be well developed into the routine, and would seamlessly go from college to the workforce without any adjustment problems because there's no summer vacation, and two weeks off for Christmas.

Sigh.... it will only happen once my children are well out of school. :)

6 Month Bandiversary

Yesterday was my 6-month bandiversary. I tried to write yesterday, however, with 3 (nearly) ten year olds with aspirations on their video games, I was over-ruled!

I still don't have the proper time to write today like I want to.... but I'm going to try and carve out 1 hour, three times per week, for personal blog time, since I think it's important to be here, and log my progress, and talk to all of you about what works, what doesn't, and how to tweak the things that fall through the cracks.

At the end of June 2009, I went to my Lap-Band doctor for the first time. I weighed 365.

Yesterday...... February 6, 2010, I weighed 265. What a wonderful way to celebrate a Bandiversary by also hitting a monumental number!!!!!!

With no further adieux......