Today at school, we talked a little bit about Paris. I showed my Grade 4s and 5s that little boy and his dad – not just because the vocabulary (très, méchant, gentil, fleurs, maison, etc.) is right on point, but because when they see a child, they instinctively relate. Two days a week, I have…
Tag: children
#NaBloPoMo, Day 12: Teachers
I am what they call a “planning teacher,” which means I am always teaching the students from other people’s homerooms, when their regular classroom teacher is doing his or her planning. At the moment, I work with four different groups of students in Grades 4 to 6. This job means that I get a unique…
#NaBloPoMo, Day 5: My Hubbibi
Whew. Just weathered a Mammoth Meltdown (one of many in the last three years, but this was definitely in the top ten), courtesy of my three-year-old. The better part of an hour of screaming/crying, along with intermittent hitting/kicking. All this – at least initially – because I wouldn’t let her put the cap back on her toothpaste….
Be The Calm
It was a busy summer. Just so you know, that’s the usage of the word busy where it actually means overwhelming-and-sometimes-stressful-enough-to-make-me-think-I-might-lose-my-marbles. And that’s despite summer vacation, and my school being closed for renovations. We bought a house in June, right before end-of-school craziness; we beautified and sold our house in July; we packed in August, and moved on…
One Decade of Marriage
Dear Sean, It’s hard to believe that it has been ten whole years since the day we pledged ourselves to each other as husband and wife. A decade sounds long, but feels short these days. On the other hand, ten years is short, in a way, since our story began long before that. It has been…
A Message to the Daddies on Mother’s Day, or “How (Not) to Incur Mama’s Wrath”
This post is dedicated to all the fathers and fathers-to-be out there, with love – especially if this is your first Mother’s Day. I hope some of these words can be useful to you, or to someone you know. (If you are an equal-time, full-time, or single dad, then you can stop reading now… Welcome to…
How do you know if you’re done having kids?
It seems silly, sometimes, to wrestle with this question. Should we have another child? I know it’s a luxury even to be able to ask this. There are lots of people for whom having kids is not a true choice – either the opportunity or ability is not there, or, in some cases, the option not to have more…
Quotable Moments From My Toddler
I was reminded by my family last weekend that I haven’t yet shared the weird pearls of toddler philosophy that my daughter has been imparting to us since she learned to talk. Frankly, I haven’t written down nearly enough of them, because life is too busy and my memory for details is shockingly short. Another reason I haven’t…
Possibly The Randomest Book You’ll Ever Read
On one of E’s earlier works, Daddy helped him with a short author bio in which it was conveyed that E’s goal is to make 100 books. He is barrelling toward this goal, let me tell you. He’s kind of obsessed with my stapler. Here’s a creation from this past week. I love how he’s unencumbered by the fetters of…
Kindergarten Quotables Variety Pack
I realize it’s been ages since I talked about the cute stuff my kids say, and it’s not because they don’t say cute things. Okay, sometimes it’s because they don’t say cute things. At five and two years old, respectively, my son and daughter both have a tendency to freak out about seemingly minor incidents,…