Adjustments

Bear is slowly discovering that junior high is a different cup of tea, with increased independence and expectations. She is in love with having her own locker, with changing classes, and the increased choices in the lunchroom, but some of the luster is wearing off now that the teachers are assigning regular homework. Unfortunately, our Bear inclines toward the ditzier end of the organizational spectrum, and she is already finding the juggling act a challenge.

Daddy Shortbread and I are working with her to develop checklists to help her remember what she needs to accomplish before and after school. We've already had numerous instances of forgetting, and this is the second week of school. Just yesterday, after "checking" her backpack and asserting that she was all set, she walked out the door without both homework planner and gym clothes.

Judge me if you will, but I don't intend to be the mother who fetches and carries all over town to save my kids the consequences of their forgetfulness. Oh, sure, I ran the planner and clothes over to the junior high yesterday, but I let it be known that next time she'll have to take the consequences of not having her planner or being able to dress out for gym.

She's a smart kid, we tell her, but unfortunately you don't get credit for that alone. Things like remembering to bring your homework home, complete it, and then actually turn it in, is what will make or break your school career. Smart is just a bonus. Organization is a solid 50%, and frequently more.

She knows I'll be checking her homework planner every night, and going over her checklists with her, morning and evening. Hopefully a month or two of following this routine will help her to develop some better habits. Or I may just take up drinking. One or the other.

Opening the Floor

If you have any questions for Bear or Bug about school, popular culture, their political opinions, or thoughts on any other topic you can think of, please leave them in the comments.

I'm going to do an interview post with each of them, and I'll post their answers verbatim, so this is your big chance to get a kid's perspective on all your most pressing questions and concerns.

Give me SOME credit

Friday Bug asked me to help her with her Stretch math homework. Since it was a pretty lengthy logic problem, I sat down beside her at the table and began to read it. She gave me a couple of seconds, then said gently, "It's OK, Mom. I can just call Papa."

TGIF

School has my kids WHUPPED this week. They've been going to bed sans complaint a little earlier each night this week and arising a little crabbier each morning. They've both had quite a bit of homework right out of the gate, and I've been proud of how hard they're working to do a good job. I feel like I should meet their school buses this afternoon with the kiddie equivalent of a martini in hand as a reward for a tough week, but I'm not sure what that would be (Kool-Aid? Popsicle? Twinkie and milk?).

Anyway, we are all looking forward to Family Night tonight: movie and hot fudge sundaes, followed by sleeping in till whenever we darn well please tomorrow.

My Kids Are a Little Weird

I know this isn't exactly news to many of you, especially given the gene pool that produced Bug and Bear. For the most part, I'm pretty immune to the weirdness. I mean, come on, I live with Daddy Shortbread, who is practically a fount of insanity on his better days. But once in awhile, Bug and Bear step beyond the bounds of what I like to think of as acceptable weirdness.

This weekend, Bug and Bear managed to catch a grasshopper. After dithering back and forth about what to do with this good-sized and slightly rowdy specimen, they popped him into an empty water bottle. Bear tossed some grass in for him to munch and poked holes in the cap.

Pretty normal kid stuff so far, right?

Next they produced a plastic boat, in which they carefully propped the bottle. This they took into the pool with them. For a few minutes, they were content to just push the boat placidly around the pool, like a Grasshopper Yacht. Awww, you're thinking....how sweet. Just wait.

Finally, Bug jumped up and down with her floatie to produce waves. The Grasshopper Yacht was tossed hither and yon on the violent sea like... a little plastic boat. Periodically Bear would check to see if the grasshopper had thrown up. Nice.
They named him George. Then they demanded that I take their picture with him.

Once George was humanely released out in the yard (to warn the other grasshoppers to take cover), we proceeded to Kids Doing Pool Tricks and Yelling for Mom to Watch Them. Entertaining at the beginning of the summer, this now ranks right alongside scrubbing baseboards on the list of things I enjoy. Here is Bear showing me how she can do a complete somersault with her floatie for the eleventy billionth time this summer.
"Mom, Mom, Mom, Mom, Mom, MOM!" Bug yells, waving arms and jumping.

"Bug, I'm taking your picture. Do you really think I'm not watching?" I ask.

"I just wanted to make sure you have your zoom lens on for this trick," she replies.

Jaunt to the Coast

Yesterday we made a quick little trip over to Rockland to visit the Farnsworth Museum, noted for its collection of Andrew Wyeth paintings.

Side note: I know a lot of Wyeth paintings, and since the subject matter is Maine, Maine harbors, Maine fishermen, Maine people, etc., I knew the girls would find them interesting. Had I known that one of their most prominently displayed (enormous) paintings is a FULL-FRONTAL MALE NUDITY, I would have scouted that one out in the gallery & detoured smoothly around it such that the girls wouldn't have even noticed missing it. As it was, though, our happy little art appreciation party came around the corner and to a screeching halt in front of it as Bear's mouth dropped open and Bug's eyes, well, bugged out. I scrambled for something educational to say, but "Holy Hell" was all that came to mind, so I just shoved them along to the next painting.

Don't get me wrong, they've seen plenty of nudity (usually female or in the Greek statuary) at other museums, but this was so unexpected and, um, accurate, that I hadn't had the chance to either prepare them or opt out of it.

The highlight for both girls was the Farnsworth house right next to the museum. Built in 1850, it is exactly as the last occupant left it in 1932 when she died. All of the furniture, drapes, and decor were original, since Lucy Farnsworth left the house and all its contents to the museum. It has been meticulously maintained and was a real glimpse into life in the early part of the century. Patent medicines sat on a bedside table, sheet music on the piano, calling cards on a salver in the entryway, and a neatly folded apron on the bed in the maid's room. Bear was surprised by how low all of the doorways were, while Bug was most interested in ascertaining whether there was a chamber pot under each bed. Naturally.