I find it...strange...that Elayna's chosen get-ready-for-school music today is "Dona Nobis Pacem".
November 14th, 2002
Hello to new friend ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
milath, who seems to have arrived via sunyata__! *wave*
The SARK Page-A-Day Calendar says: "Life is messy." Welll, duh, yeah. :) Oh, I found out they're not doing any SARK calendars next year! I'm shaken. Not really, but still. I've had the SARK page-a-day and wall calendars for three years. I need to find a new page-a-day calendar. *mope* They're doing them again for 2004. Dunno why not 2003.
So last night... went home, got Elayna to finish her homework. She likes to be lazy about this.... last night's was that she had to read a short essay about the Navajo people and answer five questions. Kept asking me the answers. The extent of the help I felt was appropriate was glancing at the essay and saying, "reread the third paragraph". She's perfectly capable, and she's not going to really learn anything if I outright give her answers...
So. Did that, talked to the lusciousmightywombat on AIM, and cuddled up with Miss Kid to watch "The Princess Diaries", which surprised me by actually being good. Anyone else out there seen this? Based on a YA series, an average goofy dorky teenage girl finds out that she's really the princess of an obscure European nation. And surprisingly, the kid can act. Everyone in the movie can act. And it's funny, and I *want* this kid's house, I so seriously do, it's so cool and funky. I actually wanted to keep watching after Elayna went to bed. We'll finish watching it tonight or tomorrow. And then got to talk to murnkay, which was nifty in that familiar way. He confirmed for me that yes, Marc Hempel is an asshole, which no one tends to agree with me on, but really, it's true. I then hopped on AIM again to see if mightywombat was back from his writer's group... he wasn't there, but I saw stronae there for the first time ever, and talked to him til yendi came home from playing Blood Bowl at rloveking-and-voltbang's place all day.
So. Day got better. Which is good.
Song lyric in my head: "Lately, I'm/into circuitry/what it means to be/made of you but not enough of you"... Bliss, by Tori.
milath, who seems to have arrived via sunyata__! *wave*The SARK Page-A-Day Calendar says: "Life is messy." Welll, duh, yeah. :) Oh, I found out they're not doing any SARK calendars next year! I'm shaken. Not really, but still. I've had the SARK page-a-day and wall calendars for three years. I need to find a new page-a-day calendar. *mope* They're doing them again for 2004. Dunno why not 2003.
So last night... went home, got Elayna to finish her homework. She likes to be lazy about this.... last night's was that she had to read a short essay about the Navajo people and answer five questions. Kept asking me the answers. The extent of the help I felt was appropriate was glancing at the essay and saying, "reread the third paragraph". She's perfectly capable, and she's not going to really learn anything if I outright give her answers...
So. Did that, talked to the luscious
mightywombat on AIM, and cuddled up with Miss Kid to watch "The Princess Diaries", which surprised me by actually being good. Anyone else out there seen this? Based on a YA series, an average goofy dorky teenage girl finds out that she's really the princess of an obscure European nation. And surprisingly, the kid can act. Everyone in the movie can act. And it's funny, and I *want* this kid's house, I so seriously do, it's so cool and funky. I actually wanted to keep watching after Elayna went to bed. We'll finish watching it tonight or tomorrow. And then got to talk to murnkay, which was nifty in that familiar way. He confirmed for me that yes, Marc Hempel is an asshole, which no one tends to agree with me on, but really, it's true. I then hopped on AIM again to see if mightywombat was back from his writer's group... he wasn't there, but I saw stronae there for the first time ever, and talked to him til yendi came home from playing Blood Bowl at rloveking-and-voltbang's place all day.So. Day got better. Which is good.
Song lyric in my head: "Lately, I'm/into circuitry/what it means to be/made of you but not enough of you"... Bliss, by Tori.
Today. 4:00. Elayna's first academic competition. *squee*!!!
"Tests will be in the area of computation, math facts, problem-solving and team tests.The top 20 students based on scores from the first three tests will compete in the final individual speed round in the cafeteria in front of an audience...followed by the awards presentation."
Trophies to the top three students in each grade, and medals to the 4th-20th in each grade. 75-student limit per grade, but I'm hoping for fewer kids from her grade, as the competition starts at her grade (2nd through 5th grade).
And it seems like they're competing on grade level, which gives Miss Multiplication Whiz an advantage, as she operates above her grade level. I think I've done a good job of maintaining a no-pressure attitude, because she's really excited about this. I hope she has fun!
"Tests will be in the area of computation, math facts, problem-solving and team tests.The top 20 students based on scores from the first three tests will compete in the final individual speed round in the cafeteria in front of an audience...followed by the awards presentation."
Trophies to the top three students in each grade, and medals to the 4th-20th in each grade. 75-student limit per grade, but I'm hoping for fewer kids from her grade, as the competition starts at her grade (2nd through 5th grade).
And it seems like they're competing on grade level, which gives Miss Multiplication Whiz an advantage, as she operates above her grade level. I think I've done a good job of maintaining a no-pressure attitude, because she's really excited about this. I hope she has fun!
I never had an extraordinary ability in math... my thing was spelling bees. I won the school spelling bee every year, starting in third grade (yes, competing against the fifth-graders), placed in the top five countywide every year, went to State once and placed in the top five there (but didn't get to go to national). I loved the school bees...we'd start with just our class, then the top students in the grade, then the top in the school. But county and state were *terrifying*. Too many people. All of these grownups staring at my back while I spelled out loud in my anxious, quavery voice, trying to concentrate on the word I saw in my head instead of the weight of their stares...
I stopped enjoying academic competition altogether when I hit middle school. In elementary school, I was cool, I was the smartest kid in school and that was a Good Thing. I was a member of the four-kid clique that was more gifted than the gifted class - we had a separate enrichment group above and beyond what the others had. Me, Matt (lawyer now), Darren (boyfriend 2nd-to-6th-grade, no clue what became of him), and Paul (also lawyer). But in elementary school, that was *cool*. The other kids envied us.
In middle school, of course, what made us cool made us freaks. And I started toning down. Dropped the science club, stopped competing; still made the grades, but was more subtle about it. Discovered trashy makeup. *wry smile* Briefly hoped it was going to be cool again to be smart when The Cutest Boy In School, Todd, started copying off my tests in science class, but those hopes were dashed when I found out he didn't even know my name...
Anyway. As I am a more attentive parent than my parents were (read: I actually care about my kid and want her to be happy), I can hopefully avoid that downslope with her. Hopefully she'll have fun today. Hopefully she's always feel like it's cool to be smart...
I stopped enjoying academic competition altogether when I hit middle school. In elementary school, I was cool, I was the smartest kid in school and that was a Good Thing. I was a member of the four-kid clique that was more gifted than the gifted class - we had a separate enrichment group above and beyond what the others had. Me, Matt (lawyer now), Darren (boyfriend 2nd-to-6th-grade, no clue what became of him), and Paul (also lawyer). But in elementary school, that was *cool*. The other kids envied us.
In middle school, of course, what made us cool made us freaks. And I started toning down. Dropped the science club, stopped competing; still made the grades, but was more subtle about it. Discovered trashy makeup. *wry smile* Briefly hoped it was going to be cool again to be smart when The Cutest Boy In School, Todd, started copying off my tests in science class, but those hopes were dashed when I found out he didn't even know my name...
Anyway. As I am a more attentive parent than my parents were (read: I actually care about my kid and want her to be happy), I can hopefully avoid that downslope with her. Hopefully she'll have fun today. Hopefully she's always feel like it's cool to be smart...
Part of her homework was to make up Indian names for herself, a classmate, her teacher, and a family member.
So she's Small Fox, her boyfriend is Running Bear, her teacher is Whispering Wind, and I'm Evening Star.
So she's Small Fox, her boyfriend is Running Bear, her teacher is Whispering Wind, and I'm Evening Star.
You are a Suspect
by William Safire, for the New York Times
If the Homeland Security Act is not amended before passage, here is what will happen to you:
Every purchase you make with a credit card, every magazine subscription you buy and medical prescription you fill, every Web site you visit and e-mail you send or receive, every academic grade you receive, every bank deposit you make, every trip you book and every event you attend — all these transactions and communications will go into what the Defense Department describes as "a virtual, centralized grand database."
To this computerized dossier on your private life from commercial sources, add every piece of information that government has about you — passport application, driver's license and bridge toll records, judicial and divorce records, complaints from nosy neighbors to the F.B.I., your lifetime paper trail plus the latest hidden camera surveillance — and you have the supersnoop's dream: a "Total Information Awareness" about every U.S. citizen.
( But wait! There's more! )
by William Safire, for the New York Times
If the Homeland Security Act is not amended before passage, here is what will happen to you:
Every purchase you make with a credit card, every magazine subscription you buy and medical prescription you fill, every Web site you visit and e-mail you send or receive, every academic grade you receive, every bank deposit you make, every trip you book and every event you attend — all these transactions and communications will go into what the Defense Department describes as "a virtual, centralized grand database."
To this computerized dossier on your private life from commercial sources, add every piece of information that government has about you — passport application, driver's license and bridge toll records, judicial and divorce records, complaints from nosy neighbors to the F.B.I., your lifetime paper trail plus the latest hidden camera surveillance — and you have the supersnoop's dream: a "Total Information Awareness" about every U.S. citizen.
( But wait! There's more! )
I am in heat again.
That is all.
That is all.
Yes, it's the LJ crush poll. Who on your friends list do you have a crush on? Confess to me. :)
I knowwolfieboy hates answers-visible-to-none polls, so if you don't mind your answer being public, you can put it in comments. :)
[Poll #75525]
I know
wolfieboy hates answers-visible-to-none polls, so if you don't mind your answer being public, you can put it in comments. :)[Poll #75525]
So. I'm worn out. Got to bed late again (but talking to stronae was worth it!). Plus, no frappucino in the house, and no milk to make chai with. So. Sleepy little kitten of a 'song. So I remember, hey! I have a bar of dark espresso-infused chocolate in my purse! Bought that... hm, week before last? So. I get out the chocolate bar. Mmm. Very thick. (Yes. I like the thick ones. Stop giggling.) And I try to break it along the appropriate lines - and, demonstrating that it DOES NOT want to be broken in the manner, it protests by nearly ripping my poor thumbnails off.
OWIE.
*gnaws chocolate vindictively*
stronae was worth it!). Plus, no frappucino in the house, and no milk to make chai with. So. Sleepy little kitten of a 'song. So I remember, hey! I have a bar of dark espresso-infused chocolate in my purse! Bought that... hm, week before last? So. I get out the chocolate bar. Mmm. Very thick. (Yes. I like the thick ones. Stop giggling.) And I try to break it along the appropriate lines - and, demonstrating that it DOES NOT want to be broken in the manner, it protests by nearly ripping my poor thumbnails off.OWIE.
*gnaws chocolate vindictively*
So. She didn't win.
Our hopes were high, we were really excited, and then they left the rooms and came to the cafeteria for pizza, and she showed us her test worksheets, and we knew right then.
It's not that she didn't know the answers, she DID. It's that she dawdled.
We know dawdling is a problem for her. The teacher's spoken to us about it. But I didn't know it was this bad. She had 20 minutes to do each test... and she answered maybe 8 questions per test, average. And she knows all of the answers, I quizzed her on the later questions and she gave me the right answers *immediately*. She just sat there and daydreamed and didn't write them down.
When they called the names of the top 25 scorers and her name wasn't called, my eyes filled with tears. I didn't let her see.
She should have been up there.
And I told her I'd be happy as long as she did her best, but, dammit, she DIDN'T. So all I could do was say that I was glad she'd tried, but I knew she would have gotten a trophy if she hadn't dawdled.
I don't want to be my mother. My mother would get hostile and bitchy at me if I got a 95% on a test, because I was supposed to get 100% every single time. I'm not going to do that to Elayna.
I'm crying now because I know that she can do it, but she didn't and she doesn't care. But I won't let her see.
I just wanted her to try her best.
Our hopes were high, we were really excited, and then they left the rooms and came to the cafeteria for pizza, and she showed us her test worksheets, and we knew right then.
It's not that she didn't know the answers, she DID. It's that she dawdled.
We know dawdling is a problem for her. The teacher's spoken to us about it. But I didn't know it was this bad. She had 20 minutes to do each test... and she answered maybe 8 questions per test, average. And she knows all of the answers, I quizzed her on the later questions and she gave me the right answers *immediately*. She just sat there and daydreamed and didn't write them down.
When they called the names of the top 25 scorers and her name wasn't called, my eyes filled with tears. I didn't let her see.
She should have been up there.
And I told her I'd be happy as long as she did her best, but, dammit, she DIDN'T. So all I could do was say that I was glad she'd tried, but I knew she would have gotten a trophy if she hadn't dawdled.
I don't want to be my mother. My mother would get hostile and bitchy at me if I got a 95% on a test, because I was supposed to get 100% every single time. I'm not going to do that to Elayna.
I'm crying now because I know that she can do it, but she didn't and she doesn't care. But I won't let her see.
I just wanted her to try her best.