Well so much for my attempts at blogging everyday. I guess I can do it only when inspired.
Today's topic is religion...now, don't stop reading, it's not judgemental, just merely an observation. We Catholics have certain expectations at Mass. We also have certain wishes, like "please let this be over soon." I hated church as a kid; I was bored out of my mind and really had no idea what the heck was going on. As a teenager, church was just another annoying thing for me to do on a Sunday, when hanging out with my friends seemed much more important. Then, as an adult, I stopped going altogether; I never stopped praying or believing in God, I just was usually too hungover to think of getting up on Sunday for Mass.
So here I am, 42 years old, and going to Mass again. I've tried taking my young daughter a few times, but much like me at her age, she's bored and doesn't have a clue what any of it means. We spend half the Mass in the church bathroom and the rest of it trying to find amusements to keep her occupied. It's anything but spiritual, prayerful, or peaceful. Since my husband is not Catholic, i just go by myself. It's an hour of quiet reflection for me and I like it. It's also incredible because I have found an Express Mass.
That's right, an Express Mass. We live in a small town with one Catholic parish, to which we belong. We have a wonderful priest, but it's just him and so he says Mass on Sunday at 8am and 10:30 am. Sometimes I'm not up for going out that early so I found a Mass at noon in a town about 20 minutes away. There is no singing and no fluff; just a straight up Mass. I love it. I got there today at 12:06 and they were reading the GOSPEL. Not the first or second reading, but already the Gospel. The priest who says this Mass gives a short sermon, and it's usually a historical piece of interest. The entire Mass has never been longer than 45 minutes. The priests doesn't even walk down the aisle at the end of Mass; he ducks out the back door! It is the McDonald's of Church.
Now it also doesn't hurt that this church is across the street from two other houses of worship I frequent: Bed, Bath and Beyond, and Marshalls with a Home Goods inside. So I go to a short Mass and shop in one stretch. Heaven!
I'm not sure why I still want Church to be over with quickly. As I started to say, I think it's a Catholic thing. I've been to protestant churches and they are looooooooooooooooooong services. We went to an Episcopal church a few times, which is very similar to Catholic church. This is not a surprise since I think King Henry VIII had to separate the Church of England from the Roman Catholic Church so he could divorce Catherine of Aragon, his first wife. This was an HOUR AND A HALF service, so I had to ditch that church and fast. We tried going to a Methodist service (my husband was raised Methodist), but they did everything backwards and were much too stoic for my taste.
So I guess I'm stuck practicing what Ray Romano refers to as "part-time Catholicism." I am better about getting to Mass and even help teach CCD, but I guess I'll never get over smiling when I hear the words, "The Mass is ended; go in peace to love and serve the Lord. And maybe pick up a new springform pan and Bed Bath and Beyond." Thanks be to God.
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
First Grade My A**
So anyway, now that I have completed the list of Ava's doctors and their various locations and appointment frequencies, I can bitch about what's really bothering me: the ridiculous standards for students in schools. Now I live in CT so I can speak only about CT. I don't know what things are like elsewhere. I can also speak only about K and grade one, since those are the only 2 grades my daughter has experienced so far.
Let's start with K. Kindergarten is no longer a place for kids to learn to socialize with other kids, to learn to follow a set of group rules, or to learn to solve problems, like whose turn it is to use the play kitchen. This is a shame, since these are lifelong skills and very important ones, if you ask me. All the toys are gone. The play kitchen and Lego table are covered with reading assessments, math assessments, and stacks of word cards. Ava had to learn to read a simple book and 40 sight words (words that can't be sounded out) by the end of K. Now considering that some of these kids are FOUR when they enter K, this seems a tad much. Some of them can barely sit for a story or to have trouble zipping up their pants, and they are supposed to learn to read? And they have to learn basic addition, subtraction and "geometry".
Well enough about K...onto my real rant. So here we are in grade one, which I taught for several years before No Child Left Behind came into play. At the end of grade one a child is expected to know at least 125 sight words; be able to SPELL these sight words, among other words; be able to read what used to be a second grade level book; and to do 50 addition and subtraction problems in 5 minutes.
For some reason, maybe because we've read to Ava lot over the years, or maybe because she's naturally better at language tasks than at math tasks (like this writer) Ava is holding her own in reading. She can read pretty well because she is good at her sight words. However, she has trouble "re-telling" a story. What does that mean you ask? Well she has to tell what happened at the beginning, in the middle and at the end. This is naturally a difficult task for young children because they haven't really yet learned he concept of time. So why do they focus so much on this task? Because the CT Mastery Test (CMT) focuses on re-telling as a comprehension skill. Therefore in order to pass the "comprehension" part of a reading assessment a child has to be able to re-tell a story. It doesn't matter if they can read the book perfectly and answer other comprehension questions (such as a character's name, or the setting of the book), it matters only that they can retell it. This is just plain wrong. There are so many other ways to assess whether or not a child understand what he or she reads. But, because the CMT has become the be-all and end-all of how we grade our children, that's the skill that has become the focus.
As you can see this bothers me a great deal. Reading is supposed to be a pleasurable task. Isn't it more important for kids to enjoy reading and to learn to read, than it is for them to worry about passing a test? I loved to read as a kid, and i love to read to Ava. We laugh over books and enjoy them very much. Yet every night I am supposed to have her retell me a story so she can practice for school. Yeah that's fun at bedtime. And you think this pisses me off? Wait until the blog about math facts...
Let's start with K. Kindergarten is no longer a place for kids to learn to socialize with other kids, to learn to follow a set of group rules, or to learn to solve problems, like whose turn it is to use the play kitchen. This is a shame, since these are lifelong skills and very important ones, if you ask me. All the toys are gone. The play kitchen and Lego table are covered with reading assessments, math assessments, and stacks of word cards. Ava had to learn to read a simple book and 40 sight words (words that can't be sounded out) by the end of K. Now considering that some of these kids are FOUR when they enter K, this seems a tad much. Some of them can barely sit for a story or to have trouble zipping up their pants, and they are supposed to learn to read? And they have to learn basic addition, subtraction and "geometry".
Well enough about K...onto my real rant. So here we are in grade one, which I taught for several years before No Child Left Behind came into play. At the end of grade one a child is expected to know at least 125 sight words; be able to SPELL these sight words, among other words; be able to read what used to be a second grade level book; and to do 50 addition and subtraction problems in 5 minutes.
For some reason, maybe because we've read to Ava lot over the years, or maybe because she's naturally better at language tasks than at math tasks (like this writer) Ava is holding her own in reading. She can read pretty well because she is good at her sight words. However, she has trouble "re-telling" a story. What does that mean you ask? Well she has to tell what happened at the beginning, in the middle and at the end. This is naturally a difficult task for young children because they haven't really yet learned he concept of time. So why do they focus so much on this task? Because the CT Mastery Test (CMT) focuses on re-telling as a comprehension skill. Therefore in order to pass the "comprehension" part of a reading assessment a child has to be able to re-tell a story. It doesn't matter if they can read the book perfectly and answer other comprehension questions (such as a character's name, or the setting of the book), it matters only that they can retell it. This is just plain wrong. There are so many other ways to assess whether or not a child understand what he or she reads. But, because the CMT has become the be-all and end-all of how we grade our children, that's the skill that has become the focus.
As you can see this bothers me a great deal. Reading is supposed to be a pleasurable task. Isn't it more important for kids to enjoy reading and to learn to read, than it is for them to worry about passing a test? I loved to read as a kid, and i love to read to Ava. We laugh over books and enjoy them very much. Yet every night I am supposed to have her retell me a story so she can practice for school. Yeah that's fun at bedtime. And you think this pisses me off? Wait until the blog about math facts...
Monday, January 11, 2010
Aren't 10 Specialists Enough?
Well today has been fun....we narrowly avoided a trip to the ER last night with Ava. Her oxygen levels were low for a while and we almost went to the ER after a conversation with the doctor. But she rallied a little, and her O2 went up to an acceptable level. I was quite happy because 1) I hate going to the ER and 2) the doc warned me there was a nasty stomach bug going around the ER and all the kids were barfing. No thanks.
So off we went to the pediatrician, who is a wonderful man. he reminds me of my own pediatrician. Kind, gentle and very good with Ava. Ava loves going to see him. Go figure. He knows Ava and her illnesses well and always has good advice. He gave her an antibiotic and we were on our way. So I had a full day of breathing treatments, tube feeds and the like. Plus I had to gt some schoolwork done with her, or God forbid she'll be behind when she returns.
So, before I get to grumbling about CT standards for first graders, allow me to back up a little. You all know that Ava has a very rare craniofacial syndrome that has required her to have numerous surgeries, procedures and therapies. Her early days were very dark and her life hung in the balance for a while. While Pfeiffer syndrome is classified as a craniofacial disorder it affects pretty much every part of her. She has a trachestomy to breathe (which we hope to have removed someday), a feeding tube, since she didn't learn to eat until she was 3, a shunt in her brain to divert excess cerebral spinal fluid to her abdominal cavity, and hearing aids to compensate for her conductive hearing loss. Someday I'll go and count the number of surgeries shes had; I've lot track.
In addition to her regular pediatrician she has the following doctors in the following states (we live in CT) and we visit them at the following intervals:
Craniofacial Plastic surgeon: NY, 2x a year
Neurosurgeon: NY, At least once a year, and when she needs emergency surgery to fix her shunt
Ophthalmologist: NY, 3x a year
ENT: NY, 3 x a year
Airway Team: Cincinnati: once a year, at least
Audiologist: CT, once a year and when her hearing aids need fixin'
Orthodontist: NY, 2x a year
Dentisit: CT, 2x a year
Gastroenterologist: CT, 3x a year
Cardiologist, CT, once every other year
Just for fun we also started seeing a pulminologist and will be adding a neurologist and orthopedist to the rotation since I was starting to have about 10 minutes of free time a day. Stay tuned; perhaps you can see where I'm going with this.
So off we went to the pediatrician, who is a wonderful man. he reminds me of my own pediatrician. Kind, gentle and very good with Ava. Ava loves going to see him. Go figure. He knows Ava and her illnesses well and always has good advice. He gave her an antibiotic and we were on our way. So I had a full day of breathing treatments, tube feeds and the like. Plus I had to gt some schoolwork done with her, or God forbid she'll be behind when she returns.
So, before I get to grumbling about CT standards for first graders, allow me to back up a little. You all know that Ava has a very rare craniofacial syndrome that has required her to have numerous surgeries, procedures and therapies. Her early days were very dark and her life hung in the balance for a while. While Pfeiffer syndrome is classified as a craniofacial disorder it affects pretty much every part of her. She has a trachestomy to breathe (which we hope to have removed someday), a feeding tube, since she didn't learn to eat until she was 3, a shunt in her brain to divert excess cerebral spinal fluid to her abdominal cavity, and hearing aids to compensate for her conductive hearing loss. Someday I'll go and count the number of surgeries shes had; I've lot track.
In addition to her regular pediatrician she has the following doctors in the following states (we live in CT) and we visit them at the following intervals:
Craniofacial Plastic surgeon: NY, 2x a year
Neurosurgeon: NY, At least once a year, and when she needs emergency surgery to fix her shunt
Ophthalmologist: NY, 3x a year
ENT: NY, 3 x a year
Airway Team: Cincinnati: once a year, at least
Audiologist: CT, once a year and when her hearing aids need fixin'
Orthodontist: NY, 2x a year
Dentisit: CT, 2x a year
Gastroenterologist: CT, 3x a year
Cardiologist, CT, once every other year
Just for fun we also started seeing a pulminologist and will be adding a neurologist and orthopedist to the rotation since I was starting to have about 10 minutes of free time a day. Stay tuned; perhaps you can see where I'm going with this.
Sunday, January 10, 2010
A Change
I have a new laptop. Why do I need a laptop, one might ask? I'm a stay-at-home Mom who spends way too much time on her desktop computer as it is. However, I also spend a lot of time hanging out with my daughter in various places; home when she's sick, hospitals when she has surgery, and just relaxing in general. Now Ava will watch the same episodes of her various shows a billion times over and over, so to keep myself from going insane, I can use my laptop while she watches her shows. It's a good arrangement. Plus I can use it when I'm away from home.
Plus I'm thinking of trying to write a small blog each day. Don't get too excited...it's going to be more of a journal of day to day stuff, so I can remember what happened before they threw me in the straightjacket. Don't worry; it will be full of whining, my favorite pasttime.
Ava is sick today. We were supposed to visit my parents today, but she came down with a cough and fever in the middle of the night. Having a child who is hooked to a pulseoximeter at night is an extra treat when she's sick. The machine alarms all the time, sending me into a panic and checking her chest to make sure she's breathing. We get barely any sleep when Ava's sick, but I guess this is true for most parents of sick kids. But as usual, we get the extra bonuses of the alarms, the breathing treatments, the meds...sorry to sound bitter. I am not complaining about this, it's just the way things are. But I have been in a mood lately about the state of CT and their ridiculous academic standards for kids. You are probably thinking, what the hell do academic standards have to do with a kid with a cold? This is too long to explain on a Sunday night. Let's just say that there a few people I'd like to invite to spend 24 hours in this house...and then let them see why I am not concerned about the speed at which Ava can do math.
Plus I'm thinking of trying to write a small blog each day. Don't get too excited...it's going to be more of a journal of day to day stuff, so I can remember what happened before they threw me in the straightjacket. Don't worry; it will be full of whining, my favorite pasttime.
Ava is sick today. We were supposed to visit my parents today, but she came down with a cough and fever in the middle of the night. Having a child who is hooked to a pulseoximeter at night is an extra treat when she's sick. The machine alarms all the time, sending me into a panic and checking her chest to make sure she's breathing. We get barely any sleep when Ava's sick, but I guess this is true for most parents of sick kids. But as usual, we get the extra bonuses of the alarms, the breathing treatments, the meds...sorry to sound bitter. I am not complaining about this, it's just the way things are. But I have been in a mood lately about the state of CT and their ridiculous academic standards for kids. You are probably thinking, what the hell do academic standards have to do with a kid with a cold? This is too long to explain on a Sunday night. Let's just say that there a few people I'd like to invite to spend 24 hours in this house...and then let them see why I am not concerned about the speed at which Ava can do math.
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