Lydia has had a fever since Monday night.  She’s pretty good about fighting off bugs and i think she’s only ever had one antibiotic.  that’s a far cry from her brother.  For him it was a part of daily life.  Last summer she had a febrile seizure which was pretty scary but she’s just had the one.  So last night when dh got home, I went o yoga.  Just as the class was winding down, my phone rang.  He said he wouldn’t call before 6:30.  It was 6:33.  Lydia was in a panic and he couldn’t calm her down.  I think she was scared she was going to throw up which she hates doing.  I came home and we climbed into bed together since the rest of the clan was watching Harry Potter.  She wanted to practice her letters.

Today she’s still runing a fever off and on and she’s now been asleep for 4 hours.  but that’s usually how she kicks whatever is ailing her.  I hope she’s back to herself tomorrow.

DELAYED DEBUT: NO ACADEMIC EDGE

No real advantage to starting kindergarten later, study finds

SARAH BOESVELD

August 26, 2008

You want your child to be smarter, faster and stronger than the rest in the big, bad sandbox that is kindergarten. For some parents, holding them back at home an extra year may seem like a good idea.

But waiting to send Junior to school won’t give him much of a boost in the long run - at least not academically - according to findings from a recent study.

Researchers from the University of Illinois found that while older kindergarten students naturally do better on academic tests, that edge wears off over time and virtually disappears by Grade 8.

A child’s delayed debut into the education system also means he or she will get a job later in life and retire later, putting pressure on the work force and the already-suffering economy, says study co-author Todd Elder, now a professor at Michigan State University.

 ”They’ve in some sense lost a year of their life. They’re going to graduate college at 23 and 22. There doesn’t seem to be much benefit,” he says of the findings, to be printed in an upcoming issue of the Journal of Human Resources.

“The problem is, now people are maybe pushing it a little far and you can imagine people continuing to push it until you have eight-year-old kindergartners and it sort of doesn’t matter how smart he actually is.”

These kids are also learning a lot more before entering kindergarten, making them much more advanced than their peers, he says.

Using data from national academic surveys that tested kindergartners on their math and reading abilities, Dr. Elder and study co-author Darren Lubotsky, an economics professor at the University of Illinois, tracked the academic performance of kids from kindergarten to Grade 8. They saw that older kids were performing much better than younger students initially, but they eventually merged with their peers through elementary and middle school.

Dr. Elder hopes lawmakers will take notice of his findings - more U.S. states are ramping up the age requirement for students starting kindergarten. In 2002, nearly 21 per cent of five-year-olds were not yet enrolled in kindergarten, a boost from 10 per cent in 1980, the study says.

“If you’re basically holding a kid out of school early on, if the cost of that is you have to work more later, that really resonates with people,” he said.

The study also found teachers are more likely to diagnose younger kids with behavioural problems such as ADHD because they appear less mature beside the older kids.

“The youngest kids are getting diagnosed with ADHD; they’re getting medicated, and that, I think, is really scary to a lot of people,” he said, pointing to studies that link diagnoses of behavioural disorders with a child’s age. “I think there’s this notion that disorders like that are somewhat more subjective than other things.”

Robert Cooper, founder of the AD/HD Foundation of Canada, says these kinds of misdiagnoses happen all the time.

“If you’re at an age where you haven’t matured yet, and being compared, then obviously there’s going to be an appearance of ADHD which might go away in six months,” he said.

Sarah Ingalls of Saint John, N.B., waited a year to send her son Parker, now 8 - not to give him that extra edge, but because she felt he wasn’t ready. Small for his age, Parker was eventually diagnosed with a learning disability, but he fitted in just fine with his younger peers.

“I can’t see people holding their child back, though, without a reason. I know when we moved to New Brunswick [from Prince Edward Island], people were astounded we would hold him back a year,” she said. “It came to a point where he was saying, ‘Hi, my name is Parker, I’m 5 and I don’t go to school.’ ”

But the mother of three doesn’t regret her decision to wait.

“You never regret holding them back, but you may regret sending them when they aren’t ready.”

So in February Fredericton was named one of the world’s most intelligent cities.  tp://www.fredericton.ca/en/citygovernment/2008feb19NewZealand.asp

I have nomination for one of the world’s dumbest cities.  Saint John!!!  Yes it’s where I live.  I called the city today to complain about my brown water.

I went to brush my teeth and that’s what i was faced with.  Yuck.  We’ve had three boil orders since winter.  we pay $675 a year for our lovely city water that we can’t drink and then about $400 a year for the water that we buy.  That’s expensive.  So the city worker that came to check the water today said that maybe it was from the construction.  The construction that is nearby is work on the road and natural gas pipeline, not water mains.  If they had something to do with the water supply, don’t you think you should look into it before they quit for the day?  Then I get a call from the city.  They were flushing the hydrant on our street and that’s what was causing it.  Um no.  I live at the bottom of our street.  It’s on a hill.  Any water from the hydrants would go in the storm sewer by my driveway.

My other issue- why the heck would you tear up the street and sidewalk in front of a school mid August?  they had all summer to do it.  I really can’t see how parents are going to be able to drop their kids off unless they satry working around the clock.  The machines are idle more than they are working.  I can see it out my kitchen window and what a mess.

Just a couple of my pet peeves today.

I forgot to post about this amazing tip.  A few years ago I had heard that you can use baby powder to rid your fet of sand when leaving the beach.  I would always forget to try it and be reminded on the drive home with sand between my toes.  Ick.  I was tidying cupboards in the bathroom and found a travel size bottle of baby powder.  Yesterday I took it with us and Lydia was a mess when it was time to go.  Salt water just helps the sand stick to your skin.  I always take a dress for Lydia to cahnge inot so I can change her right on the beach or at the van and she still has privacy.  I slipped her dress over her head, sprinkled some powder in my hand and rubbed it over her sticky sandy body.  Wipe down with a towel and TaDa, you’d never know she was at the beach….except for her hair.  By the time we went out for supper and to Walmart, her hair had dried and she had rings of salt around her ponytails.

    +  = a clean kid

FYI, public health does not recomend the use of baby powder.  Be very careful not to use it in the wind or let young children inhale it.

So far we’ve had a great weekend.  Tomorrow is Jeff’s birthday.  The kids and I managed to surprise him with Mario Kart  for the Wii and noone spilled the beans.  I almost managed to surprise him with a super special desert…..but I left the recipe out.  I made Peanut Butter Pie 

Now as a rule, I only like peanut butter in sandwiches, on hot dogs and on apples.  (The hot dog thing started as a dare at Camp Seggie but I really do like it as long as it’s smooth. Oh and crunchy on the apple slices.)  Back to the pie.  It was delicious, Jeff was impressed and I liked it as well.  Enough that I’ve been resisting the urge to go get another piece out of the freezer.

This afternoon Hannah was performing in East Point Has Talent 

 

She may not be the most talented kid in the contest but she wrote her song herself when she was 9 and she sings it acapella.  Here she is singing it at school.  That was a few months ago and she’s a lot more confident now.  that’s what this whole experience was about, gaining confidence and having fun doing what she loves to do..

After the performance, Grammy took Hannah and I shopping for some clothes.  Thanks Grammy.  We found some awesome deals at Roots and Cotton Ginny.  Cotton Ginny has an extra 50-70% off.  I may have to go back.  Then we came home and had a nice dinner, Parmesan Chicken Twists with veggies and pasta salad, with Grammy and birthday desert. Mmmm.

What’s in store for the rest of the weekend?  Most likely the beach.  It’s supposed to be sunny and 22, although I heard 28C earlier.  There’s also a kids fair tomorrow so maybe we’ll do that.

Ok so I know I said I don’t do back to school shopping but Hannah needed some new jeans.  I heard there was a great sale at Old navy.  Apparently lots of other people did too because I didn’t find much in the clearance section.  If it’s not under $10, it’s not a deal.  We did get her a black dress and black tshirt.  She needs black clothes for drama.  And a white tank and a pink shirt, all for $16.  The dress was the most expensive at $6.97.  Then we went to the Clothesline.  It’s a new used clothing store, nicer than Frenchies.  For $26 we got

• a coat sweater for Lydia (jillian’s Closet, they make nice sweaters)
• a denim skirt for Lydia from Children’s place.  There were a ton of patterned skirts there for her but I’m tired of trying to match things.
• a top for Hannah
• a nice Cherokee cardigan
• 3 pairs of jeans for Hannah, two have adjustable waist
• a care Bears shirt for Hannah.  

The jeans were the priciest at $3.75 a pair.

Hannah is paying for half the items at Old Navy.  We have a deal where if she is asking for clothing that she doesn’t need, she pays half.  Sure she could use them but it was pants we were on a hunt for.  This prevents her from asking for too much.

Poor Parker didn’t get anything.  I think he still has clothes that we got him 2 years ago and they were too big.  I’ll have to go hunting for them.

No I’m not giving you a hug and kiss.  When we found out that Parker would need a computer to help him with his school work, we ordered an XO laptop from One Laptop Per Child.  It’s not a perfect computer and can be frustrating.  Probably not a good option if you don’t have a programmer in the house.  There have been a lot of glitches in it and ours went on the fritz in June.  We finally got it fixed by Jeff’s co-worker. (I need to pay him with a batch of cookies)

So today we were doing some errand running and I had it in the van.  I planned on another playground stop to compensate the kids.  I was fiddling with the laptop while they played since the screen is designed to work in bright sunlight.  I took some pics with it.  There is a camera built in on the right hand side. 

And then we had to leave early because someone was in a bad mood.

Right now Parker is playing a memory math game on it.  We also have Scratch , an animation program on it as well as music synthesizers, a video camera, recorder.

FREDERICTON - Cara Miller is worried about how the province’s recent changes to French second-language education will affect her son.

Enlarge Photo

Peter Walsh/Telegraph-Journal

Cara Miller says her son Liam, age 5-1/2, will have to switch schools twice in order to attend French immersion classes.

Because of the new system, her shy little boy, Liam, may now have to switch schools twice to participate in immersion classes.

Fresh out of kindergarten, Liam was set to enter Grade 1 at Millidgeville North, an immersion school in Saint John - until Education Minister Kelly Lamrock took the axe to early immersion in grades 1 and 2.

Because it was an immersion-only school, Millidgeville will no longer offer any classes in kindergarten or Grade 1. Grade 2 will be phased out after this year and Millidgeville will permanently become a grades 3 to 8 school.

That means Liam faces two potential moves in his formative years. He has no choice but to switch out of Millidgeville in September in order to complete Grade 1. But the other school in his area, St. John the Baptist, does not offer immersion in any grade - so, in order to enter the program in Grade 3, Liam would be looking at another move, back to Millidgeville.

“My little guy, he’s very quiet,” Miller said. “It takes him a long time to warm up to kids. He was really starting to come out of shell. I’m worried this (move) is going to bring him down and crush him.”

The only other option, Miller said, would be to enroll Liam in a school outside of the family’s region, such as Forest Hills. But the district provides transportation only to the schools designated for each student’s community - in Liam’s case, either Millidgeville or St. John the Baptist.

In addition, such intradistrict transfers would only be accepted if space allowed. Priority is given to children living in the school’s community, said Susan Tipper, superintendent of District 8 in Saint John.

Miller said her situation proves the government moved too quickly to implement reforms to the French second-language program. At the very least, she said, a grandfather clause should be in effect for children such as her son.

“The reasonable thing to do would be to grandfather children who were in (Millidgeville), to allow them to continue in Grade 1 and 2 so they don’t have to be bounced around like that,” Miller said.

Miller is not the only one in this predicament. Michelle Durelle, a single mother who works full-time as a credit granter at Irving Oil, had registered her daughter, Jenna, for kindergarten at Millidgeville.

But in light of Lamrock’s recent decision, Jenna also faces the prospect of being bounced over to St. John the Baptist for her first few years, and then back to Millidgeville for immersion. Jenna had already attended a “welcome to kindergarten” session at Millidgeville, Durelle said, noting the situation is bound to confuse her daughter.

Like Miller, Durelle wants the government to extend a grandfather clause to all students who were attending or were registered to attend Millidgeville in kindergarten or Grade 1.

“I’m kind of in a bind,” Durelle said, noting she had made inquiries to the district about the possibility of an intradistrict transfer, but thus far has heard nothing back. “I’m at the point where “¦ I don’t know what I’m doing with my kid.”

Durelle and Miller say they have accepted Lamrock’s decision to eliminate immersion in the early grades, but both feel strongly that there should have been more notice.

“I realize there has to be a cut-off point; I get that,” Durelle said.

According to Tipper, parents of children who were enrolled in the early grades at Millidgeville are in a unique situation, and not only because of the immersion decision.

A proposal has been on the table since last year to turn Millidgeville into a middle school, housing only Grades 6 through 8, Tipper noted. If that happens, the school would not be capable of offering early immersion in any form.

Currently, all students enrolled in the school from grades 2 through 8 will be allowed to take the program through to graduation, regardless of any future changes, Tipper added.

Those who had completed or registered for kindergarten - the only grade level that was non-immersion - have been transferred to St. John the Baptist starting in September, she said. Tipper agreed this may lead a number of parents to move their students back to Millidgeville after Grade 2, assuming it does not become a middle school.

“That is a potential, because the Grade 3 entry point for immersion is only where numbers warrant,” Tipper said, noting the program has not been warranted at St. John the Baptist in the past. But if demand rises, it could be offered in future, she added.

Intradistrict transfer applications were still being accepted, Tipper said, noting the actual transfers may not occur until mid-September, when student numbers have had a chance to settle down.

It’s a decieving sunny day out there.  It’s very crisp and fall like in the temperature.  I had a couple of errands I wanted to do today ad what’s the best way to do them with three kids in tow?  Promise them something fun.  So we went to the Dreamland Playground at Fairvale Elementary School in Quispamsis.  It’s about 15 minutes from here.

Lydia needs a mei tai for her babies.  The sling gets in the way when you’re trying to have fun.

I tried using the stitch assist feature on my camera but I’m not sure how it works when it’s uploaded to the computer.  It’s a big playground.

Baby Kate wasn’t the least bit scared going in the tunnels.

Wobbly bridges made of rubber.

Caught Ya.

My purple foot.  Now that I am using it more, it keeps bruising in new spots.  Bandage covers most of it.

“Together, together, together everyone
Together, together, come on lets have some fun
Together, were there for each other every time
Together together come on lets do this right”

Yes they finally started playing together after the summer camp kids left.  They were making up a song about the tire swing to the tune of the BNL song Allergies.

Time to go.

This morning I read mmummy’s blog.  It was about being happy with what she has.  So today as I drove through Rothesay and Quispamsis, the affluent areas around Saint John, I reminded myself that we have what we need.  That we don’t need a huge house to be happy.  With that comes more expenses and working more.  We’d also need two cars and constantly feel like we had to keep up.  We’ve lost a good friend because of those strong pulls to have material possessions.  We just weren’t in the right circle.  Aside from the crappy weather and being in a construction zone yet again, I love where we live. It’s close to almost everything we need.  Our house suits our needs and dh takes the bus so that I can have the van.  We’ve managed to squeak by the summer without my income and although we didn’t take a vacation, the kids were busy and happy.  It’s a good place to be.

Isn’t it nice to know that the toys you grew up with are now considered vintage?  I dug out one of my favourite dolls for Lydia, Fisher Price Baby Ann.  Boy did she need a wash.  I’m afraid to put her in the dryer though.  Her hair is already bad enough.

I also have Audrey and the Fisher Price Hospital  http://www.thisoldtoy.com/L_FP_Set/toy-pages/900-999/931-playfmchildrenhospital.html and Snoopy,

His ears got ruined so they were replaced and one of his feet cracked.

Someday when the kids are finished with their toys, I’ll have a display shelf for mine.  I also have a doll that belonged to my mother.  She was in really bad shape.  I used to lug her everywhere and she isn’t small.  One of her eyes was broken and and arm torn, courtesy of my brother and a big chunk missing from teh back of her head.   A few years ago….ok so maybe 11 or 12, my mil had her restored for me.  I’ll get a picture later along with my doll carriage.