Back to the Grind

Confidential to G:  How old was your son when
he learned how to do this?  I'll bet he was in
high school or something.  My kid is 6.

As my liver was nice enough to inform me roughly 45 minutes before total organ shutdown, summer
is over.  Finn's first day at his new school was last Wednesday and it gives me great pleasure to announce that as of today - 4 days in - he has not yet announced how much he hates school.

In Finn terms, that's a ringing endorsement for the new joint.

I think it's safe to say that we're all eager to get back into a pattern after a whirlwind summer and it would appear that the Unteachable Child is ready to learn.  After fighting it every step of the way throughout the summer, Finn finally decided to learn how to swim on the last day of the pool's season.  On his own.  After refusing to practice reading all summer, he happily read a couple of pages with me tonight.

Of course, the book was about Star Wars and we told him his teacher had assigned it as homework, but there was no complaining.  It was amazing.

And he'd better be ready to learn about Lego Robotics too, because I introduced myself to the joys of public school parenting by lining up before school this morning and throwing some mean elbows to get myself into prime position in the afternoon enrichment program sign-up line, where Lego Robotics spots were going like hot cakes.  I apologize in advance if you're one of the moms that I chop-blocked to beat you to the sign-up sheet, but it had to be done.  I'm just a better parent than you.

To help prep for school, Finn decided to lay some learning on me last weekend on a trip to the dump.  His lesson was titled "Six Things You Need to Know About Garbage... No Wait, Seven Things" and it went something like this:

Things 1-3:  The Three Types of Garbage
1.  Yard Waste - waste from your yard
2.  Recycling - metal and glass and stuff
3.  Garbage - everything else

Things 4-6: The Lifecycles of Garbage
4.  Yard Waste - yard waste starts out in your yard and then is turned to compost and then goes back to your yard
5.  Recycling - recycling starts out as stuff and then is recycled and turned back into other stuff
6.  Garbage - garbage is buried and then turns into a field

Thing 7:  You can take things from the dump if you want
7.  You can take things from the dump if you want - provided it hasn't already turned into a field

I was with him up until point 6, but that's where we had to agree to disagree.  Upon review of the items at the dump, he also rethought point 7.

Even though we weren't exactly on the same page throughout that lesson, one thing is certain, his new school smells a lot better than that particular classroom.