Monday, September 29, 2008
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Preschool procrastinator
I'm told by several of my friends in San Francisco that I'm already late to think about preschool for Olivia. A couple schools that looked interesting to me didn't even accept applications until kids turned 2.5 , of course, those were city run schools in San Francisco.
I don't have many memories of my pre-K education. I remember a lot of arts and crafts and sing alongs. Is there something beyond that which kids should be doing at pre-school. I thought that the basic goal was to learn how to get along with each other in a structured environment.
The pre-school question opens up a boat of other questions -- what kind of preschool should we enroll Olivia in, and what factor should drive my decision?
Curriculum?: I have ambitions of Olivia being bilingual in Chinese and found this school. There's also the question of Montessori vs non-Montessori curriculum. Would I have gotten into Harvard if I had gone to a Montessori school instead of the neighborhood nursery school? (Seems kind of unlikely.) On the other hand, there's no question of the selection bias that a n academically oriented curriculum introduces. Do you want your kid hanging out with the kids of other parents who care about academic achievement, or parents who are looking for a cheap place to park their kids while they work. On the topic of cheap places to park their kids, ...
Price?: I made Spencer leave a parking garage today because it was $1/hour more expensive than the garage next door. I make a lot of decisions in my life based on price. Should Olivia's education be one of them? How much does preschool really matter? And there is the financial question of whether the money is better spent on pre-school or college. Let's see, if I enroll her in a city-subsidized program and saved $8000/year for 2 years and put the money into a US Market Index fund, it'll be worth roughly $100 when she turns 18. Or, maybe the economy will turn itself around and we'd have around 25-30K to spend on college.
Location, location, location: Let's face it, we're pretty busy. As we're learning from having our current daycare situation, the old real estate adage applies.
I don't have many memories of my pre-K education. I remember a lot of arts and crafts and sing alongs. Is there something beyond that which kids should be doing at pre-school. I thought that the basic goal was to learn how to get along with each other in a structured environment.
The pre-school question opens up a boat of other questions -- what kind of preschool should we enroll Olivia in, and what factor should drive my decision?
Curriculum?: I have ambitions of Olivia being bilingual in Chinese and found this school. There's also the question of Montessori vs non-Montessori curriculum. Would I have gotten into Harvard if I had gone to a Montessori school instead of the neighborhood nursery school? (Seems kind of unlikely.) On the other hand, there's no question of the selection bias that a n academically oriented curriculum introduces. Do you want your kid hanging out with the kids of other parents who care about academic achievement, or parents who are looking for a cheap place to park their kids while they work. On the topic of cheap places to park their kids, ...
Price?: I made Spencer leave a parking garage today because it was $1/hour more expensive than the garage next door. I make a lot of decisions in my life based on price. Should Olivia's education be one of them? How much does preschool really matter? And there is the financial question of whether the money is better spent on pre-school or college. Let's see, if I enroll her in a city-subsidized program and saved $8000/year for 2 years and put the money into a US Market Index fund, it'll be worth roughly $100 when she turns 18. Or, maybe the economy will turn itself around and we'd have around 25-30K to spend on college.
Location, location, location: Let's face it, we're pretty busy. As we're learning from having our current daycare situation, the old real estate adage applies.
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Monday, September 22, 2008
What should Olivia be for Halloween?
I love Halloween. And I love cool costumes. But I can never seem to get it together to make an interesting costume, and I can never justify buying a costume from a Halloween megastore that I will then throw into a landfill on November 1.
But this is Olivia's first Halloween, and it would be fun to get her dressed up and take her trick or treating.
Here are some ideas that I've come up with so far:
1) Eric Cartman -- She does share his 'haven't grown into my body yet' physique. But we have already exhausted this costume idea in 2007.
2) Brittany baby -- Added benefit, the cocktail is part of the costume!
3) Everyone has dressed their kid up as a strawberry or pea, but who has dressed their kid up as a rutabaga?
But this is Olivia's first Halloween, and it would be fun to get her dressed up and take her trick or treating.
Here are some ideas that I've come up with so far:
1) Eric Cartman -- She does share his 'haven't grown into my body yet' physique. But we have already exhausted this costume idea in 2007.
2) Brittany baby -- Added benefit, the cocktail is part of the costume!
3) Everyone has dressed their kid up as a strawberry or pea, but who has dressed their kid up as a rutabaga?
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Thursday, September 18, 2008
The Oliviathlon
Every day is a contest ...
Event #1: 100 M dash: In this event, you'll be matched against the 41 Muni Bus. If you can beat the bus to the stop, you will be spared a 20 minute delay in starting the next event.
Event #2: Weight Lifting: 100 reps of lifting 22 lb mass. Tie breaker ... Add another 20 reps with the 22lb mass inside the 10 lb car seat.
Event #3: Wrestling: In this variation of Greco-Roman wrestling, you'll be matched with a 22 lb infant. The loser of this round will end up with a diaper around their bottom.
Event #4: Dramatic Arts: In this event, you will find something else that is more important or that you can't be pulled away from in hopes that your spouse will change the poopy diaper.
Event #5: 100 M hurdles: In this event, you'll sprint through the house while stepping over toys, dirty dishes, and recycling.
Event #6: Hunting and gathering: In this event, you are given an outing (might be a wedding, baby shower, or a trip to Target,) and 6 minutes to assemble a baby bag suitable for the outing. This involves finding clean clothes, sippie cup, diapers, wipes, toys, blankets. You can increase the degree of difficulty by adding perishable items such as breast milk to the mix (although there are significant penalties for leaving the milk on the countertop.)
Friday, September 12, 2008
Olivia's 4th plane trip
A few weeks ago, I debated how I should take a baby across the country -- buy her a seat? fly first class so that I have a bigger seat? take a red-eye? I did what any parent in this situation would do, begged my spouse to come along. Sensing my distress (after my last plane ride with Olivia,) Spencer kindly agreed to join us on the trip.
We are taking a red-eye to Newark. Since we were a bit late, our seats have been changed. As we get on the plane, the flight attendant tells me that my seat is a comfy aisle seat, my husband is in the the middle seat in the row behind me. I sit down next to two petite Asian women who have fun cooing with Olivia. Wow, this is going to be pretty easy -- sitting next to small people who like kids.
Spencer on the other hand, is sitting in the middle seat between two large people. About a 1/2 hour into the flight, Spencer takes the baby for a walk in the galley and never comes back. Since the baby is asleep, I offer to trade seats with him as long as he takes the baby (I'm a little smaller after all.)
When we get back to the seats, I see the conundrum -- I'm not quite sure how to get over the body mass of the person in the aisle seat. (She's sound asleep.) I have climbed across sleeping passengers by stepping onto the center armrest, but I'm not sure that my legs are long enough to make it across her body.
Eventually, the woman wakes up and I get into the seat. I'm doing okay, until the baby starts
crying an hour later. Since we can't easily trade seats again, Spencer passes her to me and the real fun begins -- manipulating a baby while sitting in the middle seat.
Luckily, the two people sitting next to me folded their arms across their chests (instead of on the armrests.) It was pretty nice of them. I know Olivia was overflowing into their personal space as well, and they were more considerate than other slimmer passengers I've sat next to! But man, my back was sore after that trip. I am still in need of a massage!
We are taking a red-eye to Newark. Since we were a bit late, our seats have been changed. As we get on the plane, the flight attendant tells me that my seat is a comfy aisle seat, my husband is in the the middle seat in the row behind me. I sit down next to two petite Asian women who have fun cooing with Olivia. Wow, this is going to be pretty easy -- sitting next to small people who like kids.
Spencer on the other hand, is sitting in the middle seat between two large people. About a 1/2 hour into the flight, Spencer takes the baby for a walk in the galley and never comes back. Since the baby is asleep, I offer to trade seats with him as long as he takes the baby (I'm a little smaller after all.)
When we get back to the seats, I see the conundrum -- I'm not quite sure how to get over the body mass of the person in the aisle seat. (She's sound asleep.) I have climbed across sleeping passengers by stepping onto the center armrest, but I'm not sure that my legs are long enough to make it across her body.
Eventually, the woman wakes up and I get into the seat. I'm doing okay, until the baby starts
crying an hour later. Since we can't easily trade seats again, Spencer passes her to me and the real fun begins -- manipulating a baby while sitting in the middle seat.
Luckily, the two people sitting next to me folded their arms across their chests (instead of on the armrests.) It was pretty nice of them. I know Olivia was overflowing into their personal space as well, and they were more considerate than other slimmer passengers I've sat next to! But man, my back was sore after that trip. I am still in need of a massage!
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Olivia's trip to Pennsyvania
the musical stylings of Olivia Knight
Monkey? I didn't see a monkey.
What, more reading?
Sad to leave
Sunday, September 7, 2008
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