So can/will it be an ongoing, kind of random thing (she asked, with hope)? Like, if three months from now, I'm back where there's a TJs and I e-mail Perkins and say, "Hey, I'm in a TJs share the love mood, who's up next?", would that work?

Or, say, so-and-so could use a pick-me-up, I wonder if he/she is on the TJs list. But, then, really even if you live next door to a TJs, receiving a TJs package would still be a pick-me-up. Ramble. I ramble.

Perkins, I don't know what this will end up looking like, but thanks for being willing to organize the TJs givers/receivers.

Insent.

Er, yeah, what amyth said. I got a little over excited there.

Where in WY did he go? Southern half, I guess?

Yep, in the south, a little town somewhere near Laramie. He has been invited up to our friend's cabin for years and this is the first time it has worked for him to go. (It is strange to be able to write years like that when I still feel like such a CO newbie).

I do not have the brain to send a lit to Perkins. Maybe tomorrow.

eta *list

Yep, in the south, a little town somewhere near Laramie.

Our year in Wyoming was so weird and fraught and I was pregnant for most of it, so I really didn't enjoy it, and we didn't see much of it, either. But I would love to go back now -- Ben is dying to see Yellowstone, and as he calls it, "the land of his birth."

My Y did a cool thing today. It's on the site of the old Memorial Stadium, and now has a Cal Ripkin project baseball field. Anyway, today was a Ravens game day. They brought in one of those industrial sized flatscreens, set up seats and set up a portion of the parking lot for tailgating for a small fee. It was full, complete with grills. On the field, they had bounce houses for kids and various food vendors.

Apparently, this is gonna be a regular thing.

I was moved ahead as much as a year and a half at times, and they decided that the half year was too much. I was fine a year ahead, but then for other reasons the prep school wanted me held back instead of letting me go to high school, but my mother overrode them.

However, when I moved to England they pulled me back to my proper year because I just had no experience with their curriculum. Fair enough.

The chick in the Verizon iPad ad is really pretty and I want her earrings.

I know some of us have shared concerns here before about having young kindergartners (and so on). I haven't read this entire article but it seems to offer some reassurance. [link]

This is very interesting. Ryan was born right on Victoria's cutoff date, which would make him the oldest in his class when he starts school. Now I'm wondering what to do. (I skipped kindergarten myself, so I was in the opposite situation.)

Personally, I think it is totally child dependent. My brother's birthday was 2 days before the cut off. My mom, an elementary teacher, held him back and it was the right thing for him. Until he turned 18 days before his senior year and that year was hard for him.

I know that post-Malcolm Gladwell's book, there was a lot of conversation about holding kids back and I think it was sort of a thing in certain circles, as mentioned in the NY Times article.

Ellie has a June birthday. I think going to school was clearly right for her, but I do notice at thebeginning of each year that she seems a bit younger than much of her class.

Some of the arguments are total redherrings. Anecdotally, many of the kids who are being redshirted are NOT the lower income kids, but instead are kids who are already in preschool of some sort.

Moreover, acceleration is a powerful force because that intervention is an overt action of belief of a kid's competency plus it usually comes with the advice that a kid will have to work harder wherever they are.

If N&G were on the cusp, I'd keep them out of Kinder an additional year and instead keep them in a PreK. By the end of kinder, the expectations, at least in California, is that a kid can write a full sentence on their own, which is a difficult achievement. By the end of !st, they should write a paragraph of at least 3 sentences that are interconnected.