That was my reaction, Pix. Then again, not a difficult assignment. He needed to write about an Asian American. Instead of picking someone famous he wanted someone he could interview, so he picked a friend who works for the public defender's office. He emailed her questions, she answered, and he just wrote up his 2 paragraphs about her. We'll correct spelling and grammar later, and then he'll rewrite it. The hardest part was just getting him to sit and do the work!

My BFF's 5th grader and 7th grader have homework over break. She actually seemed to spend most of her days getting them to do homework, when, if they would just do it, it would take 1 -2 hours! I would totally give up and just let them fail, but I think parents and homework are much more involved than they were in my day. I also did my homework mostly during other classes/lunch, and can't really suggest that as a strategy!

Sue is me.

ita, you're making me wish I had a destination birthday for my 40th. All I had was brunch.

I just got invited to my first destination 40th bday party....it's in Allentown PA. (Actually, that's a lie. I was invited to go on a cruise, but declined due to finances.)

I have six days of vacation I have to use before the end of March. I am torn between going somewhere and saving the money in case I end up leaving my job. I have a terrible time making up my mind.

I always have this dilemma! Because I always think I might leave my job.

My kindergartner had homework over break. I made him do all the worksheets and writing assignments but let him cheat on reading. (My grandparents own a bookstore and so when we visit them for Christmas we are allowed to "shop" for our own presents. Dylan picked out an armload of Little Golden Books and I let him read those instead of forcing him to read the dreadful leveled reading books the school sends home. I do see the practicality of leveled reading in the classroom, but books designed by committee to contain a certain number of sight words are pretty much uniformly awful when it comes to actual storytelling, and since they're so repetitive, Dylan memorizes them after a single readthrough anyway which renders them useless as a learning tool!)

Newborns do that!

But that's not a newborn. It's a pre-born. Those don't grab so much, as far as I've been able to determine (admittedly cursory research here).

Speaking of research, I was looking for images of the lovely Tico Armand, and the difference in quality of results between Google's image search and Bing's is so remarkable that I'm going to start using Bing for provocateuse research.

For reasons that escape me I brought up the "cleaning up" of results to my father over break, and luckily he didn't dwell on why I might care beyond principle.

My kindergartner had homework over break.

So did one of mine. So we made a copy of it and gave it to the other twin as homework too! Equitable distribution of worksheets!

I do see the practicality of leveled reading in the classroom, but books designed by committee to contain a certain number of sight words are pretty much uniformly awful when it comes to actual storytelling, and since they're so repetitive, Dylan memorizes them after a single readthrough anyway which renders them useless as a learning tool!)

Most Dr. Seuss books started as an attempt for Geisel to prove that you can make fun books that are all leveled readers with sight words. Hence Hop on Pop which is nonsensical.

Noah and Grace are currently crazy about Magic Tree House books (we're on book 6) and Grace loves Beatrix Potter.

Okay, I have two pages written so far. This is going to be a write, then let it stew and revisit it to add in data paper.

Because I always think I might leave my job.

Yeah. I feel like I've been in stasis for the last year trying to decide what I want to do when I grow up. (With stretches where I just ignore everything.) My inability to make a decision is driving me a little crazy.

Reading is still such a struggle for mac. I had him start reading Where the Sidewalk Ends last night and he did not think any of the poems he read were fun. The fiction book he is reading right now is less than 150 pages and he fights about reading more than 3-4 pages at a time.

We don't even give our high school students homework over break. That's why it's a break. Sheesh

That's awesome. We always had finals in January, so there was tons of homework and catching up, over break.

And I don't want to see my OWN insides outside, but I would totally dig seeing other peoples'. Which is why I did sorta consider doctoring, but decided getting into med school and then going through residency and all that seemed awful difficult.

I've probably posted this before, but seeing a cow with its uterus outside (and inside-out) as a child is what made me decide not to become a doctor or vet.