POSTS WITH TAG: elementary school

Big Kid

Mom Saves Bus Full of Kids After Terrifying Event (VIDEO)

Posted by Amy Reiter
on Feb 14, 2012 at 3:46 PM

Rhonda CarlsenImagine, if you will, standing with your kids and waiting for the school bus to swing by, as you would on any typical school day, when you see the bus coming -- and then rolling right past you and not showing any sign of stopping ... at all. Then your daughter looks up at you and says, "Mom, something's not right with our bus driver!"

What would you do? Me? I'm afraid I'd just freeze in terror. But that's not what one fast-thinking Albuquerque mom, Rhonda Carlsen, did. She tells local news station KOAT that she ran after the bus, which was filled with terrified kids on their way to elementary school. Through the window, she could see the driver was having a seizure.

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Big Kid Twisted

School Horror Stories Bring Out Parental Fears

Posted by Julie Ryan Evans
on Feb 9, 2012 at 1:32 PM

girl in a bubbleThe news has been particularly terrifying for parents of school-age kids lately with case after case of sexual abuse being reported. Recently in Los Angeles a teacher was accused of the most unimaginable sex abuse crimes against children in the classroom; and this week a teacher's aide in New York was arrested for making child pornography on school grounds. I could go on and on, but it's too heartbreaking. What I really want to know is how do we protect our children from evil monsters like this out there in the world? Can we?

I've said before that it's stories like these that will prevent me from ever being a free-range parent. Philosophically I want to let go, but emotionally I can't. Of course, we can't wrap our kids up and bubble wrap, and for most of us, we have no choice but to send them into the schools. But do we really have to just wait and take our chances that they may be a victim? Are there ways we can help minimize their odds without smothering them with our efforts?

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Big Kid Rant

Moms, Not Judges, Know What's Best For Their Kids

Posted by Sasha Brown-Worsham
on Feb 9, 2012 at 12:40 PM

A mother in North Carolina is probably going to go to jail for making the decision to not honor the custody agreement between her and her former spouse. At first glance, it seems insane, right? A mother should WANT her children to have a relationship with their father, correct? In this case, however, the mom is actually correct.

The children, 4 and 7, have an alleged drug dealer for a father. David Edward Kennedy was fired from his job with the city of Charlotte, NC when he failed a drug test, and in November, he was indicted on federal cocaine trafficking charges. Does that sound like the kind of person you would want around your kids? It seems no. And yet a judge has ordered their mother to honor their joint custody agreement or she will get jail time.

The fact is, this dad has reportedly confessed to dealing drugs and the mother says she does not feel safe sending her kids to him. So now the court overrules mother’s instinct? How fair is that?

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Big Kid Video

Funniest Spelling Bee in History Gives New Meaning to 'Harangue' (VIDEO)

Posted by Sasha Brown-Worsham
on Feb 1, 2012 at 1:00 PM

Ah, the spelling bee. I have such fond memories of getting super competitive over the spelling of "dinosaur," "bureau," and "cousin" among other words. Those bees were some of the better moments of my school career. They were just FUN.

Oddly enough, watching them is really fun, too. Even now when I am a grown-up, I love to see kids spell words. The tension is high, the sense of competition is thick, and the whole thing is just a blast. One of the better YouTube videos of all time has captured all that tension.

A boy of about 12 is asked to spell the word "Heron." It's a simple word, but his tortured questioning of the presenter is both hilarious and kind of disturbing. See for yourself:

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Big Kid

Why 'Crazy Hat Day' Drives Me Crazy

Posted by Jacqueline Burt
on Jan 29, 2012 at 3:08 PM

crazy hatI bet whoever came up with "Crazy Hat Day" thought it sounded like fun. Oh, what fun! Like a harmless way to spice up the same-old school calendar: Hmmm, it's the middle of the winter and the holidays are over and kids are bored ... let's plan something fun! Like a day where kids get to do something really wild, something against the rules ... something like wearing a crazy hat!! In school! All day! Now that's what I call fun!

Except Crazy Hat Day is not, in fact, all that much fun. Neither is Pajama Day or Wear-Your-Clothes-Inside-Out Day or Silly Sock Day. No, not much fun at all.

I learned this lesson a long time ago, but I forgot about it until the other day, which just happened to be the annual Crazy Hat Day at my kids' school.

I remembered the no-fun thing at precisely 7:24 a.m.. That's when I heard myself yelling, "What do you mean the court jester hat with the jingle bells isn't crazy? Of course it's crazy!!"

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Big Kid

5 Things From Obama's State of the Union Speech That Every Parent Can Celebrate

Posted by Amy Reiter
on Jan 25, 2012 at 4:28 PM

State of the Union 2012As President Obama acknowledged in his State of the Union address Tuesday night, the American people tend to regard much of what goes on in Washington, DC, with a skeptical eye. But there was a moment during Obama's looong (is it over yet?) speech that, as the parent of two kids attending public elementary school, I found myself wanting to stand up and cheer. Actually, come to think of it, there were a few of them.

Here are five things the President said about education that parents of kids of all ages -- K through college -- can celebrate. (If Washington lawmakers can manage to work out a deal to make them happen, that is -- which is, of course, a big if.)

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Big Kid

School Restricts Kids' Bathroom Breaks to 3 Times a Week

Posted by Julie Ryan Evans
on Jan 23, 2012 at 10:46 AM

school bathroomIn a ridiculously overzealous and inappropriate move, a teacher in New York has started seriously limiting her students' bathroom access. And by seriously limit, I mean they only are allowed three bathroom passes a WEEK. Three!

According to the New York Post, students in Ms. Stephanie Warner's fifth grade class at P.S. 90 in Brooklyn say they are given three strips of paper that say, “This coupon entitles [student name] to bathroom.” If they are lost or otherwise destroyed, then they are, well ... sh*t out of luck. And when they do get to go, they only get three minutes to do so.

Not only that, they're encouraged to use as few of those strips as possible, and are awarded prizes the less they go. Can you hear urologists across the country shrieking about the damage holding it can do? If not, that's only because the cries of parental outrage may be louder.

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Big Kid

My Son Does Gross Things at School & I Couldn't Be Prouder

Posted by Jacqueline Burt
on Jan 19, 2012 at 6:35 PM

julian sticking tongue out
Yuck, barf!
Yesterday, on the way home from school, I had a rather disturbing conversation with my 6-year-old son, Julian. This is how it went.

Julian: Today, in my class, this kid barfed like five times.

Me: Oh. Oh ... boy. Well, that's too bad. So, um, you wash your hands before you eat at school, right?

Julian: Yeah, the nurse always tells me to wash my hands.

Me: That's good. Wait, the nurse? Why did you see the nurse? Did you feel sick too?

Julian: No, it's because I'm the person in my class who walks somebody to the nurse when they barf or have a headache and we're supposed to hold hands, so then after we get there, the nurse says to me, "I think you better wash your hands now!"

Me: Oh. Oh ... boy.

That's what I said out loud, anyway. In my head I was screaming, "Hey! How come my kid got stuck with this gig? Why does my son have to be the Official First Grade Barfing-Kid Escort?!"

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Big Kid

Education About Homosexuality Belongs in Grade Schools

Posted by Sasha Brown-Worsham
on Jan 11, 2012 at 11:41 AM

Sexual education in the school has long been in need of a revamp, and this week, a coalition of health and education groups issued non-binding recommendations to states and school districts regarding sex ed in the school. One of the most striking elements of the recommendations is the definition of sexual orientation, something that will likely anger thousands of parents who don't want their kids learning about same sex relationships.

The new sex ed recommendations come into play by the end of fifth grade and would define sexual orientation as "the romantic attraction of an individual to someone of the same gender or a different gender." Amen. That is exactly what it is and children should be learning about in school, especially those whose parents display bias and prejudice at home.

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Big Kid

Slavery + Math Homework Add Up to a Dumb Lesson for Georgia Kids

Posted by Janelle Harris
on Jan 9, 2012 at 9:33 PM

Slavery, mathThink quick: If a tree has 56 oranges and eight slaves pick them equally, how many would each slave pick?

I couldn’t tell you. I’m more focused on the absurdity of the question. But I betcha the third grade students at Beaver Ridge Elementary School in Norcross, Ga. might be able to fire off the answer. After all, it was one of the word problems they had to do for homework last week.

Ah, nothing says repressed racism like a little revisit to the good ol’ days when slaves did their manual labor like they were supposed to.

The school says the teacher was taking a stab at a cross-instructional lesson by infusing social studies into the math questioning. Great idea! Let me give it a go: How many doofuses does it take to create one math worksheet?

Apparently just one. 

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