The four o'clock class of kindergarten/first grade kids was explaining Fun Racing. Fun Racing is when you take a magazine around to grown-ups and ask them to sign. You take the magazine back and get a toy. If a lot of them sign it, you get an electric scooter. There's Fun Racing at school, and Fun Racing at Girl Scouts.
Heaven knows there's Fun Racing at Little League, French club, debate team, marching band (ESPECIALLY marching band), Cub Scouts, and every other activity or organization children are involved in. Serving on the board of a public school parent-teacher organization, I became very skeptical about Fun Racing. The funds raised too often went for happy face sticker and candy "incentives" for teachers to give students. They frequently paid for annual appreciation gifts for the school principal, or the board members (and fundraising chairpersons) of the very same organization.
Fun Racing creates ridiculous competition between students and grade levels, while taking time away from homework and family togetherness. Fun Racing does not create young entrepreneurs or teach poise. Worst, most Fun Racing gives only a tiny percentage of the sales money back to the organization.
Somewhere along the line of having three kids in three schools, and each in a minimum or three sports or enrichment activities, I shorted out. Blue smoke came out of my ears. I started writing a check, one hundred percent of which went directly to the organization, and a note that I declined to give permission for my children to participate in Fun Racing. I admit that sometimes when I was extremely harried as a single parent, I wrote that Fun Racing was against our religion.
I know it's harsh, but the only ways to curtail the endless Fun Racing is to decline to participate as a student/family, and decline to enable as a giftwrap purchaser. When you notice something positive in your school zone or district, send a note and a check. A child may say "thank you", and a worn-out mom may hug you!
Showing posts with label extracurricular activities. Show all posts
Showing posts with label extracurricular activities. Show all posts
4/11/05
A Gift for Coach
At the end of each season there's a tiny panic about giving an appreciation gift to the coach. I've been a soccer mom for a ridiculously long time now, pretty much since the Neanderthals first played the Sapiens. I know that people don't volunteer to coach youth recreational soccer or other sports in expectation of receiving an appreciation gift. True, some of them get roped into it the same way I got roped into being a Tiger Cub leader back in Edmond, Oklahoma. Usually they find they get at least as much out of the coaching experience as they put in. Hanging out with young children will supply a coach with whimsical comments and blooper moments to last a lifetime.
Encourage children to write a letter to their coach at the end of the season. You can prompt your child with questions. What was your favorite drill? What was your greatest moment of the season? What new skill did you learn? What new rule did you learn? What was the funniest thing your coach did?
Parents can write a letter to the coach, too. Thank the coach for keeping the emphasis on learning skills, being good sports, working as a team, and having fun. Enclose reprints of all the photos you took, even the ones of children picking dandelions, picking noses, getting entangled in the goal net, staring up at hot air balloons, or wearing their socks all the way up under their shorts.
While you are at it, be sure to thank the refs at your child's games. Model respect for rules and good sportsmanship for your young player.
Encourage children to write a letter to their coach at the end of the season. You can prompt your child with questions. What was your favorite drill? What was your greatest moment of the season? What new skill did you learn? What new rule did you learn? What was the funniest thing your coach did?
Parents can write a letter to the coach, too. Thank the coach for keeping the emphasis on learning skills, being good sports, working as a team, and having fun. Enclose reprints of all the photos you took, even the ones of children picking dandelions, picking noses, getting entangled in the goal net, staring up at hot air balloons, or wearing their socks all the way up under their shorts.
While you are at it, be sure to thank the refs at your child's games. Model respect for rules and good sportsmanship for your young player.
2/17/05
Adventures on a Shoestring
No, this isn't a frugal travel guide. It's a double-knotted safety and sanity manual.
When Danger Baby was tiny, he loved to crawl across the floor to attack my shoelaces. I never let him suck on the shoestrings. Blaaaaackkkk! In frustration he developed the habit of pulling threads and unraveling his socks. I don't know what it is about kids and strings!
In the olden days of the 1960's we wore saddle shoes or oxfords to school, black patent Mary Janes to church, and Keds all summer. Somehow we all learned to tie our own shoes so they stayed tied. We had school clothes, scout uniforms, ballet leotards, play clothes, and Sunday School/birthday party dresses. We came home from school and changed into play clothes. Sunday School dresses, play clothes, and leotards never went to school, and vice versa. I think we had plenty of fun, but childhood and school were viewed as more of a Basic Training for Real Life than they are today. We learned quickly that different behaviors as well as different clothes were required for different situations. As long as I'm in pet peeve mode, I might as well say that we knew not to act like we were at the school carnival or basketball game during the school orchestra concert!
Shoestrings was the topic, not the decline of civilization brought on by children's Velcro shoes. Once I had to rescue a preschool boy who managed to get his shoestring ensnarled in the hinge of the folding chair. He dang near broke his ankle falling off the chair and hanging there!
This week a little darling pulled the drawstring out of the waistband of her designer sweatpants by chewing and sucking on the string. [We were glad she was wearing underwear this time.] Then she pulled the drawsting of her groovy pantleg until she could tie it in a knot to the buckle on her shoe ON THE OTHER LEG. She was getting herself quite cat's cradled and macrame-ed! The knot was so bad, not to mention so soggy from being sucked, that I had to cut the string so she wouldn't tie herself into a big knot. Just try jumping rope with your own shoestring. Reminds me of the Chinese jumprope we used to play on the playground using that rope made from rubber bands.
And now for the safety note. I wrote about Danger Baby standing up in his crib and tearing the wallpaper off the bedroom wall. Only the wall was damaged. A friend's own Danger Baby stood up in his crib and reached the pull cord for the window blinds. He got it wrapped tight around his neck, and nearly died. I know "a man's reach should exceed his grasp...", but please consider that your child's reach may exceed the safe environment you've tried to create for him.
When Danger Baby was tiny, he loved to crawl across the floor to attack my shoelaces. I never let him suck on the shoestrings. Blaaaaackkkk! In frustration he developed the habit of pulling threads and unraveling his socks. I don't know what it is about kids and strings!
In the olden days of the 1960's we wore saddle shoes or oxfords to school, black patent Mary Janes to church, and Keds all summer. Somehow we all learned to tie our own shoes so they stayed tied. We had school clothes, scout uniforms, ballet leotards, play clothes, and Sunday School/birthday party dresses. We came home from school and changed into play clothes. Sunday School dresses, play clothes, and leotards never went to school, and vice versa. I think we had plenty of fun, but childhood and school were viewed as more of a Basic Training for Real Life than they are today. We learned quickly that different behaviors as well as different clothes were required for different situations. As long as I'm in pet peeve mode, I might as well say that we knew not to act like we were at the school carnival or basketball game during the school orchestra concert!
Shoestrings was the topic, not the decline of civilization brought on by children's Velcro shoes. Once I had to rescue a preschool boy who managed to get his shoestring ensnarled in the hinge of the folding chair. He dang near broke his ankle falling off the chair and hanging there!
This week a little darling pulled the drawstring out of the waistband of her designer sweatpants by chewing and sucking on the string. [We were glad she was wearing underwear this time.] Then she pulled the drawsting of her groovy pantleg until she could tie it in a knot to the buckle on her shoe ON THE OTHER LEG. She was getting herself quite cat's cradled and macrame-ed! The knot was so bad, not to mention so soggy from being sucked, that I had to cut the string so she wouldn't tie herself into a big knot. Just try jumping rope with your own shoestring. Reminds me of the Chinese jumprope we used to play on the playground using that rope made from rubber bands.
And now for the safety note. I wrote about Danger Baby standing up in his crib and tearing the wallpaper off the bedroom wall. Only the wall was damaged. A friend's own Danger Baby stood up in his crib and reached the pull cord for the window blinds. He got it wrapped tight around his neck, and nearly died. I know "a man's reach should exceed his grasp...", but please consider that your child's reach may exceed the safe environment you've tried to create for him.
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