MY LEARNING FOR THE YEAR

Well as like every other year I knew this day was inevitable. The final day of the 2013-2014 school year. Had my hopes up for a while, with all the snow days I thought I would get another week anyway. But thanks to the school officials they tweaked the days. Turned half days to full, added a couple of minutes to the school days and managed to end it a few days earlier than expected. Yay them!!

This past school year had definitely been a real learning experience for me. I have become very proficient in 7th grade 1st semester math. However I had a little trouble with the 2nd semester, I don't quite understand the new math concepts. And can honestly say in my entire life I have never had to utilize what they are teaching.

Then comes the foreign language. Under the guidelines set forth by the great state of Michigan, every child who intends to graduate must take two years of a foreign language. This was never a prerequisite for me to graduate. I think they are just trying to get our kids in trouble. For instance if your kid speaks Spanish and you don't how can we eavesdrop on private conversations our kids are having with their friends? They could be plotting a party or an outing totally against the rules and we would never know. They could be talking crap about us and we would be totally in the dark. So I believe the foreign language is a ploy to turn our kids against us.

I am however an excellent listener, 20 minutes of reading, times 7 kids everyday has opened my world to the new and exciting adventures of  Junie B. Jones and The Diary of a Wimpy Kid.

And lets not forget the subject that can really make us all feel old, history. Some of the stuff our kids read in their history books we lived it. To see the look of surprise on their faces that we actually remember details and input information that is not in the book really messes with my mind.

So I enter this summer break with a new outlook. As this last day of school quickly comes to an end I can honestly saw I am smarted than I was last year. I may not be able to do the math but I can buy Rosetta Stone and learn Spanish to there won't be any plotting at my house!!

The last line.

The last step of the year.

The Chameleon

As most of you know that reads my blog our family is made up of a wondrous array of children. Some  being a mixed race of Caucasian and African American. Most of the children came to us as infant either from the new born nursery, neonatal intensive care and pediatric I.C.U. So of course we have lots of photos of the children from the time they were very young. In our experience the children of mixed race we adopted were very light skinned for the first year or so.

A few days ago as the kids and I were looking through some old pictures we came across some of Deebo (aka Tyler) as a toddler. Joey looked at the pictures and said, "Hey Deebs you look really white". To which he replied nonchalantly , "Yea, my other mother was really white". End of conversation.

This morning he started a new one with me just before the bus got here:

Deebo: Hey mom where's that picture of me when I was a baby?

Me: In the closet, why?

Deebo: Oh just because.

Me: Deebo, really why do you want the picture?

Deebo looking at me with a sheepish grin: Well I wanted to show my friends at school.

Me: A picture of you when you were a baby?

Deebo: No I wanted to show them I used to be white, I told them but they don't believe me!!

Enough said!