#sonTwo says that #GS3 and #GS4 know Grandpa is coming. #GS5 does not know why he got kicked out of his room.
#sonOne has not said whether #GS1, #GD1, #GD2 know I'm coming. I'm not expecting to see #GS2, as he lives some distance (2-3 hours drive time in each direction), on top of him being 25.
I expressed that it would be great if #Daddy_A could visit during this time. It has been something like 20 years since all three of them were present at the same place and time.
@gnu2 In some areas, charter schools are (by far) the best schools. Both #son2 and #Daddy_A attended charter schools from 7th grade on, where they were relieved from experiencing the constant fights that their public middle schools suffered.
As a result of attending "schools of choice" where disruptive students were expelled, they were able to: * do actual dissections of various field-collected insects and invertebrates * go on "the science boat" and be see the marine life they were being taught about * do a project where they connected with a radio telescope (this program is available to schools around the country, but the local school district never participated) * learn simple computer programming in C++ on Linux * hike to the top of the largest local hill (strictly off-limits to the public, though I'd taken them there before) and then down to the river on the other side * visit the home atop another hill built for the local community founder (couldn't enter because it was in poor condition) * explore the actual physical requirements of certain careers (example: construction course had students learning to build walls from 2x4s and sheetrock) * enroll in sponsored courses at the local college (Daddy_A never participated; he believed he wasn't smart enough) * some students took such languages as Latin, but mine didn't (one took French and the other took Spanish, but even having French as an option is something the local school district did not offer)
So I know that the big national teachers unions oppose charter schools, claiming they're stealing money from the public school system, but that doesn't seem to be the case in CA (the only state where I have any experience). The school district administrators' high pay is robbing the district schools of funds to pay teachers and buy supplies.
I also have heard some home school advocates claim charter schools have all the issues of public schools (which is almost true), but since some of them do not even believe public schools should exist, they oppose charter schools as well.
To this, I point out that many parents are completely unsuited for homeschooling. For example, there are many working single parents. There are also many parents who are uneducated and many who do not understand the value of a rigorous education. The same parents who don't ensure their children go to school on time every day and complete assigned homework after school are NOT going to suddenly take an active role in making sure their children learn what they'll need to know in order to participate in the economy and in the political system. And finally, there are parents who cut corners--cheat--at everything. One cannot expect those parents to do differently when it comes to teaching their kids.
* #sonOne: mailed his birthday card the day before, so it arrived late * #sonTwo: mailed his birthday card and a book two weeks early * #Daddy_A: no birthday card mailed
But once they grow up and move out, your "favorite" is the one who stays in touch most. Second son currently calls me about 4X/week, plus does a regular weekly #videochat between me and his family. The older and younger boys are a lot less communicative.
But honestly, I bought both sons' cards the same day, after I got unemployment benefits. The other child's birthday is earlier, when I had no funds.
People are individuals. Maybe more people in certain ages hold one view versus another, but it is unlikely that *all* of them do so.
Yes, the things that happen in the world around people affect them. So for example "9/11" happened while #sonTwo and #Daddy_A were in middle school. 2nd son's school actually pulled the kids into an assembly room and put the news on for a couple of hours. So they watched the 2nd plane strike a tower and they watched the towers collapse repeatedly.
I did try to call #A1 again this weekend, but his phone is still out of service. While I'm tempted to try to pick up his phone bill, funds are still limited, so I will just wait until things get better for #Daddy_A and #Mama_A.
Part of the plan was that we'd all play together and thereby increase our time spent together and our communication, but that never happened, so I stopped buying consoles.
This became the official song at family wedding receptions because of some embarrassing history.
One day when #sonTwo (2nd son) and #Daddy_A (half son) were in middle school, I picked them up and we stopped at McDonald's to eat and do homework before the Wednesday night church service.
Love Train came on, and their non-dancing father got up and started dancing around. 2nd son said "dad, you're embarrassing us." I said, "I'm going to dance just like this when this song gets played at your wedding."
And so, every wedding, this song plays and I dance to it.
So on the video, he said "Grandpa sent me something about planets", and his brother #GS4 (almost 2 years old) started asking whether they were going to have a videochat with "ganpa".
Anyway, I'm going to try to order some clothing for both of them. The 4 year old is too tall for most of this clothes, but the next size up are too wide for him. This has been the case for about a year, so it isn't a change, except he's moved up another size. But now, the 2 year old has outgrown almost all his clothes height-wise, but width-wise, he can still fit clothes from a year ago.
Likewise, I couldn't get anything for their cousin #A1 around the time of his birthday, but I've picked something that I will try to order soon. I'm waiting to hear back from #Daddy_A that this is something the 10 year old will like ... and that someone will be involved with exploring it with him.
@simsa04 @lohang I love it when people can disagree, even disagree strongly on important issues, and still remain friends and be kind to one another.
That's one of the things that I really love about #sonTwo. We don't agree about everything, and yet we can disagree without enmity. #sonOne is rather rigid about such things, so one must not speak about such topics. ( And #Daddy_A is just now learning that conflict avoidance is not always desirable, so only now has he started to speak up about such issues. )
@fu Unfortunately, most families cannot home school because the adult(s) are too busy working and / or not educationally able. And that's even if they can meet their state's requirements for home schooling.
So if they cannot pay for private school, they usually have to rely upon public schools.
In my case, #sonOne got into the public continuation high school and only returned to the regular public high school for the last semester, so he could graduate. #sonTwo and #Daddy_A got into publicly-funded charter schools (and 2nd son also spent one school year doing a home school program through the continuation school when a lung infection prevented attendance). All three had suffered violence at the public schools (high school and middle schools) before getting into alternative programs, so I am definitely in favor of making alternatives available.