As I sit here approaching my 30th birthday I find myself reflecting over my life, a little bit. You see the man I have married has been my love for over half my life already. But that is not what I reflected on today.
Today I was left thinking about how some people never experience a love that grows. I guess I am lucky to have seen both sets of my grandparents be madly in love with each other for many years. So my young self just figured that as you grow with someone you just keep falling in love with them all over again.
I will never forget being a newly wed and attending college in San Diego. I was taking an accelerated Sociology course on the base at night. There was a young sailor (ha I was 19 and I am sure he was in his 20's) who had just signed his divorce papers. As class mates do, we had chatted, and he told me his sad story about how his first love and him had just divorced. He even had her rings that he had designed still with him. I told him that I was a firm believer that when the right love was there it would last forever and keep getting better. That you just keep falling in love at new stages in your life. He was quite the gentlemen not to argue with me and simply said I truly hope that is the kind of love you have.
You know what; it is the kind of love I have. There are key moments that I look back on over the last 15+ years and I know I fell head over heels in love with my husband again, and again. We have had mountains to climb and have come from low places in our marriage. But the highs of love and the lasting effect it has had is something that catches up with me here and again.
Our life together has brought adventures across most of the country and back. Children that are unique, beautiful and always teaching us something new. Memories I would not trade for the world. While I know 30 years is quite young still, I feel quite blessed to have had the full life that we have shared. I can only imagine what the next 15 years will hold for us.
I wish you all a love that grows.
Monday, June 28, 2010
Sunday, June 6, 2010
Why I feel there should be a national standard for Public School.
I am a person of very stong conservative values. However we are also military and growing up my family was quite poor so everytime we moved my education, and my sisters, took quite a hit. So this is how I feel:
We have public school mandated by the Federal Govt. They have passed a law that requires all 50 states to have a free public school system available to their citizens. It is no different then driving in some ways. If all the states did not have almost the same laws we would not be able to safely drive in other states. SO why do we throw our children into a "lion’s den" of allowing some states and some zip codes a better or worse education?
We live in the land of the free, home of the brave, the land of oppurtunity and the "Great American Dream". That all who live here are equal and have the right to the same things, so long as they work for it. So why do we not we give our children what is equal and fair?
Growing up everytime I changed schools wether it was the same county, across the river or an hours drive I got stuck repeating material that I had just finished. No one listened to me and as a result I threw may hands in the air in 6th grade and said I am done. I am not going to keep doing the same work over and over again. As a reult I barely passed 8th grade. However I was smart enough to learn I better make High School count. For the same reasons, my sister never learned Fractions, Geography and other subjects, to this day she struggles with geography and fractions.
We have moved in the military between California (home of record and first station), Illinois and Washington. The curriculums we have seen our daughter go through in the last two states were totally different. I cannot believe that I am going to have to say her Kindergarten year would have been better in North Chicago. But there is where the buck stops. Because my friend had her son at the same school in grades 1st through most of 3rd and the education declined quite a bit.
When we got to Washington school went ok but then in first grade the school district decided that all the schools would learn by spiral math, not mastery. Guess what my friend, with the 3rd grade son, got relocated to Va and she already told me how her son that did fine in math before could not get ahold of this spiral program because he was just dropped in where ever the class was at. There is no definitive way of telling you what the class has done, because they will go back over it, eventually. I can go on and on and on about why we as a nation need to have a national standard of education and core curriculum.
Being a homeschool family, national education would not have that much of an effect. But it might be nice to have centralized birthday start dates for the greater masses so when military (and others) relocate their fall babies that were everyone elses age do not suddenly become the oldest by a lot or the youngest by a lot. That does make a difference for children and how they group together in public school. Where they are at emotionally compared to their peers. So that when a family moves for what ever reason you can talk with the new school and be able to know exactly where they are (and for that matter actually know where they should be), to have school years start and end the same so that these incredible differences do not shorten or lengthen the school year on people who move. Can you imagine knowing you are getting out of school the first week of June and then be forced to move in April or May and that new school does not get out until week 3 of June. I can see that being a hard on a lot of people, the kids and their families. They were ready for school to end. That is hard on kids of all ages.
So long story wrap up while I do not agree in larger govt, I feel when they make something required of the nation it is their resposibility to see it through and support it. I feel that our school system actually would be a lot better if it would have been run by the Feds for the basics. Our children in the ghettos would be getting the same basic classes and subjects as their public school peers that happend to have the right zip code.
We have public school mandated by the Federal Govt. They have passed a law that requires all 50 states to have a free public school system available to their citizens. It is no different then driving in some ways. If all the states did not have almost the same laws we would not be able to safely drive in other states. SO why do we throw our children into a "lion’s den" of allowing some states and some zip codes a better or worse education?
We live in the land of the free, home of the brave, the land of oppurtunity and the "Great American Dream". That all who live here are equal and have the right to the same things, so long as they work for it. So why do we not we give our children what is equal and fair?
Growing up everytime I changed schools wether it was the same county, across the river or an hours drive I got stuck repeating material that I had just finished. No one listened to me and as a result I threw may hands in the air in 6th grade and said I am done. I am not going to keep doing the same work over and over again. As a reult I barely passed 8th grade. However I was smart enough to learn I better make High School count. For the same reasons, my sister never learned Fractions, Geography and other subjects, to this day she struggles with geography and fractions.
We have moved in the military between California (home of record and first station), Illinois and Washington. The curriculums we have seen our daughter go through in the last two states were totally different. I cannot believe that I am going to have to say her Kindergarten year would have been better in North Chicago. But there is where the buck stops. Because my friend had her son at the same school in grades 1st through most of 3rd and the education declined quite a bit.
When we got to Washington school went ok but then in first grade the school district decided that all the schools would learn by spiral math, not mastery. Guess what my friend, with the 3rd grade son, got relocated to Va and she already told me how her son that did fine in math before could not get ahold of this spiral program because he was just dropped in where ever the class was at. There is no definitive way of telling you what the class has done, because they will go back over it, eventually. I can go on and on and on about why we as a nation need to have a national standard of education and core curriculum.
Being a homeschool family, national education would not have that much of an effect. But it might be nice to have centralized birthday start dates for the greater masses so when military (and others) relocate their fall babies that were everyone elses age do not suddenly become the oldest by a lot or the youngest by a lot. That does make a difference for children and how they group together in public school. Where they are at emotionally compared to their peers. So that when a family moves for what ever reason you can talk with the new school and be able to know exactly where they are (and for that matter actually know where they should be), to have school years start and end the same so that these incredible differences do not shorten or lengthen the school year on people who move. Can you imagine knowing you are getting out of school the first week of June and then be forced to move in April or May and that new school does not get out until week 3 of June. I can see that being a hard on a lot of people, the kids and their families. They were ready for school to end. That is hard on kids of all ages.
So long story wrap up while I do not agree in larger govt, I feel when they make something required of the nation it is their resposibility to see it through and support it. I feel that our school system actually would be a lot better if it would have been run by the Feds for the basics. Our children in the ghettos would be getting the same basic classes and subjects as their public school peers that happend to have the right zip code.
Time to heal
This week our family had a horrible thing happen. Our youngest fell out of her brother’s window. As scary as it was the important things are that she is totally fine and when the bruises heal she will be good as new. God truly had His hand on her. Ihave to say that this is the largest miracle I have ever witnessed. And I know what a blessing this is.
At the same time, everyday life seems really hard now. I have never felt more emotional or lost. I feel like I am failing with my children at giving them all that they need. I have come to a point of just wanting to stay in my home and not leave. It is really difficult to be anywhere near where she fell down to. I feel like my family is all out of sorts and unbalanced. These are the hard times.
I guess we all just need time to heal.
At the same time, everyday life seems really hard now. I have never felt more emotional or lost. I feel like I am failing with my children at giving them all that they need. I have come to a point of just wanting to stay in my home and not leave. It is really difficult to be anywhere near where she fell down to. I feel like my family is all out of sorts and unbalanced. These are the hard times.
I guess we all just need time to heal.
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