We got a late start today and there was a threat of rain (which proved no threat at all--we got trounced for about 20 minutes) so we ended up at the Children's Museum around 11:15. They have an excellent hands-on exhibit called Abracadabra that OC and the T's (twins) love. What puzzled me when we arrived is not the number of children present--it's always been busy when we've gone--but how old the kids were. Seven, eight, nine year olds were frolicking around with much-younger siblings, working the tops, playing in the water tables, playing pretend store and riding the faux RTA. Parents were clearly present and trying to herd their progeny from one activity to the other.
What gives?
I don't understand kids who aren't in school on school days. I see it a lot and I can't figure it out. Why would a fifth grader be at Target at 10 am? Why are seven and eight year olds at Zagara's when you can hear the second bells ringing down the street at Boulevard Elementary? And today, why would a group of siblings be causing chaos at a museum instead of getting their heads on straight in a regular school classroom?
Oh, the homeschoolers will protest. It could have been a homeschool field trip, or a homeschool recess, or a homeschool break. Homeschool, my tuchus. Somehow these kids either railroaded their overwhelmed and easily broken mothers into letting them rip school for the day or the moms, despite their normal enough appearances, have this idea that school is optional if you've got something theoretically better to do. These are the same parents who will berate the school district for the way it organizes breaks because (and I've heard this) they don't line up with "extended family vacations."
The schools do allot for extended family vacations. It's called summer. And October is hardly that.
What gives?
I don't understand kids who aren't in school on school days. I see it a lot and I can't figure it out. Why would a fifth grader be at Target at 10 am? Why are seven and eight year olds at Zagara's when you can hear the second bells ringing down the street at Boulevard Elementary? And today, why would a group of siblings be causing chaos at a museum instead of getting their heads on straight in a regular school classroom?
Oh, the homeschoolers will protest. It could have been a homeschool field trip, or a homeschool recess, or a homeschool break. Homeschool, my tuchus. Somehow these kids either railroaded their overwhelmed and easily broken mothers into letting them rip school for the day or the moms, despite their normal enough appearances, have this idea that school is optional if you've got something theoretically better to do. These are the same parents who will berate the school district for the way it organizes breaks because (and I've heard this) they don't line up with "extended family vacations."
The schools do allot for extended family vacations. It's called summer. And October is hardly that.
1 comment:
You are hooked, aren't you?
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