Riley has forsaken baseball this year to give soccer a try. And is LOVING it! I think he enjoys the pace of soccer over baseball, but the running hither and yon is still a bit difficult. The first game was a couple of weeks ago. The temperature was reasonably cool, but the wind was blowing, literally, about 30 mph leaving a wind chill in the lower 40's somewhere.
When we first got to the field and were waiting on the rest of his team to show up so that he could warm up, he was trying to coax Troy and me to stand a little closer together to form a sufficient wind block. In his best romantic radio-announcer voice, he said, "Come on, you two, don't you feel the love?" as he pushed us together. Troy tossed over his shoulder, "Careful, dude. That's how you came to be in the first place." Over Ashley's theatrical "Ewwwwww"s and covering her ears with her hands, Riley tossed back, in mock horror, "On a soccer field???" A little too wise for 10...
And today was THE day. The BIG day. Every student, 3rd-12th grade in Texas, has some sort of ginormous test today. It's the (cue horror music): TAKS test!!! (pronounced 'tax') Passages to read, problems to solve, bubbles to bubble. All very important stuff. Students have practiced ad nauseum. Teachers have sworn their life away (Ashley understands that if you get peanut butter on your test booklet it goes STRAIGHT to the oval office for George W. Bush to deal with!!) and parents are doing what little they can in putting the punkin's to bed on time (wonder if I should make mine take a shower now?) and feeding them some sort of glorious power breakfast. Oh, and us yahoos that teach non-TAKS grades simply do all we can to steer our babies around the moon and back before we allow them to walk within 50 feet of a door that has a 'TESTING' sign on it.
So, today I woke Riley up by sitting on the edge of his bed and whispering, "Do you know what today is?" Without opening his eyes he whispered back, "It's Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills day." Then he struggled to sit up, all the while asking, "Do they have MAKS in Mississippi? Did you have LAKS in Louisiana when you grew up? Do all of those 'W' states have WAKS?" I just shook my head repeating, "I don't know." I'm pretty sure he'll do okay -- at least on the vocabulary portion!
The coffee group is on the road again this week! If you're in the D/FW area, join us and some ladies from Alta Mesa for a rockin' good time!
5 comments:
Riley sounds like he got his mother's wit!
sarah, haha no its soooo much fun! And get this, they have a mini-muddy buddy: FOR KIDS:) haha I think your kiddos would love it:)
Coming to the big D huh? Hope y'all have a great trip! And your "They're so FUNNY" blog made me laugh..your kids are pretty bright!!
Tell Riley in Louisiana, it's the LEAP--which would make it the WEAP in "all those states with w's."
For Riley's info...Illinois has ISAT - Illinois State Achievement Test - And we all have "Windows" in which to take the test so it isn't all the same day...No, up here, the anxiety and excitement is spread around for days and weeks on end!!! Oh horror! But we have finished and now must wait for JUDGEMENT DAY...when they tell us the scores .....NEXT AUGUST!!! I love efficiency. So our kids say "I sat for the ISAT!"
I love the soccer field story.. we have a young one who has that ability too and the older one who just can't handle any discussion about body parts much less the s word!
And thank goodness that stupid (um... I said a bad word) TAkS test is done! Can I just say how annoyed I am every year when it comes around and my daughter cries!
Post a Comment