Today, A and N and I walked to the main library to see “Reptile Man.”He came to Avery’s school a couple of weeks ago and Aaron really wanted to see him there, but since he couldn’t, I saw that he was at the main library and decided to give it a try walking. There are no buses to the library on weekends, and during the week they are infrequent at best. It is about two miles, for a total of probably slightly over 4 miles round trip. We stopped at McDonald’s for lunch at about the halfway point, and that helped a lot. Then on the way back, we were dying of heat and so we stopped there again for ice cream. I don’t know if we would have made it if not for dividing the walk in half like that. But that made it doable (and also not having Avery, who stayed home with Nik and went with him to get a haircut and groceries). Reptile Man was cool. He made it a balance of funny, informative, scary but not too scary. I think we could walk up there again if the weather is not horrible and there was something special going on. I wouldn’t walk up there just for books. Too many “closer” (for us) libraries than that. Although I am still a bit peeved that our closest library is not accessible to us by transit. Duck pond is nice, too.
I thought reptile man was really cool and freaky. Aaron was asked to be an assistant in the very beginning and he declined. Then Naim’s hand shot up in the beginning and kept getting lower and weaker as the time went on. I could tell the guy picked the most eager, fearless kids. The girl in front of us was an EXPERT on all of these reptiles and kept answering all his questions with really technical answers. It was kind of cool. It also made me wonder exactly what they did with Avery’s group because this one was for kids age 5 and up, and they had moms with babies and toddlers sit in the back. Avery’s freely said he liked getting kissed by a lizard. I saw him do that with some other kids, made me wonder how he modified the show for the 5 and under crowd. Maybe I’ll ask Traci.
I feel bad that I have not found a way for the kids to watch any of the Olympics. I thought we could watch online, but it just has not been available. I used to love to watch as a kid. They won’t even know who Gabby Douglas or Michael Phelps are. Or all that is possible in different sports. Usually there is no real downside to not having a TV, but this time there was. I can’t believe something more (live-ish and with whole events, not just small clips) hasn’t been available online.I hope to figure out something before next time. I missed it, too.
The frustrating HSC called me, but this time they had some solutions for me. The team that they had Naim on was a “B” or second team for his age group and they couldn’t find a coach and there were only 5 kids anyway. So they put some of those kids up to the next level and others down. They wanted to put Naim down with the 6 year olds, and that solves a lot of problems for me and I don’t think he will care. It may solve problems for him, too. Now, games will be at the fairgrounds, which I can easily get to. Before I was still not sure how I was going to get to the school where the games were. He also doesn’t need a uniform, they just give him a T-shirt. So I don’t have to spend the money and go all the way down to that store (no bus…a three miles walk) to get his uniform. They also play on a littler field with little goals. It is basically pre-soccer, which I think will suit Naim well for his first year. It will give him confidence. He is still on the small side, so I don’t think it will be obvious he is with the younger kids. We will still have the same problems next year, but at least we can dip a toe in and see how it goes without it being a HUGE hassle.
Filed under: Fieldtrips, Physical Education, Science |
Acquara Independent School 
Leave a Reply