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Tag Archives: kids

School Has Started… Moving Season Must Be Over. Or IS It?

Monday, 29 August 2011 08:00
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Etchingham School 1946

Image by ttelyob via Flickr

I get a similar question every year about this time…  Many buyers (and some sellers) worry that after school has started it must be too late to move their kids if there is a school change involved.  The feeling is that it is rough to move kids during the school year because the classes might not be in sync… students may be learning different things.

A few years ago, I ran across an article by a Child Psychologist.  (I wish I could locate the article again…).  In it, she stated that kids actually cope best with a move during the school year, and the best time during the school year to move is at the very beginning.  The theory behind that timing is that it puts the kids right into the situations that will most easily allow them to meet new friends.

Since I am NOT a Child Psychologist, I can’t comment on the psychological effects from a medical standpoint.  However, when I was a kid, we moved a few times, including cross-town moves and one from Michigan to Virginia.  All of our moves happened during the summer…  My Dad was a school teacher, so move coincided with his contract renewals…  And each time, I recall that I didn’t really begin making friends in earnest until school started.

Just this year, our family moved…  And we did it right after the end of the school year.  Had we been able to influence the timing of our move more, we might have tried to push it back to the beginning of the school year.  We did consider making the move shortly before the end of the school year, but it wasn’t practical for us.

The result was that my older son spent the majority of the summer not really knowing many kids in the new neighborhood.  He met a couple of them at the pool or riding bikes in front of the house…  but for the most part, he didn’t meet many new kids.  Granted, he had a VERY busy summer.  But by the end of the first day of school, he was much more integrated in the neighborhood.  In fact, after school, he was out riding his bike with all of his new friends…

So, don’t just assume that kids can’t effectively move during the school year.  It might actually be easier on them socially.  Educationally is a different matter.  In some cases, it might be very easy.  In others, it could be a tough transition for the child.  However, the same could be true in moving during the summer.  Moving into or out of a district that is very performance oriented can be a total shock for someone coming out of or going into a more laid back district or school.

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Photo Friday… Confidence…

Friday, 22 July 2011 08:06
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He REALLY wanted to cross the rope bridge.  We stood in the line for a few minutes, and he was excited the whole time… until the person in front of him went.  At that point, he was much less excited… at that point he realized that he was next.  It was going to take a few minutes though, because the boy in front of him was SLOW.

We talked… he told me he didn’t want to do it.  I reminded him that he would only be 4 feet off the ground… and that there would be spotters walking with him the whole way.  The boy in front of him had the spotter’s all but carrying him across the bridge at this point.

He bravely walked up to the base of the ladder… climbed it and stepped out onto the ropes.  The spotters moved in.  After his first step, he asked the spotters to back up a little and let him walk it.  In what seemed an incredibly short time, he climbed down the other side.

Now he was ready to do it again.  He was an expert… telling other boys in line what to expect and how to increase their performance.  One trip across…  Expert.  I will say that the pointers he was giving were pretty good…  They were the same ones I had given him just a few minutes before.  ;^ )

What a difference a few minutes makes.  He had completely forgotten the nerves and the trepidation.  Now he was brimming with confidence.

I was (and I still am) a very proud Dad.  He overcame his fear and reaped the reward of pushing his boundaries.

Wayback Wednesday… Let’s Go Scouting!

Wednesday, 20 July 2011 08:34
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Boy Scouting (Boy Scouts of America)

Image via Wikipedia

Can you believe that we are only a couple of weeks away from the start of school here in Gwinnett County?  Well… we are.

So this is the perfect time to think about getting involved in Scouts.  Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Venturing, etc.  Now, there might be a membership drive at your child’s school in a few weeks, but there is a great reason to get involved a little early… that is when the best volunteer opportunities are still available.  And you REALLY should volunteer (as a parent).

There are a lot of things that go into Scouting that are all but invisible behind the scenes.  In addition to things like Cub Masters and Scout Masters, there are loads of Committees, both at the Pack/Troop level, and at the District level.  And if those jobs don’t get done, neither do the camping trips or the meetings or anything else.

There is another HUGE benefit to Scouting… and this is for your child…  Responsibility, Maturity and Confidence.  They learn these traits and more.  And they learn it best when YOU are there next to them… teaching those traits.

The other day on the radio I was listening to a host talk about the (lack of) quality he saw in the “boys” his daughters were dating.  There were several calls from parents agreeing… and a couple of them were from parents with boys noting the same observation with the girls that their sons dated.  The parents with sons that were actually accomplishing things also mentioned that their boys had been Scouts…  Eagle Scouts.

For girls, Gold Award Scouts have the same distinction as Eagles.  It is a true accomplishment, one that will follow them for life.

So… find your local Scouting group… get involved.

Here is a post I wrote last year about how excited my son was with getting started in Cub Scouts.  He is still involved, we are still involved and we are all looking forward to a new year… with a new Cub Scout Pack (we just moved).

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Photo Friday… Hockey Time

Friday, 08 July 2011 08:31
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Garrett gets some 1 on 1 from Danny Taylor

It is a little earlier than usual, but it is 2nd week of Hockey Camp time…  I’ll be spending a large part of next week at the skating rink watching my older son play his favorite game.

All year long he looks forward to spending two (non-consecutive) weeks playing hockey and hanging out with the coaches and other players.  Honestly, I look forward to it as well.  Maybe not as much as Garrett, but it is a lot of fun.

The folks that Dan Sullivan gets to coach for the Come And Get It Hockey Camp are a pretty cool bunch.  Dan played with the Gladiators and currently plays for the Colorado Eagles (both in the ECHL).  Several other past and present coaches are current or former Gladiators… as well as some players that have been in the Ontario Hockey League and the NCAA.  Eric Boulton (of the Atlanta Thrashers) has been to most of the camps with his sons, and this time, he is making it official… he’ll be on the ice with the players.  Chris Thorburn of the Thrashers has also been involved with the camp.

The kids are a lot of fun to watch, too.  Some of them are pretty talented… enough that the pros will step out of the weight room, or hang out by the glass after their ice time to watch the kids play.  Of course, part of that might be them thinking back to their days of hockey camps and youth hockey.

Hockey players are different than a lot of other athletes.  Even in Canada, hockey rinks aren’t at school… and often, ice time for youth players is at “inconvenient” hours.  One pro player told me that when he was in high school, he was at the rink at at 5:00am… then school, homework and finally… the rink, at 10:00pm.  Games were often at 11:00pm or even later.  High school athletes in other sports usually don’t have to put up with the same hardships to play their sports. Hockey players are a dedicated bunch.  Mine is only 7, and this is what he loves.  And he works REALLY hard for his coaches.

And if you are looking for something to do, you might drop by the Duluth Ice Forum next week for a scrimmage.  The kids will play a game each day between about 3:00 and 4:30 in the afternoon (the play for an hour… in there somewhere).

Photo Friday… ROAD TRIP!!!

Friday, 17 June 2011 08:13
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White's Ferry, MD

The old school way across the Potomac

A couple of years ago, my pal Pat and I took a road trip to MD to pick up some furniture.

We have a history of road trips… mostly Jeeping adventures… and they are generally pretty interesting.  In fact, a lot of our stories start with “we were on the road, and”…  A couple of trips to Moab, UT, a couple of runs up to VA and a couple days of camping and trail scouting for the GBR4wd Club near the TN/KY state line come to mind.

Meanwhile, Gail, my wife, and I have had a lot more trips… numerous runs up to MI and OH, New Orleans, UT and enough trips to Disney World in FL that we have a SunPass so that we don’t have to slow down for the tolls… and WAY more.

I am only missing a couple of states to have the complete set.  When I was a kid, we always had a summer road trip.  And I never got out of the habit.

’tis the season.  The kids are out of school, so it is road trip season.

Crossing the Potomac

So much cooler than a boring ol' bridge.

One of the things that I clearly remember from my childhood is that we got out of the car.  So often, we are in such a hurry to get where we are going that we forget to be where we are. There are some really cool places just off the Interstate.  There are scores more that are on the road less traveled.

On this trip, we had 3 days to drive from Atlanta to the DC area, load a trailer with furniture and drive back to Atlanta.

For day 1, we drove to my mom’s in southeastern VA.  On day 2, we drove up to DC, picked up the trailer and loaded it.  Day 3 was the blast back to the ATL.

Even though we knew that we were going to be spending a long day in the truck, Pat knew where this ferry was and we worked it into the trip.

We left his mom’s close to sunrise, so the morning fog was still burning off the river when we got to White’s Ferry.

Depending on how traffic might have been on our other route, this might have added 30 minutes to the trip…  Or maybe it was shorter.  We’ll never know.  More importantly, we’ll never care.  The adventure was worth it.

Get out there…

I hope you the chance to go on a road trip this summer.  And when you do, build a little time into the schedule to visit some spots along the way.  You can research them beforehand, or just give in to one of those crazy billboards along the highway.  While you are at it, drop into a “Mom & Pop” store or restaurant along the way, too.  They’ll appreciate it, and you might discover someplace really cool.

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