On the one hand, I love the fact that my 5-year-old is light years ahead of where I was in kindergarten. We were learning to recognize colors; he is learning to recognize the circulatory, digestive and respiratory systems.  We were learning shapes; he is learning the food pyramid.

Since my oldest daughter has been in daycare, we’ve been dreaming of that day when she entered kindergarten and we escaped the death clutch daycare has had on our bank account. Oh, the things my husband and I could do with those funds – the Time Life Best of Soul Train DVD collection, zombie lawn ornaments, PajamaJeans for every day of the week. Or we could do something really crazy – like stop paying for gas with spare change.

But as that day creeps closer and closer, we realize that we’ve been so fixated on our financial windfall that we failed to understand we’re pulling our child from the safety of her preschool onto the road of debauchery that begins in elementary school.

My son, a seventh-grader, loves the first one or two snow days of the year. There’s the anticipation of not knowing if there will be school or not. Then once the district calls to confirm there’s no school, there’s the relaxation of knowing that he can sleep in.  

I’ve wanted to write for a blog on a magazine’s website for a while. But when I was finally offered one – on education for SmartParenting – it was hard to know what to write about.

Like a lot of important things, snow days have their own doctrine. It wasn’t like this when we were kids, but ask any kid these days and you’ll get an education on what is necessary to garner a day off. Storm systems, Alberta clippers, cold fronts? Weather, smeather. Kids know what it takes to get the job done.

Lately it seems like bullying is everywhere. I keep running into articles, news clips, features and even conversations centered on the topic. Believe it or not, I’ve not had a hard and fast opinion on the topic (I’ll give you a second to recover from the shock of learning I don’t have an opinion on something). But the force is in the air, and somehow its energy has filtered down to me. So now, I’m stuck thinking about it. Thanks a lot, MSN and Fox.

Farewell, flip flops. Sayonara, sandals. Ciao, crocs. My son’s elementary school has a policy against all of them, along with any other footwear that gets in the way of running and playing. I used to think such policies were harsh, back in the days when my 7-year-old was first in preschool. Now that I’m older and wiser (and have seen the scientific studies to support the bans) I see where they’re coming from.