Back to School Bonanza #10: The Rocky Mountain Mama
Back To School Bonanza Guest Post #9: Sign Language
As an educator, I am always trying to do the best thing with Eddie as far as communication and language. We make books available to him for exploring, we read books to him, we talk to him constantly about what we are doing, and we name EVERYTHING.
One thing we haven’t done a ton of is sign language.
Recently I was contacted by Emily Patterson about guest posting here on the topic of Sign Language at an early age. I thought it was a wonderful idea. I know a LOT of you already do this with your children, and I am so excited to learn that it is NOT too late for us to start!
Here is a little about Emily and what she does…
Back to School Bonanza Guest Post #8: Emily
We made it through September! Today is the LAST day of the month, and I saved Emily to wrap up September for a couple reasons.
For one, Emily and I have actual school experiences together. I have no idea why this goes with wrapping up September, but it just does.
Also, Emily’s post just FEELS like a wrap-up. Usually you say thank you when something is coming to a close, so this just felt right.
I know I have mentioned Emily in other places on this blog. I adore her blog. I adore her family. I adore her. She is such a wonderful friend. She is one of those rare people who you know when you share your good news with her she will be JUST as over the moon as you are. She is also someone who I can confide in when stuff is just icky. She is one of the very first people I told about my PPD for instance. And when you tell her? You can feel her prayers. You can feel her concern. It is palpable even though she is hundreds of miles away.
Enjoy her lovely post. Emily rocks it. And as usual, go follow her on twitter and her blog when you are done here!
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Hi All! I’m Emily, I blog over at DesignHER Momma, and I’m excited to pop over here to Katie’s place for the day. To talk about school stuff.
Back To School Bonanza Guest Post #7: Miranda
Today is a SUPER special guest post!
I realize I say this about ALL of my guest posts, but today? Today you get to read a little something by Miranda of Not Super…Just Mom. Y’all? (as she would say)…She is like my twin. In fact, we call each other “etwin”. She is a fellow snark-a-licious English teacher. She is a momma of a wee little man with curly blond hair. She is a fellow PPD survivor. And she is battling the same weight issues I am! If we weren’t a zillion states apart? We would be besties in a heartbeat.
She was one of the FIRST people I had on my list to ask to do this since she is just like I am as a teacher. She LOVES her students, is passionate about her calling, and tells it like it is. Oh, and? She takes no shiz from anyone.
Puh-LEASE go read this post about how she deals with shananagins in her class. Girl after my own heart, I tell ya! And then follow her on twitter. And then come back and read what she has to say here….
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Back To School Bonanaza Guest Post #6: Nichole
Back To School Bonanza Guest Post #5: Kris
We are past the halfway mark of guest posters for my Back to School Bonanza! There is no better blogger to bring us over the halfway hump than Kris from Pretty All True. Kris has a way with words that I have found unparalled in the blogging world. She can paint any picture in the world using nothing but the black and white of the screen. just letters and characters. and all of a sudden you find yourself in her world. Feeling emotions you didn’t know you had.
Kris does something with words that I have come to call exploding a moment because she can take one small crumb from the back of her memory and make it erupt into color and sparkle all over your computer screen.
Plus also? Kris teams up with Adrienne to kick my butt in gear when I am feeling sorry for myself. They legitimately build me up when I need it, but they can spot a whiner and they NEVER let me get away with it.
I highly recommend her blog, Pretty All True, not just for the content, but the commenters are always lively too! You canNOT be let down by Kris. Unless swearing and a wee bit of sex turns you off. She MAY get saucy from time to time regularly.
Anyway, I will stop blabbering about Kris and let you read her lovely post. Oh, and you can follow her on twitter. She stops by there from time to time regularly.
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Fighting for Place
Back to School Bonanza Guest Post #4: Adrienne
How do I even find the words to tell you how much today’s guest poster means to me? Of course each of the eight total guest posters (or Blog Babysitters, as I like to think of them) is important to me because otherwise I wouldn’t have asked them to be here. Some are PPD mommas who have commiserated with me. We’ve helped pull each other through hard times. I have a fellow teacher coming up. I have a friend who I know in real life.
All of the blog-sitters are inspiring to me in some way, but Adrienne? She is my inspiration ass-kicker (sorry, mom.). Adrienne is one of those rare people in my life who sees me for who I am, still loves me, AND still calls BS on me when she senses excuses and, well BS. She is the mom of Carter a beautiful boy who happens to have developmental issues in all areas: physical, emotional, intellectual etc. She writes about this and everything else Adrienne over at No Points for Style. It was one of the very first blogs to make me weep from sorrow, heart-ache, joy, and laughing…all in one post.
Clearly I could go on and on. Instead, go to her blog, follow her on twitter, and read her post. You will love her.
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Nest of Vipers
When I was pregnant with my eldest son, my (now ex) husband and I spent lots of time walking around the neighborhood, and since we still liked each other back then, we talked while we walked. Mostly? We talked about our baby, and how we would raise him, and what he might be like, and how nervous I was.
I wasn’t nervous about mothering a baby or a little kid; I was scared of the school years. In my mental picture of my baby’s first 25 years, things got hard at kindergarten, reached a crisis at the beginning of middle school, and briefly improved during high school before the onset of a tumultuous early adulthood.
Strangely, that exactly matches my life.
And in spite of his parents’ divorce when he was only 3 1/2 years old, Jacob was always an easy-going, delightful kid. I’m sure he must have thrown a tantrum sometime, but I don’t remember any. He was happy, eager to please, and (with his sister, born exactly 2 years after he was), the joy of my life.
There were hiccups, but overall? Jacob was socially successful at school, church, drama, basketball, and everywhere else. He has an easy, engaging personality and he never tripped the wires that I tripped when I was a child.
All those tripped wires? They were why I was so nervous. I was everybody’s favorite target at school, the one they taunted and teased and mocked until any concept I might have had of myself as a strong/smart/capable/interesting/likable person was shredded. I was shredded.
Then? Sixth grade at Madison Middle School. The whole story is here , but for now I’ll just tell you that it was brutal, quite possibly the worst year of my life, easily the worst year of my childhood (and my childhood included this). The bullying I endured was relentless. It tore me to pieces and left me staggering.
So when the time came to enroll my firstborn child, my artistic, sensitive, unusual little boy, in middle school? I might have lost my mind just a little bit.
Or maybe I lost my mind a lot.
The middle school to which we were assigned is one of the worst in the city so I went down to central office to apply for a transfer. I listed the three best middle schools that were a reasonable distance from our house. My third choice?
Madison Middle School. Of course.
And which transfer did we get?
Madison Middle School. Of course.
Sometimes? I’m pretty sure the universe is sticking its tongue at me.
I was shocked by my own physical reactions over the months following that letter. Even when I read the letter itself, my heart was pounding, my hands were shaking, and I felt on the brink of a panic attack. How would I do this? How would I send my son to that place?
I didn’t think I could do it; I considered handing over the whole thing to Jacob’s dad, but on registration day I sucked it up, got together all the necessary paperwork, and drove with Jacob over to Madison.
I packed a paper bag in my purse, just in case I hyperventilated or needed a place to yack.
We walked onto the Madison campus and I was chanting to myself, “It was 25 years ago. It was 25 years ago. It was 25 years ago.”
In spite of the chanting, my heart was trip-hammering in my chest. Everything looked the same, felt the same, smelled the same. And wouldn’t you know it? Registration was in the gym.
The gym.
The gym, for crying out loud. The place where I wore a target on my back every moment I was there. The place where the kids laughed at my shoes and called me names and pulled my ponytail. The place where the teacher thought it was OK to join in the fun.
I was still chanting 25 years ago 25 years ago 25 years ago and Jacob was looking at me like I’d started growing an arm out of the top of my head when I heard someone call my name, “Adrienne! Hey, Adrienne!”
I couldn’t decide what I should do. Throw up? Pass out? Pee my pants?
Not my proudest moment.
Jacob saved me when he tugged my arm and said, “Hey Mom, that lady over there is waving at you.” He pointed at a woman I recognized immediately, and I dashed over to the table she was standing behind, told her how relieved I was to see someone I knew.
Kelly and I were classmates at Madison, both of us misfits, both of us struggling to find our place. She looked me right in the eyes and said, “It’s different now, Adrienne. It’s really different.” I tried to breathe, tried to slow my heart. I barely managed not to burst into tears.
Honestly? If I’d known I would have had such a terrible time at registration, I never would have gone. I’d have sent Jacob with his dad.
Kelly helped me register Jacob. She got him his planner, showed him a campus map, and found his class schedule.
Which revealed that Jacob’s homeroom teacher? Was my old friend Kelly.
Every now and again the stupid universe throws me a bone.
When I dropped him off on the first day of school, I was almost as panicked as I had been at registration, but not quite. I had to resist the urge to sit in the parking lot all day and wait for him to come back out.
Alright, if I’m being completely honest? I’m pretty sure that, had I not had other children who also needed me that day, I would have stayed in the parking lot. Driving away was hard. I felt a little like I had just thrown my baby into a vipers’ nest.
I was on pins and needles all day, and by pins and needles I mean I was a nauseous, weeping, trembling puddle of maternal angst.
And then, at 3:00, there he was. I asked, “How was it Jacob? How was your day?”
He chirped, “Awesome! I loved it! I met some really cool kids and we’re going to play basketball after lunch everyday. Oh, and my art teacher is so cool! Wait till I show you what I drew today!”
My heart quieted a little bit. The second day, I was a little less nauseous and trembly and angsty, and the third day was a little better, but I didn’t really start to calm down until after Halloween.
And the whole year? Almost every single day of the sixth grade?
He was fine.
Happy, even.
The problems he did run into were very ordinary, very manageable. He forgot to turn in his homework; he had a tiff with a friend; he wouldn’t stop drumming on the table in science class.
But no trauma.
We survived.
It’s a good thing, too. If someone had bullied Jacob (or my daughter, when she went to sixth grade the next year), I doubt I could have handled that like an adult.
Yeah. I’m pretty sure that if my kids had been bullied, I would have done to those bullies what I fantasized about doing to my own bullies for so many years.
See? Sometimes the universe throws other people a bone, too.
Back to School Bonanza Guest Post #3: Lori
Today is another guest post day! Hooray! Today’s post comes complements of Lori at In Pursuit of Martha Points. Lori is one of the funniest, most authentic bloggers out there. She is honest about how great of a domestic goddess she can be (earning herself some Martha Points) and when she falls short (deducting Martha Points). She is also heading up a HUGE year-long fundraising project called Project: Purse and Boots to raise money for the American Stroke Association. I am honored to be a part of this fundraising extravaganza coming up next month (stay tune for details about that)! You will want to follow Lori on twitter the minute you get done reading this. She is just that awesome.
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The School Day Monologues
Back To School Bonanza Guest Post #2: Grace
This guest post is by a lovely, beautiful blogger friend named Grace. Grace lives in Mexico with her little family of three. She and I found each other through the online PPD connections: She is a fellow “warrior momma.” She writes so eloquently about her battles and shares her joys through words and gorgeous pictures on her blog, Arms Wide Open. I am always in awe of how she can put what she is feeling (and what I feel too) into words. I am so honored that she agreed to write about her battle with going to public school. Enjoy her post! Oh, and don’t forget to follow her on twitter!
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I thought about writing a chipper post about fall in Oregon, where I grew up, and the crunchy leaves and the crisp air and the sunshine in September.
Back To School Bonanza Guest Post #1: Kimberly
People? I am busy. And to help me with this out of control busyness that is my world, I have recruited some of my most favorite bloggers in the whole wide world to come in and babysit Sluiter Nation twice a week this month.
First up is my great friend, Kimberly. I don’t even know how to describe Kim to you except that she is the funniest Canadian ever (I know, I know…there are LOTS of funny Canadians…she still wins)! She also has some sweet gold pants and loves everything Chuck Norris. And? She is a PPD/A survivor too! She makes me laugh every single day on her blog, All Work and No Play Make Momma Go Something Something... She has written hilarious and extremely poignant posts about her life as a PPD Momma and as the Momma of a sweet little boy. She is also a wonderful friend. You can follower her on twitter, but before you do that, please read this hilarious post about how she? Was a total trendsetter way back in kindergarten.
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