To my immense surprise, we spotted Gracie flying over the township on our way home from school. What a happy sight!
Melrose is very busy adjusting to Pre-K at her new school. She has been a line leader, gone to the library and gym, and learned to play a game called Cookie Monster. She is also outraged by the unfairness of the fact that "the big kids" get to be grownups sooner than she does. She has gone from being one of the oldest kids at her old school to one of the youngest kids at her new school, and I imagine that's pretty disconcerting.
Magoo, meanwhile, is fascinated by the fact that we drop Melrose off in a car line in the morning. Having spent my childhood walking to school and milling around on the playground before the bell rang, or being dropped off in front of the school by my parents with nobody watching, the car line concept is pretty weird to me. It's like an invisible red carpet rolled out for each kid - a teacher or administrator is there to greet them and help the younger kids out of the car. The smaller kids are actually escorted to the door. The only thing missing is the paparazzi. Next year Melrose will be eligible to take the bus, which will make the morning routine easier.
I find it really odd that all the schools have these 15MPH zones out front when nobody walks to school anymore, there are no pedestrians, and often there are no sidewalks. So what is the point? I can understand lowering the speed limit to 20 or 25 in a school zone, but 15 seems excessive, given that everyone enters and leaves by car or bus, and there are no pedestrians to mow down.
Many kids don't even walk to the bus stop. All the smaller developments around here have stops at the entrance, and even if they have a bus shelter for the kids, nobody uses it. In the more spread-out developments, the kids get driven from their cul-de-sacs to the stop. You'll go by and all the parents and kids are parked in their running SUVs waiting for the bus; sometimes you'll see a few of the moms getting out of the cars and hanging out together with their coffee mugs once the bus has passed. They'd probably sue the school districts if their little darlings had to (gasp!) walk to the end of the (very quiet) street and wait (horrors!) all by themselves along a busy road for the bus to come.
Hey, I did it. I survived. And I am officially one of those old curmudgeons who snipes to their kids: "When I was your age, we didn't have car lines. We didn't have buses. I had to WALK to school. Almost a mile. In the heat, cold, rain, snow. With menacing dogs, rushing traffic, mutilated roadkill in the gutter, and occasional harassment from bullies. Carrying my backpack, lunch box, social-studies diorama and violin case. And when I got to school I was minimally supervised until we had to line up to go inside!"
Helicopter parenting and liability issues aside, I have one theory about the reasoning behind today's aggressively-non-pedestrian elementary school commute. It is a single word: backpacks. These things are huge! I can't believe all the stuff these little kids have to haul around. When I was a kid, it seemed like our backpacks were proportional to our sizes. Now most kids have the appearance of Santa Claus with this outsized thing on their backs. Maybe the reason nobody walks to school or more than a few houses to the bus stop is that the backpack weighs as much as the kid carrying it!
Melrose is very busy adjusting to Pre-K at her new school. She has been a line leader, gone to the library and gym, and learned to play a game called Cookie Monster. She is also outraged by the unfairness of the fact that "the big kids" get to be grownups sooner than she does. She has gone from being one of the oldest kids at her old school to one of the youngest kids at her new school, and I imagine that's pretty disconcerting.
Magoo, meanwhile, is fascinated by the fact that we drop Melrose off in a car line in the morning. Having spent my childhood walking to school and milling around on the playground before the bell rang, or being dropped off in front of the school by my parents with nobody watching, the car line concept is pretty weird to me. It's like an invisible red carpet rolled out for each kid - a teacher or administrator is there to greet them and help the younger kids out of the car. The smaller kids are actually escorted to the door. The only thing missing is the paparazzi. Next year Melrose will be eligible to take the bus, which will make the morning routine easier.
I find it really odd that all the schools have these 15MPH zones out front when nobody walks to school anymore, there are no pedestrians, and often there are no sidewalks. So what is the point? I can understand lowering the speed limit to 20 or 25 in a school zone, but 15 seems excessive, given that everyone enters and leaves by car or bus, and there are no pedestrians to mow down.
Many kids don't even walk to the bus stop. All the smaller developments around here have stops at the entrance, and even if they have a bus shelter for the kids, nobody uses it. In the more spread-out developments, the kids get driven from their cul-de-sacs to the stop. You'll go by and all the parents and kids are parked in their running SUVs waiting for the bus; sometimes you'll see a few of the moms getting out of the cars and hanging out together with their coffee mugs once the bus has passed. They'd probably sue the school districts if their little darlings had to (gasp!) walk to the end of the (very quiet) street and wait (horrors!) all by themselves along a busy road for the bus to come.
Hey, I did it. I survived. And I am officially one of those old curmudgeons who snipes to their kids: "When I was your age, we didn't have car lines. We didn't have buses. I had to WALK to school. Almost a mile. In the heat, cold, rain, snow. With menacing dogs, rushing traffic, mutilated roadkill in the gutter, and occasional harassment from bullies. Carrying my backpack, lunch box, social-studies diorama and violin case. And when I got to school I was minimally supervised until we had to line up to go inside!"
Helicopter parenting and liability issues aside, I have one theory about the reasoning behind today's aggressively-non-pedestrian elementary school commute. It is a single word: backpacks. These things are huge! I can't believe all the stuff these little kids have to haul around. When I was a kid, it seemed like our backpacks were proportional to our sizes. Now most kids have the appearance of Santa Claus with this outsized thing on their backs. Maybe the reason nobody walks to school or more than a few houses to the bus stop is that the backpack weighs as much as the kid carrying it!
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