October Opinions

This morning as I lay in bed feeling the pulse in my right foot, the foot that worried me only 9 days prior, I hear a squealy voice, then another. It's then I realize it is morning... today is already October 20th. This date has no significance of any kind other than to mark that there only 11 days left in the month, 9 days post surgery. Only 65 days until Christmas. The days are much shorter than they were 2 months ago. The entire month feels like we have just drifted through the days. My camera sits unused in it's case, a layer of dust has collected on it now. It saddens me because I have very little to photograph from my chair but so much I could at the same time. The world around me has been captured thus far through the lousy camera on my phone. It's not my top #1 that would wish to use. Maybe this next week I will use my nifty nikon and see what I capture.

Our week has been one of little events yet full of so much. The girls picture was in the newspaper for the Summer Reading Program on Thursday, their award certificates came home in their Thursday folders.  Gracie produced another 100% spelling test! She's still reading the Junie B Jones book. I just realized that Grace who will be 7 in (tears are welling up in my eyes) 3 weeks, has a classmate who will be 6 next week. So that means this little girl started full time school when she was 4. That is a crazy reality, when Grace started Kindergarten last year she seemed ready, confident and wanting to learn. Now I see why her classmate acted younger... because she was an entire year younger infact. I am happy to know that Grace has her age as an advantage. Parts of me wishes I would have waited until Kailee was 6 before putting her in Kindergarten because she would have been an entire year older... her academic progress has been astounding in spite of being half a year younger than many of her classmates.

Kailee finished up MEAP testing this week, she is confident that the best of her abilities were used. I have mixed emotions about MEAP testing. It is generalized test that the children take in October and results are not given to teachers until late March, early April. What good are results that are 5 - 6 months old? That's my first issue. The second issue is that this test that is "supposed" to measure a students academic progress is created by individuals who are not even state certified teachers; also they are corrected by individuals who are not state certified teachers. The questions are set up with the expectation that the student will fail in a sense. They give two "close to correct" answers and the student needs to pick the "most correct". This years MEAP is the best of all the years that they will have to take. Next year and on students have a lot of writing portions that they must complete. The fact is that these students ideas of what the stories summary are can all vary because all students come from backgrounds that are various. We have children who come from very poor backgrounds and unfortunately these children are not to exposed to as many words as children who come from higher class. The measure of ability in my opinion should be based upon portfolios, examples of a child's work in order to progress. If a child is not progressing from one week to the next that is how you know whether or not they are learning but if the child progresses weekly then we know the child is on the right path. One day my darlings hope you don't have to take these tests to measure your progress... I hope that (as all good teachers do already) the state sees that progress needs to measured by what the child produces weekly and monthly.

It feels good to be able to give you girls my insight into the why's and how's of decisions, thoughts and feelings... one day if I am not able to be here to answer your questions you'll have this to reflect upon and see my point of view. You'll be able to have this little bit of mommy always. Though my feelings may fluctuate on these topics for now this is where I stand. You both know and realize already at your young ages that mommy is a passionate person about many things. Sometimes my passion is confused with opinionated but that's okay too because I can be just that. There's a lot of things that make me feel passionate, first and foremost you both... no one better say anything about my babies or they will have to answer to me.

Second, early childhood...it's an area that needs attention by every avenue of society. Third, politics... this is what our world is made up of and if we sit by the sidelines and do not do our civic duty as individual Americans, we could lose our rights one day. We need to make our voices heard on the issues that are important to us. For mommy those issues that are most important to me right now; Women's Rights-- specifically who can and cannot make choices for our bodies. Mommy feels that a woman should be the only person who makes decisions about her body. There are many issues that fall under this one alone. Within those issues some go against our Catholic faith...one day when you're a bit older I will dive further into those details. If I never have that opportunity daddy will fill you in because he hears me talking about these issues often.

Health care -- in order to create equality amongst Americans and not allow the insurance providers to keep raking in their trillions of dollars we need Universal Health care which is what President Obama is on the road to. Insurance providers need competition to keep their premiums low... right now 1/8 of daddy's paycheck goes to insurance. Not to mention the deductible we have to pay. Mommy has had a lot of issues in the last year with her knee... which (as you know) has resulted in surgery. Well, those surgeries cost a lot of money. With our insurance we still are charged $5000 for the surgeries... which is a lot of money, especially since daddy already pays a lot of money for health care.

Education -- specifically high education needs either a longer grace period for repayment or complete forgiveness. Now, I don't believe we should get our higher education for free... but I do feel that we should not have to pay any type of interest rate on that money that is borrowed from the government because they essentially making money off people who cannot afford to pay for all their college outright (which is 99% of American's). College is an important part of a person's life. If you want to have a good job with good benefits you will need a college education. Ever since you were babies you have heard me say, "Little Kailee/Grace Spalding what kind of doctor will you be when you grow up? I would fill in the blank for you when you were really little, neurosurgeon was my favorite. As you have gotten older your responses have included, Kid Doctor from Kailee and Pet Doctor from Grace.

Marriage -- there is a lot of controversy about same-sex marriage. As you both know there are some families that have 2 mom's (like with Kailee's friend Harlen) Harlen's mom's are not allowed to be married in Michigan, it is illegal for them to get married and that is sad because their family is no different than ours. Just because there are 2 mom's doesn't mean Harlen is not loved the same. Every child should have the opportunity to be born/adopted into a married family if they can be. These issues are most important right now to mommy... there are more but I feel like I've overwhelmed you with enough of mommy opinion. :)

I love you my little Sassy Spalding's. You are my entire world. xo