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Becoming a better parent…

October 22nd, 2008, 8:09 am by Kate

You got questions? (I say, “Who doesn’t?”) D20 wants to help you find the answers…

If you’re parenting an elementary-age child, get advice from experts at an information night tonight at Foothills Elementary School, 825 Allegheny Drive. The free event is sponsored by the Academy School District 20 Safe and Healthy Schools Committee, and is open to all D-20 parents.

The event begins at 6 p.m. with free pizza and childcare check-in for children 3 years old and up, and the first session begins at 6:30 p.m. Parents may select two sessions on topics such as Internet Safety; Get Fit, Stay Fit, Never Quit; How to Get the Mads Out; Parenting with Love and Logic; and Dealing with a Bipolar Child at Home and School.Information tables will be set up by various businesses and organizations.

Reservation for adults are not needed, but for childcare reservations call Linda Kasza at 234-4526.

Posted in: Education • Parenthood | Post a Comment »

District 11 schools face multiple challenges

October 21st, 2008, 12:01 pm by Kate

Although not many parents or community members attended (as seen in the above photo by Bryan Oller, The Gazette), School District 11 released some alarming news at a public meeting yesterday:

Enrollment projections cited by a school demographer Monday night for Colorado Springs School District 11 showed that the district’s middle schools would be nearly half-empty and elementary and high schools would be at about 70 percent capacity in 10 years if all the buildings remain open.

The presentation to a sparse group was a glimpse of a report that is due to the D-11 school board on Nov. 5. That report will include various scenarios for closing schools, restructuring grade levels in buildings and finding alternative uses for school buildings, said Shannon Bingham of Western Demographics Inc.

Wow. Are people just not breeding in d11? Kind of, but that’s not the whole story.

The district is losing more students who choose to attend school in surrounding districts. The number who lived in the district but attended school elsewhere in 2003 was 1,886. Last year the number was 3,494.

I know all about the d11 stereotype, that it doesn’t live up to other districts, namely the richer Academy d20 schools. (Full disclosure: I live in d11.) But set that aside for a moment and let’s think about this. What district 11 is considering may IMPROVE the quality of education and SAVE MONEY. According to their data, closing smaller schools in favor of larger and newer schools saves $1,800 per student per year. And there is some data to show that students perform better in such situations, too. How to handle the dwidling student population as well as how to improve the quality of a d11 education are complex issues, of course, and deserve study and careful thought.

And just to make things a little more complicated, let’s throw in the fact that d11 has a mill levy on the ballot this year. What to do, what to do? Well, I’ll tell you what NOT to do: Make comments like…

District 11 Still Thinks that it Needs MORE of Your MONEY, so don’t forget to vote for their Tax Increase…

Way to go D-11, you drive away students and their families!

How is this at all helpful? To me, it simply doesn’t make sense to say, “They’re not doing a good job, so let’s not give them more money and just wash out hands of them.” I suppose I shouldn’t expect any more or less from online commenters, who are notoriously partisan and inflammatory, but can’t we discuss this like grown-ups without any finger pointing? It’s our kids’ educations were talking about here. I’d rather listen to rational arguments from both sides than slide into this kind of mudslinging.

Despite the best of my googling efforts, I can’t seem to find a good pro-con argument for the 3E initiative in d11. You know, the kind of arguments the blue book lays out for other ballot issues. Can anyone point me toward a good resource where I can learn more, a resource that doesn’t resort to petty name calling? Comment or email me at parent@gazette.com, subject line: District 11 mill levy.

Posted in: Education • Money matters/Shopping • Politics | Post a Comment »

UPDATE: Renaissance Academy financial probe

October 9th, 2008, 6:22 pm by Kate

A week after the sudden closing of a local school:

A group of parents angry about the abrupt closing of the Renaissance Academy, a private school for gifted children, has asked the El Paso County District Attorney’s office to investigate the school’s finances and find out what happened to their money…

[As they should be!]

They were told the academy is filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, in which assets typically are liquidated. But no detailed financial information was forthcoming from school officials about whether the parents will get their tuition back. Tuition at the school in northwest Colorado Springs was about $9,700 per child for full-time students. (CLICK HERE for full text.)

If I’m out almost $10k and my kid was kicked out of his beloved school, well, I’d be a little hot under the collar, too! Granted, a lot of the school’s troubles stem from the nation-wide credit crisis — they cannot meet the payments, or at least cannot pay any principal, on the adjustable-rate construction loan they took out to build the school. But why would they have chosen to open for the school year and how could they honestly take parents’ hard-earned money when they knew they were on the brink of ruin?

Posted in: Education • Money matters/Shopping | Post a Comment »

Goodbye, Renaissance Academy!

October 1st, 2008, 3:26 pm by Kate

On Tuesday, stunned parents and their children trickled into the school all day, packing up supplies, artwork and projects. There were many tears as children hugged teachers and parents hugged each other in the nearly empty halls.

“Our daughter came home in tears. It’s tough. Several parents are trying to plan a party for the children, so they can say goodbye and mourn this loss,” parent Christopher Baron said. “It’s difficult to find another school with the same academics and culture, and that is not traditional. It had small classes that were geared to gifted children and was very rigorous and creative. There is nothing quite like it in town. It filled a specific niche.”

Story link here.

One morning you’re a kid headed off to your class, where you’ve just gotten comfortable with your teacher, your cubby, your desk. One morning you’re a teacher with a steady job. But that very afternoon, that illusion of stability is violently ruptured when your school goes as belly up as WaMu.

How can this happen?

No, I suppose I’m trying to ask, “How can this happen with absolutely no warning?”

Obviously, both Renaissance Academy and WaMu must have had some inkling of what was going to happen, what the worst-case scenario would be and when it might occur. But they can’t (or won’t) take the time to let the people who are affected know before their comfortable classrooms (or their stock options, in WaMu’s case) vanish into thin air?

I can take investment banks failing. I can swallow the failure of a big consumer bank like WaMu (which IS my bank, BTW). But when a school fails out of the clear blue sky, I’m finally getting the Chicken Little-like inkling that the sky might really be falling on us. I think we all need to hit some local theater for ideas on how to survive the possibly dark times ahead. If the Joads can do it, so can we!

Posted in: Education • Money matters/Shopping • Politics | Post a Comment »

That stinks?

September 10th, 2008, 1:09 pm by Kate

So how do you show a group of elementary schoolers exactly how gross and wrong it is to poop on the floor of the restroom or on the toilet seat? Personally, my answer would not have been to make the children handle a bag of human excrement.

But I must say, that’s probably a pretty effective lesson. The kids wore gloves. They were told to wash their hands. They were shown that there are consequences to such messes, mainly that SOMEONE has to clean it up and perhaps that’s unfair and demeaning the cleaner.

An extreme lesson? Yes, and one that probably should have been discussed with parents first. But this…

“I don’t know if an apology is enough,” Peters said. “How is he any better than the child who did this?”

… is a bit unnecessary, don’t you think? Or am I out of line here?

Posted in: Education • Health/Medical • Safety | Post a Comment »

Money-saving BTS tips

August 6th, 2008, 12:39 pm by Kate

I stumbled upon some great back-to-school bargain hunting tips from MSNBC that I thought I’d share. As a parenting writer, I see a lot of same-ole-same-ole advice, but some of these tips are really unique — particularly No. 10, which talks about using BTS shopping as a lesson in money management. I’d only have one tip to add: Write your child’s name or place a recognizable sticker on EVERYTHING they will take to school. With so many kids having the same brands/styles/colors and kids’ natural forgettfulness, you’ll save a bundle by not having to buy replacements.

If you have any other BTS shopping tips of your own, shoot us an email at parent@gazette.com or leave a comment. We always love to hear from you!

1. Begin by shopping at home.
One way to get around spending hundreds of dollars per child is to avoid buying everything new. Take an inventory of what your family already owns. Have your kids really outgrown all of their shoes and clothing? Do you have an abundance of pens, pencils, folders and rulers? (Note: It’s not hard to hide company logos on folders and notebooks with stickers!)

2. Start sleuthing for bargains.
Now is an excellent time to become highly attuned to clearance sales in your area and coupons that can help you at this time of year. When you find a good sale for school supplies, stock up for the entire year, not just the immediate future. Be aware that some of the best sales for backpacks, Thermoses and lunch boxes are likely to surface in September after school has already started. Can your kids make due until then?

3. Get thee to a dollar store.
You might be surprised by the selection of paper products and other school supplies you’ll find there. Bring your child – a potential bargain-hound-in-training! – to the store with you to get his or her buy-in on any purchases you make.

4. Scour garage sales, thrift stores and consignment shops.
These places typically require some legwork, but the bargains to be had are astonishing. On certain days of the week, some thrift stores allow you to fill an entire bag with clothing and buy it all for $3 or $4. Thrift stores and yard sales also can be godsends for young people for this reason: They often serve up designer name-brand finds for $1 to $5, as opposed to $50 to $100. Why not give it a try?

5. Remember eBay and craigslist.
If your child simply will die without a specific high-end designer brand, look for new or slightly used clothing online at sites like these. The savings could be substantial, and the process could be less time-consuming than the thrift-store-and-yard-sale route.

6. Set ground rules for clothes shopping.
Choose clothes that will give your children room to grow. Pick up extra pairs of shoes in larger sizes when you find a good sale. Solid, neutral colors and classic styles – such as simple pullover shirts – are ideal because they’re easy to mix and match and less likely to look dated over time if you have younger kids.

7. Buy the right backpack.
If you know your child is likely to overstuff his or her backpack, opt for a smaller one. Kids shouldn’t carry more than 20 percent of their own weight on their backs. Any pack you buy should have wide, padded shoulder straps. Rolling backpacks are available – if your child really will use the wheels and not just carry that extra weight around.

8. Don’t overspend on technology.
Homework can be almost impossible to do these days without a computer and access to the Internet. If you’re thinking of investing in a personal computer exclusively for your child’s use, look for deals. There’s no need to pay top dollar for this purchase. Again, check out eBay and craigslist, and remember that refurbished computers are another option. As for other technology – such as a cell phone, an mp3 player, a handheld video-game player and the like – only you can be the judge of what your child should get to have. If you view a cell phone as a necessity for safety reasons, be careful to sign up for a calling plan that will actually work well for your family, and teach your child not to subscribe to joke-of-the-day services, special ring-tone services and other kinds of “premium text messaging.” Otherwise it’s all too easy to get clobbered with astronomical cell-phone bills.

9. Track down the right calculator.
If your child needs a fancy calculator for trigonometry class, bite the bullet and invest in a good one. It will last for years – so many years, in fact, that one of your kids’ grandparents might already have one that you could borrow free of charge.

10. Teach important money lessons.
Back-to-school season lends itself to having frank discussions with your children about money, budgeting and needs vs. wants. Depending on their ages and maturity levels, you could negotiate back-to-school budgets with your kids and allow them to manage those budgets entirely. If they want anything above and beyond the dollar amount you’ve agreed to provide, let them use their allowance money or babysit, mow lawns or wash cars to pay for it themselves.

Posted in: Education • Money matters/Shopping | 3 Comments »

On the newsstands in August

August 1st, 2008, 2:58 pm by Kate

Back to school …

Most kids look toward the day with a mixture of nerves and disappointment. Most parents look forward to it as a return to routine, an end to choruses of “I’m bored” and (for working parents) no more fees for summer daycare or camps. And yes, perhaps a touch of sadness because the long-awaited family vacation was over too quickly and there’s (*sniff*) another first-day-of-school portrait to add to the album.

If on top of the relief and glumness, you’re also feeling a little bit stressed — over school supply lists, new shoes, new clothes or uniforms, different schools, different bedtimes, etc. — you’re definitely not alone.

That’s why every year, we put together a special back-to-school edition of Pikes Peak Parent magazine, usually our largest and more informative of the year. Over to the right on the cover are Andrew and Rebecca McLay, showing off some of the latest back-to-school fashions for kids’ bags and shoes — such concerns aren’t just for fashionistas, you know. According to Deanna DeLarge, marketing coordinator for the Promenade Shops at Briargate:

“Polka dots for girls. That’s for everything, not just backpacks. Also, animal prints and cool camouflage colors like bright blue or green for the boys.”

Showing off more back-to-school fashion to the left are other siblings Jacob and Alyssa McLay. Click here or on that picture to read the article.

This issue, we also discuss back-to-school pointers from teachers, interesting real-life classes offered at the high-school level, tech tools for student success, school lunches, educational Web sites, understanding new grading systems and more. And of course, there’s always our regular features like Pikes Peak GRANDparent, Fresh Perspectives, pARTicipate and the region’s best family calendar to enjoy, as well.

We hope all of our readers had a fabulous summer and will tackle the upcoming school year as yet another exciting adventure. If you have any questions, comments or suggestions for our Pikes Peak Parent staff, shoot us an email to parent@gazette.com.

ENTER TO WIN!

Goodies for study breaks:

“Montgomery the Moose Can Shake His Caboose”
“Charlie Hits It Big”
“Disney Music Block Party”
“Kidz Bop 12”
HeadToHead Interactive Soccer Game

HOW TO ENTER
Send your name, phone number and children’s ages to parent@gazette.com or mail to Lisa Carpenter, Pikes Peak Parent, 30 S. Prospect St., Colorado Springs, CO 80903 by Aug. 31. Winner will be drawn and notified Sept. 2. Please note: Only one entry per person; only one prize per household in a six-month period.

Posted in: Education • Latest issue • Photos | 1 Comment »

Daycare takes 4-year-old’s threat seriously

July 31st, 2008, 11:03 am by Kate

I don’t really know what to think about this story on the front page of today’s Gazette:

Kyle reached his limit about the time his pillow was taken away.

Unable to sleep during nap time, and made to step into the hallway until he could stop crying, the cranky 4-year-old lashed out in a classroom at The Family Development Center at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs.

“I am going to go shoot all my friends!” he said, according to a written account that the day care center provided the boy’s parents after the July 22 tantrum.

What came next — after a day care worker talked to Kyle about appropriate language, eliciting an apology — was an investigation that sent university police to question Kyle’s parents and ended with the boy’s dismissal from the day care center he had attended for the past three years.

“The officers wanted to know if we had any guns,” said Alice Hudson, his mother. “We don’t.”

Kyle’s mother, who says she doesn’t allow her son to watch violent movies or play with gun-like toys, says he’s a victim of an unreasonably applied “zero tolerance” policy, like many enacted after the tragic school shootings of recent years. But the UCCS Family Development Center cites 45 incident reports regarding Kyle in the last three years and it’s policy that children who undermine a “safe and positive learning environment” can be expelled.

Having been a daycare teacher in the past, I can attest that 45 incident reports in three years is not overly excessive. Such reports aren’t made just for the perpetrators of hitting, biting and other violence; they’re also made for the victims, and are often the same as reports filed for non-violent injuries like falling of a swing or scraping a knee. How many kids haven’t been injured or been involved in a fight with another kid 15 times in a year? That’s only a little more than once a month.

The Family Development Center is within its rights, though, no matter how much Kyle’s mother protests. He scared them — even if he didn’t mean to — and thereby violated one of the policies agreed to by the family when they entered the daycare facility.

But that doesn’t make this expulsion just. It doesn’t make it less complicated. And throwing the book at any 4-year-old who whispers the word “gun” isn’t going to make the world simpler or safer.

I know we’re all scared of the memories of Virginia Tech and Columbine and other such tragedies. But neither of those, to my knowledge, were precipitated by something as singular and small as a pillow being taken away during nap time.

But don’t just rest with my opinion of the incident: Click here to see the bustling comments to the online article.

Posted in: Education • Health/Medical • Parenthood • Safety | 3 Comments »

The results are in

July 30th, 2008, 11:39 am by Kate

CSAP

CSAP scores are out, folks. And as with anything associated with standardized testing scores and their implications, the results are often controversial or hard to interpret. On the one hand, the scores influence schools’ rating/funding/etc. in three important programs: the No Child Left Behind Act, Colorado’s School Accountability Reports and Colorado’s accreditation process. Cheyenne Mountain School District 12 Assistant Superintendent Bev Tarpley said CSAP are “probably the most public thing we do.

On the other hand, the results often mean more than they should. Even if a result seems low, it may be a drastic improvement over the last year. Or as in the case of Monterey Elementary School in Harrison School District 2, the number could reflect the fact that the school is an English Language Learner magnet.

But no matter how you stack it, the results are important to judging the effectiveness of particular schools and school districts, and I know you’re all excited to go stack up your child’s school against others in the community, or even in the state. Luckily, the Gazette has made such comparison super easy over at gazette.com/schools. Plug it a school’s district and grade level, and you can compare their results in not only these most recent CSAP scores, but also student-teacher ratios, average attendance rates, teacher education levels, number of incident reports and more.

Photo by Jerilee Bennett, The Gazette

Posted in: Education | Post a Comment »

Kindergarten choices

July 22nd, 2008, 1:15 pm by Kate

It used to be a hard-and-fast rule in the state: Only children who were 5 years old by Oct. 1 could begin kindergarten in any given school year. (As a kid with an Oct. 3 birthday, I should know!) However, a recent state law allows for 4-year-olds deemed “gifted” to begin a year early, and parent have always had the option of waiting one year until the child is 6 to enroll. So really, we’re now talking about a class in which a 4-year-old and a 6-year-old could be sitting side-by-side, learning from the same curriculum, following the same rules — even if their physical and social development levels are extremely different.

Yesterday’s Gazette covered this parental dilemma extremely well:

The stakes are high: Wait too long, and a gifted child could become frustrated; start too early, the child could struggle and develop a negative attitude toward school that lasts for years.

First of all, parents who know that their little prince or princess is ABSOLUTELY GIFTED. (A Picasso with finger paints. Can count the stars in the sky, and spell Abracadabra backwards, I tell you. GIFTED!), state lawmakers have yet to decide which tests or standards will bestow the gifted label, and Cherylin Peniston, retired teacher and sponsor of the measure, “estimates only 60 to 80 children statewide would meet the criteria to start kindergarten early.”

And while there are parents who would jump at the opportunity to enroll their little Einstein early, there are those that would prefer to wait until their child is 6, too. And they have just as many good reasons: Amy Hollis didn’t hesitate to keep her son Duncan home for an extra year before deciding to have him start kindergarten this fall at age 6. “I’m more interested in him getting fresh air and sunshine than reading right away,” said the mother of three boys, who solicited advice from doctors, teachers and other parents. “Everyone I knew who had male children said it would be better for them socially to wait.”

Why? Experts advise this course because kids (especially boys) will be bigger and stronger, less likely to feel bullied and picked on. (OK, I’m not even going to touch that sexist argument with a 10-foot pole.) And because increased social development will give them more confidence. (That makes a little more sense, IMHO.)

KIRK SPEER, THE GAZETTE — Duncan Hollis, 6, looked for tadpoles with his twin brothers, Jonah, left, and Aidan, 11. Duncan’s mother, Amy, decided to keep her sons out of kindergarten until they turned 6.

Several educators also point out that today’s kindergarten isn’t the experience that parents remember from their childhood. Play stations and nap time have been replaced by desks and pencils, and relaxed fun has given way to demanding curriculum and high expectations. “The problem is that kindergarten is what first and the early part of second grade used to be,” said Kathy Stevens, coauthor of “The Minds of Boys” and executive director of the Colorado Springs-based educator training center Gurian Institute. “Developmentally, that’s not where kids are, and what you end up doing is making them hate school.”

Sheesh. I see the point of this debate, and I understand why it’s an important decision in the life of a child. But then again, it’s only one of MANY important decisions in the life of a child, and how does a parent really know which choices are really going to effect their future and which were rather incosequential in hindsight? How do you judge your child’s academic and social development in an unbiased manner? The article gives this advice:

Birth date. When does your child’s birthday fall? Will he or she be one of the youngest or one of the oldest in class?
Gender. Boy or girl? Boys are redshirted more often than girls because girls tend to be ready earlier - but not always.
Size. Is your child big or little for his or her age? Do you think athletics or bullying could be a problem?
Patience. Is your child ready to sit still in a desk?
Literacy. Is your child ready to read and write? Consider not only concentration and focus, but the fine motor skill of holding a pencil.
Social skills. How mature is your child in terms of social and emotional development? Can they comfortably carry on a conversation with an adult, understand rules, share with other kids and balance kindness with forcefulness?
School environment. What percentage of kids at your school enter kindergarten at age 6 or age 4? Would your kid be the only one?
Stimulation. Can you offer your child a stimulating environment if he/she does stay home an extra year? Educators say you should read to them, talk with them, take them on trips to the zoo, to museums, to farms or garden centers or nature walks. Consider how you can enrich their brains every day with new experiences. If that’s not possible, perhaps school is a better place for them.
Milestones: Can your child write his or her name, recite his or her address, sit for long periods and communicate well with friends?

But even this advice seems rather gray rather than black and white. It’s still all opinion and hypothesis.

So how did you decide whether your child was ready? Was there one thing that pushed you over the edge either way? Or if your child is younger, when the time comes, what do you think you’ll be looking for? Do you think this choice is as monumental as it’s made out to be in parents’ minds?

*I’ll say this, as a birthday-cut-off casualty, I was always one of the oldest, and I don’t think it radically changed my future. One the one side, I was the first to do things like get my driver’s license. On the other side, hitting puberty before most of the other girls did, well, I’m sure you can imagine those red-faced years. A mixed bag, really, like all school experiences.*

Posted in: Education • Parenthood | 1 Comment »