Oh-no-pen House

Our first fiasco of life post-holiday in Vegas was last night's open house. I had wondered if it would be a with- or without-kids event, and about an hour prior, found out that it was in fact without. Stu was away on work, so what's a part-time single mom in a foreign land to do? I called the condo concierge, prepared to choke down the enormous cost associated with the nanny service rather than be embarrassed as the only mom with kids, but was too late to schedule anything on such short notice. I resigned to taking them with me, but the  kids asked about going to Tana's house (Kate's new best friend who she's seen twice). Wow. Talk about imposing. a mere 20  minutes before I would be on the doorstep, I called this near-stranger to see if she could watch the kids for a couple of hours.

The first thing you should know about Tana's mom is that she works with Stuart. So, in terms of understanding my bind, this can be a good or bad thing. I mean, she hacks it without bothering total strangers, so maybe not. Second, Tana is an only child. Any of you who have friends with just one kid and no formal kiddie experience will know that there is a HUGE difference between dealing with one (particularly your own) and dealing with three. I could tell she was hesitant, but willing, on the phone, and mentioned having "lots of things to do." I threatened my kids within an inch of life and sent them in. I suppose they did fine; I really didn't even ask.

Off to school. Now that was something. First, it was a real open house, where the principal (introduced by the Student Body President-- cute!) speaks first and then you rotate to the classrooms for that presentation. No forced meet-and-greet or 30 minute curriculum presentation like back home. That seems like a definite plus. Then the principal presented (on powerpoint-- technology!) about the schools goals, their academic progress after their first year in existence, and the improvements being made by the new district superintendent (not from the Kansas City Missouri district, so a definite plus.) I am totally in awe of the integration with online curriculum, multiple field trips, separate science lab, and emphasis on reading. They also have these cool feedback controls integrated with the Smart Boards (called "promethian" boards here) that let the teacher poll or quiz the class and see their feedback charted immediately to know if they've grasped something or not. You know me, I'm pretty techie, and I thought all that was great. Sam's teacher was one of 4 who attended a new English Language Arts seminar over the summer and learned about that curriculum-- it's moving more towards non-fiction and less fiction, because the testing generally consists of about 60% non fiction and they've been teaching about 80% fiction in the past. Everything was very statistical and justifable, and yet understandable for a non-education major like me. Spelling! They teach actual spelling too, with tests every Friday, because they know what I do which is that not every word can be sounded out! Hurrah! (Sam hates this already!)

I was really impressed. On some new growth assessment chart he showed our elementary school had the highest achievement and most growth in math, and was up their in reading, among the 300+ in the district. I really felt like we are blessed to be in the district. All the parents seemed interested and involved, and though I did note a few high heels with jeans, I felt like the group was one we would fit in with well.

So, I guess Open House was really a success. I'm thrilled with the school and excited about their academic push. Sam and Kate survived, and I'm currently looking for a killer thank you gift for my non-friend babysitter for the night, who happens to be a triathlete. So, not cake.