Friday, April 19, 2013

PTO mom

I have become a PTO mom. It's bizarre because I never envisioned myself being a stay-at-home mom who goes to PTO meetings. Even typing that I have a sort of visceral negative reaction. PTO moms are super bubbly and annoying and they only live vicariously through their children. And I've met some people like that, but most of the people I've met have been pretty down to earth and just want to invest some time and energy into their child's education. Some have even been people I'd like to hang out with.

So I volunteered to help organize Ben's school's trivia night, which is the biggest fundraiser of the year. I didn't quite know what I was getting into, but Heath and I love trivia nights and have been to quite a few, so I thought my "expertise" could help. It pretty much took over my life for the past few months, which explains the dearth of posts here, but now it's OVER and I don't feel like I have an anvil hanging over my head. It was a very successful evening and everyone seemed to have fun. I definitely won't be in charge next year, but I'll help and maybe in a few years, once I've forgotten all the stress it caused me, I might volunteer to organize one again. I suppose in that way it's like having a baby. After a while you forget all the horribleness and that's what allows you to want another one.

Saturday, April 13, 2013

Reading Rainbow

Ben is starting to read! It's really amazing to watch because we haven't been pushing him to read. We've taught him the letter sounds and how to sound out words, but it's mostly coming from him. He's asking to learn all these things and he's figuring it out on his own, too. Recently we walked past a pizza restaurant and Ben said, "Pizza!" Immediately I started scanning the windows for a picture of pizza, but there wasn't one. Other than the word, there was no indication that it was a pizza restaurant. He freaking read it! I'm guessing he had seen the word previously and memorized it and didn't sound it out on the spot, but that's a big part of reading, especially in English. He's using context clues, too, because he reads "open" on store windows a lot. These are all great skills and though I know he's smart, I'm still surprised he's learning them so young.

Reading is the most important thing Ben will learn and since I love reading it's very exciting to me that's he's so enthusiastic about it. Once he can read, the entire world will be open to him... But it's also terrifying because the entire world will be open to him. He'll be able to read anything, whether I want him to or not. And of course that's part of growing up... It's just a big leap forward.

He's only four and a half and barely reading, but you know me. I like to worry about things in the future that I can't change. I just wonder how I'm going to handle situations like this: We were at the mall and passed one of those kiosks selling stuff and they had a row of belts that all said, "I (heart) boobies." Ben asked what it said and I just mumbled something about it being silly. A year from now he'll probably be able to read it himself, but he won't really know what it means so he'll ask me. I'll want to explain how it's disrespectful to women, but will he really understand? I guess it doesn't matter. I should just prepare myself for lots of awkward conversations.