Monday, 08 November 2010
Today my family of four attended a birthday party (it was Isla’s first time attending a birthday party). This one was at Edinborough Park in Edina. Owen and I used to frequent a similar park in Maple Grove, called Maple Maze, and we’ve been to another one in Woodbury, too. These play areas-within-a-community center seem to be catching on. It appears that, if yours is a suburb of significant size and affluence, then you must build one of these things. I bet there’s one in Apple Valley, I just don’t know about it yet.
I vote for Edinborough Park as the best of the three, though. For one thing, it doesn’t smell like a dirty diaper. The six-story high roof maybe helps with this. It’s in a large building, as are the ones in Maple Grove and Woodbury, but unique among the three, the one in Edina is not cordoned off from the rest of the building. So, you know – more air flow.
For another thing, adults can actually fit in the play area. At the other two, it’s been difficult for me to get my immense body (i.e., over 5 feet tall) through the tubes. When Owen’s asked me to go down the slide with him, I’ve had to practically lay down to fit. Not so Edinborough – I was able to walk through most of the tubes, and I could actually sit up as I went down the slides. There were some pretty kick ass slides, there, too. There was also a play area with some fun carts, balls, and one of those inflatable jumping things. Not a bad Monday evening.
The grapes were very tasty, too.
Tuesday, 09 November 2010
Jennifer and I went to Owen’s school today for our first ever parent-teacher conferences.I told Jennifer that conferences used to scare the crap out of me. Literally. I would get so nervous I’d get diarrhea and I couldn’t eat or think about anything. Primarily this was because my parents made an enormous stink about everything, so when my mom would attend conferences and find out that I wasn’t paying attention in class for a minute last Thursday, or that I turned in an assignment a day late, or that I only got a B+ on the latest math exam, this was typically met with spankings in the case of the former and disapproving comments in regards the latter.
Now, like with just about everything else, I don’t see what the big deal was.
In Kindergarten, there’s not much to ‘rate’ a kid on: Owen is doing good in reading, writing, and drawing. His socializing is behind, but he’s coming along. He “loves the concrete nature of math,” which isn’t too surprising, and he is always pleasant to be around. The teacher gave us a folder (complete with a fall-theme on the cover that Owen colored) with some observations and goals for Owen and a few pieces of his artwork.
In the coming weeks, there will be some tests to see how the kids perform, and the results will be used to place the kids in future classes. If Owen doesn’t exceed expectations, I’m gonna beat him. Just kidding.
Oh – and I know it’s a bit early to be thinking about Xmas presents, but you might want to consider this for the little ones in your life:
(CLICK HERE for more info about this wonderful book, which will help your preschooler equate President Obama with Josef Stalin.)
I too used to get myself into a panic when my parents went to school conferences. When they came back from meeting with my teacher, it was always the same statement: “your son is a joy to have in our classroom”. Now, with my kids, I get a chuckle how the teachers say the same thing. They must know that is all we as parents want to hear.
You must of went to Edinborough Park on a better day than we did. Last winter my family went on a below zero, busy Saturday. The odor of “dirty diapers” was too gross for us to return again.
The weekends probably are busier. Yeah, the ones in Maple Grove and Woodbury ALWAYS smell like dirty diapers – even on the weekdays. Maybe they had just given Edinborough a thorough once-over before we arrived.