Broken

The boys are taking swim lesson this summer at the East Oakland Sports Complex.  As the name would indicate, it's in the heart of East Oakland - the part of Oakland that most families which look like ours don't venture into very often.  It's not exactly the most scenic or the "safest" part of town. 

But the East Oakland Sport Complex is a gem in our city.  It's a brand-new, beautiful sports facility with a terrific indoor pool - and a giant waterslide.  The boys love it there.  And I love the price of the swim lessons (the best deal in town!) as well as the friendly staff.  We are the only white people every time we go and I swear that when the pool maintenance guy (who is white) asked me if we had ever been there before, what he really was asking me was, "Did you know you were coming to this neighborhood when you signed up for swim lessons?"  What he didn't know is yes, I knew.  And yes, we still came.  And by the way, we love it here and we hope that in time, we will have many friends here. 
        
The short, four mile drive from our house to the pool is a sobering one.  We wind down 55th Avenue, to International, down Seminary, to San Leandro, down 85th, and finally to Edes Ave.  If you want to get a quick glimpse of poverty in a major city, this is route you'd want to take.  It's littered with graffiti (ev.er.y.where), vacant lots, busted-up windows, empty buildings, over-grown weeds, and trash.  It's a little overwhelming if you think about it too much.  

But I like having a reason to drive into that neighborhood twice a week.  It's good for me and my boys to see that.  It's harder to ignore the problems of your city when they are regularly right in your face. 

This morning, as we were driving to swim lessons, Riley was looking out the windows of the van when he shouted out,

"Why is this town so broken?"

Really good question, son.  Don't ever stop asking the hard questions.

When I pressed him for why he thought the town was broken and what he thought we should do to make it un-broken, he initially told me that we couldn't fix it because we weren't "workers" so we should just leave this town.

When I told him that we were the workers, he said,

"We need a wrench.  And a hammer.  And some paint."  

Last Day of School

It's so hard to believe that the school year is already over.  It seems like just yesterday, the boys were starting Summer Orientation at Urban Montessori Charter School and we were frantically still trying to find a place to live so that we could be in Oakland for the start of school (two weeks later!)

First day of Summer Orientation at Urban Montessori - August 2012
This was taken on the porch of the Milheims, friends of friends who had never even met us but let us stay at their home for a week while they were on vacation.  We were thankful for a place to stay so the boys could attend 3 days of orientation and we could keep looking for places to live.  

Last day of school, taken on our front porch, the house we moved into three days after school started.  It was a wild and crazy school year, filled many ups and downs but we made it! 

Poor Jonah...after switching classrooms mid-year, his new teacher AND his new, beloved assistant teacher both resigned mid-year for various reasons, leaving the class with no teachers and no opportunities for closure.  They finished out the year with substitutes.  Really rough year for Jonah.  I don't even want to include the picture I took of him on the last day of school with the substitutes.  It's just too depressing!

On the other hand, Nicolas and Riley had a wonderful year in which they learned to read, write, add, subtract, multiply, and so much more.  They drew dozens of maps, learned about all of the continents and can name more countries in the world than I can.  Best of all, they formed a wonderful classroom community and made a ton of special new friends who they will get to be with again next year.

Riley and Nicolas on the last day of school with their super amazing teacher, Ms. Jen.  

We celebrated the last day of school with a special treat!  That afternoon, our old neighbors from across the street in Sacramento, came down to Oakland to go to the A's game with us.  It was the perfect way to kick-off summer vacation.

Jonah with one of his favorite people on the planet, Robbie.  These two grew up together and spent nearly every day with one another when we lived in Sacramento.  Jonah misses Robbie very, very much and was so happy to be at the A's game with his buddy!  

The crew, reunited!  They really wanted to catch a fly ball, but no such luck. 

 We went on a special Superhero Fireworks Night so when the game was over, we got to go down onto the field to watch the fireworks - super fun to be on the nice grass of the outfield!

It was pretty late by this time but rather than getting sleepy, Jonah got more and more hyper.  He was dancing around, being a goofball, and keeping everyone entertained while we waited for fireworks.  

Really fun family night and a great kick-off to summer!

The very next morning, Riley woke-up, went to the couch and starting reading the book that his teacher had given to him as a gift on the last day of school.  I think that's the sign of a good kindergarten year.  

First and third grade here we come!

How-to-Have-Fun on Minimum Days

Last week the boys had minimum days at school because of Parent Teacher Conferences in the afternoons. It was a great excuse to schedule some play dates with friends after-school. They are always so happy to have a friend over!  

On one of the afternoons though, we just rested at home. Jonah spent a long time in his room building with LEGOS. And when he came out, he was very excited to show us the awesome catapult he had built! So excited, in fact, that he asked if I would videotape him explaining how to make it. I thought it sounded like a fun idea (I need to remember that Jonah often comes up with better activities than I do) so I grabbed my iphone and started recording away.




Not bad for unrehearsed and spontaneous! I was especially glad that he didn't get frustrated when the LEGOS would break or when he needed to correct a mistake.

While Jonah had been building with LEGOs that afternoon, Nicolas had been sitting at the art table drawing - his usual go-to spot. So when we finished up Jonah's video, I asked Nicolas if he wanted to make a video and I was thrilled when he said yes. He told me that he could make a video explaining how to draw a rocket ship. Great! Again, we whipped out a little how-to video.



And of course, not to be outdone by his brothers, Riley also wanted to make a video.  When I asked him what he wanted to teach on his video, he knew exactly what it should be.  He wanted to explain how to make paper boats. So, off we went with Riley's video.



I was so proud of all 3 of them for doing these presentations for the camera with no rehearsing or prompting on my part! And I love how they each came up with something they felt they were good at and wanted to teach - each one so different.

When we finished up with Riley's video, the boys said they wanted me to do a video too.  It was interesting how quickly I got an uneasy feeling in my stomach.  They had immediately known what they could teach to others, but when it came to be my turn, I honestly didn't have a clue!  I'm not artistic.  I'm not crafty.  I'm not a chef or a baker.  But then I looked over at the stack of books and fliers that had been accumulating on my table over the last few weeks and I knew just would I could do.

(Disclaimers:  Lest any of you think I have this whole full-time, stay-at home mom thing figured out...fear not - I definitely don't.  I enter this summer with great fear and trepidation, quite sure that our summer will go nothing like I have planned - and quite sure that I'll be ready to pull my hair out every single day.  But since I'm not helping to plan a Day Camp for an entire community this summer, I had to put  my energy somewhere!).    

 Who knew? How-to videos! Fun, educational, and free!

What would be YOUR how-to video for this season of your life? Please share! I'd love to hear!