Never Say Never

The activity was pretty simple: work in small groups and report out to the class evaluating claims to decide whether or not they could make strong argument strong essays. The choices were a little confusing, though: "too obvious" if few would disagree, "not defensible" if few would argue in favor, and "controversial" for that just right claim, but that's why we were working together.

The task was harder for some than others, but most had to give it some thought. Then there was that one kid who wanted to argue every issue, no matter how outrageous. Of course she knew she was tilting at windmills when she raised her hand to say that perhaps all middle school students in the US should indeed work full time in addition to their studies, and she understood full well the difficulties in arguing that only citizens between the ages of 18 and 25 should be allowed to vote, but she was grasping for a challenge and I couldn't fault her for that.

And when it came time for the independent assessment, she aced it in under five minutes. Looking around at the rest of her classmates working intently, she whispered, "What should I do now?"

"Why don't you start drafting your argument that only families with small children should be allowed in amusement parks?" I asked her. "Or would you rather argue that children of all ages should be able to drive?"

"I think I'll read my book," she laughed.

#HolidayReady

I thought the gym might be a little crowded on the Sunday after Thanksgiving-- maybe folks wanted to work off the extra pie? But that was not the case. The nail salon, on the other hand?

Was packed!

Kite-tastrophe

Not really-- just a badly knotted string and a few crashes on the beach this morning, but I couldn't resist the pun.

My frame of mind may have been swayed by the stupid game I bought at a discount store yesterday. Despite a fabulous, well-designed box that actually turned into the game board, our first clue that we were in for an unsatisfying gaming experience was the rules: they seemed to be written in only a semi-chronological way, which was confusing and did not inspire confidence.

The game itself consisted of kind of hard logic puzzles written on cards with the answers printed right below, suggesting that they were to be read aloud. Most were way too complicated to solve without reviewing the text, though, which was another huge flaw. Finally, each player only had an unreasonable 2 minutes to solve as many of the brain teasers as possible.

In the end, we just read the cards and tried to solve them together. In that low stakes environment, although my mathematical reasoning was rusty, I had a knack for the word and language puzzles.

Lest I get too full of myself though, I must share one more anecdote. On the way out of town we passed a drugstore marquee with the message, "Get your flushot here".

What's a flushot? I asked myself. Do they mean "flush out"? What would you flush out that a pharmacy would have the tools? Maybe it's because we're at the beach. And so on, the tumblers of my brain kept turning to unlock the cryptic cypher.

Yah. I was way down the road when I realized they meant flu shot.

Maximize the Potential

When the beach gives you wind, what do you do?

Bundle up, take a deep breath of the extra salty air, head toward the tossing sea, put your shoulder down, and march into the gale as far as you can, Gal, so that the trip back will be leeward, quiet and calm, with a little extra nudge to keep you going.

AND

fly a kite!

When the Fates Don't Allow

There was something quite wonderful about spending Thanksgiving in a house large enough for everyone to wake up and watch the parade and the dog show and cook an amazing meal with a ridiculous number of sides, enjoy our dinner and still have a couple of more days together at the beach.

I miss you, Mom.

Gross Motor Skills

"What else did we learn besides skipping and galloping?" I asked my brother.

He looked at me blankly, then frowned. "Do you mean in gym when we were little?" He cocked his head. "Because that is super out of context."

I laughed so hard at his observation that I had to duck into the ladies room, but of course I meant exactly that. Somehow the notion of galloping and skipping had come up when I was walking with Treat and Annabelle, and as the three of us skipped and galloped along the boardwalk beneath the Bodie Island Lighthouse.

"Wasn't there a scissor step or an umbrella thing?" I asked when I returned, reaching back 5 minutes and 50 years. "But I have no idea what it actually looked like."

"Do you mean in Mother May I?" Heidi suggested.

"Oh my gosh!" I said. "I think maybe so!"

But Bill was ahead of us, googling umbrella and scissor steps. "Plant your heel, pivot, walk forward and repeat," he directed. Victor and I did so obediently, umbrella stepping down the trail toward Currituck Sound.

"That's it!" I cried.

"Step ahead and to the right, then bring your feet together. Now do it to the left," he said.

"Scissor step!" I confirmed, muscle memory recalling relay races through the gym in long ago elementary school PE classes. "Why did they even teach us that?"

Wisdom of Mary

"I need rock candy," Emily said as we started our shopping excursion yesterday.

"That's unusual," I commented.

"It's for a kid in my homeroom," she explained. "Mary Brown told me that she asks her students a whole bunch of questions at the beginning of the year, and one of them is favorite candy. Then she just buys them a big one for their birthday."

I nodded.

"It's genius, really," Emily continued, "because you can just buy them in advance and keep them in your classroom. Except for rock candy," she shrugged, "but I figured I could find it at the beach."

And she did.

"Feel this shell," I told Emily this morning as we walked up the beach. "It's so smooth and soothing."

"It is nice," she replied.

"Mary Brown told me she keeps a bunch of these on her desk at school, and then gives them out to kids as fidgets. They love 'em!"

'That's a cool idea," Emily agreed.

"We should just have Mary here!" I laughed. "We've been talking about her the whole trip."