Hmmm

Now this is interesting.

School starts and the paper starts rolling in.

You are instructed in one sheet that you can refer your own child to the gifted and talented program.

Do you do it?

Is your kid really that smart?

Do you really want to find out?

Or do you wait and see how much trouble he gets in once he has the hang of the rules and gets bored?

Do you think maybe this is a crazy system?

What parent doesn't think their child is gifted and talented?

How low does the threshold go for gifted and talented?

Aren't the teachers supposed to have some input here?

And the real question, do I really have time for/want to deal with all of the extra homework?

Do I really want to deal with any standardized difference in their education?

And the real heart of the matter, aren't they in Kindergarten? Can't we all just enjoy Kindergarten?
Bleck.

That Was Cute, Till It Turned Creepy

While crossing this bridge on a walk-turned-death-march, if you ask the children,

We stopped to notice the turtles waiting for a hand-out below the bridge.

While we were discussing the pros/cons of these turned-tame sort of creatures, Nicholas wandered off to find a bird. He currently believes that he can catch them. Alida thinks that if she just holds out her finger, they will land and sing with her, but that's another story. So we kind of ignored Nicholas, because he's loud, and birds tend to flee as he approaches.

But then we noticed that he's just kind of sat down with this bird in the grass and started talking with it. And it was starting to turn into an episode of Little Bear.

And then this.

I'm not comfortable with this, but I was equally stunned.

And Ben was put out because it was about here that I started yelling that it was time to go and get away from the bird already.