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Thursday, January 31, 2013
Race consultant should come to CMS
Posted By Ailen Arreaza on Thu, Jan 31, 2013 at 11:08 AM
A few weeks ago, I entered my son Luki into CMS's magnet lottery. I have been praying ever since, that he gets a spot in a pre-k classrooms at one of the magnet Montessori elementary schools. I want him to get into the program because having him in a public school as a 4 year old will save us tons of money on daycare, but also, and most importantly, because it would guarantee that he won't have to attend our neighborhood school.
You see, I've been doing some research on our neighborhood school, and it ain't pretty. Its students consistently perform below the CMS average in all subjects, and last year only 58 percent performed at or above grade level.
There's also another statistic I looked at that helped shape my opinion about the school. It's something I've struggled coming to terms with. It's even made me feel like a hypocrite.
I looked at the school's racial makeup. When I saw that less than 5 percent of the students are white, I considered it a red flag.
Thursday, January 24, 2013
10 tips for traveling abroad with young kids
Posted By Ailen Arreaza on Thu, Jan 24, 2013 at 9:20 AM
We traveled to Spain over the holidays with my mother. Here are 10 things I learned about traveling across the globe with two young children:
1. Line your pockets with candy before heading to the airport. You have no idea how many minutes of standing still in lines the promise of Skittles will buy you.
2. When your 3-year-old tells you he's "too tired" to keep walking the streets of Barcelona, don't carry him around. Instead, just challenge him to a race to your destination. All the energy he needs to keep on going is contained in the words "ready, set, go."
3. If both your children fall asleep in the middle of a guided city tour, don't ditch the rest of the tour and rush to the hotel hoping for a family nap...they'll both wake up before you get there and exhibit more energy than ever.
