Friday links: 15 April, 2022

Good morning, and happy Friday! Yesterday was a pretty good day here; we got through all my kiddo’s schoolwork with no issues. She’s pretty nervous about today’s appointment, so I’ve been doing my best to reassure her that it’s no big deal, and it’ll be like having a friendly conversation with a new grown-up. I’ll be there with her the whole time, so she can snuggle with me all she needs to.  : )

Here's what I found interesting online this week!

 

People developing trauma-like symptoms as the pandemic wears on

Trauma-like? Maybe they’re just experiencing trauma symptoms because most of the US seems to have given up on any kind of precautions and are pretending everything is normal again? (Meanwhile, our local parent groups are abuzz; an elementary school about 20 minutes from my town had 89 COVID cases in one day this week. And yet they’re continuing in-person learning.) Maybe medical personnel feel like their faces are being spit in because of this. Maybe the immunocompromised, who have no choice but to remain isolated if they want to stay alive, feel like society has collectively abandoned them. Maybe parents of kids too young to be vaccinated, who have been constantly insulted when they express concerns about their babies being infected with a virus for which we don’t know the long-term effects (did you hear about the new study that more definitively links the Epstein Barr virus with multiple sclerosis?), are furious about how no one cares how stressed-out they are. It would be more surprising if people didn’t have trauma symptoms, I think.

 

Cleveland Clinic COVID-19 vaccination policy prevents dad from donating kidney to 9-year-old son

For years, this father has trusted his son’s medical team to treat his ill son and keep him alive. But suddenly, Dad, who is a near perfect match to donate a kidney to his child, knows WAY more about medical things than the doctors do and refuses to get vaccinated so that his son can live a more normal life.

I do not understand this. If one of my kids needed something from me, I’d be scrapping myself for parts. Take half my liver. Take a kidney. You need me to take those nasty anti-malaria pills that have hideous nightmares as a side effect? I’ll take an entire bottle every day for the rest of my life. Chop off my leg, remove my entire heart if that’s what my kid needs. They’re more important than I am. I would do all of this and more with zero hesitation, and this guy refuses a vaccine that billions of people have received so that his son can live??? I’m generally pretty lax about other people’s parenting and try not to judge, but this? I can’t imagine not doing everything in my power to help my sick child.

 

We’re Pressuring Students to Read Too Fast, Too Much, Too Soon

Agreed.

No one is more pro-literacy than I am. And that’s why I completely disagree with how we’re handling reading in this country. Now, to be fully honest, both my kids were able to read by kindergarten age (my son was a more fluent and more eager reader than my daughter at that age). I taught them both; my son was homeschooled completely at the time, but my daughter went to public school kindergarten (until March 2020, sigh). In my daughter’s case, I knew that her teacher would be overwhelmed with teaching all 20-some squirming little five- and six-year-olds to read, and I didn’t want my daughter falling through any cracks, so I taught her to read before. But reading is hard for a lot of kids that age, and so many of her classmates really struggled with sight words. I felt really bad for those students and their parents.

The best way to destroy a kid’s love of reading is to force them into it when they’re not ready. Pushing kids to do anything when they’re not ready for it is a great way to cause unnecessary stress. I keep wondering what the next step in all of this is. We’ve pushed first grade work back to kindergarten; will we push it back to preschool next? Why can’t we just let kids be kids and stop stressing them out with lists of sight words when they’re five?

Speaking of reading…

 

NYC libraries are offering free digital library cards to people across the US

If you’re in the US and have a device mentioned in the article, you can check out some free books from the New York City library system! They’re not at all psyched about the recent book bans spreading like wildfire by the purposely-intellectually-stunted across the country, so they’re fighting back by providing access to some of those books. Go NYC libraries!!!

 

And that’s it for this week! We’re about to get started with a little bit of schoolwork. Our appointment today is at noon, so we’ll work up until an early lunchtime and then head out. Wish us luck!

Passover starts tonight (I’ll be attending a virtual seder, which I’m looking forward to), and Easter is this Sunday, and Ramadan is ongoing, so whatever you celebrate, or if you’re celebrating nothing at all, I’m wishing you peace and happiness this weekend. Shalom, friends. : )