Senator Brad Ashford of Omaha has proposed criminalizing the act of keeping your kids home from school. This is abhorrent for many reasons, and should be withdrawn from consideration immediately.

Deputy Douglas County Attorney Kim Hawekotte and Ralston Public Schools social worker Steve Snodgrass, both active in truancy prevention in the Omaha area, said the proposed language change will make it easier for schools to identify students who are being improperly excused.

"By taking that sentence out," Hawekotte said, "the schools have to react when a youth isn't in school, no matter what the reason. You want the system to kick into place to make that determination."

No, Ms. Hawekotte: you want the system to kick in.

The parent-run website for my kids' school.

Summer's upon us again. The kids just got out of school on Wednesday, which reminded me that my last post was to say that the kids were just starting back and I haven't said a word since then. Anyway, we have them signed up for pretty much every summer sport offered and Gabby's getting ready to start piano lessons, so they'll be keeping pretty busy.

Well, it's officially school time again. Gabby and Ari started back yesterday, and Jake went this morning for the first time.

Gabby seemed really happy. She got in line with her friends and immediately jumped back into the swing of things.

When we took Ari into the Montessori preschool, she ran off to play with the other kids as if she'd been there all along. When I picked her up in the afternoon, she told me that she'd learned how to read (so I suppose that they'll cover math today, and maybe start on biology next Monday).

The kids started swimming lessons yesterday. They all had a great time and left smiling. As I was putting Jake to bed, I asked him about his day:

Me: What was your favorite part of swimming lessons?
Jake: Jumping off the diving board.
Me: Really?
Jake: Yeah. It was a little scary, though.
Me: Well, sometimes the most fun things are a little scary.
Jake: Yeah. (pause) I wish I'd done a back flip.

We got a used piano a few months ago. After we cleaned it and put it where we wanted it, I played a few short songs (poorly). Throughout the rest of the day, we'd occasionally hear one of the kids hitting a few keys and laughing.

Several hours later, Jake came up to me with some bad news:

Jake: Daddy, I think the piano's broken.
Me, alarmed: Why? What happened?
Jake, upset: I pressed all the keys, but it didn't make the right music come out.

Gabby was in the preschool at Christ Lutheran School, and her classroom had a caged parakeet. One day Gabby told me that their bird was dead. Since she was only three years old at the time, I didn't think she knew what that meant, so I asked her about it:

Me: What do you mean, dead?
Gabby: I mean, the bird died.
Me: But what do you mean when you say that it died?
Gabby: It began to stink, so my teacher had to put it in a box and bury it.

Oh. I guess she knew what she was talking about after all.

Well, today was the big day - Jake and Ari had their tonsils removed. The doctor said Jake's were nearly as large as golf balls, so the poor little guy had to have been miserable.

The operations went off without a hitch, and they're both recovering nicely (if irritably) at home.