Doggy Style (G-rated!)

Oscar likes to stop at a little hot dog stand called Doggy Style on his way to piano class. I don't eat hot dogs, but both Oscar and Chris love this place, and I love the chatty old-school guys who work there. They use real, toasted New England-style buns, which have flat rather than rounded sides. They're serious about the buns: One week the guys manning the stand were very apologetic because their supplier went on vacation without warning them and they had to use regular buns. Also, if you buy two dogs, you get a free soda or a bag of chips. In fact, Oscar got a free soda today with just one dog!

Anyway, today Oscar planned to get the mac & cheese dog, the only one he hadn't tried yet, but we learned they no longer sell that one because no one ordered it. (Unbelievable, I know.) Oscar's favorite is the New Yorker, which has sauerkraut.

New book! Diary of Wimpy Kid 6: Cabin Fever

There's no denying the tween appeal of the Wimpy Kid series. Volume 6, which hit store shelves yesterday, had a first printing of 6 million copies. Every kid in Oscar's peer group seems to have memorized the entire series, and Oscar still rereads his collection about once a month it seems. Surprisingly, I saw Cabin Fever in the neighborhood grocery store yesterday (guess its market penetration is not in danger!) and picked it up for incentive a bribe for Oscar to clean his room. It worked -- he ran up the stairs as soon as he saw the tempting tome and even made his bed!

When the first Wimpy Kid movie came out, I heard a lot of criticism about the protagonist Greg's reprehensible behavior. Yeah, he's a jerk. That's why it's funny, people!

As for Jeff Kinney's latest, I feel like he's redeemed himself after an extremely disappointing volume 5 (The Ugly Truth). This book feels meatier -- although still a very quick read -- and funnier. Oscar ranks it between volume 3 and 4. Even though he doesn't believe the story, Greg is afraid to misbehave in front of a doll called Santa's Scout, which his mother told him reports back to Santa at the North Pole. Rowley and Rodrick have minimal roles this time, but baby Manny seems to be developing more of a quirky personality.

Any Wimpy Kid fans or foes out there? Which book series do you look forward to on release day?

Keeping up the grades

Oscar's transition from elementary to middle school has been bumpy. Coming from a cozy, flexible school of a little over 200 students, he's now one of 920 kids in a sprawling three-story building. I'm not sure if it would have been any easier if we hadn't moved, but his academic scores haven't been what we're used to. Putting this in the nicest way possible, my guess is that Oscar is not used to the organizational demands of middle school. It's not easy to get any information out of him, though.

If you ask Oscar how his day was, he'll always reply, "Good." Any homework? "No."

That would be a lie. Luckily, the Seattle school system has an online database called The Source that lets teachers post grades and homework assignments; parents can access the lists using their child's ID number. Here's a less-embarrassing example from Oscar's Japanese class at left. When checking out Oscar's grades earlier in the school year, I was able to see that he was failing language arts and social studies. I was shocked! Digging deeper, I could see that he had not turned in several homework assignments, which was eroding his grades. I subsequently learned that he had had opportunities to improve his score on other substandard work he had turned in, and didn't take advantage of them. An intervention ensued, and I discovered to my horror a binder containing a jumble of incomplete worksheets, crumpled up class notes, and duplicate handouts -- even though he started out the year with neat tabs separating sections for each subject.

I'm sure I'll have to keep organizing the binder and reviewing his work with him, but the good news is that Oscar's language arts and social studies grades are no longer failing. (Which incidently is notated as "E" here instead of "F". Crazy!) The bad news is that he's now failing band class. How is that even possible?! Turns out that his band teacher hadn't been posting the assignments and grades over the term, but now that the term is ending, he has posted them. Who knew there were written assignments in band class?! So, even though the The Source is helpful, it isn't foolproof by a longshot. Live and learn.

The whole experience has been eye-opening to me. I'd love to know if there are systems similar to The Source in other school districts. Anyone?

Off the Wall

I was in love with Off the Wall School of Music's funky aesthetic before we even moved to Seattle, when I was trolling the Internet for piano schools. Now Oscar is taking lessons there once a week.

His teacher is Caleb. My impression so far is that the teachers really challenge the students, so they progress quickly. (Or, it could be that my kid is no longer in elementary school with the same piano teacher he's had since Kindergarten!) They also let the students play music they like. Oscar learned how to play current radio hit Dynamite by Taio Cruz and is now obsessed with the videogame theme Mario Underworld.

If you live in Seattle and want to check it out, they offer a free lesson! A real one for half an hour! If you end up signing up for lessons, tell them Oscar sent you and he'll get a free lesson too. Win-win, right?

Kick, punch, it's all in the mind*

While I've been going to Zumba class, Oscar has been taking classes at Jae Hun Kim Taekwon-do Institute. The classes for kids are big, and it's so cute to see rows of white-uniformed kids doing synchronized moves. The head instructor Gailyn Perrin is amazing -- she comes across as kind, but totally no-nonsense and authoritative. When she issues a command, the troops yell "Yes, Ma'am!" in unison. This place is disciplined!

It's in our neighborhood too, which has made it a lot easier to get to classes.

* If you're not familiar with my headline, it comes from one of the best PlayStation videogames in history, Parappa the Rapper. Check out the YouTube video!