As regular readers have surely noticed, I’ve fallen out of my two-year old posting rhythm lately, often neglecting to post for weeks on end. It sucks, I really miss the writing and sharing, but it happens. This isn’t to say I’ve just been sitting on my hands. Instead I’ve found a few odd jobs to keep me plenty busy in the interim.
Next week I’ll begin my temporary tenure as a part-time Preschool teacher. So there’s that. Loren’s full-time teacher had to step down due to unfortunate but understandable personal issues. Us parents in the co-op are trying to soften the blow by stepping into the void she’s left. My plan is to teach the 10 or so 3-to-5 year olds proper sharing by reading caselaw on Fourth Amendment Search and Seizure techniques. Or something like that.
Truth is I’ve had a lot of fun helping out as the duty parent (that’s basically a parent in the once a month role of assistant teacher/potty-trip manager), and I’m really looking forward to helping out more often. These kids are a lot of fun and it is a blast to watch them interact, especially when they get lost in their own world and think we can’t hear them. Ruthie will be along for the ride most days, which is kind of a trip to see. She’s no stranger to toughing it out with the big kids. Luckily these guys all seem to adore her. She’ll be something of the class pet/mascot in toddler form.
Also, I’ve sort of backed myself into an informal volunteer job as Web Development and Social Media Manager* for an emerging children’s museum in Montgomery County, MD founded by Natalie’s former boss. She needed help with the online stuff, and we said “why not.” So I started creating social media accounts and building/customizing websites on WordPress, one thing led to another and now I’m learning HTML and CSS and thank goodness I went to law school…
*The best thing about informal volunteer positions is the title inflation. I was thinking of calling myself the “Senior Vice President of Web Development and Social Media Affairs,” but I realized that left me with very little room for pretend career growth. Manager seems more apt for now.
The KID (Kids International Discovery) Museum has been throwing major events in the area to drum up support for finding a permanent museum home. A few weeks ago we hosted the Washington area’s first ever Maker Faire in Silver Spring. It was an amazing time and a huge success – with over 10,000 people coming out to take it all in. If you’ve got a child with even the slightest inclination toward tinkering, working with electronics, computers or who just likes science in general, I highly recommend taking them to one of these events if it happens near you.
Loren is without question this type of kid, so it was a lot of fun building him his own marble run inspired by one we saw at the Faire:
I love how much fun he thinks it is even when he screws it up that second time.
This Sunday KID will be hosting the World of Montgomery Festival from noon to 5PM in Wheaton, MD. The festival focuses on the many international cultures in the area through food, dance and music. KID Museum hosted last year’s festival as well and it was a blast (even had a pupusa cook-off, which was my personal favorite event of the day). We expect this year to be even better. It’s free and will take place rain or shine. If you’re looking for something wholesome and fun to do this weekend it’s the place to be. I’ll be manning one of the KID Museum info booths, so stop by and say hi if you happen to make it out.
So, I’m still here, just doing random things that seem to follow very little pattern whatsoever.
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