Park and rides

Vacation is just two half days away now.  And today wasn't exactly a "school" day: for the Boy, a 6th Grade trip to the Town Park for swimming, fun and games; for the Girl, the 8th Grade treat was a visit to the Great Escape amusement park up at Lake George.  Grand days out, both.  The Boy has come home browner, and (more surprising) seemingly taller.

The kids in the refugee family I visit are also either out of school for the year or finishing up soon. The youngest is at the end of her first year of pre-school - when I visited today I was proudly shown her certificate of pre-school graduation, and a photo of her wearing a graduate's mortar board (which sounds silly, but for kids in a challenged community maybe it's a way to start promoting the possibility of academic achievement and college). This little girl loves going to school and has been doing well there. Last September she spoke no English at all, but now she can hold her own. When her teachers asked her what she wants to do when she grows up, she draped a stethoscope around her neck and said she'd like to be a doctor.