This is where I live now:
The land mass on the left is a small (football field-size) island off the edge of Scotts Flat Lake in Nevada County, and it is where I spent by Fourth (a few blissful hours of it, anyway). (Here it is on Google Maps.) It was kind of like Tom Sawyer’s Island, the Disney attraction, but with 100% fewer pirate corpses.
We didn’t attend the parade this year but the weather was perfect.
For what it’s worth. Five pools are closed this year for recreational swimming, and those that are open are typically open a grand total of 12 hours per week. The schedule is wack, as the kids would say. All pools that are still open are open from 2-4pm, and one assumes the bright spot was supposed to be that they are all open 6 days a week, but any way you slice it, gone are the days of killing time by the pool.
Obviously they are in dire straits to keep the doors open at all. Since these are permanent assets they basically have to keep them open. I’m not sure whether they considered closing a few of them permanently, keeping the larger pools open for longer periods. I’m also not sure why they didn’t consider staggered schedules (T/Th or M/W/F) as they used to do. It seems like either of those schedules would be more convenient for patrons.
Not to mention: how do they find trained lifeguards willing to work a grand total of 12 hours per week?
Join Superintendent Raymond’s SUMMER READING challenge and Get Caught Reading a great book!
Read two or more books this summer and record the titles on a Reading Log. (Emphasis mine)
Two books! In just one calendar season?! “Get caught reading”?! Not to mention, judging at least by the 1st-2nd grade suggested list, the reading level is not exactly reaching for the stars either. It includes mostly picture books and “easy reader” type books.
Fortunately the Sacramento Public Library offers several literacy programs this summer. The Make a Splash reading contest aims to get kids to complete at least 5 literacy related activities. They also have a program with Fresh Choice that I believe encourages kids to read 5 books with a free meal as a reward. I cannot find anything about it online but it definitely is a thing — ask your librarian!
When the bell rings shortly at John Paul II School in Tahoe Park, it will be Alice Cooper’s dream come true: Schooool’s out. For. Evah. The Catholic Diocese is closing the school and allowing its students to transfer to the new Saint Patrick SUCCEED Academy on the former campus of St. Patrick Elementary School in South Sac.
According to what I have been told, the Diocese currently has no plans to lease out this great old brick school facility. There are still people involved with the All Hallows Parish who might be able to use the facility in the future for educational programs. Me, I’d love to see a public charter school open up there.
John Paul II School opened in 2005 as a merger between All Hallows and St. Peter’s Parish Schools. All Hallows Parish School opened on the site in 1948.
The Sac Bee has a nice photo gallery of the last day of school at Sacred Heart (my alma mater), which opens a new campus across the street this fall. But no mention of JPII.
Weekend outdoorsy fun was had by the whole family yesterday as we finally checked out the Cosumnes River Preserve down in the Galt/Walnut Grove area. The preserve is a 46,000-acre wildlife refuge along the Cosumnes River (the last undammed river in the Central Valley), winding from Sacramento County all the way down to the delta. With a paved wetlands pathway and a rougher river walk trail, there are a few miles of walking to do, as well as boating, cycling and hunting. The weather was perfect yesterday, so we enjoyed a beautiful walk along the sunny wetlands pathway and a shorter jaunt on the river walk. The wide trails make it easy for walking with kids (since there is doubtless plenty of poison oak along the way).
We followed this up with a drive over to Walnut Grove and back home along the 160, stopping for cool treats in downtown Clarksburg. I don’t know what it is but I love the Delta area! A couple of photos after the jump…
The Sac Bee brings out the sad news that Natomas Unified School District has closed all of its elementary school libraries. It certainly seems like things are spiraling out of control, doesn’t it?
The article includes a foreboding quote from Martha Rowland, district coordinator of library services for Sac City Unified:
“I’m proud of our superintendent and his vision” … “I don’t know how that vision will be funded, but he has the right idea – that libraries are important to kids.” (emphasis mine)
Sac City parents are dreading the dropping of the other shoe on that one …
I know that the Sacramento Jazz Jubilee Festival is the big draw this weekend, but I am partial to the Sacramento County Fair for family friendly Memorial Day Weekend activities. Admission for kids is free, and adults are only $3, so it’s a steal of a deal, and it also lacks the big crowds of Big Fun.
This year features some awesomely weird entertainment, like a Demolition Derby and Lucha Libre wrestling, in addition to the more wholesome entertainment of watching and smelling animals that were raised by local kids, which are also available for purchase (the livestock, that is) at auction. And if your tolerance for being near carnies is high carnies, you can always sample the rides on the midway.
Or you can pay $35 and see Molly Ringwald. Your choice, Sacramento.
This weekend the Bay Area plays host to the fifth annual Maker Faire, held at the San Mateo County Event Center:
[Maker Faire] celebrates arts, crafts, engineering, green design, food, music, science and technology and brings together communities who embrace the DIY (do-it-yourself) spirit.
From butter to Halloween animatronics to MIDI controllers, there are programs on making just about anything you can think of.
Maker Faire
San Mateo County Event Center
May 22, 10am – 8pm
May 23, 10am – 6pm
Thousands of intermediate grade elementary school students will be at the Capitol building on May 19 for “State Scientist Day.” The event is sponsored by the California Association of Professional Scientists, a group that one assumes knows a thing or two about science. The kids who attend this event, however, will probably still only know literally a thing or two about science when it is over, as some of the topics covered are “Fishing in the City” and “Reduce-Reuse-Recycle.”
I’m stretching a bit, as the other topics on State Scientist Day agenda do sound like hard science — chemistry, wildlife tracking and earthquakes for example. This event is my hook into discussing something I’ve been bugged by lately: the sorry state of science education in California.
Continue reading “Cool family events coming up at Central Library”
The Sac Rag 