Friday, February 27, 2009

Winter...Spring.....Winter....Spring...ARGH!!!! Which one is it going to be. They have a saying in the high deserts of the rocky Mountains and in the West, "Don't like the weather?...just wait 15 minutes and it will change" I grew up in Southern California as did my beautiful and talented wife. We want spring to come and stay, followed quickly by Summer.

My 17 year old son had his first workout on the baseball field yesterday and it was really nice. Today it looks great, but the temperature and wind are cold. To me, Spring means baseball season is just around the corner. I have 3 boys that will be playing this year. I will be coaching one team and enjoying watching the others.

Spring soccer is also here and I have a son and a daughter that participate in the world's most popular sport "futbal". I think if I keep thinking positively that the weather will change permanently and the sun will warm us all up.

The Doc

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Parent Teacher Conference

So this week I had the great opportunity to go to 4 of my 5 kids’ schools to participate is the great educational tradition of chatting with their teachers for 10 to 15 minutes and getting a personal update of his/her performance in school. I’ve always been a dad that feels very strongly about attending these meetings.

By education I'm a teacher and I taught professionally for a few years at the high school level. I strongly believe that if parents are not involved in their student’s life, you are setting yourself up to be manipulated, and always behind the curve when it comes to helping your kids solves their difficulties…..I’ve seen it first hand. If you wait for mid terms or parent teacher conference you may have a huge mountain to climb to get things back on track.

Each one of my children's teachers knows that I am there for a reason. And, that’s to be a supportive extension of their teaching. And best of all, to let my kids know that their teachers and parents are on the same page and trying their best to give the necessary attention and resources to their development. (gotta love the tag team approach….hmmm maybe there are lessons to be learned from pro wrestling….nah)

Tell me if this doesn’t sound familiar…..my teenagers are always trying to push the “Easy Button” and think that it’s OK to do what their friends are doing. Problem is, it seems like the friends they want to emulate are the lazy ones that are barely getting by in school. It’s true that some kids have great self motivation to excel and do their very best in school; if your kids one of them, I want him hanging out at my house with my boys. But for now, my teenagers will try and get away with whatever I let them. So everyday is a challenge to keep them moving toward their college goals. Don’t you wish they could see that short term decision have long term consequences? …..Sheeesh!

Now, my elementary school kids love school and all is well. Why can’t they stay young and innocent and think that I still know everything!

The Doc

Saturday, February 7, 2009

To Everyone in the nose bleed seats

As I begin my venture into the blogging world, I go with the best intentions of sharing my experiences and opinions to all those who are in the cheap seats. Most of us go through this life in the best way that we know how. We don't have everything handed to us on a silver platter. We win some and we lose some.

You know, we've all heard all of our lives, "that we must continue to pick ourselves up each time we fall, that's the most important thing." So..... with that said, I think that sharing our stories and showing our skinned knees with pride to each other can be both instructive, and hopefully entertaining in an uplifting way. That way we can learn from our "friends" in hopes that we can help others avoid some of the pitfalls we had to climb out of in life.

One of my favorite sayings comes from a Hall of Fame Coach "If it doesn't matter who wins or loses, then why do they keep score?" (Vince Lombardi). So lets look out for each other...letting each other know if we need to round third and run like "all get out" for home or hold and wait for a team mate to knock us in......either way we score by working together.

From your third base coach -- The Doc