Family Friday: Kids’ Half-Zip Bounce Fleece Sweatshirt
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This half-zip fleece is the perfect layer for cool spring mornings.
This soft, breathable fleece features a stand collar, dropped shoulders, and on-seam pockets. It would be a great basic for a sporty kid — just add leggings or joggers and they’re good to go.
Old Navy’s Half-Zip Bounce Fleece Sweatshirt is $36.99 and comes in five colors, including some pretty pastels. It’s available in sizes XS-XXL.
Sales of note for 5/8:
(See all of the latest workwear sales at Corporette!)
- Ann Taylor – Mother’s Day Event: 40% off your purchase. Readers love this popover blouse, and their suiting is also in the sale.
- Banana Republic Factory – Up to 50% off everything + extra 20% off
- Brooks Brothers – Dress & sport shirts, 2 for $149
- Express – $39+ summer styles + 25% off everything else
- J.Crew Factory – Up to 60% off everything + extra 70% off clearance + 40%-50% off the Weekend Shop
- Lo & Sons – Mother’s Day Sale: Up to 40% off — reader favorites include this laptop tote, this backpack, and this crossbody
- M.M.LaFleur – Try code CORPORETTE15 for 15% off
- Nordstrom – Up to 25% off
- Talbots – 50% off wear-now styles and all markdowns + 30% off tops, pants, jeans, and shorts
Ok, random low-stakes question to end the week. For kids who are reading on grade level, when do you expect they’ll be able to pick up a normal picture book or beginner chapter book or graphic novel and read it to themselves? My daughter is in kindergarten and as far as I can tell on par with where they want her to be – she can sound-out words and recognize a good number of sight words – but she seems a long way off from fluent reading. I’m curious if this is something that usually just “clicks” into place at some point or if there’s an expected progression.
I don’t really remember learning to read except that I couldn’t read in kindergarten then it all suddenly made sense to me the summer after and I don’t know how normal that trajectory is.
Friday musings based on the AI question below- a few years ago, before my kids were in school, I was talking to a teen relative and it really hit me how little difference there was between my school experience (90s) and my parents’. We could occasionally use a computer/printer, could pretty easily get a VHS tape to watch, and girls could wear pants, but that was pretty much it. The internet, cell phones, laptops technically existed but weren’t really in our orbits. While she was doing most things from a laptop and Internet, without paper books and with constant communication and self-guided work. It’s just so different, for better and worse.
And I think by the time our grandkids are in school, we’re going to see most teaching done in a way similar to the program below. A completely different experience again.
Extended family vent. I love my in-laws, they are very kind people and I enjoy them more than my own family in many ways. But their lack of advanced planning drives me batty sometimes.
My SIL decided today that she and her family are going to visit FIL in 2 weeks for her baby’s first birthday. SIL lives in the southwest, FIL in the Midwest, and we’re on the east coast. Her being close enough to drive to means that we have to go. We haven’t even met the baby yet because we had a baby shortly after hers was born (and I won’t bring LO to an area with a measles outbreak (like where she lives) until he can get his MMR).
SIL and fam will only be there for 3 days (!) and I am in court the first 2 days. I cannot reschedule or get someone else to cover. So to see them, DH will have a 10 hour drive by himself with LO; I will fly after my last hearing (the only flight I can make is $500 for one-way), take an uber the 1.5 hour drive from the airport to FIL’s house (no clue what that will cost) to get in at 2 am, and then we’ll drive back together a few days later. We also have to get an Airbnb or hotel room(s) because FIL doesn’t have enough space for everyone. So this will be very inconvenient and expensive to get to see them for less than 72 hours (24 for me).
I am super happy to have the opportunity to see them. I cannot wait to get my hands on that little baby. I’m so excited for close in age cousins to meet. But man this could have been a lot more convenient and a lot less expensive.
I have my first drop-off play date this weekend: two girls, age 5, what should I do to prepare? I will be the only adult, and it will probably be for about 4 hours or so. They play together very well, but I’m worried they’ll be a little tired of each other’s company after that long.
Weather should be pretty decent, so we can be outside. I was thinking I might get little flowers they can put into pots or something. I probably can’t ask them to weed my planting beds, though right?
Somewhat philosophical question:
My son is in 5th grade and submitted an essay yesterday evening. It’s a narrative on the “hero’s journey.” As part of the writing process his teacher wanted students to use something called “Magic School” which seems to be an AI-based writing tool for students. His teacher loaded information about the assignment and the rubric to the tool, and students submitted drafts and got instant feedback with recommendations.
After a few drafts, my son felt he was in a good spot. We ran the final draft through Magic School, and it estimated he would get a 19/21 with specific feedback on things he could improve. He was kind of tired and we thought all of the feedback was minor, so he went ahead and submitted it.
This morning, we woke up to his grade — 19/21 — and the teacher dropped in feedback that was directly copied from Magic Room, the same feedback we saw last night. I’m not sure what to think but it’s pretty reasonable, I believe, to state that she just copied the grade and feedback from the tool and I don’t even know if she read it herself. I mean… she plagiarized the feedback and didn’t write anything on her own.
Do I say something? Is this ethical? Is it just the way things in the world are heading? Sigh.
I know we’ve talked about this before but my 10yo finds these cropped sweatshirts very annoying. “Every time I lift my arms up, my stomach gets cold!” I tend to agree with her.