by Alex Hernandez, father of Akari and Mekhi Hernandez (3rd grade twins)
“It’s like my heart is a tooth, and it’s got a cavity that can only be filled with children.”
‒ Gru, Despicable Me (2010) ‒
My kids may look like rosy-cheeked cherubs with pants that are a few inches too short, but, in the game of life, they are playing to win. I not exactly saying they are Terminators and I’m Sarah Connor (although they do learn quickly and keep coming at me), but let’s call them Minions to my Gru.
It’s hard for me to be the world’s greatest villain (parent) when the Hernandez lair is ground zero for their strange obsessions, uncontrollable cravings and inexplicable tendencies to whack each other like animated characters.
But the one thing in my life that does seem to be working is my sinister plan to have them infiltrate Mackintosh for 6 hours and 55 minutes each day.
In the spirit of a new year, here are a few things this evil genius is grateful for paired with my favorite Despicable Me movie quotes…
Agnes: Will you read us a bedtime story?
Gru: No.
Agnes: Pretty please?
Gru: The physical appearance of the please makes no difference.
I am grateful that every day before school, my children sit down with their friends to read books… because they love reading. My friend Annie-Murphy Paul says it’s not just whether kids read, but how they read that matters. The ability to “read deeply” changes the trajectory of people’s lives and the journey starts as early as two years old. For those of you who are interested in learning and intelligence, I highly recommend Annie-Murphy Paul’s Brilliant blog. And thanks to Mackintosh for nurturing a culture of literacy.
Gru: I’m going to need a dozen robots disguised as cookies.
As a math teacher, I am hugely grateful that Mackintosh Academy implemented Singapore Math this year, my favorite math curriculum for elementary students. I see so much more richness in my children’s learning as they build strong conceptual understanding AND master basic computation skills. One of the great untold stories is parent Jerry Martin’s tireless leadership in encouraging Mackintosh to make the change. That’s how you use your PhD from MIT for the public good! Now if I can only convince Jerry to make me twelve cookie robots…
As an aside, I really enjoyed this article on the difference between kids who do and don’t excel at math. While many insist they are not math types, the irony is our brains are wired for numeracy; it’s reading that we have had to rewire our brains to do in the last 1,000 years or so.
Dr. Nefario: [a minion drinks from a bottle, starts floating] We’ve been working on this for a while now. Anti-gravity serum.
Gru: Do the effects wear off?
Dr. Nefario: [Looking up at some minions floating on the roof] So far, no, they don’t.
I’m grateful that Mackintosh has taken it’s first few steps towards putting a Maker space in our school and is leaning into design thinking. The world belongs to those who create things, whether it’s in Ms. Miner’s art studio, Longmont’s Tinkermill, or our brand new design lab.
Want to support your kid’s passions? Check out DIY.org. Boulder is fast becoming a center for “making” with awesome organizations like SparkFun, ModRobotics, and the denhac science dojo.
Agnes: [singing] Unicorns, I love them. Unicorns, I love them. Uni uni unicorns, I love them. Uni unicorns, I could pet one if they were really real. And they are! So I bought one so I could pet it. Now it loves me, now I love it. La lala la la…
The other day I showed up at Mackintosh unannounced to sign some forms. One of my sons happened to walk out of class at that moment to go to the restroom. He skipped and sang all the way down the hall. He was 100% joy. My best parenting often happens by accident. Mackintosh made me feel like a great parent that day.
Now, time to steal the moon and build up my villain cred.