Wednesday, March 5, 2008

Thanks, and another request for help

Thanks for all your insights on my current school dilemma in my last post. Thank you, particularly, for consistently telling me to go with my gut, and that either choice can work. When I first began thinking about that post I was going to specifically ask for no advice, but I wrote it when I was less raw about it, and glad that I did. You were all supportive in your comments, and thank you.

The Big Guy and I have talked, and we plan to keep The May Queen heading into first grade next year. We will set up more play dates with kids at school and also look into getting her involved in martial arts (something the Big Guy has advocated before for discipline, etc). She plays with lots of kids her age and older both in the neighborhood and at church, so has lots of opportunities for socialization. She is very happy at school, and we fear that keeping her in kindergarten will cause boredom and other problems. So that's where we are.

On a completely different subject: any advice for how to save/back up previous posts? I haven't saved anything I've written here, and if blogspot somehow disappears, all will be lost. Help?

24 comments:

thailandchani said...

Wow.. as for archiving, I have no idea unless you know DOS or Unix. You may be able to find a way to back it all up to a CD.

Glad you decided to go with your gut on the MQ. I'm sure you'll do all the right things. :)

imbeingheldhostage said...

I read someone the other day that is printing her posts and putting them in a journal.

Jen said...

I think if you just go back to the "edit posts" section, you can cut and paste your entries into a word file and back it up that way. If someone gives you a better answer, I'd be happy to know that, too. It's just what occurred to me.

Emily said...

A couple things:

DesignMom recently suggested
Blurb Blog Books. I think I'll be using this soon. ( http://www.blurb.com/create/book/blogbook?tag=3_sf ) I apologize for my utter lack of knowledge on how to create a nice neat little link in the comments section.

Also, a blog I read called Fried Okra has a "Back It Up, Baby" Campaign over at her blog. She may have some good advice for you.
( http://friedokra4me.blogspot.com/ ) **See above apology.

Good luck, and maybe you can post about what you come up with, as we all should really be backing up our blogs.

amanda said...

Who cares who she plays with if she is doing well in her classes and participating with the other children in her class. Seriously, people!

GO MAY QUEEN!

Jennifer said...

I'm just catching up with yesterday's post, but I'm glad you're feeling more centered about everything. I, too, would have said that no one knows your child like you and a mama's instict is very often the very best guide. With a mid-September birthday, I was the youngest in my class (started K when I was 4), but more than ready to start. I was, perhaps, a bit on the shy side, but I would have been anyway -- it was just my personality. But I did well in school, had plenty of friends and never at all felt "behind" anyone else.

If MQ seems happy, then who the heck cares who she's playing with on the playground? I think you have a great plan set it place and good for you for doing what you think is best for MQ.

Alex Elliot said...

Our society makes this really big deal that we should encourage uniqueness in our children, but yet when they do it people wonder why they aren't conforming. I think it's great that she has friends. Why does it matter what their ages are? Aren't there school programs out there with mixed ages classes that encourage students to be friends with kids of all different ages?

Can't help you with the back up. I am thinking of using one of those companies that prints your posts and binds it for you. Since I'm terrible with keeping up on my sons' baby books, I thought I would give each of them a copy of the blog posts.

niobe said...

I didn't leave a comment on your last post, but I was struck by what someone said about how, these days, it's extremely common for teachers to push to keep kids an extra year in a grade. You and BG are the ones who know MQ best, and I'm sure you're making the right decision for her.

carrie said...

Yes, backup, backup, backup. You can also print them - or have them bound in a book.

Mary Beth said...

You and the Big Guy do know the MQ better than anyone else. And I think it's important to keep her interested - as a former teacher, I know how hard it is when a child is bored.

Rima said...

I thought all of my blogger posts went directly to the National Archives? No?

Anonymous said...

I'm also catching up...from a personal perspective, I think you're doing the right thing by continuing into 1st grade. I was born 3 weeks after the cutoff and thus was always the youngest in my class and I was fine. In fact I don't remember ever feeling bad about it. I do know that even being one of the youngest I didn't have to work very hard and would have been more bored being a grade behind.

Second subject: I use WP but as a computer security "expert" (at least that's what I get paid for) I would recommend googling how to restore from blogger backups and then figure out the best back up method based on the restore process. Point being, if you have backups of your posts but the format of the backup means you need to individually copy each one back to your blog, that will suck.

Amy Y said...

I'm glad you and your hubby were able to find a solution that feels right to you! The great thing about it is, it's not permanent unless you want it to be. If she isn't thriving like you think/hope she will, holding her back is still an option.

As far as backing up... I'm hoping since it's google, it'll be around forever. But that's not very realistic. I have plans to print out all of mine and put them in a binder, but I like the idea of putting them in a word file better. It won't kill any trees :)

Mad said...

I used to wait until I had a month's worth and then print out the entire month and keep it all in a (several) three ring binders. I've gotten lazy, though and am several months behind. Erp.

flutter said...

Export your posts into word and save them on a disk

MamaGeek @ Works For Us said...

You can either export your posts OR just go get your RSS feed and save it locally to your machine (I do that). Works great.

E said...

And once you have a plan you starft feeling settled and everything works out one way or another anyway...trust your mama gut

Anonymous said...

You knew... you know.. She'll be fine...and she knows how much she is loved.

Backup? I know wordpress -- and I learned by doing a google search. Some bloggers out there actually write about this stuff -- and that's it!!! Lots of them. And, by the looks of their comments, a lot of people read them.

Happy you have some relief!

Julie Pippert said...

Omegamom has good instructions.

if you go to her blog she has a link on the sidebar (or did at last scan).

For backup. Sorry! Read my mind. LOL

I am glad you feel settled about school.

the dragonfly said...

MQ will be fine...you and the Big Guy know her best. :)

I've been wondering about the backup thing too...I'm glad you asked!

Kat said...

I've been wondering about backup too. It scares me to think of loosing all my posts.
Glad you are feeling better about MQ's situation.

josetteplank.com said...

Ugh, the thought of losing all my posts gives me tremors.

I usually try to copy them all once a month and plop them on a word file.

Susanne said...

I'm just randomly skimming through posts here, and I can really sympathize with the issue of your daughter and school. I think, letting her go on will probably work because who knows with whom she will be playing next year. As long as she doesn't struggle academically.

As for backup, I have saved a month's worth of posts on my computer, I am using a blogging software that keeps a copy of my posts but the best way to keep everything, comments and all, for me has been getting a free wordpress blog, and importing the blogger blog periodically. That way you keep all the comments and categories too. You can make the wordpress blog private, and you can also save the export file in wordpress format to your computer.

(Sheesh, printing the posts out... Who would want to type all that in again, ever?)

Christine said...

hey--try judo. it is more like wrestling and is MUCH less violent than martial arts. it is actually considered a "sport" rather than a "martial art."

My little 6 year old loves it. and it's co-ed to boot.
Running on empty