Today….

Just have to weigh in with -- As far as "The Dress" that is all over the inter webs today, I see white and gold and I can't see anything BUT white and gold.  It's sort of driving me batty.

I feel like I might be catching a cold, which I hope isn't true. I really don't have time for that.

Full steam ahead on reassigning all the boys' bedrooms. Now I just have to psych myself up to do a whole LOT of painting.  One basketball/tween room coming up for Ben, a Minecraft/tons of desk space room for Simon, and Jonathan is still to be determined. He has never had a real decorated room because when we moved in, we just left his as it was and stuck his nursery furniture in there.

OH! And in totally unrelated news, I found out Jonathan can KEEP his IEP next year in kindergarten!  The county apparently can't decide where they stand on social/behavioral only IEPs. They swung from nixing all of them to allowing them again. Not sure why… but we'll take it.

LOL!

Simon's teacher sent me this this morning… she thought I'd identify with it. HA!  So true… so true….

ARGH.

The one negative of Ben's new school…he has a male teacher.  Male elementary school teachers and men trying to shop at the grocery store on the weekend…. two things that drive me nuts!  (I know, I am so sexist… but seriously…. there are some things women are truly just better at… ) 

Now, let me just say, he seems very nice. Ben likes him and all.  Apparently, he is "fun", as male elementary school teachers tend to be. Fun, fun, lots of FUN! But man, they are uncommunicative and unorganized!!  Yes, admittedly, this is a stereotype, but one I have yet to see defied. 

He doesn't answer emails… EVER. I have given up on that. 

He forgets to put homework in the kids' mailboxes, so Ben will freak out thinking he doesn't have the homework and it will turn out the next day to have just been the teacher's fault. (we've actually just started assuming this when he doesn't have his math, grammar, or science homework) He also loses the kids' work.  Ben has had a couple assignments marked "missing" on Engrade that he definitely turned in. Then? Then there is this --   see all the E's? That means "excused"  Um…. that means they don't count toward or against his grade. However, these are ALL quizzes and homeworks Ben was there for and did. (trust me, some of those fraction worksheets took him over an hour and lots of tears… I KNOW he did them)

WTH? Did the teacher lose them? Why are they excused? Is he just using these as place-markers and will come back later and put the grades in? I will never know (well, at least not until report cards come out) because he DOESN'T ANSWER EMAIL.

AAAAAAAARGH!!! Rant over.  It's really a petty complaint, I realize. Ben is doing well and is so happy and this guy is clearly engaging him and a good teacher. From a parent standpoint… just a little frustrating….

Loser...

Poor Ben. He went to put on his new glasses this morning and couldn't find them. It was five minutes before we needed to walk out the door, so I was pretty perturbed. He kept insisting he had put them RIGHT on his nightstand last night. And, because I have at this point memorized the list of standard Mom Replies, I kept saying, "If you had PUT them there, that's where they'd be!"

Then he started stomping up the stairs saying how he loses EVERYTHING and that's when I realized I needed to take a step backward.

Of all moms he could have been given in the whole entire world, there is probably no mom that understands that child's brain more than I do. I empathize with him 100% and completely understand how it's possible to lose a pair of glasses in your own room 12 hours after they were given to you. Sometimes, I don't verbalize to him just HOW MUCH I empathize though; and I really should.

My own mom is wonderful,  and empathized with me on many things; however my constant losing things frustrated her and it was not something she really understood. It was also not something that at ten years old, I could really explain. Thinking back to when I was in 4th and 5th grade and lost my mittens at school about once a week, it would have been nice to have someone say to me, "I know. It's really hard for you. I get it. It's ok."

So, I looked over at the clock, we were already five minutes behind schedule. I sighed and tried to ignore it.  What's a few minutes late, right?  Then I handed him his old glasses and said, "Look. I understand. I lost every mitten, hat, and scarf I ever owned when I was a kid. Grandmom was ALWAYS mad at me. I could never explain where they went, they would just disappear."

"Yes, but I lose my GLASSES!" he retorted.

"Ben, the only reason I *didn't* lose my glasses when I was your age is because I didn't HAVE glasses anymore when I was 11. Otherwise, I would have lost those too. I remember once, Grandmom once bought me this cool snowman pin that I begged and begged for at Valley View at Christmastime. It had little red lights that blinked on and off. She told me NOT TO LOSE IT because it was kind of expensive for a silly little Christmas pin.  Guess what happened? I lost it sometime the next day."  Grandmom was SO mad.

He laughed at that.  ;)  Sorry, mom. :P

I promised to scour his room when I got back and bring him the new glasses if I found them.

Of course, when I got back from dropping him off, I immediately found they had fallen into the bottom drawer of his nightstand that had been open.  I took them up to school with a note inside that said, "You were right! You DID put them on your nightstand. They fell into the drawer." :)

Sometimes, I think I actually I get this mom thing kinda right….

That Was Almost Super Cool….

Tom was blowing into a bottle a little awhile ago and he asked me what note it was. Without a piano, I have no idea. But Simon piped up, without hesitation, "G".  We went and matched it to the note on the piano and lo and behold it was a G.

Say what?!

Perfect pitch? No way? No one on even the most musical side of my family (and they are QUITE the musical bunch) has perfect pitch! Had we accidentally stumbled onto some kind of super crazy musical brain wiring?

Tom put more water in the bottle and played another note. Simon said, again without any hesitation,  it was a D.

No way!

No way, indeed… It was an A. ;)

Ah well, it was cool while it lasted. ;) LOL.

Glasses….

Did I mention I broke Ben's glasses? Yep. Snapped them completely in half when I was trying to clean them a few mornings ago on the way out the door for school. He was so sweet about it… wore his old glasses (with a much weaker prescription) and didn't complain. I felt SO guilty. :( Thankfully, his prescription is an easy one and I was able to order them yesterday and pick them up today. Poor kid.

I also got him a pair of rec specs, which he has been asking for for over a year. I didn't tell him and am saving them for his birthday! :)

Number Three and Number Two….

Jonathan pooped ON Ben's bedroom floor yesterday. I went upstairs to get Simon up for school, wandered in and lo and behold, there was Jonathan, naked, playing with Ben's basketball scoreboard, and sitting next to a pile of poop.

W.T.H.?

He's always apologetic.

"I don't know what happened. I just can't get to the potty… I'll never figure this out…."

It's getting kind of weird, honestly.

He DOES make it to the bathroom…. about 50% of the time. The other 50%, well…  let's just say I am still doing my fair share of pants changing with my 4-1/2-year-old.

I should mention he is 100% good with "number one" and even wears underwear to bed. It's just the POOP we have trouble with.

I'm out of ideas. I've taken things away. He's earned things. I watch for cues. I put him on the toilet on a schedule.

Sometimes he'll go on the toilet and then turn around three hours later and go in his pants. It's like he is never out of poop.

I know the pediatrician will speculate that means his constipated, but I really don't think that's the case. (I feel like he always thinks they're constipated, even when the poop floweth abundantly and freely)

I just… ARGH! So frustrating.

This will end up being the kindergarten clincher! LOL. No way can I send a kid to kindergarten who poops his pants.

P.S. I just realized I have a whole category label for "poop". Yes… we have had our fair share of issues over the years, I suppose. Enough to warrant an entire category of posts, apparently. LOL! ;)

Jump Rope for the Heart

I just happened to be at school today doing something else (library, what else? LOL) when I realized Simon's class was doing their Jump Rope for the Heart thing. I popped my head into the gym to see him. :) The gym teacher told me to be sure to take some video because he worked SUPER hard to figure out how to jump like that. (not an easy thing for him… coordination does not come easily) He is quite tickled by the slo-mo video I took. ;)

ARGH.

Ben left his gym bag in the car this morning…. that means another trek in the opposite direction after I drop the other two at school. I live in my car these days…. aaargh.

Greased Lightning! ;)

Last week of session 3 stroke clinic for Ben yesterday. They always do something fun and different for the last week. The first session, it was dry land training stations, the second one, they did a mini-meet, and this time, they did time trials. This wasn't much different than the mini-meet except that after freestyle, they just sent kids by age group and they could swim whatever stroke they wanted to check their times.

Ben did free and back. Check out his freestyle video! WOO! He shaved 22 seconds off of his best time from last summer. 22 seconds!!! Even HE couldn't believe it. He has been kind of angsty about swimming in the 11-12 group this year, but this was a 9-12 group (mostly older and perhaps more importantly, almost entirely TALLER) so he left feeling really great about the upcoming season!

He swam 50 Back too and I think his time was 57 seconds and change. He needs some work on backstroke turns, which he has never had to do because the 9-10's in our league only swim 25 Back, so this was new for him…. but otherwise, it was awesome!

Three Kid Updates….

I hate when I let too much time pass between entries. I don't know where to start.

I guess i'll start where I left off. So that test Ben said he didn't need to study for…. he managed to get an 80%. Pretty respectable. But, he'll be reviewing next time.  ;)

We got to visit Ben's school last week for an open house. It was our first chance to see him in his classroom. It was an eye-opening experience, for sure. He looks really, really happy and comfortable. We saw morning meeting (a little thing they do every morning in homeroom), writing and tech (they were typing something in the tech lab that they had written), and math. The fifth grade is divided into three math sec ions and his math class has 13 kids in it The small class means there is NO hiding… the teacher walks from desk to desk to make sure everyone is doing the right thing and understanding.  One of the the things that struck us as most interesting while we observed (we saw Ben's classes and also wandered into some middle school classes), is how readily kids raised their hands to say they needed clarification on something or weren't getting a concept.  No one seemed worried about looking stupid or getting a wrong answer… and the teachers were in no rush to move on until everyone was on the same page. That's a pretty big deal!

As for Simon --

He just started private cello lessons with a new teacher. The large group situation wasn't working well for him, which the school instrumental teacher waited three entire sessions before decided to share with me. (and only after I asked) At any rate, it was a good move, because he came home from his first lesson yesterday all smiles, saying, "Mr. G says I am a good cellist!" He loves it!

He is doing well in school. Math and spelling are his best subjects. (spelling is the big surprise!) They have been reading chapter books in school finally… just finished Freckle Juice and another one called Elevator Duck. He also picked up his first chapter book to read on his own. (He loves to be read to, but has never had any interest in reading a chapter book of his own accord) Handwriting is still pretty atrocious and his teacher gives him extra practice on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Truthfully, I'm just biding my time with that until he can just type everything. I don't hold out much hope his handwriting is every going to improve all that substantially. LOL. 

He has been playing a TON with Scratch and Makey-Makey lately. He persistence with this amazes me. Yesterday, he fashioned a room alarm that involved a Scratch program and an aluminum foil step near his door. When you stepped on the foil, it set the alarm off on the computer. Color me impressed. We basically let him play with Scratch, Makey Makey, and anything else coding/invention related as much as he wants even though it's technically "screen time". It's the one thing he is extremely self-motivated about… he REALLY has a knack for it and he has taught himself a ton. 

Not much new in Jonathan-land. He stays for extended days at preschool now more days than not and seems to like it.   :)

He has gotten more into writing lately and is doing it more and more (on his own terms of course) He asks me how to spell things all the time and I've started keeping a little notebook with words he asks about so he can reference it when he needs it. I find it strangely interesting that he can read pretty much anything, but asks how things are spelled. (If I make him slow down and sound it out, he can do it himself and then can recognize the word once it's spelled correctly… but usually can't just flat out spell a word on his own… even an easy one like "cat")  Seriously, isn't that weird and interesting? You would think with the reading would come the spelling; but obviously they are two completely different processes for him. 

We just a ton of snow dumped on us last night. The big boys and I went out sledding in the early evening. They had SO much fun. It was nice that Tom was home so Jonathan could stay inside because he's kind of high maintenance in the snow most of the time and doesn't last very long. LOL. 

Now that we have had one really good snow, I am anxious for spring to come. I'm ready for warmth and sunshine. I've been pretty tolerant of winter thus far, even though it's my least favorite season… but yeah, it's time for something new. ;)

Learning Experience….

Today, Ben has his first BIG test since being at his new school.  It's a reading test on the book they just finished, Fever 1793.  The teacher sent home all kinds of studying information… they even had to fill out this super detailed sheet about HOW they were planning on studying.

They have a folder with all their papers from the unit that they have to turn in today with the test. Discovered he was supposed to be doing this in science too… thankfully, I've only tossed a few graded papers. Unfortunately, no one mentioned this folder thing to Ben (or me).   (mid-year start issues again…people assume you know things.) So he only has like maybe 3/4 of the reading papers. Worse, several of them are from before he started, so they aren't completed. I'm a little irritated that this wasn't something anyone bothered to tell us (to keep everything in this folder) and the incomplete papers would have taken him hours and hours to finish, so I didn't make him do them. :\  He'll probably get marked down substantially but so be it. It wasn't fair to him. I really need to have a conference with his teachers to get on the same page… they are very hard to communicate with via email in that they don't respond… like EVER.  They told me early on that they have issues with mail going to spam, so I never know if they got it and didn't respond or if they never got it. Hence, REALLY need a face-to-face.

Anyway, so they were supposed to study. Ben basically didn't. He had a basketball game last night and the night before, he spent almost two hours on other homework. I tried to get him to at least look over it last night before basketball, but he said he feels confident in the material. I am apt to believe him… he has gotten As on every quiz he has taken so far and hasn't done anything except go to class, do the homework, and read the story. I considered pushing the matter to enforce good habits, but decided to use this as a learning experience. If he aces the test (which he very well might), then great, he knows himself and when he needs to study. If he doesn't, well, then, next time, he'll listen to me.

We made a deal that if he gets a low B or lower, we study together next time.  We shall see!

Simon is most definitely my computer kid.

Yes, Ben knows his way around computers fine and all, but doesn't have much of an interest in it beyond games and schoolwork. Simon takes it to a different level, wanting to understand why things do what they do. He really gets it too! He has had two Lego Club meetings… they split the time and do assignments in Scratch (scratch.mit.org) half the time and Lego projects the other half. He took off with Scratch after the first meeting. He figured out on his own how to look inside other peoples' projects and modify them for his own purposes. While his projects are still pretty rudimentary, he is definitely understanding how to make things do that he wants and he has what is certainly required of anyone who is going to work with computers -- no fear of screwing it up. He jumps right in and experiments!

We have been working SO hard to help him find his "thing"… and have been pushing this and cello since he enjoys both.  We've made a huge deal about how he's really good at this, hoping it will encourage him to continue even if he gets frustrated. It has boosted his confidence a thousand-fold and I've even heard him call himself smart for the first time ever. I think he finds it a relief to be good at something other people don't know a whole lot about… even his big brother.  It's one of the few things he is self-motivated to learn and practice…. so we're going with it!

A teacher friend of mine told me about another educational site called code.org. I jumped on there last night and found an activity where it walks them through ten puzzles to change and learn the code involved with making a Flappy Bird game. At the end, they get to make their own version of the game.

I didn't get very far before my computer was taken over… Tom's too. Simon was ALL OVER THIS.

Jonathan does whatever Simon does, so the two of them spent half of the SuperBowl making Flappy Bird games together.

In this one, Jonathan had moved on to another puzzle game where you have to add lines of code (move forward, turn left/right) to make the red Angry Bird move to get the green Piggy. He was pretty good at it! 

Simon has also taken an interest recently in our Snap Circuits sets. We've had the basic one for years and all the kids love it, but have always needed help to interpret the instructions. This time, I showed Simon how to read the numbers that show the order you need to assemble for circuits and he took off with it on his own!  Here he is with the first one he built by himself. This was the first project in the book.

 He has since moved on and been using the basic set and the deluxe set Jonathan got for Christmas and has made TONS of projects this past week, including one with an LED display where you can change the number by removing circuits.  I love watching him experiment!

It's exciting to see your kids find their gifts! :)  And it's especially exciting watching Simon because he struggled so much with school for awhile there…. and also isn't interested in sports at ALL…(which puts him in the ridiculous minority among his classmates who it seems already all play four sports at age 7). We always knew his interests and strengths would be something sort of different from a lot of other kids and wondered what he would eventually gravitate toward.  It's neat to see something take root and his confidence skyrocketing! :)

ETA: This came home from school today. :)