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….
Showing posts with label ADHD. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ADHD. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 25, 2015
Thursday, January 15, 2015
Team….
I've been to my fair share of school teams over the last two years. Funny enough, I didn't even really know what they were until Ben needed one in third grade. For a little while, I had three kids with them, now I'm down to two since private schools don't do written educational accommodations.
Some people find teams stressful and combative… honestly, I really don't. My kids are pretty squared away and have wonderful supports all around from school personnel who are very familiar with us at this point. I have always felt like we were working together to help my kids. So usually it's a pretty nice discussion and check-in on how the boys are doing academically. I usually enjoy them because it's an opportunity for extra facetime with teachers that you otherwise don't get. The only one I ever found really stressful was the one I had to go to at a different school to make sure Jonathan kept his Infants and Toddlers services. But all the ones at our elementary school are actually really pleasant, for the most part.
For those who don't know, a team is where you sit around a conference room table, generally with your child's current teacher(s), the assistant principal, the guidance counselor (in most cases), the school psychologist (in most cases), and any other ancillary staff who are involved or should be involved with your child's learning… OT, speech pathologists, special educators….
Yesterday, I had back-to-back teams for Simon and Jonathan. Simon's was simple and straight-forward. He has had an IEP (individualized Educational Plan) in place since last year, so this was just to sign-off on some updates to that. They decreased his special educator time, which is where he gets pulled from the classroom for extra help. Some people would fight this just to fight it, but we were okay with it since he is doing very well this year and doesn't need it… our chief concern was keeping the plan in place should he need it down the road. There had been some talk a month ago about bumping him down to a 504-Plan, which is no special educator time and only accommodations for learning differences like ADHD -- usually preferential seating, extra time on tests, permission to type assignments… that sort of thing. We are happy they allowed us to keep the IEP for now because these are more easily enforced. 504-Plans are a bit of a crap-shoot and depend on how much time and effort a teacher wants to put in.
After Simon's, I had Jonathan's, which was also really just an IEP-update, but slightly more complicated. His special educator wanted to up her time working with him at his preschool since we had dropped his county group a little while back. However, she and I had talked and she wanted to use some of the team time to try to lay the groundwork for adding speech services for pragmatic (conversational) speech before the end of the school year in an effort to allow him to keep his IEP next year in kindergarten. Otherwise, he will lose it because, long story short, kids whose IEPs are strictly for social reasons, as Jonathan's is, can't keep them once they turn 5. This likely won't be doable, and he'll end up with a 504-Plan, which is what I'm expecting and we're okay with… but it doesn't hurt to try.
His team consisted of the guidance counselor, his special educator, the speech pathologist, the OT, and a kindergarten teacher. The kindergarten teachers are randomly assigned to Pre-K teams and, thinking ahead, I requested the one who knows us. That move worked out well…. we ended up having a very productive and helpful discussion about whether even sending him next year is the right decision.
This particular kindergarten teacher leans toward a pretty solid "no" in general for boys with later birthdays….I've talked with her several times since last year as we've weighed our decision….but by the end of the team, everyone, including her, had decided sending him would be the right move, securing him the services he would need (more than if we held him back), plus his test scores show he is more than ready academically. The only issue I see is his writing, which is still age appropriate, but the OT said she will be able to keep an eye on and continue to work with him if I send him, but won't be able to if I don't.
OY. Who knew this would be such a hard decision? It's really nice to have a room full of people to bounce all the pros and cons off of though and help decide what's best.
We go back to in May to lay out kindergarten plans and either rewrite his IEP (unlikely) or transition to a 504. (very likely)
I never realized what a full-time job the school part of having kids could/would be!
Some people find teams stressful and combative… honestly, I really don't. My kids are pretty squared away and have wonderful supports all around from school personnel who are very familiar with us at this point. I have always felt like we were working together to help my kids. So usually it's a pretty nice discussion and check-in on how the boys are doing academically. I usually enjoy them because it's an opportunity for extra facetime with teachers that you otherwise don't get. The only one I ever found really stressful was the one I had to go to at a different school to make sure Jonathan kept his Infants and Toddlers services. But all the ones at our elementary school are actually really pleasant, for the most part.
For those who don't know, a team is where you sit around a conference room table, generally with your child's current teacher(s), the assistant principal, the guidance counselor (in most cases), the school psychologist (in most cases), and any other ancillary staff who are involved or should be involved with your child's learning… OT, speech pathologists, special educators….
Yesterday, I had back-to-back teams for Simon and Jonathan. Simon's was simple and straight-forward. He has had an IEP (individualized Educational Plan) in place since last year, so this was just to sign-off on some updates to that. They decreased his special educator time, which is where he gets pulled from the classroom for extra help. Some people would fight this just to fight it, but we were okay with it since he is doing very well this year and doesn't need it… our chief concern was keeping the plan in place should he need it down the road. There had been some talk a month ago about bumping him down to a 504-Plan, which is no special educator time and only accommodations for learning differences like ADHD -- usually preferential seating, extra time on tests, permission to type assignments… that sort of thing. We are happy they allowed us to keep the IEP for now because these are more easily enforced. 504-Plans are a bit of a crap-shoot and depend on how much time and effort a teacher wants to put in.
After Simon's, I had Jonathan's, which was also really just an IEP-update, but slightly more complicated. His special educator wanted to up her time working with him at his preschool since we had dropped his county group a little while back. However, she and I had talked and she wanted to use some of the team time to try to lay the groundwork for adding speech services for pragmatic (conversational) speech before the end of the school year in an effort to allow him to keep his IEP next year in kindergarten. Otherwise, he will lose it because, long story short, kids whose IEPs are strictly for social reasons, as Jonathan's is, can't keep them once they turn 5. This likely won't be doable, and he'll end up with a 504-Plan, which is what I'm expecting and we're okay with… but it doesn't hurt to try.
His team consisted of the guidance counselor, his special educator, the speech pathologist, the OT, and a kindergarten teacher. The kindergarten teachers are randomly assigned to Pre-K teams and, thinking ahead, I requested the one who knows us. That move worked out well…. we ended up having a very productive and helpful discussion about whether even sending him next year is the right decision.
This particular kindergarten teacher leans toward a pretty solid "no" in general for boys with later birthdays….I've talked with her several times since last year as we've weighed our decision….but by the end of the team, everyone, including her, had decided sending him would be the right move, securing him the services he would need (more than if we held him back), plus his test scores show he is more than ready academically. The only issue I see is his writing, which is still age appropriate, but the OT said she will be able to keep an eye on and continue to work with him if I send him, but won't be able to if I don't.
OY. Who knew this would be such a hard decision? It's really nice to have a room full of people to bounce all the pros and cons off of though and help decide what's best.
We go back to in May to lay out kindergarten plans and either rewrite his IEP (unlikely) or transition to a 504. (very likely)
I never realized what a full-time job the school part of having kids could/would be!
Wednesday, March 05, 2014
Goodstuff....
We are supposed to meet with school once a year to update the kids' 504/IEPs. Ben's kept getting put off for weather. Anyway, we finally had it today. For those who don't know, these generally last anywhere from 30 minutes - an hour. They've always been in the 45-60 minute range for us.
Today?
10 minutes.
The nurse (who is always part of the the team), didn't even make it in before it was over.
Anyway, so long story short, it was a great meeting... all ten minutes of it.
Ben's teacher who came (she has him more of the day than the other two teachers so represented everyone) went on and on about what a neat kid he is, how he's so smart and contributes all sorts of interesting things to class discussions. His grades are great, his classwork is great. "He's an absolute pleasure to have in class!" She said she can't wait to see what he ends up doing in life. LOL. She even tossed out a bunch of his accommodations that are no longer needed. (extra time on tests and dictating work... he never used either of these anyway)
Such a 180 from when we first started with all this at the beginning of last school year. I'm so proud of him! He went from being a really bright kid, but an underachiever, to taking pride in being smart and doing great work.
Maturity and medication. They work wonders! ;)
Sunday, February 16, 2014
Update....
In the time since my last post --
In no particular order...
There was an ice storm. We didn't lose power, thankfully. Still, ice is awful.
Simon had a med check at the pediatrician, which is essentially an extra well-visit. So for record-keeping purposes -- he was 54 pounds and 48-1/2 inches. He is starting to grow taller, but not heavier... he looks like he has been stretched out!
Report cards came home.... Ben's was stellar, Simon's was kind of worthless and didn't communicate a whole lot (except for the comments, which were helpful, detailed and very good!), which is why I was glad I had a conference with his teacher, at her request. She reports he is doing SO well these days. She had samples of his work all laid out for me to see and it's really amazing how far he has come. He gets pulled for tests so he can take them with minimal distractions and she says he LOVES this. Two of his good friends go too and apparently they are the envy of their classmates. She says he is a great reader and has very high-level comprehension. (?!) She also said is amazed by the ways in which he goes about solving math problems. Now, if we could only get his desk organized and get him to stay consistent with getting right to work in class. LOL. VERY positive conference though! Proud of him!
This is one of his recent papers. The teacher was so excited about it, she brought me a copy after school one day while I was waiting to get the boys. I love that his teacher is as proud of him as I am. :)
I came down with what started out as a chest cold type thing and turned into what I'm fairly sure was the downsized, flu-shot version of the flu. Oddly, no one else got it. I was okay a couple days later, but am still ultra-tired and this was over a week ago!
Tom left town for a meeting in Florida. No surprise that he got snowed in there... or rather, snowed OUT of here.
It was just the kids and me Wednesday, Thursday and half of Friday. The day he came home, I went to bed at 6p.m.
We have had a lot of fun with this last snow... it was excellent sledding snow and the boys have been in and out. Only positive I have found so far.
I found this one in the side yard saying, "Mommy! The snow won't let me go!!!" It was over a foot and he had a hard time walking. Over the course of a few days, we carved out a path for him to walk to the sledding hill and back. LOL!
Ben had a meds check/well visit at the pediatrician two days after Simon. He is 49 inches tall and weighs 49-1/2 pounds. Like Simon, he also grew heightwise but not weightwise. Unlike Simon, he did not have pounds to spare, so he got a lecture about how he needs to eat lots of healthy snacks and indulge in some milkshakes here and there. Enviable problem to have....
The boys had a sleepover at Grandmom and Poppy's house last night. Frozen theme. They watched the movie (a screener my dad got from somewhere) and had all kinds of ice-themed treats! Well done, as usual Grandmom and Aunt Deb. The kids get so spoiled over there!!! Tom and I went out for sushi for a belated Valentine's date and then went back and got Jonathan, who is not quite ready to spend the night... or rather... grandmom is not quite ready for Jonathan to spend the night. HA! (and neither is mommy... )
Ben has been keeping busy with basketball. His team hasn't won a single game this year though they play well. There are some major issues with the draft system the rec council uses and the way the teams are formed... it's annoying and kind of a bummer for these kids who play SO hard. They seem to be having fun anyway but I do wish they could win a game.
Both older boys are still swimming on Saturdays. Simon hasn't made a whole lot of progress with this new teacher, though Ben seems to excel with her. We're going to make a change in March and put Simon with a different teacher and hopefully Jonathan too. He won't even get in the water with the new teacher unless I get in too. I am really looking forward to the end of May when the pool opens and June when swim team starts. It can't come soon enough!!! There's a chance we actually participate in two swim teams this year.... not sure if that will work, but we'll see. Hoping Simon will participate this year!
Jonathan... that kid is TOUGH lately. Lots of meltdowns and challenging behavior. We've taken a hard line with it and thus, he spends a lot of time in timeouts lately. I think maybe we're getting through to him though... we have won a couple really tough battles in the last two days. One step at a time....
He does like his new playgroup "school". Hasn't had much of regular preschool lately thanks to snow and ice. No school tomorrow because of the holiday... maybe Wednesday will be the start of some real routine? Maybe?
OH and the boys finally met their new baby boy cousin this morning. (He's about two weeks old now) Jonathan didn't care at all, Simon wasn't quite sure how to react, but Ben was ALL over it. He even held Baby W. So sweet....
I think that's all the updates I have for now... I'll add some photos to this post later! :)
In no particular order...
There was an ice storm. We didn't lose power, thankfully. Still, ice is awful.
Simon had a med check at the pediatrician, which is essentially an extra well-visit. So for record-keeping purposes -- he was 54 pounds and 48-1/2 inches. He is starting to grow taller, but not heavier... he looks like he has been stretched out!
Report cards came home.... Ben's was stellar, Simon's was kind of worthless and didn't communicate a whole lot (except for the comments, which were helpful, detailed and very good!), which is why I was glad I had a conference with his teacher, at her request. She reports he is doing SO well these days. She had samples of his work all laid out for me to see and it's really amazing how far he has come. He gets pulled for tests so he can take them with minimal distractions and she says he LOVES this. Two of his good friends go too and apparently they are the envy of their classmates. She says he is a great reader and has very high-level comprehension. (?!) She also said is amazed by the ways in which he goes about solving math problems. Now, if we could only get his desk organized and get him to stay consistent with getting right to work in class. LOL. VERY positive conference though! Proud of him!
This is one of his recent papers. The teacher was so excited about it, she brought me a copy after school one day while I was waiting to get the boys. I love that his teacher is as proud of him as I am. :)
I came down with what started out as a chest cold type thing and turned into what I'm fairly sure was the downsized, flu-shot version of the flu. Oddly, no one else got it. I was okay a couple days later, but am still ultra-tired and this was over a week ago!
Tom left town for a meeting in Florida. No surprise that he got snowed in there... or rather, snowed OUT of here.
It was just the kids and me Wednesday, Thursday and half of Friday. The day he came home, I went to bed at 6p.m.
We have had a lot of fun with this last snow... it was excellent sledding snow and the boys have been in and out. Only positive I have found so far.
I found this one in the side yard saying, "Mommy! The snow won't let me go!!!" It was over a foot and he had a hard time walking. Over the course of a few days, we carved out a path for him to walk to the sledding hill and back. LOL!
Ben had a meds check/well visit at the pediatrician two days after Simon. He is 49 inches tall and weighs 49-1/2 pounds. Like Simon, he also grew heightwise but not weightwise. Unlike Simon, he did not have pounds to spare, so he got a lecture about how he needs to eat lots of healthy snacks and indulge in some milkshakes here and there. Enviable problem to have....
The boys had a sleepover at Grandmom and Poppy's house last night. Frozen theme. They watched the movie (a screener my dad got from somewhere) and had all kinds of ice-themed treats! Well done, as usual Grandmom and Aunt Deb. The kids get so spoiled over there!!! Tom and I went out for sushi for a belated Valentine's date and then went back and got Jonathan, who is not quite ready to spend the night... or rather... grandmom is not quite ready for Jonathan to spend the night. HA! (and neither is mommy... )
Ben has been keeping busy with basketball. His team hasn't won a single game this year though they play well. There are some major issues with the draft system the rec council uses and the way the teams are formed... it's annoying and kind of a bummer for these kids who play SO hard. They seem to be having fun anyway but I do wish they could win a game.
Both older boys are still swimming on Saturdays. Simon hasn't made a whole lot of progress with this new teacher, though Ben seems to excel with her. We're going to make a change in March and put Simon with a different teacher and hopefully Jonathan too. He won't even get in the water with the new teacher unless I get in too. I am really looking forward to the end of May when the pool opens and June when swim team starts. It can't come soon enough!!! There's a chance we actually participate in two swim teams this year.... not sure if that will work, but we'll see. Hoping Simon will participate this year!
Jonathan... that kid is TOUGH lately. Lots of meltdowns and challenging behavior. We've taken a hard line with it and thus, he spends a lot of time in timeouts lately. I think maybe we're getting through to him though... we have won a couple really tough battles in the last two days. One step at a time....
Oh and he also has taken to randomly removing his pants lately... so that's fun.
He does like his new playgroup "school". Hasn't had much of regular preschool lately thanks to snow and ice. No school tomorrow because of the holiday... maybe Wednesday will be the start of some real routine? Maybe?
OH and the boys finally met their new baby boy cousin this morning. (He's about two weeks old now) Jonathan didn't care at all, Simon wasn't quite sure how to react, but Ben was ALL over it. He even held Baby W. So sweet....
I think that's all the updates I have for now... I'll add some photos to this post later! :)
Friday, November 22, 2013
Where Do I Begin?
Simon and first grade… so, as I have mentioned in previous posts, Simon is having some school struggles. He has been having a lot of trouble getting work completed, staying focused, organized, on task. His teacher and I have been communicating regularly since the second week or so of school. In addition to the focus concerns, we both had some concerns about his handwriting, which has been slow to come along and is fraught with reversals, mixed capitals, weird spacing and poorly formed letters.
Ultimately, we ended up getting him tested, all the same testing Ben had. Just like Ben, it showed high iq but VERY low processing speed. And, the ultimate result was not particularly surprising, ADHD (inattentive type... meaning no actual "H"). I cringe just writing that because I feel the collective eye roll. But I will tell you, if you saw the numbers and graphs that reflect my kids' abilities and how they process things, the incredible impact TRUE honest to goodness clinically documented ADHD would be clear. On paper like that, it's kind of astounding.
In addition to the ADHD, Simon also seems to have dysgraphia, which is a learning disorder with regard to writing and the ability (or inability, rather) to jump through all the mental hoops requires to get a letter from his head onto a piece of paper.
Looking back, I actually think Ben had this issue as well, but he worked more of it out in Kindergarten than Simon did. The curriculum at our old school had the kindergarteners writing sentences almost from day one. Ben's K work mirrors Simon's current work in its progression. And, now that Simon is being pushed to write more and being pushed to do it correctly and practice, practice, practice, we are seeing HUGE improvements already.
The special education people at school want me to start letting Simon dictate, but Tom and I both feel strongly that he needs to learn to write and form letters correctly right now, even if it's 100 times harder for him than the other children. What we saw with Ben was that once that part was down and committed to muscle memory, though his handwriting still wasn't fabulous (never will be), it freed up his brain to focus more on WHAT he was writing and by third grade, it all came together. At this point, his accommodations say he can dictate or type if he wants to, but he never chooses to!
Simon was given an IEP based on a "cognitive processing disorder affecting written expression".... not the ADHD. (for which they basically don't give IEP's… sigh) Thankfully, this means he will now get some accommodations with regard to both issues and he will have specific goals that the school is required to help him meet. This means extra help in the classroom will be available to him through the first grade assistants, the special educator…etc…. a little more one-on-one attention will go a LONG way, so we are thrilled! Also thrilled this gives his teacher some support because she really has a lot on her plate with him when you figure in the 19 other children vying for her attention.
We are currently working to get him help from the school OT, but the guidelines there are kind of ridiculous. They consider him as meeting the standards for "average" with his writing (insane) and therefore probably can't qualify him. Not going to go down without a fight on that one though….
The good news is that, though we were concerned for awhile about it, his reading actually is just fine! He's reading about a mid-first-grade level right now and progressing steadily. His teacher said his reading comprehension is AMAZING, something you wouldn't think would be true seeing as how he is completely distracted half the time. She also told us anytime he presents something or speaks for his group, she is blown away. So he has a LOT to offer and tons of potential we just have to figure out how to maximize and unlock!
Anyway, so we are well on our way to setting things right. SO thankful for a wonderful teacher this year who is so fully invested in helping him and helping us figure him out! :)
Saturday, January 19, 2013
Stuff...
I'm getting to the point where I'm trying to be careful about what I put out into the publicly accessible digital universe about Ben. My blog is not currently passworded, so I've tried to be particularly careful here.
It's just that... well, he's going to be NINE this year. He has friends with e-mail accounts and IPod Touches and cell phones ... friends who actually access the internet. Now, most of the ones I know are playing Minecraft or Coolmath or looking up MarioKart Youtube videos. And I don't actually think a 9-year-old would google Ben and stumble onto my blog and find all of his embarrassing baby stories... but it's not out of the realm of possibility in the near future. Kids can be pretty cruel.
So I'm not sure how to continue documenting the things I want to document... I tell a lot of funny Ben stories on FB, but they are only open those I choose, a relatively small list of people.
Maybe the answer is to go back to the google sign-in. I don't know. Have to give it some thought. Any other parents of kids this age pondering this?
In other news...
Simon has some kind of sore throat bug. I am a mean mommy and sent him to school Thursday and Friday anyway since he didn't have a fever. But Friday, he also had a headache, so I told him to go and I'd pick him up at 12:15 after Jonathan's school was over. I would have skipped Jonathan's class if I thought Simon was really all that sick, but once he had some Motrin and the headache ebbed, he was bounding all over the house, so off he went. He was actually fine when I went at 12:15 to get him and I asked if he wanted to stay... but what kid in their right mind is going to take that option? (except for me, because apparently I was the only crazy kid to like school that much!) He was happily eating pizza in the cafeteria... so fun to see him doing his thing there. :) He's super cute at school!
Later at parent pickup for Ben, I found out from the teacher that one of his little friends was out sick with a stomach bug. I REALLY hope that passes us over. Hoping the three-day weekend will be enough time to let that one fizzle out from the class virus pool.
Also at pickup, Ben emerged for the third day in a row without his heavy coat. I marched him back down the hall to his locker to retrieve it and figured while I was there I would dig through and see what else I could find. While I was standing there, in shock and aghast, at all the missing items that suddenly appeared before my eyes, his reading teacher, who had been standing a little ways down the hall talking to another teacher, came running up to me. "I'm glad I found you! I wanted to let you know that Ben and I did a little cleanout of his folders and desk today. We found his reading calendar!"
"Really?" I replied? He brought that to school two weeks ago!
"Well... it never made it to me. We found it in the science folder. Strange! We found a bunch of other things we'd been missing too... OH and here are the books from the Christmas book exchange, even the one you sent in. (it was still wrapped). We also found a couple birthday invitations."
As she continued with the laundry list of things they had come across, I reached down and pulled a pile of gloves out of the bottom of the locker... FIVE pairs of gloves to be exact. Also his winter coat, another jacket I had not realized was missing and some other child's jacket.
Sigh.
She told me she's going to do a weekly shakedown of his folders with him. I thanked her profusely. I don't know what Ben would do this year without the teachers he has watching over him. They have really helped us SO much. I can organize him and make him checklists all I want on my end, but if there is no one on the other end to help him out, it's pointless.
Things have gone a bit more haywire than usual this past week with his homeroom teacher (who is also his math/science/social studies teacher) being out on medical leave. She had taken him on as a bit of a special project and we had a great system going. The longterm sub, while wonderful in that she seems to be inspecting his backpack every afternoon because he is suddenly coming home with all the books he needs... doesn't seem to be as on top of the other details like his folders.... argh....
Somehow though, in the midst of this organizational chaos, and with his absolute hatred of all things school-related, Ben is managing to get As in all of his classes, at least last time I heard. I'm not really sure how this is possible, but we'll take it. He's a puzzle, for sure!
And in still other news, preschool registration for next year is this coming week. Hard to believe my BABY will be going to 3s preschool in the fall. That's wacky. Especially when I consider that that was Ben's first year there and at that point, I had just had Simon and Jonathan was another three years away from even existing. It's actually kind of consoling to me that he'll probably spend an extra year at preschool... I'm not ready to be that close leaving that place yet!
Oh and one more thing! The reading specialist came up to me at pickup Wednesday to tell me she had been in Simon's class Dibeling kids that day and that he blew her away. This was the first time she had done the nonsense word part of the test and she told him he only had to give her the letter sounds for the nonsense words, but that he just went down the list and sounded them all out! Go Simon! I told her that was great to hear because he doesn't always let me know what knows and that I still had a hard time figuring out how his reading was coming along. I will say though, that at the advice of my friend whose son is also in the class, (who she thinks the teacher has kicked the reading lessons up a notch because her son has really taken off) I pulled out the Bob books and sure enough, he could read them relatively well all of a sudden! Love this stage... love love love! So proud of him!
Anyway, so there's a post! A nice substantial one too! ;) Happy weekend!
It's just that... well, he's going to be NINE this year. He has friends with e-mail accounts and IPod Touches and cell phones ... friends who actually access the internet. Now, most of the ones I know are playing Minecraft or Coolmath or looking up MarioKart Youtube videos. And I don't actually think a 9-year-old would google Ben and stumble onto my blog and find all of his embarrassing baby stories... but it's not out of the realm of possibility in the near future. Kids can be pretty cruel.
So I'm not sure how to continue documenting the things I want to document... I tell a lot of funny Ben stories on FB, but they are only open those I choose, a relatively small list of people.
Maybe the answer is to go back to the google sign-in. I don't know. Have to give it some thought. Any other parents of kids this age pondering this?
In other news...
Simon has some kind of sore throat bug. I am a mean mommy and sent him to school Thursday and Friday anyway since he didn't have a fever. But Friday, he also had a headache, so I told him to go and I'd pick him up at 12:15 after Jonathan's school was over. I would have skipped Jonathan's class if I thought Simon was really all that sick, but once he had some Motrin and the headache ebbed, he was bounding all over the house, so off he went. He was actually fine when I went at 12:15 to get him and I asked if he wanted to stay... but what kid in their right mind is going to take that option? (except for me, because apparently I was the only crazy kid to like school that much!) He was happily eating pizza in the cafeteria... so fun to see him doing his thing there. :) He's super cute at school!
Later at parent pickup for Ben, I found out from the teacher that one of his little friends was out sick with a stomach bug. I REALLY hope that passes us over. Hoping the three-day weekend will be enough time to let that one fizzle out from the class virus pool.
Also at pickup, Ben emerged for the third day in a row without his heavy coat. I marched him back down the hall to his locker to retrieve it and figured while I was there I would dig through and see what else I could find. While I was standing there, in shock and aghast, at all the missing items that suddenly appeared before my eyes, his reading teacher, who had been standing a little ways down the hall talking to another teacher, came running up to me. "I'm glad I found you! I wanted to let you know that Ben and I did a little cleanout of his folders and desk today. We found his reading calendar!"
"Really?" I replied? He brought that to school two weeks ago!
"Well... it never made it to me. We found it in the science folder. Strange! We found a bunch of other things we'd been missing too... OH and here are the books from the Christmas book exchange, even the one you sent in. (it was still wrapped). We also found a couple birthday invitations."
As she continued with the laundry list of things they had come across, I reached down and pulled a pile of gloves out of the bottom of the locker... FIVE pairs of gloves to be exact. Also his winter coat, another jacket I had not realized was missing and some other child's jacket.
Sigh.
She told me she's going to do a weekly shakedown of his folders with him. I thanked her profusely. I don't know what Ben would do this year without the teachers he has watching over him. They have really helped us SO much. I can organize him and make him checklists all I want on my end, but if there is no one on the other end to help him out, it's pointless.
Things have gone a bit more haywire than usual this past week with his homeroom teacher (who is also his math/science/social studies teacher) being out on medical leave. She had taken him on as a bit of a special project and we had a great system going. The longterm sub, while wonderful in that she seems to be inspecting his backpack every afternoon because he is suddenly coming home with all the books he needs... doesn't seem to be as on top of the other details like his folders.... argh....
Somehow though, in the midst of this organizational chaos, and with his absolute hatred of all things school-related, Ben is managing to get As in all of his classes, at least last time I heard. I'm not really sure how this is possible, but we'll take it. He's a puzzle, for sure!
And in still other news, preschool registration for next year is this coming week. Hard to believe my BABY will be going to 3s preschool in the fall. That's wacky. Especially when I consider that that was Ben's first year there and at that point, I had just had Simon and Jonathan was another three years away from even existing. It's actually kind of consoling to me that he'll probably spend an extra year at preschool... I'm not ready to be that close leaving that place yet!
Oh and one more thing! The reading specialist came up to me at pickup Wednesday to tell me she had been in Simon's class Dibeling kids that day and that he blew her away. This was the first time she had done the nonsense word part of the test and she told him he only had to give her the letter sounds for the nonsense words, but that he just went down the list and sounded them all out! Go Simon! I told her that was great to hear because he doesn't always let me know what knows and that I still had a hard time figuring out how his reading was coming along. I will say though, that at the advice of my friend whose son is also in the class, (who she thinks the teacher has kicked the reading lessons up a notch because her son has really taken off) I pulled out the Bob books and sure enough, he could read them relatively well all of a sudden! Love this stage... love love love! So proud of him!
Anyway, so there's a post! A nice substantial one too! ;) Happy weekend!