I decided it was super important to start the summer off right. I made the girls get up before eight, there was no tv at all for the kids and they did chores first thing. My cousin has a rule with her kids where they have to eat breakfast by nine am. I've decided it's a good idea and I'm doing the same.
Last year I had a terrible problem with the kids casually moving around the eleven, the same time we head towards the park for lunch. The girls would complain that they didn't have breakfast and had to eat first. Apparently the time isn't important to them as much as what the meal is labeled. So I'm hoping by enforcing this breakfast by nine, it'll encourage the girls to get moving and alleviate the problems we had last summer. Since they'll be moving, and I will too, I'll have to feed the boys it shouldn't be to hard to get the kids going on their chores then.
The girls have already been told that whether they get to go to the park or to the movies depends on getting their chores done.
I also want to get in the habit of doing school work each day but reading and school work is much easier to get the kids working on then chores. So the chores first thing in the am will probably work best.
Ean announced that he wasn't doing what I had asked him too. I spanked him. I really try to not use spankings and if anyone can give me a heads up on a book or technique I can try, I'll gladly look into it. I hate spanking but sometimes nothing else works for Ean. I thought Kate was stubborn but I think Ean wins.
Speaking of Ean, that kid is still getting into everything. My purse now sits in the pantry because Ean can't get into the pantry if it's latched. Little turd took my visor and scribbled out all my numbers I had saved on it.
*sigh*
Good thing I love him more then words can describe.
So anyhoo, that's how I have the days outlined for summer. Hopefully it works. I know that if left on their own they'd play all day and that's not going to work. I want them to play but I'd be doing my children a grave disservice if I brought them up to be selfish people that weren't responsible and didn't know how to take care of themselves. I love them to much to do that to them.
I guarantee Kate doesn't see it that way. She was grumbling that summer is for fun not for chores! Kate would love to wile away her summer in sprinklers and friends without a care in the world. Of course Kate thinks that setting and clearing the dinner table is a secret plot to ruin her entire day. Oh the drama. So this routine should be especially good for Kate and Ean.
I bought the summer movie tickets. A great deal, each series ticket is only $6.50 for eleven weeks worth of movies, different movie each week. There's also two friends tickets on each series. It's a great way to break up the week and pretty inexpensive. It'll cost more next year when I buy the twins too. This year I only had to buy four tickets.
We're doing swim lessons in July and the first half of August. Last year we did June and July but the kids were so grouchy in August, I think this will work better, allowing them to have more fun stuff at the end of the summer. Of course it's hotter in August and the kids will probably appreciate the water more.
There's also summer lunches. From the beginning of June until mid August we can get the kids lunch at the park. It's a federal program offered to all kids 18 and younger. It's from the same branch that does free and reduced lunches during the school year. With five children it makes a big difference in our budget and since it's done at local parks the kids have a chance to meet friends and burn off some energy.
I'm hoping I don't lose any twins. They are so hard to keep track of these days.
The only thing left is sunscreen. Ean dumped out what I had so I need to buy more. Those fair headed kids of mine, we'll have to be super careful this year.
Friday, May 30, 2008
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Kate's dance recital
Wednesday May 28th, 2008 was the night of Kate's big recital. She was so excited she couldn't stand it! First things first, I worked all day long to have dinner ready by four so I could have time to do hair, make-up and still feed everyone. Kate was thrilled with having pepperoni pizza, her favorite.
It's rather odd how quickly she forgets that I never make what she likes when it's pizza night. She's downright cheerful about food but when we don't have pizza every night she quickly hates my meals all over again.
I've told her before someday she'll appreciate growing up with a mom that can cook and I know when that girl marries her husband will appreciate a wife that can cook. I need to get going on teaching her now! *laugh*
The last recital I bought a take and bake pizza but since we have no extra funds, that option was out. Hard to believe but the last recital was only in January. Kent was eager to skip this one but the whole purpose of dance class is to have a recital and show what you've learned! Dance lessons this semester were provided by the generosity of my mother. We flat out couldn't afford them this time round.
I did scrounge up a few dollars for a cheap lipstick and nail polish that was taken out of my purse and dumped on my carpet the next day. If I only had a crystal ball to predict what my middle son will do. Although I should have anticipated trouble, he was insanely jealous of his sister getting her nails done. Little boys do that when they have big sisters instead of brothers. You have to admit, colored nails are cool!
I painted Ean's nails too but drew the line at putting make-up on him.
Then it was time for Kate's hair. When I did her hair for the last recital, I had to cement it into placed. It was cute on stage but I was really hoping for a more natural look so I tried using less hair gunk. The curls fell out almost immediately.
Crap.
I put more hair stuff in, I curled her hair with a curling iron and I ended up with something a bit more poofy then her natural hair with a few ringlets around her face. I did make-up and can I just say I hate doing makeup on a seven year old. She scrunches and moves right when I need her to hold still. I ended up with mascara right under her eyebrow and eye liner smudged well below her lower lashes. I repaired what I could but dang, thank goodness I don't have to do that very often. There was also a wee bit of running over to the neighbors to share various cosmetics. There's definitely a bonus to having girls share a dance class.
Kate was disappointed when I wouldn't allow her to ride her bike in her dance costume. With her having less then a week of being without training wheels, I could just see a crash and her dance clothes getting ruined. It was just better to not let her.
With Jane's help I managed to get the twins ready. She was invaluable that night. I started telling Ean to get his shoes on a good four hours before we had to leave and well, he never got them. I was frantically getting twins ready, heating Kent's dinner because he'd have to eat it in the car and Ean's telling me you do it! every time I told him to get his shoes. He went to the recital barefoot. It was rainy and a little chilly but sheesh, I can't do everything!
We sat right in the front, Kent's mom saved us seats. I don't know why but for some reason Kate's always in the back row. I'll have to ask next semester why that is. Kate did fantastic. Here she is in her costume and all dressed up.
She had fun and enjoyed herself and really, that's what counts. *smile* Good thing her mommy doesn't listen when daddy said Lets just bag the whole recital this time around. *laugh*
It's rather odd how quickly she forgets that I never make what she likes when it's pizza night. She's downright cheerful about food but when we don't have pizza every night she quickly hates my meals all over again.
I've told her before someday she'll appreciate growing up with a mom that can cook and I know when that girl marries her husband will appreciate a wife that can cook. I need to get going on teaching her now! *laugh*
The last recital I bought a take and bake pizza but since we have no extra funds, that option was out. Hard to believe but the last recital was only in January. Kent was eager to skip this one but the whole purpose of dance class is to have a recital and show what you've learned! Dance lessons this semester were provided by the generosity of my mother. We flat out couldn't afford them this time round.
I did scrounge up a few dollars for a cheap lipstick and nail polish that was taken out of my purse and dumped on my carpet the next day. If I only had a crystal ball to predict what my middle son will do. Although I should have anticipated trouble, he was insanely jealous of his sister getting her nails done. Little boys do that when they have big sisters instead of brothers. You have to admit, colored nails are cool!
I painted Ean's nails too but drew the line at putting make-up on him.
Then it was time for Kate's hair. When I did her hair for the last recital, I had to cement it into placed. It was cute on stage but I was really hoping for a more natural look so I tried using less hair gunk. The curls fell out almost immediately.
Crap.
I put more hair stuff in, I curled her hair with a curling iron and I ended up with something a bit more poofy then her natural hair with a few ringlets around her face. I did make-up and can I just say I hate doing makeup on a seven year old. She scrunches and moves right when I need her to hold still. I ended up with mascara right under her eyebrow and eye liner smudged well below her lower lashes. I repaired what I could but dang, thank goodness I don't have to do that very often. There was also a wee bit of running over to the neighbors to share various cosmetics. There's definitely a bonus to having girls share a dance class.
Kate was disappointed when I wouldn't allow her to ride her bike in her dance costume. With her having less then a week of being without training wheels, I could just see a crash and her dance clothes getting ruined. It was just better to not let her.
With Jane's help I managed to get the twins ready. She was invaluable that night. I started telling Ean to get his shoes on a good four hours before we had to leave and well, he never got them. I was frantically getting twins ready, heating Kent's dinner because he'd have to eat it in the car and Ean's telling me you do it! every time I told him to get his shoes. He went to the recital barefoot. It was rainy and a little chilly but sheesh, I can't do everything!
We sat right in the front, Kent's mom saved us seats. I don't know why but for some reason Kate's always in the back row. I'll have to ask next semester why that is. Kate did fantastic. Here she is in her costume and all dressed up.
She had fun and enjoyed herself and really, that's what counts. *smile* Good thing her mommy doesn't listen when daddy said Lets just bag the whole recital this time around. *laugh*
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
I may be bald soon.
It was just one of those days. You know, the type of day where a child seems determined to cause as much mischief as possible. To break every known rule, take all the batteries out of all the remotes. Get into my purse, take all my credit cards into the back yard. Swipe a flashlight from his daddy's dresser. Steal the storage room keys to search for pop. Turned on the sprinkler in the back yard not once or twice but three stinking times!! This was after a rainstorm that completely soaked the yard.
Seriously it was never ending!!
How am I suppose to survive summer? He hasn't been out of school for a week! Yes I'm talking the red headed pre-schooler. The menace that's paralyzed our home with a complete lock down.
The girls are done Thursday, that might help his behavior but damn, it could make it worse. That whole competing for attention with my four other siblings deal.
I don't think our yard is that boring. We have a trampoline, a swing set, a great big ol tractor tire to dig in. There's a complete fleet of tonka trucks in the backyard. Thank you my mom who KNOWS how to shop for little boys. *laugh* There's also the usual collection of balls and outdoor toys. There is really a lot to do.
It's not like my poor brother. His new house, he has one potted tree, no yard and a place to park a car he can't even afford to buy. My brother live in Japan where a house half the size of my home costs three times as much. There's simply not the room for yards. I don't know how my bro manages with his three kids in that teeny space. I wish I could show my children how much they really have. I can't help but think they'd appreciate our home, yard, garden, toys, even their bicycles if they realized how many struggle to even eat. Contrary to what they might perceive, these kids really don't know what true hunger is like.
As interesting as these thoughts are to myself, they don't help with my original problem. I have one four year old hell bent on investigating every single item in the house in forbidden zones. I do realize in making certain area's forbidden it becomes more enticing to a child yet we can't afford to take the chance on him destroying more things.
It can be argued that if it's just a thing then we don't really need it. However the bike tools need to be kept intact so we can keep our fleet of hand me down rust buckets running for the kids. We can't afford to buy new and really at this age, they don't need nice bikes. There are photos that have been destroyed that can't be replaced. That's family history down the tubes.
I originally started blogging because I have some arthritis in my hands and writing for long periods of times just hurts my knuckles and fingers. Ean's destroyed some books or parts of books that are part of family history and I hadn't thought of it at the time but blogging has the added benefit of putting our family history down in a form that can't be destroyed by that kid. Kent copies what I write and puts it in our family history but if that gets destroyed, we can always copy it again.
Back to Ean, I'd find some old tools for him to play with except I worry about the twins getting hurt, or Ean unintentionally hurting the twins with screwdrivers or hammers. Ean is still pretty young and doesn't have control of his temper, he lashes out when frustrated. Pretty normal for a young four year old, but we don't want to arm him with a hammer when his two year old twin brothers are wandering around.
Kate had a dance recital tomorrow. I pretty much have to spend the whole day making sure everyone and everything is ready to go the second Kent comes home. I hope and pray we have a better day then today because I can't chase Ean and get Kate ready at the same time.
I will be bald from pulling my hair out!
Seriously it was never ending!!
How am I suppose to survive summer? He hasn't been out of school for a week! Yes I'm talking the red headed pre-schooler. The menace that's paralyzed our home with a complete lock down.
The girls are done Thursday, that might help his behavior but damn, it could make it worse. That whole competing for attention with my four other siblings deal.
I don't think our yard is that boring. We have a trampoline, a swing set, a great big ol tractor tire to dig in. There's a complete fleet of tonka trucks in the backyard. Thank you my mom who KNOWS how to shop for little boys. *laugh* There's also the usual collection of balls and outdoor toys. There is really a lot to do.
It's not like my poor brother. His new house, he has one potted tree, no yard and a place to park a car he can't even afford to buy. My brother live in Japan where a house half the size of my home costs three times as much. There's simply not the room for yards. I don't know how my bro manages with his three kids in that teeny space. I wish I could show my children how much they really have. I can't help but think they'd appreciate our home, yard, garden, toys, even their bicycles if they realized how many struggle to even eat. Contrary to what they might perceive, these kids really don't know what true hunger is like.
As interesting as these thoughts are to myself, they don't help with my original problem. I have one four year old hell bent on investigating every single item in the house in forbidden zones. I do realize in making certain area's forbidden it becomes more enticing to a child yet we can't afford to take the chance on him destroying more things.
It can be argued that if it's just a thing then we don't really need it. However the bike tools need to be kept intact so we can keep our fleet of hand me down rust buckets running for the kids. We can't afford to buy new and really at this age, they don't need nice bikes. There are photos that have been destroyed that can't be replaced. That's family history down the tubes.
I originally started blogging because I have some arthritis in my hands and writing for long periods of times just hurts my knuckles and fingers. Ean's destroyed some books or parts of books that are part of family history and I hadn't thought of it at the time but blogging has the added benefit of putting our family history down in a form that can't be destroyed by that kid. Kent copies what I write and puts it in our family history but if that gets destroyed, we can always copy it again.
Back to Ean, I'd find some old tools for him to play with except I worry about the twins getting hurt, or Ean unintentionally hurting the twins with screwdrivers or hammers. Ean is still pretty young and doesn't have control of his temper, he lashes out when frustrated. Pretty normal for a young four year old, but we don't want to arm him with a hammer when his two year old twin brothers are wandering around.
Kate had a dance recital tomorrow. I pretty much have to spend the whole day making sure everyone and everything is ready to go the second Kent comes home. I hope and pray we have a better day then today because I can't chase Ean and get Kate ready at the same time.
I will be bald from pulling my hair out!
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Kate can ride a two wheeler!
At the age of seven, we took off her training wheels. It took her a whole two seconds to figure it out!!! Holy Toledo, absolutely amazing!!
You have to understand that it took Jane forever to figure out bike riding. Jane was about a year older then Kate is now but she was so afraid, she had a hard time balancing, it took months to get her riding. What finally worked was putting her on Kate's bike without the training wheels and then allowing her to go. Because the bike was so short she could put her feet down flat on the ground when she was in trouble.
Hard on her sneakers but it did the trick and the girl learned how to ride.
Kate's a daredevil in her heart but she's learned to be timid from her older sis. Kate use to climb up the top of the woodpile at eighteen months. From a year until three or so, she use to climb on the arm of our rocking love seat and surf. The child was fearless! It was frustrating when she started to act timid because in my heart I knew that wasn't who she was. It was very freeing to see her just go and ride without a care in the world her first try.
Don't get me wrong, Kate has her problems too.
*cough*notdoingschoolwork*cough*
The biggest one of late has been this raiding of the fridge and cupboards. This actually is an old problem. That child is sneaky with food. She has been since she was teeny. I really worry because I've struggled in the past with my eating, I've binged and starved many years ago and I've worried and struggled trying to instill healthy eating habits in my children. They all eat a wide range of vegetables well beyond iceberg lettuce and baby carrots. They all eat sugar pea pods like candy, ask for seconds and sometimes thirds when served broccoli. I know I'm doing something right there, but I see my food behaviors/struggles in my children and it scares me.
My dad was an alcoholic. He never changed before his death, he couldn't change. Coming from a whole family of alcoholics, there's a strong correlation between my unhealthy attitudes with food and how addicts behave. Both food and alcohol are artificial ways to avoid dealing with real feelings.
I don't want to project onto my children but honestly it scares me to see Kate sneaking cookies and not just one or two but a dozen. She feels compelled to eat and she's not honest when she does eat.
There's also a certain amount of mischief from the small boys. Just browsing in the fridge for toys, oranges make great balls you know.
All this prompted my husband to put a padlock on the fridge. I want the kids to understand that they can have snacks but they have to ask. We were having one pound blocks of cheese disappearing. With the prices of groceries, we just can't have that. The kids need to be respectful and not wasteful. I hope I can do that without my personal struggles getting in the way.
In the meantime, Kate already has plans for tomorrow. She's riding her bike.
You have to understand that it took Jane forever to figure out bike riding. Jane was about a year older then Kate is now but she was so afraid, she had a hard time balancing, it took months to get her riding. What finally worked was putting her on Kate's bike without the training wheels and then allowing her to go. Because the bike was so short she could put her feet down flat on the ground when she was in trouble.
Hard on her sneakers but it did the trick and the girl learned how to ride.
Kate's a daredevil in her heart but she's learned to be timid from her older sis. Kate use to climb up the top of the woodpile at eighteen months. From a year until three or so, she use to climb on the arm of our rocking love seat and surf. The child was fearless! It was frustrating when she started to act timid because in my heart I knew that wasn't who she was. It was very freeing to see her just go and ride without a care in the world her first try.
Don't get me wrong, Kate has her problems too.
*cough*notdoingschoolwork*cough*
The biggest one of late has been this raiding of the fridge and cupboards. This actually is an old problem. That child is sneaky with food. She has been since she was teeny. I really worry because I've struggled in the past with my eating, I've binged and starved many years ago and I've worried and struggled trying to instill healthy eating habits in my children. They all eat a wide range of vegetables well beyond iceberg lettuce and baby carrots. They all eat sugar pea pods like candy, ask for seconds and sometimes thirds when served broccoli. I know I'm doing something right there, but I see my food behaviors/struggles in my children and it scares me.
My dad was an alcoholic. He never changed before his death, he couldn't change. Coming from a whole family of alcoholics, there's a strong correlation between my unhealthy attitudes with food and how addicts behave. Both food and alcohol are artificial ways to avoid dealing with real feelings.
I don't want to project onto my children but honestly it scares me to see Kate sneaking cookies and not just one or two but a dozen. She feels compelled to eat and she's not honest when she does eat.
There's also a certain amount of mischief from the small boys. Just browsing in the fridge for toys, oranges make great balls you know.
All this prompted my husband to put a padlock on the fridge. I want the kids to understand that they can have snacks but they have to ask. We were having one pound blocks of cheese disappearing. With the prices of groceries, we just can't have that. The kids need to be respectful and not wasteful. I hope I can do that without my personal struggles getting in the way.
In the meantime, Kate already has plans for tomorrow. She's riding her bike.
Saturday, May 10, 2008
Applesauce spice cake or Carrot cake?
This is what I asked Ean at about one pm. His birthday is Monday and I wanted to make his birthday cake. My little boy that's turning four whole years old looked at me for about a second before blurting out with great enthusiasm CHOCOLATE!!!!
What's a mom to do?
Since I had no desire (or money, *laugh*) to leave the house and buy cocoa powder, I borrowed some from my neighbor. Ean proudly helped with all the measuring and stirring of his birthday cake. He greased the pans, measured the flour and sugar and was very upset when I did the leavening because he's not very precise and I did want the cake to rise like it's suppose to.
After all, if you're a teensy bit short of flour or sugar, you're cake won't fail. I added more flour while mixing to make up an obvious shortage, but there's not much you can do if it doesn't rise in the oven.
I didn't have enough cocoa for the frosting so I made peppermint frosting and Ean stressed the importance of his birthday cake having rainbow sprinkles on it. Sounds good to me! So after frosting I sprinkled rainbow sprinkles liberally over the top. The cake now sits in the freezer waiting for Monday. I still need to wrap the kid's lightning McQueen themed presents.
Kent thinks I went overboard and I probably did but dang, sometimes I feel so bad for my true middle child sandwiched between bossy older sisters and time consuming twin brothers. Ean has a ball and not just any ball but a really tough rubber ball that reminds me of the dodge balls we played with as kids during recess. It has heavy duty patterned rubber that you'd have to stab with a steak knife to pierce. In this house that's important, my kids are pretty rough on stuff, it has to be built to last.
I also bought him washable markers. I wasn't born yesterday and Ean did come after two artistic sisters that have already left their mark in pretty much every room in the house. I also included crayons and a pencil box in the hopes that we could keep them safe from the girls who routinely scatter stuff all over the house. The twins have eaten more crayons then any other child simply because the girls neglect to put them away. So, I plan on labeling the box and hopefully this works, at least for a little will.
I also got Ean several Lightning McQueen posters to color. He doesn't get to color very often, his sisters often take over what he's trying to do. Our neighbor bought him a lightning McQeen shirt, bless her wonderful heart. Add in the towel (with you know who printed on one side!) and a couple of small cars, Ean's got a pretty decent haul. Nothing truly extravagant but he should feel pretty darn special.
Isn't that the point?
He's a good kid. Oh he frustrates me, his curiosity often gets the better of him. He explores, experiments and oh the energy that child has! But he's sincere and loving too. He's bluntly honest like most children his age and man does he say the funniest things. He was the least verbal of all the kids (Twins included) at age of two, speaking maybe three words total so I truly am enjoying him as the world of language has opened up.
Of course he also tells me NO and LET ME DO IT! He's figured out that words have power but he hasn't figured out that messages can also be understood softly. Then again, his sisters haven't figured that out either and they've got years more experience then he does.
In the past year he's gone from being being developmentally behind to being caught up. It's amazing, if he was a year old he'd be ready for kindergarten in the fall. He may be my most prepared kid yet, of course he has the most intervention. Darn ears were broken and I didn't even know it. Tubes are his friend, it's hard to learn to talk when you can't hear.
So now I know, when faced with applesauce spice or carrot cake the answer is of course chocolate.
What's a mom to do?
Since I had no desire (or money, *laugh*) to leave the house and buy cocoa powder, I borrowed some from my neighbor. Ean proudly helped with all the measuring and stirring of his birthday cake. He greased the pans, measured the flour and sugar and was very upset when I did the leavening because he's not very precise and I did want the cake to rise like it's suppose to.
After all, if you're a teensy bit short of flour or sugar, you're cake won't fail. I added more flour while mixing to make up an obvious shortage, but there's not much you can do if it doesn't rise in the oven.
I didn't have enough cocoa for the frosting so I made peppermint frosting and Ean stressed the importance of his birthday cake having rainbow sprinkles on it. Sounds good to me! So after frosting I sprinkled rainbow sprinkles liberally over the top. The cake now sits in the freezer waiting for Monday. I still need to wrap the kid's lightning McQueen themed presents.
Kent thinks I went overboard and I probably did but dang, sometimes I feel so bad for my true middle child sandwiched between bossy older sisters and time consuming twin brothers. Ean has a ball and not just any ball but a really tough rubber ball that reminds me of the dodge balls we played with as kids during recess. It has heavy duty patterned rubber that you'd have to stab with a steak knife to pierce. In this house that's important, my kids are pretty rough on stuff, it has to be built to last.
I also bought him washable markers. I wasn't born yesterday and Ean did come after two artistic sisters that have already left their mark in pretty much every room in the house. I also included crayons and a pencil box in the hopes that we could keep them safe from the girls who routinely scatter stuff all over the house. The twins have eaten more crayons then any other child simply because the girls neglect to put them away. So, I plan on labeling the box and hopefully this works, at least for a little will.
I also got Ean several Lightning McQueen posters to color. He doesn't get to color very often, his sisters often take over what he's trying to do. Our neighbor bought him a lightning McQeen shirt, bless her wonderful heart. Add in the towel (with you know who printed on one side!) and a couple of small cars, Ean's got a pretty decent haul. Nothing truly extravagant but he should feel pretty darn special.
Isn't that the point?
He's a good kid. Oh he frustrates me, his curiosity often gets the better of him. He explores, experiments and oh the energy that child has! But he's sincere and loving too. He's bluntly honest like most children his age and man does he say the funniest things. He was the least verbal of all the kids (Twins included) at age of two, speaking maybe three words total so I truly am enjoying him as the world of language has opened up.
Of course he also tells me NO and LET ME DO IT! He's figured out that words have power but he hasn't figured out that messages can also be understood softly. Then again, his sisters haven't figured that out either and they've got years more experience then he does.
In the past year he's gone from being being developmentally behind to being caught up. It's amazing, if he was a year old he'd be ready for kindergarten in the fall. He may be my most prepared kid yet, of course he has the most intervention. Darn ears were broken and I didn't even know it. Tubes are his friend, it's hard to learn to talk when you can't hear.
So now I know, when faced with applesauce spice or carrot cake the answer is of course chocolate.
Friday, May 9, 2008
It's official, Jane is no longer elegible for special services.
Basically Jane scored just above the cut off. While this means she's definitely improved academically she's not at the point where either I or the teachers involved at the meeting feel comfortable with her full-time in a regular classroom.
Her I.Q. measures 88 right now. This is the very low end of normal. However I.Q.'s at this age still are growing and she has the potential to measure much higher in a few years with the right kind of instruction and supervision. Oddly she scored dramatically well at non-language related problem solving. It was suggested that the girl be an engineer with how she thinks. I'm keeping that in mind. *smile* She scored just above impaired (so no qualifying) with language reception, auditory processing and very low with math skills.
Legally she no longer can have an I.E.P. This is very scary for me. An I.E.P. guarantee's that legally a school has to provide services for the child. Instead she'll be under an I-plan. Mostly it's a guideline the school follows but the school can change it and other schools don't have to honor it. Actually it's a bit of a concern but the local middle schools are behind in meeting the needs of these kids that can slip through the cracks. Luckily we have a full two years before Jane's in middle school. Hopefully we can get her up to speed where she can function in a regular classroom by seventh grade.
No matter what happens with our income, we need to stay in this house in this neighborhood for at least two more years so Jane can get this help that the staff at her current school is willing to give her.
If it had been just a few years ago, once she failed to qualify they would have just cut her loose. Thankfully they aren't going to do that this time.
So the plan, Jane will no longer have scheduled resource room. However where her speech teacher has been her "caseworker" the resource room teacher will take over this job. The RR teacher will be in charge of Jane's math classes since that's where she's the most behind. She scored at about a second grade level. Where she's been going to resource for reading, she'll now do that in her regular classroom however the RR teacher will check Jane's assignments daily to make sure she's written down what she needs to do.
Oh, yeah, Jane will have an assignment book to help her keep track of what she's doing in school. This will have to be signed by me after school so I can help keep her on track at home. She's really good at spacing assignments, so this will give her a coping mechanism as school gets more complicated.
I felt good about the meeting.
I dropped by Kate's classroom to check and see how she's doing. Apparently her behavior is better but she's still not completing assignments. I stressed that she needed to bring them home. The twins are napping when Kate comes home from school and I have that time set aside for one on one school work with Kate. I'm glad I took the extra minute to check in with her teacher.
That leaves just Ean. It looks like he won't qualify for Early Learning next year but I'm pretty sure he'll get into head start. What they'll do is pull him out for speech while he's in head start.
WHEW~ I don't know why the Lord has placed these particular children in our lives but I do know they're suppose to be here and with God's help Kent and I can help them reach their potential.
Her I.Q. measures 88 right now. This is the very low end of normal. However I.Q.'s at this age still are growing and she has the potential to measure much higher in a few years with the right kind of instruction and supervision. Oddly she scored dramatically well at non-language related problem solving. It was suggested that the girl be an engineer with how she thinks. I'm keeping that in mind. *smile* She scored just above impaired (so no qualifying) with language reception, auditory processing and very low with math skills.
Legally she no longer can have an I.E.P. This is very scary for me. An I.E.P. guarantee's that legally a school has to provide services for the child. Instead she'll be under an I-plan. Mostly it's a guideline the school follows but the school can change it and other schools don't have to honor it. Actually it's a bit of a concern but the local middle schools are behind in meeting the needs of these kids that can slip through the cracks. Luckily we have a full two years before Jane's in middle school. Hopefully we can get her up to speed where she can function in a regular classroom by seventh grade.
No matter what happens with our income, we need to stay in this house in this neighborhood for at least two more years so Jane can get this help that the staff at her current school is willing to give her.
If it had been just a few years ago, once she failed to qualify they would have just cut her loose. Thankfully they aren't going to do that this time.
So the plan, Jane will no longer have scheduled resource room. However where her speech teacher has been her "caseworker" the resource room teacher will take over this job. The RR teacher will be in charge of Jane's math classes since that's where she's the most behind. She scored at about a second grade level. Where she's been going to resource for reading, she'll now do that in her regular classroom however the RR teacher will check Jane's assignments daily to make sure she's written down what she needs to do.
Oh, yeah, Jane will have an assignment book to help her keep track of what she's doing in school. This will have to be signed by me after school so I can help keep her on track at home. She's really good at spacing assignments, so this will give her a coping mechanism as school gets more complicated.
I felt good about the meeting.
I dropped by Kate's classroom to check and see how she's doing. Apparently her behavior is better but she's still not completing assignments. I stressed that she needed to bring them home. The twins are napping when Kate comes home from school and I have that time set aside for one on one school work with Kate. I'm glad I took the extra minute to check in with her teacher.
That leaves just Ean. It looks like he won't qualify for Early Learning next year but I'm pretty sure he'll get into head start. What they'll do is pull him out for speech while he's in head start.
WHEW~ I don't know why the Lord has placed these particular children in our lives but I do know they're suppose to be here and with God's help Kent and I can help them reach their potential.
Welfare, mischief and general update.
Well my husband is still job hunting. No luck yet. He actually had an interview about six weeks ago but he wasn't hired. Honestly, he believes he wasn't hired because he's over qualified and he's probably right.
We're in an awkward situation right now. Due to a series of unfortunate circumstances my husband is trying to make a go of a business that was given every possible disadvantage there is. There's a whole history in why he's there, lots of family loyalty, worry for his parents and their financial situation and an evil sales representative that had it out for my FIL, the former owner of this business.
So my husband is trying to get this turkey going, and it's getting there, slowly but he's job hunting at the same time. While job hunting three other major businesses in town have either closed or had major layoffs. Sorry, restructuring *eye roll* That leaves hundreds looking for jobs in a town of only fifty thousand. Not a good situation.
However after much thought and prayer we've decided we need to stay where we're at. We have a fixed mortgage rate of four and a half percent. We had to refinance twice to get it that low, it was totally worth it. We also only have a decade left on our mortgage. Our first mortgage and first refinance on this house were thirty year loans. The second refinance, we got a sweet fifteen year mortgage with that uber low interest rate.
We talked about moving, this house is small for us. There are three very small bedrooms upstairs and two bedrooms downstairs. It's about two thousand square feet and we use pretty much every inch. The biggest bedroom downstairs is crammed with Kent's office and my sewing stuff. At one time we each had our own rooms and it was wonderful! But the Lord had plans for us and sent the twins, we put in an egress window in the smaller bedroom and the girls are now downstairs. My husband and I are sharing space. It would go a lot smoother if he'd stop stacking random computer parts on my fabric stash.
When times were better and we talked of moving I always had the same thought come into my head. That thought was the advice we've been given by our latter day prophets on living within our means. That means housing too and now I have a better understanding of why we've been given that council.
It's not just living within our means, it's an attitude of frugality that we should embrace. Saving money for emergencies, having a food storage, growing a garden when possible. It's a way of life and we've tried to follow that way of life.
I'll be the first to admit it's saved our cans the past five months. During this time we've had no income, we've payed all our bills, utilities and mortgage without help. We've also dipped into our food storage relying on it.
We have a decent food storage, we have wheat, dehydrated potatoes and other vegetables, dehydrated fruit, tvp, canned meat, veggies, fruit. We have oats, corn, rice and somewhere in the basement we have two five gallon buckets with sugar in it. That's not enough for our family of seven if we're talking a year but throw in our dozen 12 pound buckets of honey and about 40 pounds of molasses, we can stretch it out quite a bit.
We suffer a bit from pride, we weren't going to ask for any help at all. However I confided to a friend about our situation the day before she became Relief Society president. The Lord works in mysterious ways. *wink* She came to us with a food order and we've been on church welfare for three months now. Since our savings and tax returns have payed the bills, we've been receiving help with groceries.
At first we were really uncomfortable with this. After all, we do have our food storage and isn't that what's it's for? Then Kent went to a Stake welfare meeting and learned the Stake President has made it his mission to get help to families in potential financial trouble before they lose homes and the church can no longer help. Why, that's us!
We immediately felt relief. We've humbled ourselves and have gratefully received groceries from the church.
There's a few things I won't get though. We are on WIC and with the three little boys we get fourteen gallons of milk a month. If we run short, I insist we use our dry milk. Kent really doesn't like it, but that's why we have it! I feel very strongly about not taking more then we need and it's been a huge blessing. Of course I hope and pray soon we can move on.
Understanding our situation can help you appreciate the frustration I feel when my children waste food. It's bad enough a cereal box isn't put up and the twins take it out in the yard and feed the ants but sometimes my children treat food like it's a toy.
The brand of dehydrated milk we buy is called Moo's Milk, it's pretty tasty actually, much better then the powdered milk I grew up with in the seventies. Like all dairy products, the price has gone up. Where we last bought it for $76.00 a fifty pound bag it's now up over a hundred bucks a bag. That makes what we have extra precious. Every little bit is gold when you have no income coming in.
So when my almost four year old came to me to ask for a glass of kool-aid and I noticed a fine ivory powder over his hands, chest, feet and in his hair, my heart sunk. I knew it was the powdered milk.
I had a five gallon bucket in the kitchen that I was working out of. About four years ago we discovered gamma seal lids. Truly a wonderful invention. There's a threaded seal that goes around the rim of the bucket and a screw in lid that fits the seal. It makes it so much easier to work out of buckets, especially when you have as much stuff stored in buckets as we do! The downside, little boys that *L*I*K*E* *T*O* *P*L*A*Y*. This is especially frustrating since I have three to try to keep the reigns on.
When my was visiting, she tried really hard to not laugh every time she found a lock on a door or cupboard. She didn't succeed but she did try.
Thank you for that mom.
Anyway, kid, covered in ivory dust. I immediately looked for the bucket. I've spent so long not understanding my speech impaired kids I have a bad habit of not even asking Ean obvious questions. It would save so much time and he's still at that wonderful age where he mostly spits out the truth. Eventually I found the bucket. It had been about a third full, so maybe twenty pounds of moo's milk. It was all dumped on the cement pad in the back yard.
It obviously was being used as a sand box. Ironically the kids had dumped the sand from their sand box onto the cement pad about six weeks ago. So they had a sandbox. Grrrrrrrrrrrrr
There were foot prints through the milk and not just kid but kitty and doggy footprints too. Frankly I'm shocked the dog didn't roll in it. Wouldn't a carpet of dry milk be the doggy equivalent of a person rolling on money heaped on a bed? The milk's been shoveled and swept but I'm still catching the dog licking the cement.
Throw in the pancake syrup from a week ago and there's a lot of waste going on at my house. Oh yeah, the pancake syrup. Well we had this big container of syrup, there was about a half gallon left and I was serving scones for dinner. Now I made honey butter to go with the scones but my weird girls were determined to have pancake syrup on their scones. Blech!
The girls are responsible for clearing the table each day after dinner. However the lure of a beautiful spring day beckoned to them and they left the house to ride bikes. I think I was doing something really important like playing on the computer but I'd been working on the house all day and figured i deserved a break. I heard a noise in the kitchen (a twin making mischief noise) and went to check the table.
Oh my HELL!
Two two year olds and a half gallon of pancake syrup are not a good mix. What made it extra frustrating was that I had specifically reminded my ten year old to put the syrup away right before I left the table.
We're talking an inch layer over half the table. Syrup finger painted on the walls, the stuff that pooled in chairs and of course the sticky lake that now existed under the table. Did I forget to mention the syrup twins that had their clothes GLUED onto them? Dave was literally stuck to the table! I did what any sane parent would do, I got my husband as back-up because I knew I was not in the right state of mind to be "fair" and "reasonable".
Then I got the girls.
Kent was very fair, they needed to clean the entire mess and no syrup for a month. That reminds me, I need to make pancakes soon...
The girls worked hard for about twenty minutes and then fizzled into a fit of silliness that could not be contained. There was shrieking, running, thumping and door slamming. I could not put a stop to it because I was nursing two very sad boys with colds so they could go to bed in a few minutes. Apparently washing syrup out of hair is almost as traumatic as dental surgery had been the week before. Who knew?
Kent disappeared downstairs so I was on my own. I was peeved with those girls and I knew the mess had hardly been touched. What I didn't know is that Jane had mopped the floor. This means she wet the mop and spread the sticky over pretty much the entire kitchen. Kate had carefully cleaned the table and chairs all around the puddles. It looked like weird abstract art with these raised spots that had stuff stuck in them. there was a fair amount of sticky spread around the table too. Just when I thought it couldn't get any worse.
Dave coughed. Not just any cough but a deep gut wrenching, I'm hacking up a lung cough. Very hard to hear your child sick. Even worse when it's your gag reflex kid. Yuppers, the kid hurled right on my face, across my pillow and onto our bed.
I loudly instructed Jane to go get her father. She came back and told me he was on the phone.
Grumble grumble grumble.
So I washed up, cleaned the kid again. Stripped my bed, threw my sheets and pillow in the wash and realized what a grand disaster the girls had made in the kitchen. That was when Kent finally came up.
Was I annoyed, frustrated or frazzled? I think a more accurate word would be irate, in laymans terms, I was ticked. Kent mentioned that when Jane came down he thought I was just asking for help getting the kids ready for bed. I was working hard to not loose it completely. I got after the girls, dumped a half gallon of water on the floor, got a pile of clean prefolds and instructed Jane to get on her hands and knees and use a clean prefold until it got dirty and then get another clean one, so as to not just spread the sticky. I then quickly did some wiping on the chairs, not wishing to press my luck on trusting Kate to actually get them.
And then Kent helpfully mentioned that I should have given Dave cough medicine.
*exasperated sigh*
I did, he threw the damn stuff up!
So I medicated the kid again, put on my shoes and suggested that Dave and Greg be put into bed. Kent said he didn't think that was a good idea just yet. OK, if you want him honey, he's yours. They are all yours!! I grabbed the ergo, put Ean on my back and met the neighbor to go for a walk. I could not take one more minute in the house!!!!!
Boy did my thighs feel that walk. After all I was carrying an almost forty pound weight on my back. I move a lot slower with an almost four year old on my back.
My neighbor's youngest was jealous that Ean was getting to go. I mentioned he was more luggage then anything else, he wasn't playing or jumping.
By the time I got back, I had cooled off enough to appreciate the work the girls had done. With a parent sitting right on top of them, they can do amazing work! *laugh* The twins were in bed and the girls gladly left the kitchen to go to bed.
I use to keep all my regular use bulk items (flour, sugar, rice, moo's milk etc) in five gallon buckets. I've been forced to move everything into smaller containers so I can lock it safely in my pantry. If I leave anything out even on the counter, someone will get into it. The twins love flour, Kate eats sugar in any form and Ean loves pretty much everything.
The twins are also garbage guts. Anything with food property they try to eat so I often find chewed up pectin boxes and sucked on cheese packs (from mac and cheese boxes) on the kitchen floor. It sure makes it hard to be frugal, hard to save, hard to keep stuff on hand. The worst part is they often destroy items that we can't replace from the Bishop's storehouse. The Bishop's storehouse is the LDS church's grocery store for welfare shopping. You find them in high LDS population areas. This leaves me with the option of spending money that we have budgeted to the penny or going without. Often we go without.
I should mention that in the past thirteen years of marriage we've never received help from the church before. I thought it was humbling the first time I went but I was wrong, it's far more humbling after the third month of receiving welfare.
Still we are counting our blessings. We have a home. Keeping our life in this world in perspective, that means we are incredibly rich compared to those impoverished nations that have so little. I need to remember my blessings not just today but when times are good again because we are blessed.
We're in an awkward situation right now. Due to a series of unfortunate circumstances my husband is trying to make a go of a business that was given every possible disadvantage there is. There's a whole history in why he's there, lots of family loyalty, worry for his parents and their financial situation and an evil sales representative that had it out for my FIL, the former owner of this business.
So my husband is trying to get this turkey going, and it's getting there, slowly but he's job hunting at the same time. While job hunting three other major businesses in town have either closed or had major layoffs. Sorry, restructuring *eye roll* That leaves hundreds looking for jobs in a town of only fifty thousand. Not a good situation.
However after much thought and prayer we've decided we need to stay where we're at. We have a fixed mortgage rate of four and a half percent. We had to refinance twice to get it that low, it was totally worth it. We also only have a decade left on our mortgage. Our first mortgage and first refinance on this house were thirty year loans. The second refinance, we got a sweet fifteen year mortgage with that uber low interest rate.
We talked about moving, this house is small for us. There are three very small bedrooms upstairs and two bedrooms downstairs. It's about two thousand square feet and we use pretty much every inch. The biggest bedroom downstairs is crammed with Kent's office and my sewing stuff. At one time we each had our own rooms and it was wonderful! But the Lord had plans for us and sent the twins, we put in an egress window in the smaller bedroom and the girls are now downstairs. My husband and I are sharing space. It would go a lot smoother if he'd stop stacking random computer parts on my fabric stash.
When times were better and we talked of moving I always had the same thought come into my head. That thought was the advice we've been given by our latter day prophets on living within our means. That means housing too and now I have a better understanding of why we've been given that council.
It's not just living within our means, it's an attitude of frugality that we should embrace. Saving money for emergencies, having a food storage, growing a garden when possible. It's a way of life and we've tried to follow that way of life.
I'll be the first to admit it's saved our cans the past five months. During this time we've had no income, we've payed all our bills, utilities and mortgage without help. We've also dipped into our food storage relying on it.
We have a decent food storage, we have wheat, dehydrated potatoes and other vegetables, dehydrated fruit, tvp, canned meat, veggies, fruit. We have oats, corn, rice and somewhere in the basement we have two five gallon buckets with sugar in it. That's not enough for our family of seven if we're talking a year but throw in our dozen 12 pound buckets of honey and about 40 pounds of molasses, we can stretch it out quite a bit.
We suffer a bit from pride, we weren't going to ask for any help at all. However I confided to a friend about our situation the day before she became Relief Society president. The Lord works in mysterious ways. *wink* She came to us with a food order and we've been on church welfare for three months now. Since our savings and tax returns have payed the bills, we've been receiving help with groceries.
At first we were really uncomfortable with this. After all, we do have our food storage and isn't that what's it's for? Then Kent went to a Stake welfare meeting and learned the Stake President has made it his mission to get help to families in potential financial trouble before they lose homes and the church can no longer help. Why, that's us!
We immediately felt relief. We've humbled ourselves and have gratefully received groceries from the church.
There's a few things I won't get though. We are on WIC and with the three little boys we get fourteen gallons of milk a month. If we run short, I insist we use our dry milk. Kent really doesn't like it, but that's why we have it! I feel very strongly about not taking more then we need and it's been a huge blessing. Of course I hope and pray soon we can move on.
Understanding our situation can help you appreciate the frustration I feel when my children waste food. It's bad enough a cereal box isn't put up and the twins take it out in the yard and feed the ants but sometimes my children treat food like it's a toy.
The brand of dehydrated milk we buy is called Moo's Milk, it's pretty tasty actually, much better then the powdered milk I grew up with in the seventies. Like all dairy products, the price has gone up. Where we last bought it for $76.00 a fifty pound bag it's now up over a hundred bucks a bag. That makes what we have extra precious. Every little bit is gold when you have no income coming in.
So when my almost four year old came to me to ask for a glass of kool-aid and I noticed a fine ivory powder over his hands, chest, feet and in his hair, my heart sunk. I knew it was the powdered milk.
I had a five gallon bucket in the kitchen that I was working out of. About four years ago we discovered gamma seal lids. Truly a wonderful invention. There's a threaded seal that goes around the rim of the bucket and a screw in lid that fits the seal. It makes it so much easier to work out of buckets, especially when you have as much stuff stored in buckets as we do! The downside, little boys that *L*I*K*E* *T*O* *P*L*A*Y*. This is especially frustrating since I have three to try to keep the reigns on.
When my was visiting, she tried really hard to not laugh every time she found a lock on a door or cupboard. She didn't succeed but she did try.
Thank you for that mom.
Anyway, kid, covered in ivory dust. I immediately looked for the bucket. I've spent so long not understanding my speech impaired kids I have a bad habit of not even asking Ean obvious questions. It would save so much time and he's still at that wonderful age where he mostly spits out the truth. Eventually I found the bucket. It had been about a third full, so maybe twenty pounds of moo's milk. It was all dumped on the cement pad in the back yard.
It obviously was being used as a sand box. Ironically the kids had dumped the sand from their sand box onto the cement pad about six weeks ago. So they had a sandbox. Grrrrrrrrrrrrr
There were foot prints through the milk and not just kid but kitty and doggy footprints too. Frankly I'm shocked the dog didn't roll in it. Wouldn't a carpet of dry milk be the doggy equivalent of a person rolling on money heaped on a bed? The milk's been shoveled and swept but I'm still catching the dog licking the cement.
Throw in the pancake syrup from a week ago and there's a lot of waste going on at my house. Oh yeah, the pancake syrup. Well we had this big container of syrup, there was about a half gallon left and I was serving scones for dinner. Now I made honey butter to go with the scones but my weird girls were determined to have pancake syrup on their scones. Blech!
The girls are responsible for clearing the table each day after dinner. However the lure of a beautiful spring day beckoned to them and they left the house to ride bikes. I think I was doing something really important like playing on the computer but I'd been working on the house all day and figured i deserved a break. I heard a noise in the kitchen (a twin making mischief noise) and went to check the table.
Oh my HELL!
Two two year olds and a half gallon of pancake syrup are not a good mix. What made it extra frustrating was that I had specifically reminded my ten year old to put the syrup away right before I left the table.
We're talking an inch layer over half the table. Syrup finger painted on the walls, the stuff that pooled in chairs and of course the sticky lake that now existed under the table. Did I forget to mention the syrup twins that had their clothes GLUED onto them? Dave was literally stuck to the table! I did what any sane parent would do, I got my husband as back-up because I knew I was not in the right state of mind to be "fair" and "reasonable".
Then I got the girls.
Kent was very fair, they needed to clean the entire mess and no syrup for a month. That reminds me, I need to make pancakes soon...
The girls worked hard for about twenty minutes and then fizzled into a fit of silliness that could not be contained. There was shrieking, running, thumping and door slamming. I could not put a stop to it because I was nursing two very sad boys with colds so they could go to bed in a few minutes. Apparently washing syrup out of hair is almost as traumatic as dental surgery had been the week before. Who knew?
Kent disappeared downstairs so I was on my own. I was peeved with those girls and I knew the mess had hardly been touched. What I didn't know is that Jane had mopped the floor. This means she wet the mop and spread the sticky over pretty much the entire kitchen. Kate had carefully cleaned the table and chairs all around the puddles. It looked like weird abstract art with these raised spots that had stuff stuck in them. there was a fair amount of sticky spread around the table too. Just when I thought it couldn't get any worse.
Dave coughed. Not just any cough but a deep gut wrenching, I'm hacking up a lung cough. Very hard to hear your child sick. Even worse when it's your gag reflex kid. Yuppers, the kid hurled right on my face, across my pillow and onto our bed.
I loudly instructed Jane to go get her father. She came back and told me he was on the phone.
Grumble grumble grumble.
So I washed up, cleaned the kid again. Stripped my bed, threw my sheets and pillow in the wash and realized what a grand disaster the girls had made in the kitchen. That was when Kent finally came up.
Was I annoyed, frustrated or frazzled? I think a more accurate word would be irate, in laymans terms, I was ticked. Kent mentioned that when Jane came down he thought I was just asking for help getting the kids ready for bed. I was working hard to not loose it completely. I got after the girls, dumped a half gallon of water on the floor, got a pile of clean prefolds and instructed Jane to get on her hands and knees and use a clean prefold until it got dirty and then get another clean one, so as to not just spread the sticky. I then quickly did some wiping on the chairs, not wishing to press my luck on trusting Kate to actually get them.
And then Kent helpfully mentioned that I should have given Dave cough medicine.
*exasperated sigh*
I did, he threw the damn stuff up!
So I medicated the kid again, put on my shoes and suggested that Dave and Greg be put into bed. Kent said he didn't think that was a good idea just yet. OK, if you want him honey, he's yours. They are all yours!! I grabbed the ergo, put Ean on my back and met the neighbor to go for a walk. I could not take one more minute in the house!!!!!
Boy did my thighs feel that walk. After all I was carrying an almost forty pound weight on my back. I move a lot slower with an almost four year old on my back.
My neighbor's youngest was jealous that Ean was getting to go. I mentioned he was more luggage then anything else, he wasn't playing or jumping.
By the time I got back, I had cooled off enough to appreciate the work the girls had done. With a parent sitting right on top of them, they can do amazing work! *laugh* The twins were in bed and the girls gladly left the kitchen to go to bed.
I use to keep all my regular use bulk items (flour, sugar, rice, moo's milk etc) in five gallon buckets. I've been forced to move everything into smaller containers so I can lock it safely in my pantry. If I leave anything out even on the counter, someone will get into it. The twins love flour, Kate eats sugar in any form and Ean loves pretty much everything.
The twins are also garbage guts. Anything with food property they try to eat so I often find chewed up pectin boxes and sucked on cheese packs (from mac and cheese boxes) on the kitchen floor. It sure makes it hard to be frugal, hard to save, hard to keep stuff on hand. The worst part is they often destroy items that we can't replace from the Bishop's storehouse. The Bishop's storehouse is the LDS church's grocery store for welfare shopping. You find them in high LDS population areas. This leaves me with the option of spending money that we have budgeted to the penny or going without. Often we go without.
I should mention that in the past thirteen years of marriage we've never received help from the church before. I thought it was humbling the first time I went but I was wrong, it's far more humbling after the third month of receiving welfare.
Still we are counting our blessings. We have a home. Keeping our life in this world in perspective, that means we are incredibly rich compared to those impoverished nations that have so little. I need to remember my blessings not just today but when times are good again because we are blessed.
Saturday, May 3, 2008
Jane's 3 year testing.
I got a call yesterday from Jane's speech teacher and I have a meeting on Friday about Jane. The good news is she's doing great! She did extremely well in all the tests and she doesn't qualify for speech anymore. Actually she hasn't really qualified the past couple of years but they kept her on to make sure she'd get resource room under the speech umbrella. She was having problems with language, tenses and still has problems with vocabulary and comprehension but reading my Calvin and Hobbes books seems to have helped.
She also doesn't qualify for resource room anymore, thankfully everyone that's been involved in her education this year (that includes speech teacher, resource room teacher and classroom teacher) agrees that she's not ready to go without it. She's extremely delayed in language comprehension, it'd be like throwing her to the wolves to put her in a regular classroom full time. I am so grateful I don't have to fight for what she needs. We've really been blessed with the staff of this particular school.
So she won't have an IEP but there's another statute she'll fall under. I'm not sure how it works, but I'll be sure to update next week on how our meeting went and how this statute works.
Under the IEP we were able to make sure she had preferential seating, assignment length adjusted, Jane is easily overwhelmed, and modified curriculum from the resource room. She's excelled this year academically bringing home three A's, one B and one C on her report card. You have to realize this forth grader started out the year barely reading at a second grade reading level with no retention almost immediately after reading. She's come a long way this year. I'm so very proud of her.
*nervous sigh*
I want her to succeed, in whatever she does. She works so hard and she's such a joy. I hope she realizes all her wonderful qualities. I need to do better at telling her what she does well. Those awkward teen years are around the corner. I hope I'm doing enough to get her ready.
She also doesn't qualify for resource room anymore, thankfully everyone that's been involved in her education this year (that includes speech teacher, resource room teacher and classroom teacher) agrees that she's not ready to go without it. She's extremely delayed in language comprehension, it'd be like throwing her to the wolves to put her in a regular classroom full time. I am so grateful I don't have to fight for what she needs. We've really been blessed with the staff of this particular school.
So she won't have an IEP but there's another statute she'll fall under. I'm not sure how it works, but I'll be sure to update next week on how our meeting went and how this statute works.
Under the IEP we were able to make sure she had preferential seating, assignment length adjusted, Jane is easily overwhelmed, and modified curriculum from the resource room. She's excelled this year academically bringing home three A's, one B and one C on her report card. You have to realize this forth grader started out the year barely reading at a second grade reading level with no retention almost immediately after reading. She's come a long way this year. I'm so very proud of her.
*nervous sigh*
I want her to succeed, in whatever she does. She works so hard and she's such a joy. I hope she realizes all her wonderful qualities. I need to do better at telling her what she does well. Those awkward teen years are around the corner. I hope I'm doing enough to get her ready.
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