I was just reading the article about the mom who made her child wear "ugly" clothes to school because she had been bullying someone about the clothes that they were wearing. I guess that someone thought it was a dreadful punishment. Personally, it is exactly what I would have done. (K wears the American school uniform. For us, it doesn't apply.)
It got me to thinking about weird things I've done. I remember blogging about K and the broken crayons. I know that some people would have thought I was horrible. I recall standing outside the kindergarten door, calling K to come so that we can go to the store. Her teacher asked in a sing-songy fun voice, "Are you buying something fun?" K told her that she was going to go buy a box of crayons. Mrs. H kind of tipped her head a bit and I explained what happened. I told her that there had been some kindergarten peer pressure, K broke up all of her crayons as a result and were now going to replace them.
"I wondered why she was using broken crayons all week."
"I told her that she had to. I told her that she had to not only use the broken crayons, but she also needed to do extra chores to earn money to purchase a box of crayons herself. The box of crayons she buys has to be Crayola and I'm taking her to Walgreen's so that the $2.00 that she earned will be basically entirely spent on that box."
She told me that she would have a talk with the class about treating our friends nicely and so forth. She understood my doing that, but in mom circles just like the article that I've referenced above, I would have probably been considered abusive.
You know what? It didn't hurt K. It did, however, teach her a lesson.
K is currently under TV restriction. She did poorly on a reading test that we studied and studied on. She didn't read carefully and didn't do well. The OAA has really made K's brain check out, but I told her that she must press on for a few weeks longer. K is without TV until I get that test in my hand and see that she has done better. Yes, I realize that it is a long holiday weekend. (She got a D. A C or better in my house is what we consider passable.) K had gotten two D's a few weeks ago on her weekly reading tests, got a C, then went back to a D. She called and she 'fessed up. I told her that first and foremost, we wanted to praise that 100% on the spelling test. I told her that we would look over the reading test to see what went wrong. Part of the wrongness was that the teacher missed a question and marked it wrong when it was right. She also didn't count written answers for points, when clearly one answer should have been 1/2 credit. I did mention the question that was completely right. Hubs wanted me to mention the written responses and I told him that they were subjective and I won't argue those. Part of K thinking that her teacher isn't loving her isn't helping her cause. Still, a few more weeks and we are outta there. She's got to know that her brain must still function. It is not an option.
Other unusual punishments? K had repeatedly (for months and months) forgotten her chores. I was so tired of getting after her about them that I came upon a wonderful idea. I wait until she is good and asleep. Snoring. I then go and give her a good shake. It's only taken twice of my having to wake her from deep sleep and have her take recycling out to the bin in the rain, in the dark and down the back yard and break down her lunch pack. She makes a point of telling me, "Mom! Look! I'm taking the recycling out!" She's even good at remembering to take the compost container down to the barrel and emptying it out, too.
I also have K write. If I have to have her write about something a few different times, what she writes gets longer. I have one on my desk right now. "I will not moan and groan." There is also, "I will obey my mom and dad. I will listen to what I am told and I will NOT do as I choose anyway. I will do what I am told the FIRST time." (Obviously, I've had to have her write that one 4 different times. It grows a sentence each time we have to have her write it.) It starts with 5 and goes up with 5 time increments until she has stopped the grumbling and funkiness. She's written 10x. She's written 35x. It doesn't hurt her and maybe she'll learn how to spell a few new words.
I think that it is important that we discipline our children. I applaud creativity with discipline. I don't applaud abusiveness. The children will remember what we went through to try to teach them a lesson. Hopefully, it will stick.
Showing posts with label K -. Show all posts
Showing posts with label K -. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 21, 2013
Saturday, March 30, 2013
The Easter Egg Hunt
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| You have to get into all of those cooks and nannies to get all of the eggs that the kids passed by on the first trip. |
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| And my girl, she felt bad that there were kids with no eggs, so she shared some of the small lot that she got. Here she is "skinning" her eggs. She got some good chocolate loot and even shared it with me. :) |
Any egg hunt news out your way? We had 2500 eggs and had to have 500 kids show up. It was our biggest attendance for our church ever!
Friday, February 22, 2013
Convulsive dancing, peasant food and my child's new face accessory
1. I am no better than Elaine. I was dancing around the house with K today and for the first time, I think that she realized that her mother truly lacks form in dancing.
2. We had cabbage and noodles for dinner. I love cabbage and noodles. My child is not a fan, but she ate them this evening and claimed that they weren't bad. Either she likes them or she gave up.
3. I have a near-sighted child. She came to me the other day and said, "Mom, Mrs. H wrote 'consonant' on the board and I couldn't read it." Yup. I knew. Since today was a conference compensation day, I ran around with her yesterday after school to track down a place to take her to. I did, secured her the only appointment available today and they were lovely. Truly, they worked well with her and the eye doctor was delightful. He did tell me that he knows that kids at this age do want glasses sometimes, but given the testing that they did and a double check, she really did need them and was certainly not faking the part about not being able to see the board. In two weeks, girlie doo will have two pairs of glasses. (A pair and a spare since they were slightly cheaper to go with the two pair than the one with the exam cost.) She's excited and wanted them (like any other excited kid) yesterday. The update is that she'll have to wear them pretty much all of the time. We'll get her a couple of cool looking cases. It's all good.
Swimming starts tomorrow and we have archery, too. There's an hour gap between and a half hour drive. We'll be good. We have an overlap for a few weeks and we're good.
Have a great weekend!
Monday, February 11, 2013
Miscellaneous post ahead! This week's menu is a no show. There's a good reason and other fun things you might want to read.
My husband does this. He decides to go on whacked out, crazy diets. This one is potatoes and egg whites. He'll be eating those and I don't have to worry about making him dinner. This would probably seem pretty sweet so some, but it throws me into weirdness in cooking.
Tonight, while having the strep throat study session with K, I dusted off the pressure cooker and cooked up the frozen chicken breast tenders that I bought from an Amish grocery yesterday. I threw some carrots in there, got some whole grain noodles rolling and kept everything going while checking math problems. K and I decided that it would be pasta with pesto night with a side of broccoli slaw salad. I mixed everything up with the pesto and set it in the oven to bake for just a little while. I'll be having it for lunch and we'll be having it for Monday night dinner, too.
Meanwhile, Hubs made his potatoes and eggs. As he was eating, he found that he forgot to wash his potatoes. He's a little picky about how he likes his eggs cooked, which is why he cooked them himself.
He ran into some dirty tasting bits, though. Yuck. Poor guy.
You see, he has resolved to "eat healthier" and to lose some weight. Admittedly, he and I have put on a few extra pounds since the start of the new year. Unlike some, we haven't lost it. It's kind of stressing both of us out, so this new diet of his is more of his Lenten sacrifice. It's not a bad thing.
We have Ash Wednesday coming up and we have all decided on our Lenten sacrifices.
Hubs- He'll be giving up evening eating "like a pig" to quote him. He said he is a stress eater.
K- She has decided to give up gum. I admit that she wanted to give candy up altogether, but I did encourage her to give up something that would be sacrificial, but realistic. She loves chewing gum and though the child gets very little candy, I just didn't see success with that one.
Me- I won't be eating anything after 7 PM. It doesn't sound like a big deal, but I haven't had anything since 5:30 PM. I missed my snack window and decided that I'd start rolling with my sacrifice early. There is a big grumbly in my tumbly. I did this last year and it was a good discipline that I continued even after Lent was over. Obviously, I fell off the wagon with this discipline at some point, though.
Since Smudge is no longer around, we can leave the treadmill up. Hubs has a TV, DVD player and stereo down in the work out area of our basement. I have enough to entertain me. I now need to get on the treadmill and get walking. The funny thing is that I tried it before and the bounce of the belt made my foot hurt. I'm going to try in the new Merrell trail running shoes I bought. If my foot hurts with those (the bounce, not the shoes-- they are great), then I'll switch over to my barefoot Wonder Gloves. I'll try to resolve that and if my foot hurts, it may on the treadmill regardless and I might just have to deal with it.
Back to the meal thing. I made Morningstar Chick'n Grillers (I think that is what they are called) and honestly, K hated them. She even pulled out the, "They taste nasty, Mom," card and she doesn't do that. I made her help me to finish them and swore that I wouldn't buy them again.
We have a weird week. Tuesday and Wednesday K goes to the in-law's after school. Thursday is Valentine's Day (and our 16th anniversary), so I was thinking to crock-pot us a lovely turkey tenderloin. I have to check that out with Hubs because he may just want a romantic meal of egg whites. I also have PTA meetings that afternoon that K must attend and studying for tests that night. Romantic!
We did go to Amish Country on Saturday to celebrate our anniversary early. Because we're in the midst of trying to tuck some extra money away, we skipped the overnight that we usually try to do at our favorite little inn. We did have a great time, though. Here is lovely, but probably not all inclusive list:
1. K and Hubs checked out the horses as I went into one of the stores. They came in and told me about the one horse looking like he was talking because he was moving his lips. Hubs felt the need to fill the lip movement in with a bit of Mr. Ed talk. They both thought it was the greatest thing. Of course, the horse was gone when I came out. No Ed lips for me. :(
2. We drove the Yaris and it took 1/2 of the gas of the RAV. Hubs said that confirms that the Yaris will be our new trippin' vehicle. Well, except for camping. Though we pitch a tent and camp without electricity, we don't pack light. The Yaris would never make it. We did camp that way in the Tercel once. That was prior to K. We also had to sleep in our car one night when a storm rolled through and we had no place to go. I took the side with the steering wheel and the back seat full of stuff. I didn't sleep well. Hubs, however, slept better than he had all week!
3. The breakfast buffet was still up when we got there. We were all reasonable about the offerings that we took. It was delicious.
4. We enjoyed walking through the antique store and seeing that Kool Aid pitcher and cup set that my family saved Kool Aid points for forever to get. They also still had my old lunch box for sale, but it is all really scratched and banged up.
5. I bought my dad all kinds of nifty mustard relishes for his birthday. I realize that this sounds weird, but that's what the man loves. He needs nothing, so multiple jars of mustard relish he shall get.
6. We went to an Amish grocery surplus store. The goal was to see who could find the oldest expiration date. You see, most of the things in this store are past date. I have a big issue with dates and admit that most things that hit expiration (with the exception of a few), hit the garbage can. I did find a pumpkin bread kit, a bag of Ghiradelli chocolates and some Mederma scar cream for that dratted branding incident on my birthday. (Me vs. my sister's toaster oven door. The toaster oven won and it was the top of my hand.) All of my items were in date and cheap!
7. We drove to visit our favorite antique store, but found that they had closed up shop. Apparently, they closed October 14th due to the economy. I found almost all of my Holly Hobbie glasses there. So sad!
8. As a consolation to the closing, we tried Goodwill. They had nothing. We tried the dollar store. Nothing. We tried Big Lots. We hit the mother load. They had Kashi cereals close to date (some in March) for 75 cents - 1.40 a box. They also had Quaker Chewy 90 calorie granola bars for 50 cents a box. (They were close to date, too.) We came home with 7 boxes of cereal, 4 boxes of granola bars, Veggie Straws, Wasa multi grain crisps and a 5 pound bag of grits (another new thing with Hubs) for $20.00. Hooray for us!
So there you go. Tangential. Miscellaneous. It's where my brain is at right now. And laundry. And a weird story on the news about a horse, false accusations and a car wreck. :shaking head:
Have a great week!
Tonight, while having the strep throat study session with K, I dusted off the pressure cooker and cooked up the frozen chicken breast tenders that I bought from an Amish grocery yesterday. I threw some carrots in there, got some whole grain noodles rolling and kept everything going while checking math problems. K and I decided that it would be pasta with pesto night with a side of broccoli slaw salad. I mixed everything up with the pesto and set it in the oven to bake for just a little while. I'll be having it for lunch and we'll be having it for Monday night dinner, too.
Meanwhile, Hubs made his potatoes and eggs. As he was eating, he found that he forgot to wash his potatoes. He's a little picky about how he likes his eggs cooked, which is why he cooked them himself.
He ran into some dirty tasting bits, though. Yuck. Poor guy.
You see, he has resolved to "eat healthier" and to lose some weight. Admittedly, he and I have put on a few extra pounds since the start of the new year. Unlike some, we haven't lost it. It's kind of stressing both of us out, so this new diet of his is more of his Lenten sacrifice. It's not a bad thing.
We have Ash Wednesday coming up and we have all decided on our Lenten sacrifices.
Hubs- He'll be giving up evening eating "like a pig" to quote him. He said he is a stress eater.
K- She has decided to give up gum. I admit that she wanted to give candy up altogether, but I did encourage her to give up something that would be sacrificial, but realistic. She loves chewing gum and though the child gets very little candy, I just didn't see success with that one.
Me- I won't be eating anything after 7 PM. It doesn't sound like a big deal, but I haven't had anything since 5:30 PM. I missed my snack window and decided that I'd start rolling with my sacrifice early. There is a big grumbly in my tumbly. I did this last year and it was a good discipline that I continued even after Lent was over. Obviously, I fell off the wagon with this discipline at some point, though.
Since Smudge is no longer around, we can leave the treadmill up. Hubs has a TV, DVD player and stereo down in the work out area of our basement. I have enough to entertain me. I now need to get on the treadmill and get walking. The funny thing is that I tried it before and the bounce of the belt made my foot hurt. I'm going to try in the new Merrell trail running shoes I bought. If my foot hurts with those (the bounce, not the shoes-- they are great), then I'll switch over to my barefoot Wonder Gloves. I'll try to resolve that and if my foot hurts, it may on the treadmill regardless and I might just have to deal with it.
Back to the meal thing. I made Morningstar Chick'n Grillers (I think that is what they are called) and honestly, K hated them. She even pulled out the, "They taste nasty, Mom," card and she doesn't do that. I made her help me to finish them and swore that I wouldn't buy them again.
We have a weird week. Tuesday and Wednesday K goes to the in-law's after school. Thursday is Valentine's Day (and our 16th anniversary), so I was thinking to crock-pot us a lovely turkey tenderloin. I have to check that out with Hubs because he may just want a romantic meal of egg whites. I also have PTA meetings that afternoon that K must attend and studying for tests that night. Romantic!
We did go to Amish Country on Saturday to celebrate our anniversary early. Because we're in the midst of trying to tuck some extra money away, we skipped the overnight that we usually try to do at our favorite little inn. We did have a great time, though. Here is lovely, but probably not all inclusive list:
1. K and Hubs checked out the horses as I went into one of the stores. They came in and told me about the one horse looking like he was talking because he was moving his lips. Hubs felt the need to fill the lip movement in with a bit of Mr. Ed talk. They both thought it was the greatest thing. Of course, the horse was gone when I came out. No Ed lips for me. :(
2. We drove the Yaris and it took 1/2 of the gas of the RAV. Hubs said that confirms that the Yaris will be our new trippin' vehicle. Well, except for camping. Though we pitch a tent and camp without electricity, we don't pack light. The Yaris would never make it. We did camp that way in the Tercel once. That was prior to K. We also had to sleep in our car one night when a storm rolled through and we had no place to go. I took the side with the steering wheel and the back seat full of stuff. I didn't sleep well. Hubs, however, slept better than he had all week!
3. The breakfast buffet was still up when we got there. We were all reasonable about the offerings that we took. It was delicious.
4. We enjoyed walking through the antique store and seeing that Kool Aid pitcher and cup set that my family saved Kool Aid points for forever to get. They also still had my old lunch box for sale, but it is all really scratched and banged up.
5. I bought my dad all kinds of nifty mustard relishes for his birthday. I realize that this sounds weird, but that's what the man loves. He needs nothing, so multiple jars of mustard relish he shall get.
6. We went to an Amish grocery surplus store. The goal was to see who could find the oldest expiration date. You see, most of the things in this store are past date. I have a big issue with dates and admit that most things that hit expiration (with the exception of a few), hit the garbage can. I did find a pumpkin bread kit, a bag of Ghiradelli chocolates and some Mederma scar cream for that dratted branding incident on my birthday. (Me vs. my sister's toaster oven door. The toaster oven won and it was the top of my hand.) All of my items were in date and cheap!
7. We drove to visit our favorite antique store, but found that they had closed up shop. Apparently, they closed October 14th due to the economy. I found almost all of my Holly Hobbie glasses there. So sad!
8. As a consolation to the closing, we tried Goodwill. They had nothing. We tried the dollar store. Nothing. We tried Big Lots. We hit the mother load. They had Kashi cereals close to date (some in March) for 75 cents - 1.40 a box. They also had Quaker Chewy 90 calorie granola bars for 50 cents a box. (They were close to date, too.) We came home with 7 boxes of cereal, 4 boxes of granola bars, Veggie Straws, Wasa multi grain crisps and a 5 pound bag of grits (another new thing with Hubs) for $20.00. Hooray for us!
So there you go. Tangential. Miscellaneous. It's where my brain is at right now. And laundry. And a weird story on the news about a horse, false accusations and a car wreck. :shaking head:
Have a great week!
Sunday, February 10, 2013
I can wear my daughter's shoes.
We went down to ye ole Amish country yesterday and made a few stops. We stopped by the boot store looking for some sweet shoes for me.
They didn't have what I was looking for. :(
K, however, has been wearing the same LL Bean "nature girl" shoes since the beginning of school when the dreaded Skechers gave out a few weeks in. (Never again.) They have served her well, but her feet have grown. She was having some foot problems as of late. She twisted her left foot and made it angry. In checking out the fit of her shoes, I realized that there wasn't a whole lot of room left.
Guess who scored a new pair of shoes when Mom was the one supposed to be getting some? She measured at a 4 1/2, but those aren't the easiest to find. We bumped her up to a 5. Though I wear a 6-6 1/2, I can comfortably wear these shoes. I told K that now when she grows out of her shoes, she can pass them on to me.
The third grade. Who knew? Sharing shoes with the kid.
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Tuesday, February 5, 2013
"What we've got here is failure to communicate."
I admit that when this came to mind this morning regarding K and the tutoring situation from yesterday. I could here the song, but couldn't figure it out. It took me about an hour to remember that it is Guns N' Roses song Civil War. For those of you not wondering about that, but you've stayed to read on, I have the song playing right now. I kind of forgot how much I liked the music of Guns N' Roses. (Though I've never watched the movie, it is originally a quote from Cool Hand Luke.) I should get back on the subject at hand though.
K's tutor called my cell this morning. Of course, I had the cell ringer turned off since I was at an awards dinner last night and forgot to turn it back up. No matter, I did hook up with her during her break time and we hashed out a plan.
1. She apologized for not knowing that K's social studies grade was so adversely affected by being pulled for math tutoring. I told her that we have an at-home study plan, so we're hoping that resolves the issue.
2. She said that K was in the highest level for literacy intervention and that they pulled the 390 kids as a precautionary measure.
3. Because of a sudden change in tutors, the literacy help was delayed which is why we hadn't received an earlier letter.
4. She agrees that K will do just fine on the reading OAA. She said that she didn't mean to upset K so badly. She said that she was honest with the kids when they asked why they were pulled for literacy tutoring. I told her that K and I discussed that she is fine for advancing to the 4th grade regarding her performance on the OAA. She passed for the 3rd Grade Guarantee. I said that her performance on this test gives her school a report card. "So if the kids don't pass, they'll just pack up shop and shut down." (I have no idea where she heard this.) "No, they won't close your school. It does give them an idea of where to improve."
5. She ended with asking what I wanted done for K. We decided that she will remain for math tutoring. She said that she has seen the light come on in regard to her starting to get math. I told her that I've seen that as well and don't want her to lose momentum. We discussed her being on target for 3rd grade reading and while we're striving to continue to improve, she is plugging along fine. I told her that I will continue addressing the items outlined in the OAA report. K will continue with speech twice a month. She's started becoming self conscious about her R deficit with speech and we've been working hard to get that corrected. Speech is a must.
K's teacher sent an apology e-mail for not receiving the e-mails that I sent until last this afternoon. She was out at a meeting and I told her that I knew that. (She told the kids that they would have a substitute.) I told her that I thought that it was important for her to be kept in the loop. Considering that I wrote in K's planner, "No LLI tutoring for K. Please don't send her." I was thinking that needed a bit of explanation.
I did find out that it isn't general protocol to meet with parents regarding LLI sessions, but to just go ahead and pull them for reading tutoring. They send materials home and a letter and the parents find out then. I think that is a rather flawed way of handling it.
I did end by telling both the tutor on the phone and Mrs. H on e-mail that I am available. Both Hubs and I are very ready and willing to meet and to do what we need to do to help K. We are here. Please contact us or track us down (as in me in the hall every single Thursday) and we will be happy to meet with them to iron out whatever it is going on.
:snarly face:
I wish that it were easier. A lot easier. If it was, she wouldn't learn anything. Learning is good. Learning is very good.
K's tutor called my cell this morning. Of course, I had the cell ringer turned off since I was at an awards dinner last night and forgot to turn it back up. No matter, I did hook up with her during her break time and we hashed out a plan.
1. She apologized for not knowing that K's social studies grade was so adversely affected by being pulled for math tutoring. I told her that we have an at-home study plan, so we're hoping that resolves the issue.
2. She said that K was in the highest level for literacy intervention and that they pulled the 390 kids as a precautionary measure.
3. Because of a sudden change in tutors, the literacy help was delayed which is why we hadn't received an earlier letter.
4. She agrees that K will do just fine on the reading OAA. She said that she didn't mean to upset K so badly. She said that she was honest with the kids when they asked why they were pulled for literacy tutoring. I told her that K and I discussed that she is fine for advancing to the 4th grade regarding her performance on the OAA. She passed for the 3rd Grade Guarantee. I said that her performance on this test gives her school a report card. "So if the kids don't pass, they'll just pack up shop and shut down." (I have no idea where she heard this.) "No, they won't close your school. It does give them an idea of where to improve."
5. She ended with asking what I wanted done for K. We decided that she will remain for math tutoring. She said that she has seen the light come on in regard to her starting to get math. I told her that I've seen that as well and don't want her to lose momentum. We discussed her being on target for 3rd grade reading and while we're striving to continue to improve, she is plugging along fine. I told her that I will continue addressing the items outlined in the OAA report. K will continue with speech twice a month. She's started becoming self conscious about her R deficit with speech and we've been working hard to get that corrected. Speech is a must.
K's teacher sent an apology e-mail for not receiving the e-mails that I sent until last this afternoon. She was out at a meeting and I told her that I knew that. (She told the kids that they would have a substitute.) I told her that I thought that it was important for her to be kept in the loop. Considering that I wrote in K's planner, "No LLI tutoring for K. Please don't send her." I was thinking that needed a bit of explanation.
I did find out that it isn't general protocol to meet with parents regarding LLI sessions, but to just go ahead and pull them for reading tutoring. They send materials home and a letter and the parents find out then. I think that is a rather flawed way of handling it.
I did end by telling both the tutor on the phone and Mrs. H on e-mail that I am available. Both Hubs and I are very ready and willing to meet and to do what we need to do to help K. We are here. Please contact us or track us down (as in me in the hall every single Thursday) and we will be happy to meet with them to iron out whatever it is going on.
:snarly face:
I wish that it were easier. A lot easier. If it was, she wouldn't learn anything. Learning is good. Learning is very good.
Monday, February 4, 2013
State mandated testing makes me want to SCREAM!
Test prep for the Ohio Achievement Assessment is underway. They have been working with the children on math with tutoring sessions in class. Wonderful! Because my child missed their END OF THIRD GRADE score target of 400 by seven points when the test was given at the BEGINNING OF THIRD GRADE in October, she is now being pulled for Leveled Literacy Intervention to prepare her for the OAA reading portion.
Here's our beef. No one ever contacted us. It isn't like I'm not at the school a few days during the week and fully reachable. Shoot no. They pulled her out of the classroom, plunked her into tutoring and let us know when she came home announcing that she was told that, "Mom, you are wrong. I did fail the OAA. I failed and now I'm in reading tutoring." I told her that yes, she did miss the end of the third grade year target by 7 points, but she took a test for what she would learn during third grade at the beginning. (Think Willy Wonka and the teacher saying he was going to give a test on Monday on the material before they had learned it.)
The fact of the matter is that K passed their Third Grade Guarantee. She did get their required score to move on to the fourth grade. No biggie. This year, she has been on merit roll all year. She has had a B in reading for the entire year. She is not an advanced reader, but she is an on-target reader. I can't ask for more than that.
So, Hubs reports that K came home and cried hysterically on the couch for an hour over this tutoring and the fact that she "failed." Really? They have to do this with her? I have about 5 e-mails out to folks including her teacher, the tutor and the principal. I'm a parent right now. I'm not the President of the PTA at this moment. Treat me like the highly involved parent I am. Give my husband and I the opportunity to be involved with our child and in the decision making process of her having additional tutoring. The math tutoring she receives pulled her out of social studies and as a result, her grade dropped two whole letter grades from one grading period to the next.
Hubs was willing to go up this afternoon. I asked that he wait.
I'm mad that this stupid state mandated test has taken over once again and now they want to pull her out of science. I've e-mailed everyone and told them that she is NOT to be pulled for reading tutoring. Send me work home to help supplement her learning with. That's fine. We can't have her falling back in more grades to get help in others. Then, all she'll be getting is help because she won't be around for any of the original teaching.
UGH!
Here's our beef. No one ever contacted us. It isn't like I'm not at the school a few days during the week and fully reachable. Shoot no. They pulled her out of the classroom, plunked her into tutoring and let us know when she came home announcing that she was told that, "Mom, you are wrong. I did fail the OAA. I failed and now I'm in reading tutoring." I told her that yes, she did miss the end of the third grade year target by 7 points, but she took a test for what she would learn during third grade at the beginning. (Think Willy Wonka and the teacher saying he was going to give a test on Monday on the material before they had learned it.)
The fact of the matter is that K passed their Third Grade Guarantee. She did get their required score to move on to the fourth grade. No biggie. This year, she has been on merit roll all year. She has had a B in reading for the entire year. She is not an advanced reader, but she is an on-target reader. I can't ask for more than that.
So, Hubs reports that K came home and cried hysterically on the couch for an hour over this tutoring and the fact that she "failed." Really? They have to do this with her? I have about 5 e-mails out to folks including her teacher, the tutor and the principal. I'm a parent right now. I'm not the President of the PTA at this moment. Treat me like the highly involved parent I am. Give my husband and I the opportunity to be involved with our child and in the decision making process of her having additional tutoring. The math tutoring she receives pulled her out of social studies and as a result, her grade dropped two whole letter grades from one grading period to the next.
Hubs was willing to go up this afternoon. I asked that he wait.
I'm mad that this stupid state mandated test has taken over once again and now they want to pull her out of science. I've e-mailed everyone and told them that she is NOT to be pulled for reading tutoring. Send me work home to help supplement her learning with. That's fine. We can't have her falling back in more grades to get help in others. Then, all she'll be getting is help because she won't be around for any of the original teaching.
UGH!
Thursday, January 31, 2013
When you are short, finding over the knee boots that fit isn't the easiest thing.
My brother's wedding is on Saturday. Though it is billed as a casual dress event, I refuse to go to my brother's wedding in jeans.
It is winter in Ohio.
It is supposed to be cold and snowy on Saturday.
I have wonderful skirts and tops to go with. My wintertime missing element was proper footwear. I had no idea what I was going to do until J came into work this week with tall boots on.
"That's it!"
She looked at me rather odd, but she does that a lot.
I told her I needed tall boots and that would make the pieces of outfits I have roll together just fine for my brother's wedding. Not over-dressed, but not terribly under-dressed. He is wearing black jeans and everyone else is probably wearing denim. I just can't do it, though.
I went shopping with K. I thought it wouldn't be that bad. I thought that what would hold me back more was what to spend. Though I will wear them in the winter, I didn't want to pay a ton. I started trying them on at DSW in ye ole clearance section. I kept running into one problem, though. The zipper didn't want to zip all the way up on the left boots. Yes, that would be plural. I couldn't figure out why. I was even trying on boots for $149 and $169 (not that I was buying them) to see if more expensive boots made a difference.
It was almost worse!
I don't have calf muscles of an overgrown moose. What's funny is that the left is where I had atrophy from the full ACL rupture and the thigh was 2" smaller than the right thigh. I thought we would roll with a similar size difference with the calf muscles, but then I remembered breaking the right foot. That may account for the difference in size, or that I'm just not symmetrical. Either way, I had a dang hard time finding some boots to fit. I also found that I needed a size 6 in the boots and not my normal 6 1/2. Who knew? On the way home, K and I stopped by Hubs' work and I was discussing my fit issue with the girls.
Shortness was my problem! They design these boots to fit on tall girls! I'm not a tall girl! I'm a short girl who buys pants cut for short girls and they are still too long! I did have success, though. I found these. (I'm sorry. I was unsuccessful on cut and paste.) Hubs says that they look like Gene Simmons boots and asked if I could get some with some more hardware. "They had some with spikes, but I didn't get those." I also informed him that Gene Simmons' boots had huge heels on them and these don't.
He did smirk and said that he liked them. :insert approval with the eyebrows:
I'm pleased to say that they were 40% off, I just received a $10 off coupon from DSW yesterday, so I spent $40 instead of the insane money that they wanted for not leather boots.
I smile. They are lovely. Hubs even thinks so. ;)
It is winter in Ohio.
It is supposed to be cold and snowy on Saturday.
I have wonderful skirts and tops to go with. My wintertime missing element was proper footwear. I had no idea what I was going to do until J came into work this week with tall boots on.
"That's it!"
She looked at me rather odd, but she does that a lot.
I told her I needed tall boots and that would make the pieces of outfits I have roll together just fine for my brother's wedding. Not over-dressed, but not terribly under-dressed. He is wearing black jeans and everyone else is probably wearing denim. I just can't do it, though.
I went shopping with K. I thought it wouldn't be that bad. I thought that what would hold me back more was what to spend. Though I will wear them in the winter, I didn't want to pay a ton. I started trying them on at DSW in ye ole clearance section. I kept running into one problem, though. The zipper didn't want to zip all the way up on the left boots. Yes, that would be plural. I couldn't figure out why. I was even trying on boots for $149 and $169 (not that I was buying them) to see if more expensive boots made a difference.
It was almost worse!
I don't have calf muscles of an overgrown moose. What's funny is that the left is where I had atrophy from the full ACL rupture and the thigh was 2" smaller than the right thigh. I thought we would roll with a similar size difference with the calf muscles, but then I remembered breaking the right foot. That may account for the difference in size, or that I'm just not symmetrical. Either way, I had a dang hard time finding some boots to fit. I also found that I needed a size 6 in the boots and not my normal 6 1/2. Who knew? On the way home, K and I stopped by Hubs' work and I was discussing my fit issue with the girls.
Shortness was my problem! They design these boots to fit on tall girls! I'm not a tall girl! I'm a short girl who buys pants cut for short girls and they are still too long! I did have success, though. I found these. (I'm sorry. I was unsuccessful on cut and paste.) Hubs says that they look like Gene Simmons boots and asked if I could get some with some more hardware. "They had some with spikes, but I didn't get those." I also informed him that Gene Simmons' boots had huge heels on them and these don't.
He did smirk and said that he liked them. :insert approval with the eyebrows:
I'm pleased to say that they were 40% off, I just received a $10 off coupon from DSW yesterday, so I spent $40 instead of the insane money that they wanted for not leather boots.
I smile. They are lovely. Hubs even thinks so. ;)
Friday, January 25, 2013
Happy birthday, Hubs!
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| Hubs and K- checking out Boulder Field National Natural Landmark. |
We hope that you have a wonderful day! We love you!
Monday, January 21, 2013
I don't think that it is bad to teach my child what a healthy portion size is.
I was reading a bit about a woman who wrote a book about her 7 year old needing to shed a few pounds and the journey she took with her to help make that happen.
It is here that I stop you and tell you that I have not read the book.
I can tell you that my daughter is tall, 4' 6 1/2", at the new age of 9. She was born to a woman who was 5' 1" and 300 pounds. My daughter's build is not that of a ballerina and her genetic disposition is not of a ballerina, either. K carries a bit in her mid-section, but she is in the mid-range of normal for BMI given her height and weight.
We watch what we eat at our house.
Lately, I've been taking to teaching K what a "serving size" is. Just like today, I bought a bag of M&M snack mix. I normally don't do that, but PMS called and I misread the package. I was an idiot and thought it was M&M pretzels. Still, I showed her on the package where it said what the serving size was. We went to the drawer, pulled out the correct measuring cup and measured it out. I taught her that the serving that they are referring to was a level serving and not a heaping one. She got herself an appropriately sized bowl and skipped off happy. It had almonds, pretzels, raisins and M&M's. I can't recall the calories, but I didn't press that with K. What is important is to teach her what a reasonable serving size is. I also think that it is ridiculous to think that a child shouldn't have a snack that doesn't involve some sugar.
That is what it sounds like this mom did. She stated that she had her daughter eat one cupcake and not two. That's not unreasonable. However, again, I didn't read the book. I'm just talking about the serving size situation.
We've downsized what plates we use. Hubs and I use what would be classified as "salad plates." K has a set of bowls and plates from IKEA. Those are a perfect serving for what she needs to eat.
We've changed what we eat even more over the past year. Whole wheat, whole grains, vegetarian, whole foods, more cooking from scratch . . . that sort of thing. We do eat at the table. We do talk about the important things of the day. Some are funny. Some are funky. We hash it out as a family.
K and I have been talking about the evening snack. She could snack herself to death if I let her, but after dinner, we've decided that a before bed snack is a string cheese. She's good with that.
When school started, K was very upset because it seemed that every skirt or pair of pants she tried on didn't zip. I felt so bad for her. She does carry a little bit of a Buddha baby belly and anymore, the cut on pants don't exactly accommodate for her figure. She, like her older sister, will thin out over time. I'm not concerned about that. I was worried about how she was seeing herself. One day I came into her bedroom in a pair of pants I hadn't worn in a while. Rounding the corner to 40 hasn't helped the metabolism and these pants were tight around the middle. I came to her and said, "K, I need help zipping my jeans." She looked up and was kind of relieved. "Babe, you aren't the only one around here with pants that won't zip. We'll eat even healthier and that will help us out."
Much of the time, I pack K's lunch. Lunches have changed enough for me to allow her to get a handful a month. (Thank you, Michelle Obama!) Still, they have pizza once a week and I wouldn't allow K to eat it even if it didn't throw her reflux into a spin. Pizza at our house is on multi grain crust with tomato sauce, veggies and Morningstar crumbles and a light layer of cheese. You don't have to mop the top of my pizza. In K's lunch I pack fresh vegetables and fresh fruits in a stainless steel bento box. She's that kid (probably one of the few) that comes with a lunch that isn't labeled "Lunchables" on the outside. I used to send her apple juice in her water bottle until one day she said, "Can you just send water? That's all I want, Mom." Um, yes. Duh! I send her a turkey wrap on a whole wheat tortilla. If she has a want for pudding, I make her pudding cups. I don't buy those shelf stable snack packs from the store. She still loves Goldfish (or Chickadees from Target) and enjoys a stick of cheese, too. Her class is on the last of the lunch rotation, so her teacher allows them to have a snack mid-morning. I pack her good granola bars (Kashi or Clif generally) or a Quaker Stila fruit bar. (I can't recall exactly what they are called.)
I've found that K is looking at calories on boxes. She's not obsessed with it, but she'll tell me, "Mom, your cereal has 120 calories." I'm not teaching her that, but I don't think it is harmful for her to read the side of a food box, either.
I sit and think about the family member that we have that is basically food obsessed with their children and it disturbs me. Hubs and I talk about this family situation and he says that these children are acting out because they are hungry. He said that if he lived in there, he'd act out, too. (Yes, the children are fed, but very regimentedly so. Yes. I just made up my own word. It is appropriate, though.)
What are your thoughts on children, serving sizes and teaching portion control? Don't worry. I print opinions on both sides. Constructive criticism is a good thing. Just be kind, please.
It is here that I stop you and tell you that I have not read the book.
I can tell you that my daughter is tall, 4' 6 1/2", at the new age of 9. She was born to a woman who was 5' 1" and 300 pounds. My daughter's build is not that of a ballerina and her genetic disposition is not of a ballerina, either. K carries a bit in her mid-section, but she is in the mid-range of normal for BMI given her height and weight.
We watch what we eat at our house.
Lately, I've been taking to teaching K what a "serving size" is. Just like today, I bought a bag of M&M snack mix. I normally don't do that, but PMS called and I misread the package. I was an idiot and thought it was M&M pretzels. Still, I showed her on the package where it said what the serving size was. We went to the drawer, pulled out the correct measuring cup and measured it out. I taught her that the serving that they are referring to was a level serving and not a heaping one. She got herself an appropriately sized bowl and skipped off happy. It had almonds, pretzels, raisins and M&M's. I can't recall the calories, but I didn't press that with K. What is important is to teach her what a reasonable serving size is. I also think that it is ridiculous to think that a child shouldn't have a snack that doesn't involve some sugar.
That is what it sounds like this mom did. She stated that she had her daughter eat one cupcake and not two. That's not unreasonable. However, again, I didn't read the book. I'm just talking about the serving size situation.
We've downsized what plates we use. Hubs and I use what would be classified as "salad plates." K has a set of bowls and plates from IKEA. Those are a perfect serving for what she needs to eat.
We've changed what we eat even more over the past year. Whole wheat, whole grains, vegetarian, whole foods, more cooking from scratch . . . that sort of thing. We do eat at the table. We do talk about the important things of the day. Some are funny. Some are funky. We hash it out as a family.
K and I have been talking about the evening snack. She could snack herself to death if I let her, but after dinner, we've decided that a before bed snack is a string cheese. She's good with that.
When school started, K was very upset because it seemed that every skirt or pair of pants she tried on didn't zip. I felt so bad for her. She does carry a little bit of a Buddha baby belly and anymore, the cut on pants don't exactly accommodate for her figure. She, like her older sister, will thin out over time. I'm not concerned about that. I was worried about how she was seeing herself. One day I came into her bedroom in a pair of pants I hadn't worn in a while. Rounding the corner to 40 hasn't helped the metabolism and these pants were tight around the middle. I came to her and said, "K, I need help zipping my jeans." She looked up and was kind of relieved. "Babe, you aren't the only one around here with pants that won't zip. We'll eat even healthier and that will help us out."
Much of the time, I pack K's lunch. Lunches have changed enough for me to allow her to get a handful a month. (Thank you, Michelle Obama!) Still, they have pizza once a week and I wouldn't allow K to eat it even if it didn't throw her reflux into a spin. Pizza at our house is on multi grain crust with tomato sauce, veggies and Morningstar crumbles and a light layer of cheese. You don't have to mop the top of my pizza. In K's lunch I pack fresh vegetables and fresh fruits in a stainless steel bento box. She's that kid (probably one of the few) that comes with a lunch that isn't labeled "Lunchables" on the outside. I used to send her apple juice in her water bottle until one day she said, "Can you just send water? That's all I want, Mom." Um, yes. Duh! I send her a turkey wrap on a whole wheat tortilla. If she has a want for pudding, I make her pudding cups. I don't buy those shelf stable snack packs from the store. She still loves Goldfish (or Chickadees from Target) and enjoys a stick of cheese, too. Her class is on the last of the lunch rotation, so her teacher allows them to have a snack mid-morning. I pack her good granola bars (Kashi or Clif generally) or a Quaker Stila fruit bar. (I can't recall exactly what they are called.)
I've found that K is looking at calories on boxes. She's not obsessed with it, but she'll tell me, "Mom, your cereal has 120 calories." I'm not teaching her that, but I don't think it is harmful for her to read the side of a food box, either.
I sit and think about the family member that we have that is basically food obsessed with their children and it disturbs me. Hubs and I talk about this family situation and he says that these children are acting out because they are hungry. He said that if he lived in there, he'd act out, too. (Yes, the children are fed, but very regimentedly so. Yes. I just made up my own word. It is appropriate, though.)
What are your thoughts on children, serving sizes and teaching portion control? Don't worry. I print opinions on both sides. Constructive criticism is a good thing. Just be kind, please.
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
Mind the crosswalk, please.
Yesterday, we had a mother and her daughter get hit by a slow moving car while they were crossing the street with a crossing guard at the designated crosswalk. Turns out that it was one of our dads dropping his kid off and going forward. Mom and daughter are okay and didn't need transported, but still, they are both very sore.
Lord knows what distracted him, causing him to hit two people.
I got a panicked call from a parent asking, "WHAT IS GOING ON AT THE SCHOOL?" My response was, "I don't know, what IS going on at the school?" She explained that there was "an unmarked police car and an ambulance just drove up with its lights on and there was a man and a child and the kids were just outside."
"If something was going on, they would phone us."
"But it was an unmarked car."
"Perhaps it was the one that was the closest."
I told her that I'd phone the school, I wasn't going to ask for details, but I would find out if all was okay. That is exactly what I did and without details, it was reported to me that all was well. I phoned the mom back and gave her the report. Later, I got the call from my friend Kay telling me what had happened. I called lady #1 back to give her the details. I also told her that K had expressed interest in being a crossing guard and I had politely, but firmly told her no.
"Well, B still wants to do that."
I told her that I told K that I had to run after people who slow-motion tried to run over the guard kids so that they could enter the blocked parking lot. I ran after a car and tapped on their window and told the guy it wasn't cool. I had to have the principal come out on a few occasions where people were swearing at the guards because they wouldn't let them enter the teacher's parking lot without a pass to do so. I don't want my child's day to start with someone yelling at her and I certainly don't want someone driving their car directly at her to get her to move. She told me that in light of what happened now, she would certainly have to give a bit different consideration to the crossing guard request.
I don't mean to be that mom, but I want the kids to be safe.
Last year, we had 3 different occasions where Mr. Jim kept us safe from 3 separate vehicles blowing the crosswalk. People just drove straight through without pausing.
People don't pay attention.
People accidentally hit other people and cars. I'm not saying that they mean to. It is why I used the word "accidentally."
A school zone is one of the number 1 places that you should drive completely distraction-free.
Please, mind the crosswalk, the school zones and our people using them. Drive slow. Drive slower than the posted sign. You never know when children will pop up out of weird places. Don't curb drop your kids either. That is why there are crosswalks and people guarding them. To curb drop means that you are holding up traffic and making more little notchits for kids to try to sneak through, figuring that traffic is paused for a moment.
Long story a few sentences longer. Keep our kids safe while crossing streets and getting to school. Please.
ETA: The father did hit the mom and daughter at about 20 MPH, so it wasn't just a bump. Mom is still sore and didn't go to seek medical help, though I wish that she would have. The police confirmed to a parent today that the father received "several citations" in regard to this crosswalk incident.
Lord knows what distracted him, causing him to hit two people.
I got a panicked call from a parent asking, "WHAT IS GOING ON AT THE SCHOOL?" My response was, "I don't know, what IS going on at the school?" She explained that there was "an unmarked police car and an ambulance just drove up with its lights on and there was a man and a child and the kids were just outside."
"If something was going on, they would phone us."
"But it was an unmarked car."
"Perhaps it was the one that was the closest."
I told her that I'd phone the school, I wasn't going to ask for details, but I would find out if all was okay. That is exactly what I did and without details, it was reported to me that all was well. I phoned the mom back and gave her the report. Later, I got the call from my friend Kay telling me what had happened. I called lady #1 back to give her the details. I also told her that K had expressed interest in being a crossing guard and I had politely, but firmly told her no.
"Well, B still wants to do that."
I told her that I told K that I had to run after people who slow-motion tried to run over the guard kids so that they could enter the blocked parking lot. I ran after a car and tapped on their window and told the guy it wasn't cool. I had to have the principal come out on a few occasions where people were swearing at the guards because they wouldn't let them enter the teacher's parking lot without a pass to do so. I don't want my child's day to start with someone yelling at her and I certainly don't want someone driving their car directly at her to get her to move. She told me that in light of what happened now, she would certainly have to give a bit different consideration to the crossing guard request.
I don't mean to be that mom, but I want the kids to be safe.
Last year, we had 3 different occasions where Mr. Jim kept us safe from 3 separate vehicles blowing the crosswalk. People just drove straight through without pausing.
People don't pay attention.
People accidentally hit other people and cars. I'm not saying that they mean to. It is why I used the word "accidentally."
A school zone is one of the number 1 places that you should drive completely distraction-free.
Please, mind the crosswalk, the school zones and our people using them. Drive slow. Drive slower than the posted sign. You never know when children will pop up out of weird places. Don't curb drop your kids either. That is why there are crosswalks and people guarding them. To curb drop means that you are holding up traffic and making more little notchits for kids to try to sneak through, figuring that traffic is paused for a moment.
Long story a few sentences longer. Keep our kids safe while crossing streets and getting to school. Please.
ETA: The father did hit the mom and daughter at about 20 MPH, so it wasn't just a bump. Mom is still sore and didn't go to seek medical help, though I wish that she would have. The police confirmed to a parent today that the father received "several citations" in regard to this crosswalk incident.
Friday, January 11, 2013
Pow! Right in the kisser!
The snow is melting and K and her friend were playing in it for a little while after school. Michelle and I were hashing over some PTA stuff as K came up to me with a "snow" ball. She raised it up and I said, "K, don't--" She threw it anyway. It was an ice ball and smacked me in the side of the nose and mouth.
I was not happy.
I yelled at her.
"But Mom, I didn't mean to!"
I told her that I knew she didn't, but I told her not to and she did anyway.
That was 2 hours ago and my face still hurts.
I didn't lose any teeth and when I came in, the phone was ringing. It was the neighbors across the street.
"Did you see me get bailed into the face with an ice ball?"
"Glenn told me to call. He swore you got hit in the eye."
I told him I didn't get hit in the eye, but the nose and mouth. K was in time out for about a half hour. They asked if I had a bruise. I don't think I do, but by golly it hurt.
Can't wait for soft snow to fall again.
I was not happy.
I yelled at her.
"But Mom, I didn't mean to!"
I told her that I knew she didn't, but I told her not to and she did anyway.
That was 2 hours ago and my face still hurts.
I didn't lose any teeth and when I came in, the phone was ringing. It was the neighbors across the street.
"Did you see me get bailed into the face with an ice ball?"
"Glenn told me to call. He swore you got hit in the eye."
I told him I didn't get hit in the eye, but the nose and mouth. K was in time out for about a half hour. They asked if I had a bruise. I don't think I do, but by golly it hurt.
Can't wait for soft snow to fall again.
Saturday, December 22, 2012
A birthday, a new car, parties, snow, the collapse and more!
We celebrated K's 9th birthday on Thursday. The previous weekend, we had a sleep over so that she could celebrate with her friends. Little girl is growing up. I had her stand next to her growth chart and she is 56" tall. At 10 1/2, she'll officially be as tall as me. Bless her heart.
We had family over for filled cupcakes, brownies, chocolate covered pretzel ice cream and party cake ice cream. I mean, how could you go wrong with those choices? Needless to say, she had delightful gifts given to her, too. Lego Friends are a big hit, though we have two bodies in the box and one head. I'm going to have to e-mail them about that. She wanted Kids Bop, so I picked that up for my mom along with a Spirograph. I mean, how could you go wrong with a Spirograph? She also received the movie Brave, a stuffed puppy and a book. We added to her Webkinz collection, gave her an American Girl sewing kit that she wanted (clearance at Target!) and a Hello Kitty MP3 player (clearance at Target.)
Before we had K's celebration, we plunked her onto the bus with a cake container full of brownies and headed off to buy Hubs a new car. We had made the deal on Sunday, left a locator deposit and were on the wait for the arrival. What did we buy him? He chose a standard shift 2013 Black Toyota Yaris. It gets 38 MPG and when I wash it, I can reach the roof without standing on anything! We call her the Barbie car because she is rather petite. He loves it and I appreciate him and his decision to purchase something that is more practical and cost conscious.
We got snow yesterday! Of course, being the first snowstorm of the year, they predicted Armageddon. They had crawls on the TV not to go out until after the advisories had lifted and things of that sort. Really? In fact, K is so excited right now since she is dressing to go roll around in the 2 or 3" of snow.
Yesterday was K's classroom Christmas party. I made Rachael's baking soda/cornstarch and water ornaments. I made 32 stars and baked them for 2 1/2 hours at 170 degrees. The ornaments were a hit! The kids loved them and I purchased styrofoam bowls for them to take the ornaments home in. We stapled the bowls together to make a container to take a wet ornament home in without wearing the glitter, glue and other things that were stuck to them. We had a delightful buffet of snacks, even though no one could tell me that they were sending anything in. I was kind of sweating that one. It all worked out okay. Hubs came to volunteer with me and the teacher was thrilled. We don't see that many dads at our school. We had another mom who was able to come to help. She has a great boss who allowed her to cruise on in to help. I thought that the ornaments would take far longer than they did, then I realized that we had a half hour left. I did my "unhang man" AKA building a drawing of something other than a guy hanging. I drew a snowman, a Christmas tree and Santa. The kids dug it. We only got the wiggly widgets the last 5 minutes, so I call that a success.
I came home from the party, drew myself a bath, put on my pajamas and hopped into bed. We had no obligations last night and I was beyond dog tired. I had run for two weeks straight without stopping, having multiple meetings, breakfasts, work, other school obligations and such. I knew that we could all take a quiet night and kick back and rest. I ended up taking a nap (which I never do) and the fell asleep at 10 and slept all night long. Hubs commented this morning how I was "dead to the world" and must have been beyond tired. He said that the ADD keeps me spinning and the fact that I was down and resting kind of threw him. I wasn't sick, but I was pretty convinced that if I didn't stop, I would be. I needed to listen to my body and listen I did. He chose to work out last night and K decided to watch the movie Brave three times in a row. We aren't big with TV with her and doing that is a very rare thing, but she's been exhausted, too. Kiddo needed to decompress, so she rested, played with her dollhouse in the middle of the living room floor and loved the quiet time to herself.
Today is Happy Home Day! Today is the day that we celebrate that K came to be with us. (Most people call it Gotcha Day, but that title doesn't ring real well with me. I wanted something more meaningful to us and a little less slang.) We like to take her to see Christmas lights on the evening of Happy Home Day. There have only been a few years that we've missed it, but we always like to do something special with her. (One year had the stomach flu and last year we had no lights where we usually go.) We'll have fun this evening for sure!
Having spent every single day at the school this week, I can tell you that our procedures for different things have been tweaked all week. The tweaking is definitely a good thing and everyone seems to be fairly obedient about it. I texted my PTA peeps to let them know that they needed to print badges as well as wear their lanyards, we needed to give specific whereabouts to the office and are absolutely under no circumstance to let anyone in at all. (We already knew most of those things, but it didn't hurt to reiterate.)
I have to jog out to the land o' retail madness today. For those who speak with me by phone, they will be thrilled to know that Santa (my parents in this case) will be gifting us a new cordless phone! The phone system was a hand-me-down from the neighbor and it has gotten so beyond that it doesn't beep when the battery is low anymore. It just hangs up. People know that I will call them back, but still . . .
K is out shoveling snow from the neighbors drive. She is moving snow to probably make herself a mini sledding hill. She loves playing in snow more than I can even express. There is more coming basically everyday. To her, that is the greatest gift.
Have a wonderful weekend!
We had family over for filled cupcakes, brownies, chocolate covered pretzel ice cream and party cake ice cream. I mean, how could you go wrong with those choices? Needless to say, she had delightful gifts given to her, too. Lego Friends are a big hit, though we have two bodies in the box and one head. I'm going to have to e-mail them about that. She wanted Kids Bop, so I picked that up for my mom along with a Spirograph. I mean, how could you go wrong with a Spirograph? She also received the movie Brave, a stuffed puppy and a book. We added to her Webkinz collection, gave her an American Girl sewing kit that she wanted (clearance at Target!) and a Hello Kitty MP3 player (clearance at Target.)
Before we had K's celebration, we plunked her onto the bus with a cake container full of brownies and headed off to buy Hubs a new car. We had made the deal on Sunday, left a locator deposit and were on the wait for the arrival. What did we buy him? He chose a standard shift 2013 Black Toyota Yaris. It gets 38 MPG and when I wash it, I can reach the roof without standing on anything! We call her the Barbie car because she is rather petite. He loves it and I appreciate him and his decision to purchase something that is more practical and cost conscious.
We got snow yesterday! Of course, being the first snowstorm of the year, they predicted Armageddon. They had crawls on the TV not to go out until after the advisories had lifted and things of that sort. Really? In fact, K is so excited right now since she is dressing to go roll around in the 2 or 3" of snow.
Yesterday was K's classroom Christmas party. I made Rachael's baking soda/cornstarch and water ornaments. I made 32 stars and baked them for 2 1/2 hours at 170 degrees. The ornaments were a hit! The kids loved them and I purchased styrofoam bowls for them to take the ornaments home in. We stapled the bowls together to make a container to take a wet ornament home in without wearing the glitter, glue and other things that were stuck to them. We had a delightful buffet of snacks, even though no one could tell me that they were sending anything in. I was kind of sweating that one. It all worked out okay. Hubs came to volunteer with me and the teacher was thrilled. We don't see that many dads at our school. We had another mom who was able to come to help. She has a great boss who allowed her to cruise on in to help. I thought that the ornaments would take far longer than they did, then I realized that we had a half hour left. I did my "unhang man" AKA building a drawing of something other than a guy hanging. I drew a snowman, a Christmas tree and Santa. The kids dug it. We only got the wiggly widgets the last 5 minutes, so I call that a success.
I came home from the party, drew myself a bath, put on my pajamas and hopped into bed. We had no obligations last night and I was beyond dog tired. I had run for two weeks straight without stopping, having multiple meetings, breakfasts, work, other school obligations and such. I knew that we could all take a quiet night and kick back and rest. I ended up taking a nap (which I never do) and the fell asleep at 10 and slept all night long. Hubs commented this morning how I was "dead to the world" and must have been beyond tired. He said that the ADD keeps me spinning and the fact that I was down and resting kind of threw him. I wasn't sick, but I was pretty convinced that if I didn't stop, I would be. I needed to listen to my body and listen I did. He chose to work out last night and K decided to watch the movie Brave three times in a row. We aren't big with TV with her and doing that is a very rare thing, but she's been exhausted, too. Kiddo needed to decompress, so she rested, played with her dollhouse in the middle of the living room floor and loved the quiet time to herself.
Today is Happy Home Day! Today is the day that we celebrate that K came to be with us. (Most people call it Gotcha Day, but that title doesn't ring real well with me. I wanted something more meaningful to us and a little less slang.) We like to take her to see Christmas lights on the evening of Happy Home Day. There have only been a few years that we've missed it, but we always like to do something special with her. (One year had the stomach flu and last year we had no lights where we usually go.) We'll have fun this evening for sure!
Having spent every single day at the school this week, I can tell you that our procedures for different things have been tweaked all week. The tweaking is definitely a good thing and everyone seems to be fairly obedient about it. I texted my PTA peeps to let them know that they needed to print badges as well as wear their lanyards, we needed to give specific whereabouts to the office and are absolutely under no circumstance to let anyone in at all. (We already knew most of those things, but it didn't hurt to reiterate.)
I have to jog out to the land o' retail madness today. For those who speak with me by phone, they will be thrilled to know that Santa (my parents in this case) will be gifting us a new cordless phone! The phone system was a hand-me-down from the neighbor and it has gotten so beyond that it doesn't beep when the battery is low anymore. It just hangs up. People know that I will call them back, but still . . .
K is out shoveling snow from the neighbors drive. She is moving snow to probably make herself a mini sledding hill. She loves playing in snow more than I can even express. There is more coming basically everyday. To her, that is the greatest gift.
Have a wonderful weekend!
Thursday, December 6, 2012
The Third Grade Guarantee
We're breathing a sigh of relief in our house tonight. K- passed the Ohio Reading Achievement test enough to qualify for promotion to 4th grade. It is very sad that this child got so stressed out about a test that could potentially hold her back that she took half of a day off as a mental health day.
Poor kiddo!
She scored above their required score, but just a few points behind where they want the kids to be at the end of third grade.
Considering the massive amount of stress she felt, we think that is awesome! On a general day, she could do better, but having never seen it before, she did fabulous!
It is sad that it has come to that, though. It is ridiculous what they put these poor kids through. The teacher made no mention of the 3rd Grade Guarantee specification and neither did we, but other parents told their kids who were a little free-wheeling with the information. Between that and the difficulties in math, the kid has been a complete wreck!
She takes the reading test again in April, along with the math achievement test. About a week ago, the kids had a reading test for the city that took 2 1/2 hours and K- said it was 31 pages long.
Do I need to remind y'all that K- is 8?
I have a hatred for standardized testing. I know it has its place, but I'm not a fan. Argh.
:whew with a wipe to the forehead:
That is a hurdle that we've jumped over together. Now if we could just get that math thing licked!
Poor kiddo!
She scored above their required score, but just a few points behind where they want the kids to be at the end of third grade.
Considering the massive amount of stress she felt, we think that is awesome! On a general day, she could do better, but having never seen it before, she did fabulous!
It is sad that it has come to that, though. It is ridiculous what they put these poor kids through. The teacher made no mention of the 3rd Grade Guarantee specification and neither did we, but other parents told their kids who were a little free-wheeling with the information. Between that and the difficulties in math, the kid has been a complete wreck!
She takes the reading test again in April, along with the math achievement test. About a week ago, the kids had a reading test for the city that took 2 1/2 hours and K- said it was 31 pages long.
Do I need to remind y'all that K- is 8?
I have a hatred for standardized testing. I know it has its place, but I'm not a fan. Argh.
:whew with a wipe to the forehead:
That is a hurdle that we've jumped over together. Now if we could just get that math thing licked!
Tuesday, December 4, 2012
Tales from the Trenches: Don't worry, I'll bend down.
My daughter is growing.
And growing.
And growing.
This is where I remind you that I'm 5' 1".
This morning, I woke up about an hour later than I usually do. My alarm usually goes off at 6:09 AM with two options to have alarm smack-downs, then up at 6:30. Since I failed to set the alarm, I did not have that this AM, but with the bus coming at 7:40, we had enough time. (And I even had to pack lunch!) I ran down and grabbed K's uniform parts off the line, started packing her lunch and grabbed up breakfast for her. I was brushing her hair, she popped up to brush her teeth and then she stopped.
She bent down for me.
"Mom, don't worry. I'll bend down for you." You see, it's getting harder and harder for me to part her hair without her being seated.
My baby? She's growing older and taller.
:smirk:
I even bet that she'll be taller than me. That's okay. Hubs told her that she'll be 6' 4" (which she won't be) and I'll still be putting her into time out. All she could do was to laugh. I told her that I didn't care how tall she was, she just needs to remember that I'm mom.
A short mom.
Have a great day!
And growing.
And growing.
This is where I remind you that I'm 5' 1".
This morning, I woke up about an hour later than I usually do. My alarm usually goes off at 6:09 AM with two options to have alarm smack-downs, then up at 6:30. Since I failed to set the alarm, I did not have that this AM, but with the bus coming at 7:40, we had enough time. (And I even had to pack lunch!) I ran down and grabbed K's uniform parts off the line, started packing her lunch and grabbed up breakfast for her. I was brushing her hair, she popped up to brush her teeth and then she stopped.
She bent down for me.
"Mom, don't worry. I'll bend down for you." You see, it's getting harder and harder for me to part her hair without her being seated.
My baby? She's growing older and taller.
:smirk:
I even bet that she'll be taller than me. That's okay. Hubs told her that she'll be 6' 4" (which she won't be) and I'll still be putting her into time out. All she could do was to laugh. I told her that I didn't care how tall she was, she just needs to remember that I'm mom.
A short mom.
Have a great day!
Tuesday, November 27, 2012
Tales from the Trenches: The dreaded school mornings.
Once school started back up, K has absolutely every excuse in the book to NOT get ready in the morning. (She was perfectly fine during break.)
"I feel like I'm going to throw up."
"No, for real this time."
"My foot hurts. Look at the bruise that I have."
"My head hurts."
"Real bad."
"My stomach hurts."
"Real bad."
"I can't stand up straight."
I understand that we're going through a bit of a thing this year. Getting her up and ready for school is more painful than a mouth full of root canals. This morning, she was running so late, that she had no time to brush her teeth.
"That is it. K, I'm telling you what I am going to do. We will NEVER have a morning where you can't brush again. I woke you up at 6:30 AM and now it is 7:40 AM. I'm letting you know that if you do this same thing tomorrow, I will wake you up at 6:00 AM on Wednesday. If you do the same thing Wednesday, I'll wake you up at 5:30 AM on Thursday."
"Okay, Mom. I promise. I won't do it again."
As it is, my alarm goes off at 6:09 AM so that I have two alarm clock smack-downs before getting K up. I snuggle in with her. We talk about stories and whatever it is that she wants to talk about. It is a school lunch day, so we had extra time since I didn't have to pack a lunch.
No, it isn't because she doesn't go to bed early enough. She goes to bed at 8:30 PM, but no later than 9 PM. Bedtime remains the same for non-school nights.
For the love that is all good and right in the world, mornings wear me out. K called me this afternoon to tell me about her social studies grade. "Mom, number 8, 9 and 10 were 5 points each." Gulp. "How'd you do, babe?" "I got 5, 5 and 5." "That's great! How did you do on your whole test? What grade did you get?" "22 out of 22! I got an A!" Turns out that K was sweating her social studies test grade. She said that she was convinced that she was getting a D when she actually scored perfectly. We discussed how that may have affected her behavior and about how she needn't sweat these things. She just needs to do her best.
She has decided that she wants to wake up at 5:30 AM tomorrow. I begged her to please wait until 6:20 AM. We have her alarm set, which is always set for 6:30 AM, but we've pushed it back a bit for her. She is looking forward (at least for tomorrow) of getting up and getting moving earlier.
Me thinks that she wasn't too fond of the idea of a cranky mom at 5:30 AM. We've discussed how nice the mornings are when she can take advantage of the extra time and chill with a little bit of cartoons before the bus.
Let's hope this plan sticks.
ETA: The morning went well. K got herself up at 6:30 AM. She was delightful. She had breakfast, made her bed, brushed her teeth and we even had extra time to tie a headband in (a two people job with this one.) She has city wide writing assessments this week, so I'm glad that she shuttled off happy, fed and well. No complaining of the typical morning ailments, either. I hope that this is a permanent situation, but something tells me that it probably isn't. I'll take it while I can get it.
"I feel like I'm going to throw up."
"No, for real this time."
"My foot hurts. Look at the bruise that I have."
"My head hurts."
"Real bad."
"My stomach hurts."
"Real bad."
"I can't stand up straight."
I understand that we're going through a bit of a thing this year. Getting her up and ready for school is more painful than a mouth full of root canals. This morning, she was running so late, that she had no time to brush her teeth.
"That is it. K, I'm telling you what I am going to do. We will NEVER have a morning where you can't brush again. I woke you up at 6:30 AM and now it is 7:40 AM. I'm letting you know that if you do this same thing tomorrow, I will wake you up at 6:00 AM on Wednesday. If you do the same thing Wednesday, I'll wake you up at 5:30 AM on Thursday."
"Okay, Mom. I promise. I won't do it again."
As it is, my alarm goes off at 6:09 AM so that I have two alarm clock smack-downs before getting K up. I snuggle in with her. We talk about stories and whatever it is that she wants to talk about. It is a school lunch day, so we had extra time since I didn't have to pack a lunch.
No, it isn't because she doesn't go to bed early enough. She goes to bed at 8:30 PM, but no later than 9 PM. Bedtime remains the same for non-school nights.
For the love that is all good and right in the world, mornings wear me out. K called me this afternoon to tell me about her social studies grade. "Mom, number 8, 9 and 10 were 5 points each." Gulp. "How'd you do, babe?" "I got 5, 5 and 5." "That's great! How did you do on your whole test? What grade did you get?" "22 out of 22! I got an A!" Turns out that K was sweating her social studies test grade. She said that she was convinced that she was getting a D when she actually scored perfectly. We discussed how that may have affected her behavior and about how she needn't sweat these things. She just needs to do her best.
She has decided that she wants to wake up at 5:30 AM tomorrow. I begged her to please wait until 6:20 AM. We have her alarm set, which is always set for 6:30 AM, but we've pushed it back a bit for her. She is looking forward (at least for tomorrow) of getting up and getting moving earlier.
Me thinks that she wasn't too fond of the idea of a cranky mom at 5:30 AM. We've discussed how nice the mornings are when she can take advantage of the extra time and chill with a little bit of cartoons before the bus.
Let's hope this plan sticks.
ETA: The morning went well. K got herself up at 6:30 AM. She was delightful. She had breakfast, made her bed, brushed her teeth and we even had extra time to tie a headband in (a two people job with this one.) She has city wide writing assessments this week, so I'm glad that she shuttled off happy, fed and well. No complaining of the typical morning ailments, either. I hope that this is a permanent situation, but something tells me that it probably isn't. I'll take it while I can get it.
Wednesday, October 3, 2012
Happy with 66.7%.
K had a math test today. She and Hubs has studied since Saturday, including a review session this AM before school. Her teacher emailed that she got 8/12 and she knew that wasn't what we were looking for but, "We'll fix this!" I told her that I never thought I would say that I was thrilled with a D, but that was a 20 point improvement and I can't ignore that percentage of improvement. So I breathe a sigh of relief. It isn't bomb bad. It is thinking of tickling a C and that isn't a bad thing.
K has been approved for the supplemental tutoring. The teacher is backing us and wonderful with communication. We will fix this. It will take time. We're moving in the right direction and that is all I can ask.
K has been approved for the supplemental tutoring. The teacher is backing us and wonderful with communication. We will fix this. It will take time. We're moving in the right direction and that is all I can ask.
Saturday, September 29, 2012
History repeating itself.
My struggles with math began when I was in third grade. I had Mrs. Henry as a teacher and she was busy teaching us a shortcut in division, if memory serves. The spiral started downward at that point.
I have spent so much time praying about K this week and her math difficulties. The school system switched from Harcourt math to enVision math- a math system that we are convinced was written by people who clearly don't sit in the classroom. Nonetheless, it is what we are stuck with. On Thursday, we received a letter that went home with all grade 3-5 students, introducing the tutor and different types of things that they can do to help the students.
I e-mailed her straight away. I asked for intervention. I told her what is going on, what we are trying to do and the all A's and one B she has otherwise. She e-mailed me last evening explaining more about enVision (I understand her point, but I'm not convinced) and told me that she'll check in with K's teacher and with K herself. Praise God!
Yesterday afternoon, K came hone with an invitation to the after school tutoring and enrichment program for math. Since space is limited, we filled the form out and drove right back up to the school. K begged me to allow her to do it. When she handed the form to me she said, "Mom, I need this." You think?
How thankful we are that the school is truly trying to help us and not sweeping K's struggle under the rug. We are so thankful for the opportunities that are being given to her. Despite that she will be gone from 7:30 AM until after 5, she knows that it will make for a very long day, but she is eager (without my building the opportunities up as a good thing for her) to get her mathematical misunderstandings worked out.
How glad I am that she has these oppotunities, because I did not and my struggle continued on. I'm hoping for a much better math brain for her!
I have spent so much time praying about K this week and her math difficulties. The school system switched from Harcourt math to enVision math- a math system that we are convinced was written by people who clearly don't sit in the classroom. Nonetheless, it is what we are stuck with. On Thursday, we received a letter that went home with all grade 3-5 students, introducing the tutor and different types of things that they can do to help the students.
I e-mailed her straight away. I asked for intervention. I told her what is going on, what we are trying to do and the all A's and one B she has otherwise. She e-mailed me last evening explaining more about enVision (I understand her point, but I'm not convinced) and told me that she'll check in with K's teacher and with K herself. Praise God!
Yesterday afternoon, K came hone with an invitation to the after school tutoring and enrichment program for math. Since space is limited, we filled the form out and drove right back up to the school. K begged me to allow her to do it. When she handed the form to me she said, "Mom, I need this." You think?
How thankful we are that the school is truly trying to help us and not sweeping K's struggle under the rug. We are so thankful for the opportunities that are being given to her. Despite that she will be gone from 7:30 AM until after 5, she knows that it will make for a very long day, but she is eager (without my building the opportunities up as a good thing for her) to get her mathematical misunderstandings worked out.
How glad I am that she has these oppotunities, because I did not and my struggle continued on. I'm hoping for a much better math brain for her!
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