I don't like the shop. It is a pain, I get angry and frustrated at people and I generally leave the store in a foul mood. There is one notable exception to this and that is black Friday shopping! As stupid as it sounds, I love getting up at the crack of dawn, standing in line in the cold and fighting the crowds for a few deals. We plan our trips with miliatry precision. We get the ads on Thursday (I actually browse them on blackfriday.info beforhand and hope that that information is close to right on the big day) and we all sit down and go through them together. We pick the stores that each person will go to, in what order we will go and figure out what time everyone needs to be up and where and when to meet after. This year, my brother, who works nights typically, stayed up and got in line at Staples at 2:45 for the opening at 6. He took a lawn chair, some blankets, coffee and his computer and camped out in front of the store. Mom and I got up at 3:30 and mom headed out while I went for more coffee for me and him. We ended up being about 25th or so in line, which was fine. It seemed like everyone in front of us where looking for a super cheap laptop that they had so i wasn't worried about getting my stuff. As the morning wore on, more and more people showed up and the line ended up being clear around the corner of the building. We also had several people who jumped in line with people in front of us but we couldn't complain too much since we did the same thing, 2 hours earlier. We had several things to get and assigned each person a task. D got put in charge of getting the hard drives because he is the biggest and the tallest and has the easiest time getting through the crowds and that was the most important thing to get. I got put in charge of my memory card and flash drives and mom came along as a third person to buy the one per person items :) I ended up getting a Maxtor 500gb external harddrive, a 2gb CF card for my new camera, and a package of CDs.
We were in and out of the store in under 20 minutes and would have been even faster (last year, we had everything we went for and had checked out before the end of the line made it in the store) if we could haven't goten D to stand still and get in line. After Staples, we went to Meijer and I got pillows (I bought some a few months ago and they horrible. They are all flat and gross) and a chicken fryer, not because I fry so much chicken but because it is a nice big deep pan and I broke my other one (it fell off the edge of the sink and the handle broke). After that, mom and I went to Walgreen's where she got a digital picture frame keyring and moon sand. Then to the mall where we had a $10 off a $10 item at Bergener's. I got the "Pop Bottle Science" kit for C, for $5 so score. Then to breakfast and home by 9:30 am :)
In other news, my back is KILLING me. It has hurt since Tuesday morning. I'm seriously thinking about going to the doctor on Monday, if it isn't better. I'm been taking Advil round the clock and sleeping on a heating pad. It still hurts to walk or stand up or sit down or bend over or pick up the kids, etc. It got so bad the last couple of nights (rolling over in bed is horrible) that I took real pain meds left over from my broken toe and my c/s. The sad thing is, I don't even know what I did to it. :(
Friday, November 23, 2007
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
My anniversary present
Dh got me this for our anniversary on Saturday. I can't wait to get a chance to play with it some more. I just need to wait for the right oppourtunity because just sitting in my living room playing with it isn't that much fun.
Sunday, November 18, 2007
Gift cards as gifts
I LOVE gift cards. I was just reading something about how it is SO rude to give people give cards because it means you don't care enough about them to know what they would want instead. IMO, getting someone a gift card means you care enough about their time to get them something useful, instead of something that they may not need or want and will just have to return (or regift, which is also OMG SO rude, apparently). My MIL hates giving gift cards and I've been asking for one for every gift giving holiday since dh and I got married. I simply don't understand this. I know what I want, I know where to get and I want the best deal for my money. Why kill yourself buying something I don't like (she has this thing with buying jewelry, which I often don't like or can't wear because of an allergy) or won't be able to use. For example, we asked for a Wii this year for Xmas and I asked for a gift card to buy accesories for it. I don't know what games we want, I want to wait until we find a good deal on something. I don't know how many controllers we will want or need, I don't know if we will need remote skins or anything else.
I swear, when I sat down to write this, this was a lot more intelligent. I've been distracted 20 times since I started and it no longer has even close to the same flow as when I started. :(
I swear, when I sat down to write this, this was a lot more intelligent. I've been distracted 20 times since I started and it no longer has even close to the same flow as when I started. :(
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Moving
Not out of my house but we have moved nearly everything in the house around in the last few days. Several months ago, I set up centers for various activities around the house and it has helped keep my house so much cleaner!! The centers worked great over the summer when dh was working fairly normal hours. Since he has started working nights, they haven't worked as well. The two favorties, art and kitchen were in the dining room, nearest his room. I was forever shushing them and eventually making them leave the centers because they were being too loud. Last week, I decided that I needed to move them into the living room. Well, I don't have enough room in the living room for all the stuff so I had to move blocks and trains into the dining room. I backed blocks up to my desk (partly hide the crap that falls off my desk) and put the train under the bar. Then I decided that I was tired of the laundry room the way it was. We drug out this nasty old cabinet (it was a ktichen counter that someone had tried to cut a sink in and then covered with masking tape when it didn't work) Since we just stored soap in there, it wasn't a big deal. I decided that I wanted to put the dressers in the laundry room so that I could put clothes away as they came out of the dryer. Previously, I had been tossing clothes on the floor (my typical place for storing clothes, unfortunately) and then I set up a basket system, where each person had a basket in the laundry room and I would toss each person's clothes into their basket as they came out of the dryer. This was working well, but the baskets were taking up lots of room and it was hard to get through to the washer. The other issue was putting away clothes because they all go in the room that Evan sleeps in. I couldn't put them away during the day and I couldn't get them back out in the morning either. We have moved the dressers in there and they take up way less room. I still have a basket for Lizzie because her dresser is in the other room and I'm not going to move it into the laundry room. As long as I put the clothes away as soon as they are done, it shouldn't be an issue. We are hanging a bar on one side and hanging up all the clothes in there and a shelf on the other side for non-dresser folded clothes (pants). We are also mounting a shelf for soap and bleach and other things like that and then I'm mounting a shelf over the art center for things that need to stay with it but that I don't want the kids to have access to all the time (beads, hot glue gun, extra paint brushes, etc) Since none of the dressers are in dh's room, he drug his desk into his room while I was gone picking C up at school. Now I have to clean that area up (it has been awhile since it has been vacuumed really well under his desk) and then clean my desk off. Then I'm going to move my desk in to the nook that his was in, next to the file cabinet. Then I have to clean really well where my desk used to be (also quite some time since it has been vacuumed well) and then I'm going the flatten the blocks against the wall. Not sure what I'll do with the extra wall space (our desk have been in the same place since we moved in here 5 years ago) but I'm sure I'll find something to fill it.
So I should be cleaning the dining room but I'm sitting here on my tail blogging about how I'm going to clean it. Lame :)
So I should be cleaning the dining room but I'm sitting here on my tail blogging about how I'm going to clean it. Lame :)
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Child support update
Our local office says they have no record of any payments since Nov 2006. They suggested we call the payroll person at work and verify they were sending the payments to the right place and with the right number. He called. She is. Her suggestion was to call the main office and see what they say. He called and they said, they show that payments are current as of Nov 5th 2007. They suggested calling CO and seeing what the problem is on their end. He did and was told (after waiting most of the day for a return call) that he needed to call someone else about the accounts being frozen. He did and was told that they showed he was current as well, but they couldn't do anything about the notice once it had been sent. Once they get the paperwork that we are supposed to send, they can unfreeze the account. Even though they admit that he is current, they can't do anything to correct their error until we send proof that their files are correct. SO frustrating.
A couple of good things have come out of this though. We actually have the name of a case worker in CO that we can call when they do stupid crap like this. He said this is also the first time that he has called about an issue that everyone that he has talked to hasn't treated him like a lying deadbeat.
Going forward, we were able to stop his direct deposit so this own't tie up all our money for the next 2 weeks. When he gets paid, I'm going to have him sign the check over to me and then I'm going to go to our other bank (where I have an account in my name alone) and cash it. Then I'm going to open a new checking account in my name alone. He will have to change his direct deposit to that account and I'll switch all of our bill pays over to that. I intend to keep the original account open and once this mess is resolved, I'll transfer money into it every pay period to cover his gas and what have you. That way, he still has access to money, without having to worry about another error tying up money for days or weeks. We were fortunate this time that the problem occurred at the end of a pay period, when there wasn't as much money in the account.
A couple of good things have come out of this though. We actually have the name of a case worker in CO that we can call when they do stupid crap like this. He said this is also the first time that he has called about an issue that everyone that he has talked to hasn't treated him like a lying deadbeat.
Going forward, we were able to stop his direct deposit so this own't tie up all our money for the next 2 weeks. When he gets paid, I'm going to have him sign the check over to me and then I'm going to go to our other bank (where I have an account in my name alone) and cash it. Then I'm going to open a new checking account in my name alone. He will have to change his direct deposit to that account and I'll switch all of our bill pays over to that. I intend to keep the original account open and once this mess is resolved, I'll transfer money into it every pay period to cover his gas and what have you. That way, he still has access to money, without having to worry about another error tying up money for days or weeks. We were fortunate this time that the problem occurred at the end of a pay period, when there wasn't as much money in the account.
Pilates and PE
I figured out why I don't like my Pilates book. It isn't PILATES, it is all crunches and legs lifts. Throw in a fat lesbian or a football coach in the midst of roid rage and you have my high school PE class.
I HATED PE. I hated it all through school. I managed to get into it with every single PE teacher I ever had. In elem school, I kicked my PE in the knee because he thought I wasn't stretching well enough so he decided to help me. He pushed my leg up further than I wanted it so I reared my other leg back and unleashed on his locked knee. I got sent to the principal's office over it.
Freshman year in high school, I told my PE teacher (the fat lesbian)that I would run as soon as she did. She was pissed. Later in the year, she tried to give me a same day detention (against school policy) and I walked out the of the class. She called my mom and mom told her to take a flying leap.
Sophomore year, I got thrown out of my PE class. I refused to dress one day for some reason or another (any excuse I could come up with was good enough for me) and the coach (roid boy) told me that I had to dress. The rest of teh conversation went sort of like this:
Me: yeah, I'm so not doing that.
RB: you are REQUIRED to dress for this class
Me: I'd like to see you try and make me
RB: you will dress!!!! or you can go sit in the office for the rest of the class period.
Me: *thinking* I could sit in the air conditioned office, in a comfy chair or in the hot, smelly gym on the hard floor. DuhI'm outta here.
I flunked PE one quarter and had to quit pissing off the coaches for the next quarter because if you flunked the whole semester, you had to repeat it next year. My junior year, I fully loaded my schedule so I wouldn't have to take PE, because I was "college bound". My senior year, I decided "screw it" and took only the bare minimum of classes to keep me out of PE. It wasn't like I needed the credits. You had to have 16 to graduate and I had that by the middle of my junior year. Without flunking classes, I'm not sure how you could manage to not have 16 credits but some people did.
I HATED PE. I hated it all through school. I managed to get into it with every single PE teacher I ever had. In elem school, I kicked my PE in the knee because he thought I wasn't stretching well enough so he decided to help me. He pushed my leg up further than I wanted it so I reared my other leg back and unleashed on his locked knee. I got sent to the principal's office over it.
Freshman year in high school, I told my PE teacher (the fat lesbian)that I would run as soon as she did. She was pissed. Later in the year, she tried to give me a same day detention (against school policy) and I walked out the of the class. She called my mom and mom told her to take a flying leap.
Sophomore year, I got thrown out of my PE class. I refused to dress one day for some reason or another (any excuse I could come up with was good enough for me) and the coach (roid boy) told me that I had to dress. The rest of teh conversation went sort of like this:
Me: yeah, I'm so not doing that.
RB: you are REQUIRED to dress for this class
Me: I'd like to see you try and make me
RB: you will dress!!!! or you can go sit in the office for the rest of the class period.
Me: *thinking* I could sit in the air conditioned office, in a comfy chair or in the hot, smelly gym on the hard floor. DuhI'm outta here.
I flunked PE one quarter and had to quit pissing off the coaches for the next quarter because if you flunked the whole semester, you had to repeat it next year. My junior year, I fully loaded my schedule so I wouldn't have to take PE, because I was "college bound". My senior year, I decided "screw it" and took only the bare minimum of classes to keep me out of PE. It wasn't like I needed the credits. You had to have 16 to graduate and I had that by the middle of my junior year. Without flunking classes, I'm not sure how you could manage to not have 16 credits but some people did.
Sunday, November 11, 2007
Excercize and scrapping
I have started doing pilates and yoga again. I had been doing really good at it and then I got sick and quit (it is really hard to invert when it feels like your head is going to explode when you pick things up off the floor) Then I never got back into it. I need to get the book that I had from the library because the ab workout in it was muxh better. This book I have now is ok, but it is less concentrated (I realize I griped about not liking the other book I already had because it was too specific but there is a happy medium between too specific and not specific enough) than what I want. I've been doing the yoga on and off for a couple of years. If nothing else, I sleep better when I do it, so doing it as often as possible is a good thing.
I've also decided to do something aerobic 10 minutes everyday. If that is swimming with the kids or chasing them around the playground or flailing around wildly to music. 10 minutes a day isn't that hard to commit to. Eventually the plan is to work up to doing 20 minutes a day and then 30 minutes. Over the course of the day, none of that is too much. 10 minutes is seriously nothing. I can do 2 minutes an hour (one song to flail to) and it won't even take all day. Do I want to lose weight? Yes, I would really like to lose 50 lbs. However, that isn't the main focus of this. I want to be in better shape. I don't like not being able to breathe. And I don't like not being able to run and play with the kids without being winded.
As for scrapping, I'm so tired of commenting on layouts. I want the comments on mine (which are boring, I know) but I'm tired of spewing the same pointless drivel at every layout I see. It is rare that I see a layout that really inspires me to say anything real. I always complained about galleries where all that was said was "Nice page,I like your color choices" or "I really like your page, you did a good job with that picture" I always want some kind of constructive critism but I find that hard to offer. I see the layouts and they are "fine", nothing spectacular but nothing wrong either and it is so hard to come up with something that doesn't sound 100% lame. So I may not like the robot comments but at least I understand them now :(
I've also decided to do something aerobic 10 minutes everyday. If that is swimming with the kids or chasing them around the playground or flailing around wildly to music. 10 minutes a day isn't that hard to commit to. Eventually the plan is to work up to doing 20 minutes a day and then 30 minutes. Over the course of the day, none of that is too much. 10 minutes is seriously nothing. I can do 2 minutes an hour (one song to flail to) and it won't even take all day. Do I want to lose weight? Yes, I would really like to lose 50 lbs. However, that isn't the main focus of this. I want to be in better shape. I don't like not being able to breathe. And I don't like not being able to run and play with the kids without being winded.
As for scrapping, I'm so tired of commenting on layouts. I want the comments on mine (which are boring, I know) but I'm tired of spewing the same pointless drivel at every layout I see. It is rare that I see a layout that really inspires me to say anything real. I always complained about galleries where all that was said was "Nice page,I like your color choices" or "I really like your page, you did a good job with that picture" I always want some kind of constructive critism but I find that hard to offer. I see the layouts and they are "fine", nothing spectacular but nothing wrong either and it is so hard to come up with something that doesn't sound 100% lame. So I may not like the robot comments but at least I understand them now :(
Saturday, November 10, 2007
Child support
Ug, I hate child support. Dh has to pay support for dsd, which is fine with me. He helped make the baby, now he has to help pay for the baby (who isn't a baby at 11). It comes out of his check every week and we never see and barely even think about it. Every few weeks we get a notice telling us that he is behind by a couple of hundred dollars because the state is off a little bit from his pay so they say "he is behind" and then they process the payment and we get a letter saying "oops, you have a credit" Mostly we ignore these updates since they change like every other day.
Today, we got a notice in the mail telling us that they had frozen our checking accounts because he is TWELVE HUNDRED DOLLARS behind!! So, Monday he has to call the child support enforcement people and tell them that he has a statement dated Oct 17 that says that he was $21 behind. He also has a check stub dated since then showing that he paid the amount plus the "back support" (which was another error and we get periodic rebate checks from them because they take out the extra and then realize the were wrong and send it back).
Ugg, I hate dealing with these idiots. Part of me is thrilled that I don't actually have to deal with them (I'm a non-entity as far as they are concerned nevermind that I handle all the money so I'm the one completely stressed when crap like this happens) and part of me hates that I can't just deal with them.
Today, we got a notice in the mail telling us that they had frozen our checking accounts because he is TWELVE HUNDRED DOLLARS behind!! So, Monday he has to call the child support enforcement people and tell them that he has a statement dated Oct 17 that says that he was $21 behind. He also has a check stub dated since then showing that he paid the amount plus the "back support" (which was another error and we get periodic rebate checks from them because they take out the extra and then realize the were wrong and send it back).
Ugg, I hate dealing with these idiots. Part of me is thrilled that I don't actually have to deal with them (I'm a non-entity as far as they are concerned nevermind that I handle all the money so I'm the one completely stressed when crap like this happens) and part of me hates that I can't just deal with them.
Hellz ya!
Holy crap the U of I just beat #1 Ohio State!! This makes us 8 and 3, the best season we have had in FOREVER (2001 we were 10-2 and went to the Sugar Bowl, before that was 99 and before that 1990, other seasons would be 89 and 83, the year of the Rose Bowl) and them 10-1. Yes, that is right, piddly little Illinois who won a total of 8 games in the past 4 seasons has officially ended the hopes of a national championship for Ohio. They were talking bowl game (possibly the Outback bowl) last week but I'll be interested in seeing what they predict now with this win and a home game against Northwestern next weekend, who only have 6 wins and only 3 of those are Big Ten schools. For the dorks This is a fun site to check out the history of the Illini and the records for various things.
Friday, November 9, 2007
PTC with the teacher
I had my meeting with C's actual teacher today. As her first point, she mentioned that he is behind in reading. So it is an all around perception. I was really disappointed to hear that. He actually seems a little behind in nearly everything. They have a number based report card and 3s are grade level. He got mostly 2s, which is working towards grade level. So we are going to start pushing hard and doing more (we already probably do as much or more than most parents) and really get him where he needs to be by the end of the second quarter.
He also has impulse control problems because he is a 6 year old BOY, for crying out loud. And she said as much and pointed out that at various points in the day all the kids have impulse control problems. She did confirm that she thinks he knows a lot more than he lets on, now to get him to show what he knows.
Something that made me feel a little better (I feel like a crap mom because he is behind) was his teacher saying that he is doing great in some areas and she can tell that is because he has so much support at home. Then I emailed his reading teacher and asked for the letter list to work on and what his goals are for sight words (I did them with him and even for me, he only knew half of them and had to be prompted on half of those). She emailed me back and told me that she would get that for me on Monday and then thanked me for being so involved. So I'm happy about that.
I also got reports from art, math and PE and he is doing well in all those classes. In fact, surprisingly, he exceeds standards in PE, which really surprises me. He is graceful and strong (TKD and gymnastics are good choices for activities for him) but rather uncoordinated. He doesn't kick, catch or throw well, yet he exceeds expectations in PE! Must be some low expectations :)
In other news, I moved my whole house around. The kids always want to play in the art center and the kitchen, which are closest to Evan's room. It is a pain to constantly be having to say no or telling them to be quite while they are playing there. I spent the better part of the afternoon moving all my centers around, sweeping under the furniture, hauling toys out of my living room (anything that doesn't go with a center gets stuck in the toy boxes, which I only allow one to be open at a time)and stashing the extras under the stairs.
Next weekend, I'm taking the janky cabinet out of the laundry room and putting our dressers in there. Then I'm hanging up a rod to hang clothes on and a shelf to store soap and things that sit on the janky cabinet. I'm also getting a shelf to go near the new are center to store extra paint brushes, craft items, etc. I'm also going to work on getting some kind of storage at the bottom of the stairs. There isn't a lot of room so I can't have things that stick out too far. I'm thinking about hanging up some bags or something where I can stash stuff that needs to go upstairs. As opposed to the current situation where we lay stuff on the stairs and try not to kill ourselves on it.
He also has impulse control problems because he is a 6 year old BOY, for crying out loud. And she said as much and pointed out that at various points in the day all the kids have impulse control problems. She did confirm that she thinks he knows a lot more than he lets on, now to get him to show what he knows.
Something that made me feel a little better (I feel like a crap mom because he is behind) was his teacher saying that he is doing great in some areas and she can tell that is because he has so much support at home. Then I emailed his reading teacher and asked for the letter list to work on and what his goals are for sight words (I did them with him and even for me, he only knew half of them and had to be prompted on half of those). She emailed me back and told me that she would get that for me on Monday and then thanked me for being so involved. So I'm happy about that.
I also got reports from art, math and PE and he is doing well in all those classes. In fact, surprisingly, he exceeds standards in PE, which really surprises me. He is graceful and strong (TKD and gymnastics are good choices for activities for him) but rather uncoordinated. He doesn't kick, catch or throw well, yet he exceeds expectations in PE! Must be some low expectations :)
In other news, I moved my whole house around. The kids always want to play in the art center and the kitchen, which are closest to Evan's room. It is a pain to constantly be having to say no or telling them to be quite while they are playing there. I spent the better part of the afternoon moving all my centers around, sweeping under the furniture, hauling toys out of my living room (anything that doesn't go with a center gets stuck in the toy boxes, which I only allow one to be open at a time)and stashing the extras under the stairs.
Next weekend, I'm taking the janky cabinet out of the laundry room and putting our dressers in there. Then I'm hanging up a rod to hang clothes on and a shelf to store soap and things that sit on the janky cabinet. I'm also getting a shelf to go near the new are center to store extra paint brushes, craft items, etc. I'm also going to work on getting some kind of storage at the bottom of the stairs. There isn't a lot of room so I can't have things that stick out too far. I'm thinking about hanging up some bags or something where I can stash stuff that needs to go upstairs. As opposed to the current situation where we lay stuff on the stairs and try not to kill ourselves on it.
Thursday, November 8, 2007
Perfectionists and reading
Look, an update. I know you have all (and I know you are out there reading because site meter tells me so LOL) been holding your breath waiting for a new post from me. Well, you can breathe again because I'm back. Not that I went anywhere, I just didn't log into Blogger at all for like a week. Of course I picked blog month to do that so several blogs that I read were overflowing when I finally did log in :)
C is in K. When he started K, he claimed to know none of his letters. Bad mother that I am, I didn't stress about it too much, figuring that is, partly, what K is about. So when he came home after a couple of weeks of school telling me "this is a C and this is an H" or whatever, I was pretty impressed. I'm impressed when he asks to write words and we tell him what letters to write and he does it. He asked daddy how to write ZEBRA the other day. Daddy told him and he wrote it on the chalk board. The first day I worked in his classroom, I met his reading teacher. She is really nice but was concerned with the fact that he could write his name, but couldn't spell it. She said most kids can spell it or can't do anything but it is rare that they can write it without knowing what the letters are. I explained to her about his perfectionism (he won't do anything until he can do it right the first time and has been that way his whole life). I also explained about his genetic dislike for playing games. He doesn't like answering stupid questions and his attitude towards telling you his colors was "if you don't know, I'm not going to tell you" I've often felt the same way about the questions that are asked in school so I understand where he is coming from (and although I understand it, it makes me crazy and our similarity is just one more reason why I chose not to homeschool).
A few weeks ago, I get a note home from her with a list of letters to work on at home. I sat down with him and asked him what the letters were. He stumbled on M (said it was N but that is what he says for M&Ms as well so it didn't suprise me) and G (when I prompted him that it was the first letter in his last name, he got it though) Other than that, he rattled them off like nobody's business. Thinking maybe it wasn't the id that was the problem, I asked him to tell me the sound each letter made. Again, no problem. So then I asked him to tell me a word that started with each letter. Again, no problems. Since I see his reading teacher every morning on our way in, I asked her about it the next day and she said it was the id and was really surprised that he had no trouble with the letters.
Because of the letter issue, I asked to meet with her during PTCs to see how he was doing. She said he has made great progress and can now id 44 of the letters on the assessment sheet (instead of the 11 that he started with). She said he is falling behind on sight words (I don't agree so much with teaching of sight words because I don't think it is the best way to learn to read, but I'll play the game) and only knew a few and that she was concerned with the fact that he still couldn't id letters in his name (T and E specifically). This is another case of him not playing along, unfortunately.
I was telling J's mom about this conversation today and she mentioned that when she has helped out in the classroom, he has known those letters. I helped make some envelope games that we play with the kids and I was helping him with one the other day and he did fine with it. It was an ending sound game, which is harder for these kids because they are used to talking about beginning sounds. You had to look at the picture and then match it to the letter that it ended with. He would be like "bat, baT, ttt, T" and put the picture with the letter T. He had a few that he stumbled on but mostly because he wanted beginning sounds. J's mom confirmed what I had witnessed and told me that he had doen fine in all the games they had played together. Certainly (and I noticed this as well) not as good as some of the other kids (J being one who knows the difference between night and knight, which is super impressive :) ) but far from the bottom of the class.
The reading teacher told me that she is concerned because without constant work at home, he is a child that could fall through the cracks. He is "very verbal and appears intelligent but is actually behind" I try (sometimes) not to be a crazy mom but this really ticked me off. I'm completely biased but I don't believe that my child only "appears" intelligent. I'm sure she probably didn't mean it the way I took it but I think it was phrased poorly. The other thing about this whole that that makes me mad is the fact that this is end of the first quarter. The year is one quarter over and no one has made mention one about this "problem" until now. I'm concerned that if I hadn't requested the meeting, nothing would have been said and we would have gone on like nothing was happening. As often as I'm at that school, I'm probably one of the easiest parents to contact, yet nothing. I drop him off and walk him to his class every day. I pick him up (granted it is outside) every afternoon. I volunteer in his class for 90 minutes a week and I'm usually there for something (class party, birthday, dropping off letters to the other parents) at least one other time during the week. I also email his teacher about something once or twice a week. I'm not an absent parent or one that is hard to contact.
I have my meeting with his regular teacher and I'm interested in hearing her assessment of the situation. She spends most of the day with him (as opposed to less than an hour once a week) and probably has a better, overall, picture of his progress this year. I can't wait to find out if she shares the same feeling. I'm also going to wait until the end to bring up any reading concerns if she doesn't bring them up. If this is a problem and no one says anything to me, that seriously erodes my confidense in this whole endevor.
C is in K. When he started K, he claimed to know none of his letters. Bad mother that I am, I didn't stress about it too much, figuring that is, partly, what K is about. So when he came home after a couple of weeks of school telling me "this is a C and this is an H" or whatever, I was pretty impressed. I'm impressed when he asks to write words and we tell him what letters to write and he does it. He asked daddy how to write ZEBRA the other day. Daddy told him and he wrote it on the chalk board. The first day I worked in his classroom, I met his reading teacher. She is really nice but was concerned with the fact that he could write his name, but couldn't spell it. She said most kids can spell it or can't do anything but it is rare that they can write it without knowing what the letters are. I explained to her about his perfectionism (he won't do anything until he can do it right the first time and has been that way his whole life). I also explained about his genetic dislike for playing games. He doesn't like answering stupid questions and his attitude towards telling you his colors was "if you don't know, I'm not going to tell you" I've often felt the same way about the questions that are asked in school so I understand where he is coming from (and although I understand it, it makes me crazy and our similarity is just one more reason why I chose not to homeschool).
A few weeks ago, I get a note home from her with a list of letters to work on at home. I sat down with him and asked him what the letters were. He stumbled on M (said it was N but that is what he says for M&Ms as well so it didn't suprise me) and G (when I prompted him that it was the first letter in his last name, he got it though) Other than that, he rattled them off like nobody's business. Thinking maybe it wasn't the id that was the problem, I asked him to tell me the sound each letter made. Again, no problem. So then I asked him to tell me a word that started with each letter. Again, no problems. Since I see his reading teacher every morning on our way in, I asked her about it the next day and she said it was the id and was really surprised that he had no trouble with the letters.
Because of the letter issue, I asked to meet with her during PTCs to see how he was doing. She said he has made great progress and can now id 44 of the letters on the assessment sheet (instead of the 11 that he started with). She said he is falling behind on sight words (I don't agree so much with teaching of sight words because I don't think it is the best way to learn to read, but I'll play the game) and only knew a few and that she was concerned with the fact that he still couldn't id letters in his name (T and E specifically). This is another case of him not playing along, unfortunately.
I was telling J's mom about this conversation today and she mentioned that when she has helped out in the classroom, he has known those letters. I helped make some envelope games that we play with the kids and I was helping him with one the other day and he did fine with it. It was an ending sound game, which is harder for these kids because they are used to talking about beginning sounds. You had to look at the picture and then match it to the letter that it ended with. He would be like "bat, baT, ttt, T" and put the picture with the letter T. He had a few that he stumbled on but mostly because he wanted beginning sounds. J's mom confirmed what I had witnessed and told me that he had doen fine in all the games they had played together. Certainly (and I noticed this as well) not as good as some of the other kids (J being one who knows the difference between night and knight, which is super impressive :) ) but far from the bottom of the class.
The reading teacher told me that she is concerned because without constant work at home, he is a child that could fall through the cracks. He is "very verbal and appears intelligent but is actually behind" I try (sometimes) not to be a crazy mom but this really ticked me off. I'm completely biased but I don't believe that my child only "appears" intelligent. I'm sure she probably didn't mean it the way I took it but I think it was phrased poorly. The other thing about this whole that that makes me mad is the fact that this is end of the first quarter. The year is one quarter over and no one has made mention one about this "problem" until now. I'm concerned that if I hadn't requested the meeting, nothing would have been said and we would have gone on like nothing was happening. As often as I'm at that school, I'm probably one of the easiest parents to contact, yet nothing. I drop him off and walk him to his class every day. I pick him up (granted it is outside) every afternoon. I volunteer in his class for 90 minutes a week and I'm usually there for something (class party, birthday, dropping off letters to the other parents) at least one other time during the week. I also email his teacher about something once or twice a week. I'm not an absent parent or one that is hard to contact.
I have my meeting with his regular teacher and I'm interested in hearing her assessment of the situation. She spends most of the day with him (as opposed to less than an hour once a week) and probably has a better, overall, picture of his progress this year. I can't wait to find out if she shares the same feeling. I'm also going to wait until the end to bring up any reading concerns if she doesn't bring them up. If this is a problem and no one says anything to me, that seriously erodes my confidense in this whole endevor.
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
Sewing
First point, I DO NOT sew. I can't even sew a button on a shirt. I can thread a needle and I have done cross stitch patterns in the past. I have no idea how to use a sewing machine and the only one I even have access to is my mom's that is older than I am. I can plug it in but I probably couldn't do anything else with it.
Now, on to my question. I make knot blankets, which are easy, even for the craft challenged like myself. The problem is, I can't find fleece bigger than 60 inches wide. I want to make a blanket for my queen sized bed for this winter. I have a comforter, but I feel like the fleece is warmer over all.
What I need to know is how hard it would be for a complete craft idiot like myself to sew two pieces of 60 inch fleece together. It seems to me that it would be a simple straight line but I'm not sure how I would get all 60 inches of the fleece crammed under the sewing machine and still be able to sew it.
Now, on to my question. I make knot blankets, which are easy, even for the craft challenged like myself. The problem is, I can't find fleece bigger than 60 inches wide. I want to make a blanket for my queen sized bed for this winter. I have a comforter, but I feel like the fleece is warmer over all.
What I need to know is how hard it would be for a complete craft idiot like myself to sew two pieces of 60 inch fleece together. It seems to me that it would be a simple straight line but I'm not sure how I would get all 60 inches of the fleece crammed under the sewing machine and still be able to sew it.
Thursday, November 1, 2007
Halloween: Parties, trick or treating and pumpkins
Yesterday was C's "fall party". They couldn't call it a Halloween party because the one person who doesn't celebrate it might be offended, gag (this is no offense intended to anyone who doesn't celebrate, I don't think that it is fair for a very small minority to take a fun celebration away from the majority). I'm the room parent liason (RPL) so I get to plan all the parties for the class. To do this, I sent home letters asking parents to donate food and supplies, volunteer in the classroom and plan an activity for the class to do. The notes trickled in slowly but eventually I got enough stuff that we could have a party. I never did get a parent to plan activities and none of them could volunteer in the classroom. J's mom is a superstar and basically told me "put me where you need me and I'll be there for the party" We got together and planned some activities that the kids would enjoy. Late last week, I dropped C off at school and was presented with a Walmart sack with a mixed bag of candy and some goodie bags. The parent that signed up for them didn't make them, so I had to assemble them all. When it was all said and done, each kid ended up with about 6 pieces of gross stuff together candy. My mom had some fruit snacks that my kids don't like so I threw those in, which helped fill up the bags some. Yesterday morning when I dropped C off, someone had brought in pencils so I tossed those in the bags as well. The same mom who lamed out on the goodie bags also signed up for our one allowed "sweet treat" (cookies, cupcakes, whatever). Unfortunately, she lamed out on that do and didn't bother to bring them. At the last minute, another mom decided to bring a fruit tray so our party snack ended up being apple slices, grapes, and apple sauce. A mom brought some microwave popcorn, but we had no way to pop it, so it got left. Fortunately, the juice, napkins, and cups came through so at least we had those. We played "bozo buckets" with ToT pumpkins and had the kids draw a farm mural with markers and make stamp animals with the stamp pads. They had a really good time and the mural came out great. :) I intend to be more clear in my future letters to parents about what is expected for party participation. I'll also be sending out reminders ahead of time so hopefully, we'll have all of our stuff.
We went ToTing last night around a friend's neighborhood. Generally, we go up one side, down the other and then head home. The weather was SO nice that we decided to extend the route and go around the block. Both kids got way more than too much candy. Lizzie had so much by the end of the night that she couldn't carry her bag anymore because it was so heavy :) They were both super cute. Lizzie figured out by the second house that if she said "trick or treat" people would give her "shocklot" It took her a couple more houses to figure out "thank you" and one or two more to figure out "Happy halloween" After they gave her the candy, she would look in her bag, get all wide eyed and turn around and yell at my mom, who waited on the sidewalk while I walked up to the houses with them, "I got CANDY!"
They have already decided that what they want to be for next year (him a ninja and her a pirate) so I went to Target today to look for 50% off halloween stuff. I said I wasn't going to buy her a girl pirate costume (or more specifically a "wench" costume because they are trashy) and I wouldn't buy her a Pirates of the Caribbean costume because they are so over done and I saw probably 20 Jack Sparrow's out there. Orginal is better (homemade is best, but I'm lame and don't think my kids should be punished for my lack of creativity). I found him a ninja costume with in like 5 minutes. There were a ton. I also found them both several halloween shirts (her's have a skull and cross bones wearing a crown, one says little devil, and one says princess with a crown. his has a camo skull and cross bones and one says something about "trick or treat, I also accept cash" LOL) and got her some candy corn leggings. I couldn't find any pirate costumes with all the other costumes so we headed over to look at the Xmas stuff. Over there we found several more costumes including the pirates. I looked at the general pirate costumes but then I saw the ultimate pirate costume. I found an "Elizabeth's costume" from POTC. It had long pants and a long sleeve shirt instead of the short sleeves and half pants of the other. It was also a thicker fabric (the general one was a thin polyester). I know, "No POTC because they are over done" but really, for Lizzie the Pirate, could I pass up Elizabeth's costume? No I really could not. I also found an LED pirate ship that was $15. (would you have ever guessed that we have a thing for pirates around here). I heart Target! :)
We did fun pumpkins this year as well. We bought a super hero carving books and a princess carving book. C wanted Wolverine on his pumpkin so I did the best I could on it. When I was punching the pattern, the pumpkin was oozing and it ended up ruining the paper so I couldn't see the pattern anymore. I did the best I could, but a lot of the details were lost in the middle because I couldn't see the paper and there were too many dots. We did Cinderella's castle for Lizzie. It was better because it was less small details. Unfortunately, the turret part broke off when I was trying to take the piece out. You could see the big one, but the little ones all broke :( You couldn't tell once it was done though so it was ok.
I'm pretty disappointed in the pumpkins we got though. We got them 2 weeks ago and didn't carve them until last weekend. I went to put the light in the princess one last night and there was standing liquid in the bottom. It had rotted so much that that is had liqufied in 3 days time!! All the other ones had mold spots and were all sunken in :( I have never had pumpkins go so bad so fast and it was gross (although, when we dumped the goo out the the princess pumpkin, it looked like it was puking and that was funny)
We went ToTing last night around a friend's neighborhood. Generally, we go up one side, down the other and then head home. The weather was SO nice that we decided to extend the route and go around the block. Both kids got way more than too much candy. Lizzie had so much by the end of the night that she couldn't carry her bag anymore because it was so heavy :) They were both super cute. Lizzie figured out by the second house that if she said "trick or treat" people would give her "shocklot" It took her a couple more houses to figure out "thank you" and one or two more to figure out "Happy halloween" After they gave her the candy, she would look in her bag, get all wide eyed and turn around and yell at my mom, who waited on the sidewalk while I walked up to the houses with them, "I got CANDY!"
They have already decided that what they want to be for next year (him a ninja and her a pirate) so I went to Target today to look for 50% off halloween stuff. I said I wasn't going to buy her a girl pirate costume (or more specifically a "wench" costume because they are trashy) and I wouldn't buy her a Pirates of the Caribbean costume because they are so over done and I saw probably 20 Jack Sparrow's out there. Orginal is better (homemade is best, but I'm lame and don't think my kids should be punished for my lack of creativity). I found him a ninja costume with in like 5 minutes. There were a ton. I also found them both several halloween shirts (her's have a skull and cross bones wearing a crown, one says little devil, and one says princess with a crown. his has a camo skull and cross bones and one says something about "trick or treat, I also accept cash" LOL) and got her some candy corn leggings. I couldn't find any pirate costumes with all the other costumes so we headed over to look at the Xmas stuff. Over there we found several more costumes including the pirates. I looked at the general pirate costumes but then I saw the ultimate pirate costume. I found an "Elizabeth's costume" from POTC. It had long pants and a long sleeve shirt instead of the short sleeves and half pants of the other. It was also a thicker fabric (the general one was a thin polyester). I know, "No POTC because they are over done" but really, for Lizzie the Pirate, could I pass up Elizabeth's costume? No I really could not. I also found an LED pirate ship that was $15. (would you have ever guessed that we have a thing for pirates around here). I heart Target! :)
We did fun pumpkins this year as well. We bought a super hero carving books and a princess carving book. C wanted Wolverine on his pumpkin so I did the best I could on it. When I was punching the pattern, the pumpkin was oozing and it ended up ruining the paper so I couldn't see the pattern anymore. I did the best I could, but a lot of the details were lost in the middle because I couldn't see the paper and there were too many dots. We did Cinderella's castle for Lizzie. It was better because it was less small details. Unfortunately, the turret part broke off when I was trying to take the piece out. You could see the big one, but the little ones all broke :( You couldn't tell once it was done though so it was ok.
I'm pretty disappointed in the pumpkins we got though. We got them 2 weeks ago and didn't carve them until last weekend. I went to put the light in the princess one last night and there was standing liquid in the bottom. It had rotted so much that that is had liqufied in 3 days time!! All the other ones had mold spots and were all sunken in :( I have never had pumpkins go so bad so fast and it was gross (although, when we dumped the goo out the the princess pumpkin, it looked like it was puking and that was funny)
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