Kiddie College

The more I'm in the school, the more I think our education system is screwed up. It seems like there is so much wasted time. There are kids that finish their work so fast that they just sit and read a book or draw half of class, those who take the whole period and then those who refuse to do the work or just can't do it. Why are they in the same class?! I think school should be like college. You choose your classes and move ahead according to skill. If you don't want to be there then find a class or trade school that you can find an interest in. Some kids mature a lot faster than others and it's not just outwardly. Age should not determine what you should know. There are lots of people who do horrible in school but go to college later as adults and are surprised that they do great. How many people never even try college because they thought they were too dumb because of what happened in grade school? I just think it's crazy to move kids ahead before they are ready and hold back those who are ready for more. Some of these boys just have an awful time sitting in a classroom all day. They should be allowed more physical activity throughout the day. I also think most classes really should have two adults at all times. One person can't really be a great teacher and do all the non teaching work required of teachers.It's no wonder so many teachers get burned out and quit or just get lazy and end up crappy teachers. I like subbing every once in a while just fine but it can be mentally exhausting.

Avery and Aiden

So I have been trying to figure out what's going on with Avery and Aiden. I took Avery to Dr Goldsmith at the Children's Center in SLC. There they work with children under eight only. Aiden has been on a waiting list at BYU and it's taking forever so I asked Dr Goldsmith for a referral for someone who could assess Aiden. I like Dr Goldsmith. He's been doing this for a long time and knows the difference between all these things I read about that seem to overlap. He is not concerned with labels. He just wants to help kids. At our first meeting he just talked with us and observed Avery and I filled out lots of paperwork and had his teacher fill some out as well. Yesterday he did an IQ test with Avery. It was interesting to watch. When he is doing specific tasks on the test you can tell what skills they are looking at and those exercises really do pinpoint certain skills well. You can watch and see what he's thinking. Avery did very well with the puzzles. He likes puzzles. He struggled with exercises that had what were confusing to him verbal instructions and he struggled greatly on the items in which he had to communicate verbally, like telling what something was. For example, when asked what a leaf was he said it falls down slowly and gently. What is a train? It goes fast and sometimes slow and has a golden whistle with a frowny mouth and triangle on the top. He could describe things but not define them. When asked why we don't play with balls inside he said because it was bad. Even after many prompts and hints he never understood that the reason is because you might break something. It was so obvious that something is not right with his language skills. The doctor said that he definitely needs speech language processing therapy and that he believes that is the root of his other problems. He doesn't think he is in the autism spectrum. One task that Avery was very good at was shapes. There was a key at the top of the page with seven shapes which had another shape inside. The page was full of the shapes in random order and he had to draw the shape that goes inside as quickly as possible until he was told to stop. Avery only looked at the key twice and had it memorized and went through those shapes so fast. The doctor said in thirty years he has never had a kid finish all of them before time was up. We were all impressed. Avery and Aiden are very similar. They are so visual but both stubble with understanding what others mean by what they say and with expressing themselves in words. I think I might take Them to be tested for central auditory processing disorder at the hospital. They have specific therapies that really help people with this problem. Many kids with it are misdiagnosed with ADHD. They have a hard time focusing because of the language problem. We meet with Dr Goldsmith next month to go over the test results and make a therapy plan for Avery. He also referred me to someone who could help evaluate Aiden and come up with education solutions. I feel like someone that has been lost for years and finally can see my way out. I hope we are on the right track. Oh and another funny thing Avery said, when asked what you say when you see a friend he said "Cheerio!". What a funny boy.

I am getting used to all the kids being away at school all day. At first I feel like I went through a bit of shock and sadness and thought I better get a job or something but I still have a lot to do while they are at school and I am busy, I just don't have much company while doing it. I do meet friends and Cory for lunch sometimes. That is nice. I will sub some but not a ton and I am fine with that. Duke and Millie get along well. It is fun to watch them play together. I watched an old movie the other day called The Ugly Dachshund. It was cute. Dachshunds really do like living with other dachshunds. The kids are adjusting to school and getting into the rhythm of assignments and such. It requires a lot of work from Cory and me to help them keep up with their work. We have to be very strict about fun time around the house, requiring them to get their work done before any play. We are having them do homework as soon as they get home from school. We used to let them play first but getting them to switch back into work mode is hard and the closer it gets to bedtime the less they are cooperative. Wish I had one of those kids that loves school and work. The online grade book is a huge asset in trying to make them be responsible and get things turned in.

I am flying home to visit my family on Thanksgiving day and staying for ten days. Cory is staying here with the kids. I am using some of his frequent flyer miles. I have not gone anywhere by myself this year so this is my little vacation. Maybe one day Cory and I will both go on a trip together without the kids. We had considered driving to AL at Christmas break but have decided not to since our plans could change last minute if the weather is bad and the driving in daylight hours are less in the winter and we will be doing a lot of driving next summer. Cory has some vacation time he has to use by the end of the year but we will take some here and there and it will disappear. He will take a couple of days at fall break when we go to Vegas and a couple when I go visit my family and we can take some around Christmas and just do things locally. One nice thing about the kids in school is that we can go to the temple while they are at school. I am going to go with Carrie some but Cory could take a day off and go with me some too. We have to go to Bountiful right now while they remodel Ogden.

Cory and Aiden went on a campout with the scouts Friday night. They had fun but came home early Saturday because it kept raining up there. Cory didn't get much sleep until he came home. One of the leaders was snoring and water kept dripping in Cory's face. I think our ward needs new tents. Aiden and Cory took paracord and helped the other boys make bracelets. Aiden made seven for friends at school. He is selling them for like two bucks. The kids made them with the neighbor kids yesterday. Aiden wears like four at a time. He is enjoying being a deacon and likes his teachers. They are fun guys. Aiden has actually been participating in class on Sundays and telling me about it after church.

I am happy for all my friends having babies lately. Everything has gone well and we have lots of new kids in the neighborhood now. We had three boys born in our ward this week. Carrie and Brooke are due at the same time at the end of January and I predicted that Carrie was having a girl and Brooke was having a boy and I was right. Wow! I must be psychic right?! How exciting for them.

We rented Thor and Something Borrowed from red box last night. Thor is good. We had seen it but Cory and Lidia did not so we all watched it. It is a good movie. The other movie stinks in my opinion.

I found a little local Asian grocery store that I like. I bought several yummy things to eat there this week. Monday was mid autumn festival so I bought some moon cakes. Aiden liked them very much and ate his up. The other kids didn't like them much. Aiden and Avery are better eaters than my other two. They usually are less picky and eat more. Avery likes to eat school lunch so I let him sometimes. I believe he eats most of it. Tristan throws half of it away.

Cory is ward web master now and I was called to be the scout committee secretary but I still teach primary too. Avery tries my patience every Sunday but hopefully I am teaching him how to behave in church.

Weird Al

I took Lidia and Aiden to the Weird Al concert at the state fair last night. It was fun. We enjoy his funny versions of popular songs. Of course, my kids usually only know his version and not the original one. It was a late night but we managed to wake up this morning anyway. Cory stayed home with Tristan and Avery and got them to bed on time. Before the concert we walked around the fair a bit but it was kind of boring to me. Goats still look like goats and stink. We shared and elephant ear and some boiled peanuts which were good but nothing like as good as the ones back home. Wish I were home for a visit in early November for the fair...I'll just have to try and make some good ones at home. Time to get out the fry daddy and try making some fresh elephant ears.

Hope you had a nice holiday weekend

We decided to stay home and get some yard work done this weekend. Lidia cut the grass. Aiden cut a neighbor's lawn that had broken his shoulder. He and one other deacon and their leader did it and went for slurpees after. His YM leaders are really nice guys. We all pulled weeds from the flower beds and picked up rotten apples that had fallen off the tree. The apples are almost ripe. The nectarines are ripening and we picked several. They are yummy. We learned that you should wait until the first frost to pick the grapes. The cooler weather makes them sweeten up. We bought a few plants and planted them. We need someting to grow and fill in the beds to help keep the weeds out. The bluebells around the cherry tree are spreading like crazy. It looks like cancer spreading in there. We also have some grubs in the front yard so we had to treat the yard to hopefully kill them. Cory played tennis Monday morning with a young guy from church and played pretty well. He also broke a string early, luckily he had other raquets in the car and played with mine the rest of the time. We ate at a Mexican restaurant we had not been to before for lunch, it was all right. The kids liked the koi ponds and fountains. We got fried ice cream for them since they had not had it before. They ate it up but I think they would still prefer plain ice cream. Cory and I split a cherry chimichanga. It was good. Cory enjoyed their veggie burrito. I did not love my tacos. I need to remember that even if I like the taste of corn tortillas, they make me feel blah after because they feel so heavy in my tummy. The kids have been making paracord bracelets and ran out of clasps so we bought some more at Smith and Edwards and they had fun looking at all the cowboy, hunting, camping, etc gear. They all wanted to buy boots and hats and vests etc. We didn't buy any. That stuff is the real deal and expensive. We also just relaxed and did nothing some this weekend too. That's what you are supposed to do on labor day, right? Avery was excited because we said it was a no work holiday so the kids worked on Saturday and got to just play yesterday.

Ever feel like a horrible parent? I do.

This past week Tristan had five missing assignments which I was helping him get caught up on. Friday he caught up and I am hoping it doesn't become a regular thing. Thursday night I checked the online grade book and Lidia had 13 missing assignments. She said she had done all of her work and turned it in but when asked about each assignment individually I heard a lot of " I don't know" which is code for I do know but I'm not gonna say because I know I'll be in trouble. She and Cory were up till midnight working on some assignments that she may not even get credit for because they are late. Aiden and Avery didn't have any missing assignments. Friday while I was subbing one of Aiden's teachers tells me he caught him cheating on a quiz and he didn't do his homework. This teacher doesn't accept anything late. So Aiden was doing well but now has two zeroes. Then that night I got an email from Avery's teacher saying that he came in twenty minutes late from recess the day before, she couldn't find him. It turned out he was at recess with the second grade also. Then that day he had to go to the office to finish work during recess. I felt like my life was falling apart that night. I had a little pity party for a few minutes and then quickly remembered that I have nice healthy kids. There have been so many kids in our school and neighborhood that have been battling major illnesses like cancer and uncontrollable seizures. Not only is it a huge emotional and physical strain but a financial one as well. I guess I'll take my challenges. I certainly look around and feel very blessed. I just sometimes feel like school causes so much stress, maybe we should homeschool but that would actually put more stress on me I think. I'm not cut out for that. I'm just hoping they'll all turn out well in the long run despite these little challenges along the way.

phew!

What a busy morning! I was a sub today for the Jr High math teacher. It was my first time and since Fridays are early out each period is only 30 minutes. That flies by. I was busy busy. Her free period is the end of the day so I was just done early. I wasn't hungry at lunch so I just sat with Aiden and his friends. Most of the kids were nice, there were a few obnoxious ones that wouldn't be quiet no matter how many times I asked nicely so I finally sent one to stand by the door until time to go and threatened to send him to the office. I had one kid ask if I am from the south. Guess I have an accent. He said his brother served a mission in Arkansas and sounded like that when he got back. lol We did a worksheet and then played a game in pre algebra. The game made them want to be loud. Next time I hope they have more seat work to do. The algebra two class has only 7 kids so they are great and actually want to learn. I now have more of a feel for what it's like so I should feel more at ease next time. Kind of crazy how they send you in to sub with no training, just jump in. I was given lesson plans but not clear info on rolls, seating, dismissing etc. It's something you just figure out and luckily I did. Well unless I screwed up something I don't know about.