We’re BACK!

It was a great trip!  It’s good to be home though!  I need to clean and stuff, and I’ll come back later with trip details!

 

Once Again, I have nothing to say

Really I don’t.  The boys and I leave Friday for Kansas, to meet my Mom, Dad, Sister, Grandma, Aunt/Uncle/Kid, Aunt/Uncle, latter Aunt/Uncle’s two Kids (my cousins) and one second Cousin.  PHEW.  I’m excited.  I haven’t seen my Grandma and Aunt/Uncle on my Dads side since, well, high school graduation?  No, once when Bren was about 1.5 years old, and I was preggo with Zach.  So about 5 years.

I have to finish (err, start) cleaning, pack, get my oil changed, clean my car, hang the dvd players, print my road map, etc etc etc.

I would’ve started before today, but it took so long to find the perfect boots on eBay.  Darn you eBay!

 

Oh, and yes I finally did send in my camera.  GRRR.  I bought it last December, and this summer my lackadaisical babysitter let they boys have a hay day with it, and broke it.  I finally sent it in, and due to “physical damage (no shit)” the warranty is void, and it will cost $97 to fix it.  Well damn, I just paid over $200 for it!  Crap.  So I’ll take Molly’s camera to Kansas at least, while I decide what to do with mine.

 

LMAO! This took me HOURS to do!

My own theme song!

(it’s only 2.5 minutes long, NOT 5)

 

 

Things I have said this week

Timmy, no bouncing.

Zach, keep the duck out of Timmy’s ear.

Leave your weenie alone.

LUCY!  Bad dog!  No pooping in my house!

No bouncing Timmy.

Timmy, don’t put the chicken in your ear.

Zach, your feet smell like sour milk.

Tim, DO NOT BOUNCE ON MY HEAD.

Brennen, no video games, yes they will make you stupid.

Drop your weenie.

Zach put your head in the window.

Timmy, no bouncing.

LUCY!  Don’t pee on the floor!

BREN!  ZACH!  Don’t pee on the floor!

No. Bounce.

Zach, don’t lick the window.

Timmy keep the french fry out of your ear.

Zach, don’t eat your snot.

Timmy, get your finger out of your ear.

Watch where you are peeing.

Don’t throw the baseball in the house.

LUCY!

Tim, please don’t bounce on me.

No speed racer-ing in the house!

LEAVE ME ALONE!

 

First Grade Word List

Is it me, or is this a tough word list for a 1st grader?

 

scram

splint

strip

sprint

squid

scrap

splat

strap

sprig

squint

scruff

split

scrub

strut

strum

splash

 

Life Changes

As some of you may know, Mike’s Mom is moving back to Louisiana after being here for 8 years.  I think it’ll be a tough move for her, as when she moved here she had Ray (father in law, who passed away a few years ago).  But she bought a house in the same town as her Daughter’s family, so that will help.

 

Where does that leave us?  Here with us and some friends (all single, with no kids).  Most of my friends have kids and stuff, but the ones we see more often do not.  We’ve kicked around the idea of moving.  First it was Colorado, but Mike said that’s too cold for him, although we’d be close to my family.
We’ve talked about different places in Louisiana, and we are considering moving next summer.  It’s scary to think of moving after being here 7 years.  When I moved here, I was newly single after a divorce, not knowing a single person.  I had arranged a place to live, utilities and everything to be ready (sight unseen) before I even got here.  Now, 7 years later, we’ve lived in 8 houses (buying the last one), had over 15 different cars (holy heck), married 6.5 years, three jobs, 3 years of school, and of course 3 boys.  WOW! What a difference years make!

It’s scary to think of moving, starting all over.  New home, new schools, new jobs and all.  Think of us while we make these decisions.

 

Spelling test

He got an A!  A 92/100 to be exact!  I told him that was excellent!

Sadly though, he got 3 color changes this week, making his conduct grade a 79      UGH

 

Political Shyt

I have been trying to keep up with the Presidential stuff, but there are so many comments, shows and opinions it’s hard to keep track.  I really don’t favor Palin (she’s a bit quirky), but I LOVE this

 

Thoughts on the F

My friend Cilla and Susan left a few encouraging and thoughtful comments on THIS POST.  Both were very helpful.  I just wanted to comment on some of Susan’s great thoughts.  By the way, read her cool BLOG, of which I’m extremely jealous of, because she has MUSIC!  Oh and she lives in Colorado where I pulled a 7 year stunt there.

 OK, The linked SUSAN IS NOT THE SAME SUSAN THAT MADE THIS POST! WHO KNEW I’D HAVE TWO SUSANS IN ONE DAY!  BUT I’LL LEAVE HER LINK UP THERE, CAUSE IT’S A GOOD SITE!

Here’s a copy and paste of her (flattering) post (with my comments in color):

I happened on to your website quite by accident. I am a mother of two boys and have been a tutor from 2nd grade (non-reader) to college algebra. I love the expression of a child who has succeededespecially one who has difficulty. Sometimes there are things that as parents or tutors that we don’t understand from a child’s perspective. I would love to give you some tips about the spelling and behavior.

Thanks for the blog compliments!  I’m not as talented or as funny as many others that are on my blogroll, but I do enjoy it.  A little background on Brennen:  He was speaking as a normal kid, but when he was 2.5 he stopped speaking and would use hand gestures for things he wanted (a finger in the mouth meant milk).  Hearing tests and such came back fine.  He started speech therapy through First Step (a state monitered intervention programs for all types of disabilities).  He attended for 2.5 years and learned a lot there.  He still goes to speech 2 or times a week, his big problem is not finishing his words.  “A tree fell on my house” turns out to be “A tre fe on my hou.”  Since I’m used to him, I don’t notice it (I guess I mentally fill in the words), but his teachers and speech therapist notice. 

1) First set up a special time each day for homework. And set a specific amount of time for the work. For spelling in first grade I would say 10 minutes a day. Figure out the way he learns best. Buy magnetic letters, a small chalk board, colored markers and let him practice his words different ways. The last two nights before the test actually make him take a test just like he would in class. I have had kids who needed to write every thing down. I have other kids who needed to see everything.

Wow, really?  10 minutes?  I guess I’m overdoing it (writing 20 spelling words 5 times each daily).  The spelling test is a good idea, and I was going to use it today, but he “forgot” his word folder at school.  GRR.

 

2) Help him locate the words in magazines or books that he is reading.

Brilliant.

 

3) Encourage him each day. Something like “WOW you did such a good job spelling “boy”.

Now for the behavior. I have an early child – graduated high school at 16 and has a 4.0 in college. I can tell you a couple of times we had teachers say he was immature. In second grade a teacher realized that he was not immature but bored. The teacher worked out a system with him to do his work then he would get to do something that was actually more work but to him it was a bonus.

Congrats on having such a smart son!  I wish him luck in school!  Now that you mention it, I remember Mrs. R, his kindergarten teacher, saying that he wasn’t “bad” but he’s very sharing and likes to talk to people, and he was very loving.  He does read very well, last year he was in the top reading group in his class.  So maybe perhaps, he his bored?  That’s a good question to bring up in a few weeks at our parents/teachers conference.

 

I strongly recommend positive reinforcement for good behavior. Sit him down and let him know that you realize that it is sometimes just hard to not talk or get up from his seat in class. But because those are the rules he needs to respect them. If he has a message book where you get messages each day tell your son that each day that he comes home without a color change he can play his video game for 30 minutes. If he can go 3 days in a week without a color change do a small something special (ice cream cone, candy bar, new crayons, whatever makes him happy.)

He knows that if he gets more than 3 color changes in a week, he can’t play flag football, which stinks, since Dad is the Coach.  If he goes with 1 or 0 color changes, we make a trip to the zoo or someplace cool like that.  I could never homeschool (or tutor), as I get frustrated with him too easily, thinking that he should just ‘get it’, but I realize that his little mind is developing and it takes practice.

 

I tutored a little girl that was a second grader and she kept having behavior problems and the parent got permission for me to sit in on her class. The problem was that she was so excited about everything she just wanted to share. She wasn’t a bad child. If she got an answer to something she would look at the child next to her and say ” I got it the answer was 7 so it wasn’t so hard”. The teacher had no idea what she was talking about only that she was disrupting class.

One more thing. As a parent we see everything our child does as a reflection on us. So we take it personally. DON’T. Try to understand exactly what is going on. Why his color is changing. What time of day? Who does he sit beside? Is there a window close to where he sits?

It’s hard NOT to take it personally, since WE are suppose to be developing a functioning person!   But I know we must put our needs aside for them sometimes (thank God for TIVO).

 

Sorry I have written a book but I am very passionate about children and education. And although there are many great teachers sometimes the classrooms are so large that a teacher may not be able to pinpoint each individual child’s specific learning style and behavior triggers.

Thank you for all your help and thoughts.  I appreciate them anytime, as this is all new to me!  Your experience is far more than mine!  I bet you are a great teacher/tutor, and an even better Mother!  HUGS!

 

Timmeny Speak

(BUURRRRRP)

Timmeny:  ‘Cuse me

Mama:  Thank you for saying “Excuse me”,   That was very nice.

Timmeny:  I welcome mama.