The life aquatic and other weekend adventures
DH took the boy child to swim lessons on Saturday and reported that by the end of the lesson, the boy was ACTUALLY SWIMMING. As in, propelling himself through the water without sinking like a stone. And oh yeah, he was doing it with his face right down in the water. He even swam UNDER the water, apparently. I am beyond amazed by this kid. When I took him to his lesson last week, even though he had made tremendous progress I didn't think he was even CLOSE to actually swimming. Shows how much I know. We went ahead and paid for lessons through the month of May, but it's looking like that's all he'll need. Yay! Go Boy Child, go!
While the boys were swimming, the girl and I did birthday party prep at home. As of 9 p.m. on Friday, the day before the party, we had six RSVPs (out of eight invitations that were sent). Three yesses and three nos. However, just to complicate things, the boy decided at school on Friday to verbally invite another little girl from his class, telling her that she could come because so many other people couldn't. Oy. That was kind of awkward. You are my ninth-best friend! Hello, social disability! Anyway, this girl didn't take offense at all and apparently cleared it with her parents so that she could come. (If the situation had been reversed, I don't think I would have let the boy child go. After all, we've been burned in the past with verbal invitations.)
ANYWAY, on the morning of the actual party I got a call from the dad of one of the "yes" kids who said there was some sort of miscommunication between himself and his wife and that his kid couldn't come after all. But with the extra invitee, we still had three kids, so that was okay.
The party went relatively well, given how small it was. The extra invitee showed up half an hour early and then didn't get picked up until almost an hour after the party had ended, which was even MORE awkward. And the boy wanted to play with all his gifts right away, by himself, and had a bit of an episode when we told him that was not going to happen. But all in all, it was ... okay. I guess. I kind of hate these kid parties so I'm not really one to judge, I don't think.
Okay, so moving along to the girl child. She had her second round of testing/eval with Dr. H yesterday, and DH and I go in next week to find out what he thinks is going on with her. I'm really curious to hear what his professional opinion is. While the first round of testing involved lots of picture drawing, according to the girl, this round involved "sitting and answering". She said he read sentences and she had to finish them, and then he showed her pictures and she had to make up stories about them. One story involved a worm who eats cow blood, or something. Thus my curiosity about her diagnosis. I mean, we know she has a vivid imagination, but ... a worm? Who eats cow blood? Do they have meds for that?
In other news, with only a month of school left I'm once again fretting over next year, and the year after that, and wondering when I should start pushing for the school to re-evaluate the boy with an eye toward getting him on the 504 plan. We have teacher conferences next week and I definitely have some questions for the boy's teacher. Like, why has she not been making sure he brings home the required school papers/materials every day like she said she would? He never brings ANYTHING home. This morning I got a phone call because the boy didn't have a permission slip to view the "maturation movie" and take part in an HIV/AIDS discussion today. I didn't even know they were DOING this, because he never brought anything home about it like he was supposed to. That would have been nice to know, you know? I mean, I gave permission because I don't have a problem with him taking part in either, but it would have been nice to know about it beforehand so I could prep him a little. Also, I want to ask his teacher if she would fill out the teacher survey for the boy's FIE any differently if she were doing it TODAY, after having taught him for a year, than she did at the beginning of the school year when she didn't really know him.
In short, I'm not altogether happy with how this school year went. His grades are still good, and seeing the school counselor every week has been a TREMENDOUS help, but I don't feel like we got all the services through general ed that we were told we would. It was the promise of those services that kept us from appealing the ARD committee's decision when they found he didn't qualify for services outside of general ed. I knew that not having anything in writing would end up screwing us, and while it could have been much worse, I'm not happy about how things went in general.
Sigh.
Today the boy has occupational therapy. More bike-riding practice, if the weather holds.
While the boys were swimming, the girl and I did birthday party prep at home. As of 9 p.m. on Friday, the day before the party, we had six RSVPs (out of eight invitations that were sent). Three yesses and three nos. However, just to complicate things, the boy decided at school on Friday to verbally invite another little girl from his class, telling her that she could come because so many other people couldn't. Oy. That was kind of awkward. You are my ninth-best friend! Hello, social disability! Anyway, this girl didn't take offense at all and apparently cleared it with her parents so that she could come. (If the situation had been reversed, I don't think I would have let the boy child go. After all, we've been burned in the past with verbal invitations.)
ANYWAY, on the morning of the actual party I got a call from the dad of one of the "yes" kids who said there was some sort of miscommunication between himself and his wife and that his kid couldn't come after all. But with the extra invitee, we still had three kids, so that was okay.
The party went relatively well, given how small it was. The extra invitee showed up half an hour early and then didn't get picked up until almost an hour after the party had ended, which was even MORE awkward. And the boy wanted to play with all his gifts right away, by himself, and had a bit of an episode when we told him that was not going to happen. But all in all, it was ... okay. I guess. I kind of hate these kid parties so I'm not really one to judge, I don't think.
Okay, so moving along to the girl child. She had her second round of testing/eval with Dr. H yesterday, and DH and I go in next week to find out what he thinks is going on with her. I'm really curious to hear what his professional opinion is. While the first round of testing involved lots of picture drawing, according to the girl, this round involved "sitting and answering". She said he read sentences and she had to finish them, and then he showed her pictures and she had to make up stories about them. One story involved a worm who eats cow blood, or something. Thus my curiosity about her diagnosis. I mean, we know she has a vivid imagination, but ... a worm? Who eats cow blood? Do they have meds for that?
In other news, with only a month of school left I'm once again fretting over next year, and the year after that, and wondering when I should start pushing for the school to re-evaluate the boy with an eye toward getting him on the 504 plan. We have teacher conferences next week and I definitely have some questions for the boy's teacher. Like, why has she not been making sure he brings home the required school papers/materials every day like she said she would? He never brings ANYTHING home. This morning I got a phone call because the boy didn't have a permission slip to view the "maturation movie" and take part in an HIV/AIDS discussion today. I didn't even know they were DOING this, because he never brought anything home about it like he was supposed to. That would have been nice to know, you know? I mean, I gave permission because I don't have a problem with him taking part in either, but it would have been nice to know about it beforehand so I could prep him a little. Also, I want to ask his teacher if she would fill out the teacher survey for the boy's FIE any differently if she were doing it TODAY, after having taught him for a year, than she did at the beginning of the school year when she didn't really know him.
In short, I'm not altogether happy with how this school year went. His grades are still good, and seeing the school counselor every week has been a TREMENDOUS help, but I don't feel like we got all the services through general ed that we were told we would. It was the promise of those services that kept us from appealing the ARD committee's decision when they found he didn't qualify for services outside of general ed. I knew that not having anything in writing would end up screwing us, and while it could have been much worse, I'm not happy about how things went in general.
Sigh.
Today the boy has occupational therapy. More bike-riding practice, if the weather holds.
posted by Miss Anthrope at 6:09 AM
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