Time to Move on...

Wednesday I attended my kids awards ceremony at TCM. I knew they were getting a reading award but wasn't expecting the others. Maia and Harrison both got perfect attendance for the year. I had NO idea. How cool!! Maia also got the Rocket Math award for meeting her goal in addition. Harrison's class won the recycle challenge that the school did. It was a great day for them! I was so proud of both of them. It has been a rough, but overall good year academically for Harrison. He started out way below where he should be and once he was diagnosed ADHD and properly medicated, the jump in his academic progress was astounding. He is now reading on a second grade level, versus the K. level he was at in November. We just need to iron out the kinks. Harrison on the far left in the brown and blue, and Maia striking a pose for me, receiving their Perfect Attendance Awards.

After the awards, I went to each class and distributed the teacher gifts. I was able to snap a photo of Harrison and Maia with their teachers. Mrs. Webb really seemed to like her gift. She is SUCH a great teacher! I cannot say enough about this woman. The kids adore her and she makes everything a lesson. It is amazing. Here are some photos from the day.

Maia with Mrs. Webb, before she gave her the gift.

Mrs. Webb, showing the class her flower pot. Even here, she was teaching them.

Mrs. Webb giving Maia a high five for the Kindergarten Rocks Tee shirt. I love this photo.

Mrs. Webb was the ONLY teacher I EVER saw eating lunch with her kids EVERY DAY! I thought this was so awesome! Her daughter, Nettie Jo, is in the yellow shirt.

Mrs. Webb, Bria, and Megan watching Maia being silly with her pizza.

Harrison acting shy, with his teacher, Mrs. Hudson. He finished up with an overall great year. Again, its all about the kinks...

I got them to pose today, Thursday June 11, for the last day of school shot! My how they have grown this year!!

Teacher Gifts

End of the year equals teacher gifts to be made. Here is what I came up with.

The insert for the flower pot, which were $1 at AC Moore. Grass stickers, finger print butterflies by the kids, school photos and ABC stickers.

The insert in the pot. This one is Maia's for her teachers.

And Harrison's for his teachers.

finish the pot with a bag of potting soil tied up all nice and pretty, a wooden planter sign with the type of seed, and a packet of "Forget-Me-Nots" seeds and you are all set! All for less than $5 a gift. Hopefully the teachers will like it.

Popsicle sticks and a $.39 wooden sign painted white make up the sign.

Mrs. Webb, because she is so awesome, got the best gift. We LOOOOOOVVVVVEEEEE her. She Always says "....(fill in the blank here) Rocks!" She tells the kids they rock when they are successful in school, etc. You get the idea. Maia has a Kindergarten Rocks Tee shirt I made for her, so we made Mrs. Webb one too. Iron on letters for $2 for the entire sheet and the tee shirt was $2 on sale at AC Moore. The mini tote bag (this was TOTALLY Maia's idea!) was $1.39. I hope she likes her gift!

Breathe Deep and Count to 10...

I had to do that several times today. I visited my son and daughter's school for field day. I knew that Harrison would be missing a portion of the activities for his behavior in the past few weeks. I sought out my daughters class and had a great time with her class. Then I went to look for Harrison's class. I found them, minus Harrison. I spoke with the teacher to find out that he was in the office doing PILES of work that he had been refusing to do. I also learned that when he was asked to take his work out of his desk and get busy so he could eventually join the class for field day, he refused and put his head down. She told me that she turned up his desk and dumped it in the floor. He later told me he was embarrassed by this and all his friends laughed. This is a young teacher. For the most part, I have not had any issues with her. I like her and she has been really good at keeping me posted. That is why the next part of this was so hard for me to handle.

I hang out with Maia a bit more then decide to head inside to see Harrison and how much progress he was making on his work. ( I'll interject here to say that he had already earned some of field day so I was not too cool with the fact that all of that had been undone and his reward of earning some taken away.) When I got to the auditorium where he was at, there he was laying in the floor with PILES and PILES of work. OK, now when I was told that he was doing work he had refused to do, I was thinking a weeks worth at best. What I found was at least a months worth. This was work he should have been doing independently. My concern was that WHY was I not told before now? Didn't she realize that he was not turning in his work? How did it get so out of hand? I just don't understand how this happened. I could have been working with him at home to make it up. He should have been missing rewards/recess/fun things all along, not the last three days of school. I was so angry and upset. I felt awful for Harrison sitting there alone while his entire class and the entire school for that matter was out having fun. I am NOT dismissing what he did. But she is the teacher and I should have been told before it got out of hand. He is a 7 year old boy with a disability. Who's in charge here?

They tell me he doesn't qualify for the 504/IEP, whatever, because his learning is not being impacted by his disability. Uhhh, i think I would have to disagree after today. He told me when he got home from school that he had been stuffing papers in his desk since day 1 in first grade. I have called the school and demanded a child study be conducted ASAP and If I have too, I will be that parent that teachers loathe. I am my sons only advocate. I have to see that he gets what he needs, that he doesn't fall through the cracks. For Goodness sake, I pay my taxes! I know my rights. Something WILL be done about this.

On another note, Maia had a GREAT field day. Here are some photos from the day!

Maia throwing a pass!!

The girls! Katera, Maia, Bria, Grace, Maggie, Chloe, and Megan.

My girl doing the limbo. Her all time favorite game!

She won!! She is so good at this game, even on skates!

Maia and teacher extraordinaire, Mrs. Webb. I only wish Harrison could have had her. She use to teach 2nd grade. This was her first year in Kindergarten.

This is how Harrison spent most of the day. The photo doesn't do this pile of work justice.

Dangers of Motherhood

Boy, there are times when being a Mom really does a number on your self-esteem and self worth. Maybe it is just me and my need to be in control of every situation and my tendency to react very quickly at situations that arise. Maybe it is because I myself am under the guidance and care of a psychologist. That says it all really. Am I mentally stable? Well, sure I am, but i have a tendency to take a situation and blow it up into more than it probably really is. Things also tend to depress me very quickly.

My past few blogs have been about my son and the issues we have faced this school year. It has been quite a ride for all of us. Teachers, Principals, Maia, Chris, myself and anyone else involved with my family. This blog will not be any different. Sorry. If you don't like it, stop reading now. This blog has become quite a good form of therapy for me.

Thursday, yesterday, I got a call at about 1:30 from the Principal at the school my kids go to. She had Harrison in her office. Seems that a few boys at lunch thought it would be a good idea to pretend to choke themselves and Harrison thought it to be an even better idea to pretend to choke another classmate. With the zero tolerance they have in school these days, you can just imagine why this was a BAD CHOICE for Harrison to make. He was sent to the principal who asked him why he did this and if he knew what happened when you choked someone. His answers were "because I wanted too" and "they turn blue and suffocate" respectively. I was instructed to come pick him up from school immediately for an overnight suspension. This was no easy feat for me to do since my Mom had just gotten out of work and I had four sleeping toddlers in my house. After some work, my Mom was at the house and I was on my way to the school. NOT HAPPY!

The therapist we see for Harrison told me to INSIST on a 504 plan for him for next year or to instruct the school to QUIT calling me about his behavior. I have tried and begged and pleaded to get this for him and have had wall after wall put up. I am doing everything in my power to help my son get thru this but I am not getting a lot of help from the school system. I know it is the end of school but I am tired of having to handle the issue from afar when they need to find a better way to handle it. He WANTS to come home. He tells me that is why he can't behave... because he misses me. SO DON'T send him home. That is NOT punishment. I am not really blaming the teachers or staff. As a whole, I adore his school and all the staff I have had dealings with. I am not blaming anyone. It is just very frustrating when you try to help your child be successful and keep running into walls.

I spent most of last night feeling really crappy about all of this. Where had I gone wrong? Why can I not seem to handle this? I ate LOTS of chocolate. It is hard as a Mom to deal with all of this. I KNOW that Harrison is NOT the child that chokes people on purpose. I know it was not malicious when it was done. How do you help a child like this? I have so many questions and not many answers. I hope today is better for Harrison. I am waiting on my call back from the principal while he is at school today. To discuss the 504 and other modifications that can be made for next year. Stay tuned.

God Give Me the Strength...

... to make it thru the last 9 days of school. I know, a lot of parents dread the end of school because it means no more free time if you don't work and if you do, then you have to find someone to take care of your kids. Well, I am on the other side of this fence.

This has been a rocky year for Harrison. He started out his 1st grade year below grade level on his tests (PALS) and after few months he was diagnosed ADHD (With Oppositional Defiant Disorder). We have known about the ODD for a while, though it was never really treated until now. It was kind of an unofficial diagnosis a few years ago by a therapist I wasn't wild about. After starting Harrison on Vyvanse we saw such dramatic improvements I was foolish enough to believe our problems were solved. Such a newbie I was to ADHD then. Oh, they were only just beginning.

Previous posts outline some of this so I won't rehash all that, but after bouncing around on a variety of med's, we finally sought counsel from Dr. K Rooney and now have Harrison on Strattera. It has been about 3 months on this one, with no side effects that we can see. However, I am not sure that it is working all that well. When we started this medicine, it was almost as if the ODD symptoms were exaggerated. I started getting emails and phone calls from Harrison's first grade teacher, the principal, a referral from the bus driver, then another from his teacher. Oh the list goes on. Basically, he is being disruptive, uncooperative, mean on occasion (tripping kids and laughing, pushing kids, throwing mulch on the playground), and just generally a pain in the ass if I can say that about my own child. I literally get anxiety attacks when i see the school phone number pop up on my caller ID or I see an email from his teacher in my in box.

Yes, I am his mother, and I love him no matter what. He is my firstborn and my baby boy. Nothing will change that. I hate to see him struggle so much. It kills me a little at a time. I know that he is a very sweet and loving child. He just has to learn to deal with all this that is going on inside of him. We are seeking the advice from yet another therapist and I feel confident that he will be able to help us where the other one couldn't. That is why I am glad school is almost out. I will be able to breathe much easier knowing that that phone call won't be coming or the emails. It will also give us several months to work with the therapist we see every other week, to hopefully address these issues and make some progress before Harrison enters the second grade.

ADHD is so often misunderstood. I was guilty of it once. Over diagnosed, over medicated, etc. the list goes on. BUT, now that I am faced with it head on, it is very hard to deal with and yes, very misunderstood. These kids are not just trying to be hard to deal with, they literally cannot control themselves. They don't have the ability to learn from their past mistakes, which explains why charts don't work, and normal behavioral techniques don't work either. This explains why Harrison went to the Principals office, was talked to by her and sent on his way, then ended up there again not even 10 minutes later for the same thing. We are learning to deal with this with the help of our therapist. To teach Harrison how to handle things in a different way.

So, yes, I am grateful summer is upon us and school is out. I know there will be some rough patches to deal with this summer, but I am hopeful that this summer will provide Harrison the turning point he needs to start 2nd grade off on a different foot.

Bullies

This post was triggered by my 17 year old nephew's issue at school today. He is a good kid. Not malicious at all. Problem is, he is bigger than most kids his age and he gets picked on quite frequently by kids that for one reason or another, think they are better than him, cooler than him, etc. Today, he was being bullied, verbally, I assume, by these kids. Not the first time. It is a pretty regular occurrence with him. He had had enough and he snapped and lashed out, again, verbally, at the bullys. He threatened them and said they were the reason he had to be on medicine (he is also ADHD and I believe takes and antidepressant as well) and he was going to shoot them, or something to that effect.

OK, here is the thing. He was wrong. He should be punished. I am not saying anything to the contrary. The problem I have is that the kids who instigated it all NEVER get punished. These bullies are the reason kids go berserk and end up killing kids a la Columbine style, and all the other types of things that have happened in the schools. If there is zero tolerance for talk of guns and killing and shooting, then there should be ZERO TOLERANCE for the kids who run their mouths and do the bullying in the first place. They should be punished just as severely as my Nephew is going to be punished. PERIOD. No tolerance. NONE. Anyone else have an opinion on this?

Maia as Teacher

Maia has been quite the little teacher lately. She taught my Mom how to draw a reindeer a few days ago, and then repeated the exercise with Chris that night. Mom got an A+ Good Effort mark on her paper, and so did Chris, but he also got an "X" by his name because he was talking during her instruction (to me no doubt!). Too funny. When we went to school for TCM's Winter Fanfare we noticed this on the wall outside of Maia's classroom. I had to laugh.

Mrs. Webb, Maia's teacher, said she did a great job teaching the class how to create Rudolph by giving her classic, very specific, step by step instructions. That's my little superstar!! I also noticed this on the wall, created by Maia, illustrating that the class can write sentences. I definitely see a future artist in the making!

I just LOVE the cheesy grin on the cat. Notice, the purple lines indicate where space should be. I think she has EXCELLENT handwriting for a kindergartener!!

Maia sporting the reindeer antlers at TCM's Winter Fanfare!

A Big Hurrah for Public Schools

I just had to post while it was on my mind. I just got back from having lunch at TC Miller Elem. School of Innovation. I went there with McDonald's in tow to eat with Maia. Last night, there was a meeting at her school for parents with the superintendent of the schools here. Seems there was a problem with the principal and she is no longer in the position with the school. They have placed an interim for the remainder of the school year. When I was there today, the interim, who wasn't suppose to start until Friday, was there, in the lunchroom milling around, sitting with the students and teachers and talking with each one. Really putting herself out there. Getting involved. Which I think is the main problem parents and teachers alike had with the last one. I am not trying to speak for anyone, but thru the grapevine, that is what I heard.

Anyway, while I was at the school, I had a chance to speak with a lot of the different staff (teachers, office workers, aides, resource teachers, etc) and let me just say, I give them a big thumbs up. Not only do they KNOW who you are when you enter the school and which child is yours, but they are so welcoming at having you there. I try to go out of my way, even when the budget doesn't really allow it, to do nice things for them. This week is Education Week and the staff all have wish items on a "tree" that you can choose from and then send that item to school. Nothing big; tissues, crayons, pencils, drinks, candy, paper, etc, you get the idea. Some are for personal use, but most were for the classroom. These are people that are teaching our children. I respect them and am very grateful for their presence in my child's life. Most go out of the way to assist in any way they can and the communication between parent/teacher is encouraged and welcomed. I like that the staff take the time to know who we are and make every effort to involve the parents. Now, I know, that seems like something all schools should do, but I don't think it always happens that way.

TC Miller is unique in the city in that it is very small. Two classes per grade, starting K-5. They just added one Pre-K class this year. The teachers know all students in all grades by name, with very few exceptions. It is a very close knit community feel to the school. They also have a full time art, music, science, movement and computer teacher on staff. I am so glad that we chose to apply to this school rather than the school the kids would have gone too. I have heard other parents complain about public schools, but I must say, I have very few complaints and the ones I have are MINOR and not related to education at all. I think the teachers and staff at TCM go out of their way to ensure my child is getting the best education. They are all very talented in what they do and I thank them for this. I know that my children are getting a very well rounded education at TCM and that is a great feeling to have as a parent . Kudos to you TCM and your excellent staff!!

Last Friday's Halloween Fun

For lack of anything exciting ('cause we all know just how EXCITING my life is...) to post about, I am going to do a recap of last Friday's Halloween Fun.

Friday morning, I got the kids all packed up and ready to go to TC Miller Elementary School of Innovation, for Harrison's fun day of pumpkin patch learning. The two 1st grade teachers purchased pumpkins for the two classes and set them up in the fields and had games and fun things set up to do with them. They were on a rotation and all 5 activities had something to do with what they had learned about (line them up smallest-biggest, weighing them, measuring how big, sorting, adding & subtracting), pretty cool way to learn this stuff I am sure for a kid. Then they had a pumpkin roll at the end. Jack and Jenna enjoyed getting out in the sun and watching all the big kids. Here are some photos from the morning.

The two first grade classes at TCM with the "pumpkin patch" in the background.

Jack and Jenna had a blast watching the big kids run all over.

Harrison found the perfect pumpkin.

Station one, lining pumpkins up smallest - largest, etc. Harrison is kneeling to the very right.

Word problems with pumpkins. The kids loved it!

Pumpkin rolling. I am really surprised that these pumpkins made it home in one piece. Some of them weighed as much as 30+ pounds.

After Harrison's class did their thing, I brought the babies home for lunch and naps. My mother in law came to sit with them and I went back to TCM (it is literally 3 minutes away from my house) for Maia's fall party. It was a lot of fun and I was mesmerized by her teacher and how she was able to turn ANYTHING at all into a lesson. Pretty amazing. The kids really seem to love her and respond to her. I was VERY impressed. Good to know they are getting quality education in a public school setting. Here are some photos from her party.

Mrs. Webb's Kindergarten class. Maia is barely visible in this photo.

Mrs. Webb teaching them about ABABAB patterns on the pencil in the goodie bags I made for the class. (the pencils were purple/green striped).

Maia with her popcorn filled glove. You would have thought it was filled with gold...

Maia playing pin the nose on the pumpkin. Since it was close to election day, the class had to vote on each aspect of the pumpkins face. (round vs. triangle eyes, scary mouth or happy mouth, etc.)

Maia in the middle of two of her buddies from class, Paola and Chloe.

That evening it was, of course, time to trick or treat!! I didn't even bother with a camera because mine DOES NOT do night photos worth a darn. Here are a few before we went. Since I already posted about trunk or treating, there is really no need to beat a dead horse. I thought these were funny.

Hannah Montana aka Bailey. I kept this child from the time she was about 1 1/2 and she is now 5 and goes to school with Maia and rides the bus to my house.

Maia as the roaring 20's flapper.

Harrison being scary. Don't worry, the sword is all foam.

He cracked us up running up and down the sidewalk like this.

My little cuties all dressed up and ready to go. By the end of the night, the mask was off, the bandanna was off and I was carrying the sword. Maia had shed her headpiece, and the feather boa. Chris got the honor of carrying those.

And there ya have it folks. Another page out of my exciting life. Come back for more tomorrow!

September Fun and Other Stuff

Labor Day found us in the house all day cleaning. Fun stuff. It was a major necessity though, and I sure do feel better about some of the rooms in my house that had been seriously overlooked. I should have taken a before/after photo, but why scare innocent people? Seriously people, I run a childcare business. I don't need the law on my tail. Anyway. While Chris and I were cleaning, our kids were running around like this...

... yep, they put on the dress up outfits and grabbed the stick horses and went on a ride up and down the sidewalks of our street. I particularly like Harrison's too small chaps. He has gotten so tall! Last year this time, they were fitting him as they should. Amazing. Maia had on all sorts of stuff, mainly accessories. She is an accessory whore. This is a pretty tame version of what she really looked like. At one point she had 4 of those claw type hair clips in her hair on the sides as "ponytails" and a headband. She doesn't wear it correctly, so it is very funny to see. She has on this ridiculously long strand of pearls, and, harder to see, a pink sparkly diamond necklace. She certainly outdoes her mom in the jewels department. Maybe I should have her advise me? That's a thought. Here is another of Harrison...

Darn, they are some cute kids! I am not sure what they were doing with the wagon, but it was somehow involved in their play. My neighbors got a good chuckle from their play, I am sure. Glad I can do my part to provide the neighborhood comedy act from time to time.

On another note... Last Friday, Harrison had his first spelling test. I was stressed about it. I have this fear of screwing up my child, since parent's are really responsible for a great deal of their child's success, especially in the early years. Lucky for me, my sister-in-law is a second grade teacher so I can turn to her for the "how to's" of early education success. She told me not to be suprised if he (and most of the class) failed the first test. (Maybe fail at grade 1 is too strong a word, let me rephrase... don't do well on the first test!) I am such a perfectionist when it comes to all things school. Each night after homework was done (all homework for the week mainly revolves around the set of 10 spelling words) we did a mini test. After my SIL suggested a dry erase board I think it became easier. My hubby drilled him the last night. I couldn't do it anymore for fear of scaring my child for life. DH told me I was too hard on him the last time I had drilled him, that I left it in his capable hands the last night. Am I rambling?? That is about where my brain was after that night. Well... let me just get to the point. He took the test, and here are the results...

For someone who had resigned herself to seeing maybe one -four correct answers, this was a mother's dream! I figured he would at least get the word "a" right. I was so proud of him! He was proud of himself and said that he thought about each word and wrote what he thought first. Good plan, I told him. The first answer is 95% of the time the right one. This will be a weekly occurrence. He is an eager student and he may not always do great, but as long as he tries his best, then that is A-ok with me. I, in the meantime, need to work on letting up a bit on the poor kid! Way to go Harrison!!

Kindergarten and First Grade Here We Come!

The first day of school went off with any problems. The kids got ready on time and were waiting for the bus long before it was time for it to be here. Our cat, Max, even waited with us. I was doing great until another kindergarten mom started to tear up. Lucky for me, I had to leave ASAP for a trip to the Dr. so I didn't have time to dwell on sending my baby off to school. I did get a bit teary when I saw the other mom and saw my baby sitting on the bus when it was pulling off. My day was very quiet (as quiet as it can be with four 1 year olds that I keep) for the most part. No chattering by Maia and the constant, "did you hear me??" that she loves to ask us lately. No kid tv shows on non-stop, no big kid toys all over the place, in addition to the baby toys. I was ready for them to come home though. Harrison was excited about school from the start. He got his favorite first grade teacher, Mrs. Hudson, that he claims is the most "beautiful teacher, and I can't take my eyes off her." She is pretty. He has good taste in women.


The arrived home a little afte 4pm. I guess the bus was running late, which is pretty typical on the first day of school. Both of them hoped off the bus and no declaration was made about not going to school again, so I guess the day was successful. I only hope tomorrow goes as smoothly as today did! I leave you with some photos from the event! Enjoy!

Maia getting ready to go to the bus stop. She hand-picked her outfit.

The Sleeping Beauty backpack from Disney Store. Has a matching lunchbox that clips onto the front but I chose to put it in the bag since the bag was empty and the lunchbox was heavy.

Harrison excited to start school the first day. He has always loved going to school.

Max keeping watch for the bus. Him and Amos, below, were actually playing in the monkey grass that grows along my neighbor's sidewalk.

Amos hiding from Max. His tail was on one side and his head poking thru the other side. Maia thought this to be histerical and wanted me to take a photo.

Here comes bus 20!!

Harrison boards first, followed by Maia. Mrs. Mary has been driving this route for years and is the best bus driver you could ask for!

There she goes, off to Kindergarten!! Looking pretty happy!

Coming home, looking noticeable more tired than she did in the AM.