Heroes

Date: December 22, 2008

Time: 6:45 a.m.

Situation: JB came running into our room, eyes wide as saucers, panting and on the verge of tears. "MOM, there is something in my room! It's either a great big spider (hands rounded to the size of an orange) or a mouse!" So I, of course, said what every good mother says in a situation like this.... "Go tell daddy."

He was working on a morning report in his office, but bravely armed himself with a shoe and headed out to greet the deadly foe, whatever it was. I, of course did what every good mother does in a situation like this, and stayed in bed. Hiding.

Soon Daddy returned, to put on his bathrobe, a full pair of shoes, gloves, and to grab a towel to catch what had turned out to be a very young mouse that has trapped himself in JB's closet. I recall the placement of our fish net, and agree to go get it for him. I give him the net, and he bravely goes into the fray of mouse hunting. JB is on her bed and manages to give the little screams of "OH!" and "There he is!" at all the appropriate times whenever little mouse pokes out his head or tries to make a run for it. Daddy catches him in the net, trapped against the floor, but then realizes this isn't such a great plan, because as soon as he lifts the net, the mouse will take off. So quickly, he lifts the net, and throws the towel, covering the mouse, and scoops at all up into a ball. (Cue screams from JB). Daddy then braves the snow in his bathrobe to take the little guy outside and set him free. (Hooray! Hooray for daddy! Our Hero!)

Where was I during all of this? I, of course, was doing what every good mother does in a situation like this, and was planning my next blog post...

Jingle Bell Rock

JB and The Boy rocked it out in the 4th grade Christmas concert. Sorry about the picture quality, I was way in the back.

Celebrate the Season

We attended Dad's Work Christmas Party, an annual event that is held at USU's beautiful Alumni House. The meal was catered by Hamilton's Restaurant and was deliscious! Mom's favorite was the candy cane cheesecake. YUM! It was interesting to me how many people said how JB was looking more and more like me every day. It was funny how that startled me a bit. I have never been one of those "girly" girls. You know the kind. The ones who can be given a garbage bag or old sheet and will tuck it here, and fold it there and VIOLA! a gorgeous 3 piece holidy outfit complete with sequins! I don't know how they do it. JB does. She just knows how to put together an outfit and make it look fantastic and in my opinion is absolutely stunningly beautiful. More than that though, she has a sunshine that pours from her soul, creating little pockets of happiness all around her. To be told that she looks like me....well that to me is the best complement ever, to know that in some way, I look like her.

Hosanna

DSCF0021, originally uploaded by tlcbull2.

The St. John's Children's Choir wrote this beautiful Christmas song with the help of Nancy griffin from the Utah Opera Company's Opera for Children. This is rehearsal video, but they are still great!
Merry Christmas!

Thoughts of Christmas

Well. Amazingly Christmas is here already. I haven't gotten used to the idea that JB is back in school after summer break and BOOM it's Christmas. I must admit I am not feeling very festive this year. I always look foreward to that time of year when the Christmas carols start playing on the radio and that warm tingle shoots through my spine saying at last the Holidays are back. It's that little tingle that usually has me playing Christmas Cds around August, preparing Christmas parties and making shopping lists, etc. This year... I got nothin'. I did put up a tree though, only because Jb asked me to. No parties are planned. No carmel corn, lollipops or slush is made. Honestly, only 5 gifts are purchased, some are wrapped. oh well. Maybe tomorrow....

Bon Jour!

Greetings!

Well we are back from our France trip and JB has worked hard to get mostly caught up on her homework. She is an amazing kid and has had a great attitude about doing her extra work. Dad ended up having to work more than we thought, so some of our exploring days were edited, leaving us to visit some attractions we hadn't planned on seeing originally. We visited a bunch of old churches and abbeys, went to a tiny little zoo, and visited a real castle. Mom shot over 750 images, some of which may be seen at her flickr site:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tlcbull

CRAZY!

Today we practiced spelling words by writting them in puffy finger paint. It was CRAZY (one of the words). This finger paint is really fun and easy to make.

Ingredients: Equal parts liquid school glue and shaving cream, food coloring if desired.

Mix together. Squish, gush, streak, laugh. Get some in your hair. (It's ok it will wash out.)

Let dry over night

That's it.

We spread the paint onto the paper and used old pencils to write the words in the paint. It dries to a puffy rubber like sheen, and we can still see the words! The table cleaned up nicely and the kitchen smells minty fresh.

Schooling vs Education

"I have never let my schooling get in the way of my education"- Mark Twain

We told JB's teacher about our up coming trip to France, and instead of being excited for us, she explained to me how important it was that we schedule vacation times for when school is not in session because of all of the content that will be missed when we are gone. I told her we would be happy to make up any missing assignments, read books to catch up etc. I asked if JB could have her assignments ahead of time so she could complete them before we left, and the teacher told me "No" because she doesn't know EXACTLY what she will be teaching on each day. So instead of giving us the assignments early, she will put all the missing assignments in a folder to be completed upon our return. We will "just have to make them up after your fun vacation."

True our vacation will be fun. However, I feel the teacher is missing the point. Jb will practice speaking French, in France. She will eat escargot and pastries and tour the Eiffel Tower.
She will sleep in a castle http://www.holiday1.net/Cristallin.htm,
She will attend a science center based theme park http://www.futuroscope.com/eng/index.php
She will pay her respects at the historic town of Oradour where hundreds were killed in a massacre of World War Two. http://www.secondworldwar.co.uk/ora_tour/oradour.html

Or she could stay home and work on another word search...

Fourth Grade!

The First Day of Fourth Grade....
Well, we made it to the first day of fourth grade. Jb is excited to be starting at Hillcrest Elementary School. The decision to leave the charter school was very difficult for me to make. However, even though we would be leaving behind many wonderful people that we love, and an outstanding educational focus, the fact is that JB would not be receiving the help with her reading that she needs. Hillcrest will help us in two specific ways:
1. The charter school teaches an advanced curriculum so she would be required to do fifth grade work even though she is in fourth grade. She is currently not reading on a fourth grade level. Attending Hillcrest "shortens the gap" that needs to be made up to get her on the same level as her age equivalent peers.
2. Neighborhood schools are required to provide a "tier two" reading instructor or specialist to assist students that need extra help, charter schools are not.

As of this posting, she has attended 4 days of school. On the second day she came home with "homework" in the form of a word search that was to be completed during class. In the 20 minutes of school time that she had been given to complete the assignment, she was able to find 1 (one) 1 word on her own. She hadn't completed it so it was sent home as homework.

####Note to teachers #########################################
Word searches are HELL for dyslexic kids! The letters in the words are already jumbled up enough, without having them purposely mixed up. It is my personal mom opinion that word searches are nothing but complete busy work, have no educational merit whatsoever, and should be BANNED from education entirely!
########################################################

So what did I do? Even though I was seething inside, I quietly helped JB complete the word search, reminded her there would be some days like this when she would not be able to get everything done in class, and that it was good that she brought it home so she wouldn't get behind, and had her turn it in.

No, I did not march into her class to scream at the teacher (who on the second day of school has NO IDEA that this exceptionally bright and articulate child would have any difficulty with reading or a silly word search. Mainly because as of the first day of school JB's IEP still had not been sent from the charter school but that's another story...) But I did mention in my most quiet polite voice that Jb was sorry for not completing the word search in class, and that spelling and reading are very difficult for her, but she is working on it, and we are always willing to help out with what ever is needed from us. The teacher looked at me like I was speaking a foreign language, but I believe could sense that I wasn't telling her everything that she needed to know, due to lack of time, place etc. She just gave me a very puzzled look and said "OK", and started her day. I will speak again with her soon at a more appropriate time and give her better information.

The Magnificent Miss Wall (JB's teacher from last year who provided the testing for JB, and is one of my close friends) said it best when I told her my tale. Her reply: (SINGING LOUDLY) "And it's only just begun.......

Knitpicts

Read the Travels of the Prayer Shawl here:

http://knit-picts.blogspot.com/

Field trip

Our field trip to the American West Heritage Center was great!


Shooting a bow and arrow...


An old wagon.


Tossing a tamahawk into a pile of logs.


The Mountain Man Trading Post

JB and her classmates prepare a tasty snack of wheat flour, pemmican, pinenuts, and redberries.

Baby Animal days was so fun! See my Flickr site for more pics!

Findings at Greenville Elementary

Well, I did the site visit last week, at Greenville Elementary and while I was not blown away by what I saw, I wasn't completly turned off either. I realize that most schools are different than the Charter school, and some of the differences I like, some I don't. I just have to decide which school I like best.
Perks of the Charter School are:

1. Small child to adult ratio: Each elementary class has both a full time teacher and a 3/4 time Aide. Most classes are 22 students or less. That's around 11:1 student/adult ratio. At Greenville I sat in on one class who had a teacher with 28 students all to herself. I worry that JB will not receive the personalized attention that she has been getting and so desperately needs.
2. Stringent dress code. I like how presentable the children look. They are dressed nicely, no logos or sketchy clothing. I saw lots of jeans, tee shirts, and extremely casual clothing at Greenville.
3. In the Charter School, the classrooms are only allowed to post certain things on the walls, and they must be placed in certain areas. This leaves the walls relatively clutter free. JB is prone to becoming frustrated with over stimulus, and to be honest while sitting in a classroom at Greenville, I noticed there wasn't even one inch of picture/clutter free wall space. The filing cabinets had bright colorful stuffed animals piled on top of them, stuffed animals on top of the computer screens, a smelly class pet in one corner. I started to feel like I was in Las Vegas and I had only observed for about 10 minutes. I felt very over stimulated and wondered how JB would cope.
4. She has friends and knows the routine. The teachers all know her well, and it would be easier for me as a parent to make those "unreasonable demands" of her teachers without being annoying because of our past relationships.

The perks of Greenville:

1. The curriculum was much easier. Homework could probably be finished in an hour or less.
2. They have a reading specialist, who was very nice, and recommended a tutor for JB to start with right away.

I am out of time for today. I plan to also investigate Hillcrest Elementary, and contact the reading tutor on Monday. Maybe I could leave her at the Charter school and hire the tutor?

New vs Old School.

Well, tomorrow I will site visit at a new school for JB. We are currently debating whether or not to put her in a different school next year. She is currently at a Charter School, which teaches an advanced curriculum. Here's the situation:
When she began kindergarten students had to be born on or before August 31 to enroll. Her birthdate is August 31. School began that year on August 24. So she began kindergarten 7 days shy of her 5th birthday. Had she been 17 hours older, she would have had to wait another year to begin schooling, and would now be in 2nd grade. Then I enrolled her in the Charter School which teaches an advanced curriculum. So now she is a "biological" second grader in what is technically a fourth grade classroom, and we are seeing difficulties. Weird I know. :-) The question arises as to how well she would do in a more age appropriate classroom, to close the gap so to speak. So that leads me to site visit the neighborhood school, where next year she would still be in 4th grade (so not held back a year) but would basically be repeating the curriculum requirements of this year (so held back a year). Confused yet? Plus the neighborhood school has a part time reading specialist whom we would have access too, and is not available at the Charter School. Yet JB actually does really well academically at the Charter School and currently earns straight A's with a B in spelling (reduced word list and some other accomidations are in place, not to mention the grueling ordeal of 2 hours + homework per night). We LOVE the family atmosphere of the Charter School and she has a lot of friends there, but we can't help but wonder if all of these accomidations will become unnecessary at an easier school. We also wonder why the Charter School hasn't hired a reading specialist of their own. When I asked the Principal about it she said she could maybe hire a teacher with reading certifications, but the idea of a dedicated reading specialist hadn't even crossed her mind. I'll see how tomorrow goes.

March 27, 2008

Originally I was going to dedicate this blog space to the building of our new home, and will probably continue to mention it from time to time, but instead have decided to make this the main forum for my thoughts and activities as I slowly unravel Jb's learning disability. We are at the end of the school year, and truly not much has changed since November when she was tested and diagnosed with a "Specific Learning Disability" that resembles the characterisitics of dyslexia. However, we are not allowed to say that she has been diagnosed with dyslexia, or that she is dyslexic, because dyslexia is a biological condition occuring in the brain that can only be diagnosed with MRI scans. So if it walks like a duck, talks like a duck, and looks like a duck, we can't call it a duck because we haven't subjected it to enough invasive procedures to actually label it a duck.
With that said, we have made some classroom accomodations for her that have made a bit of a difference in her daily struggle to read and write, but it hurts me to see her try so hard and make such little progress. Her spelling word list has been cut from 30 to 15 words, and I am in her classroom with her each day to read various things from math story problems, to grammar worksheets. I write out most of her writing assignments as she dictates them to me. Even with this one on one attention, she continues to be very anxious and cries at least once per day, sometimes more. Homework lasts an average of two hours per night, and we have had to arrange (and pay) for her to go to an after school homework tutor at a public school across town because she gets so angry and frustrated that I can no longer help her, and homework help is not available to us any where else. She studies hard, but it seems like studying is all she does. I am worried because next year I won't be the hired Aide in her classroom and she won't receive such individualized attention. I worry about how she will cope. I worry about her future and wonder how she will look when her mom has to go to college with her to read the assignments. :-)
I am currently investigation options available to us. It is possible we will change schools in the fall if needed to provide her with the services that are not available at the charter school that she is now attending. Our neighborhood school has a reading specialist that I will meet with next week, and I will also conduct some on site observations.

Super Sled

What better way to start the new year than a ride down Old Main Hill on a home made sled? I was sledding with JB and The Boy when a group of teenagers came by with the most unusual sled. I asked if I could take their picture, they said yes, and this video was created from the footage. ENJOY!