School System

I knew our local school system was bad, like one of the lowest 3 or 4 in the U.S., but I did not know it was this bad.

I attended and Individualized Education Plan with one of my clients mom's. This little boy has Oppositional Defiant Disorder, ADHD and Asperger's Syndrome. The school supposedly administered a number of tests to this young man and had a 15 minute observation of his classroom behavior. He is below grade level in every academic area and initially qualifies to have 50 minutes everyday in the resource room with a 1:3 ratio, and speech therapy 15 minutes a week.

This is great, it is an improvement from what he has now, which is nothing. But where in the world do people plan out goals but not have steps articulated in order to meet those goal? I guess in the Clark County School District.

Let me explain, one goal is to have this young boy complete all his classwork independently 9 out of 10 times to the teachers expectations. When I asked them what that actually meant, the facilitator told me teacher expectation is evaluated in neatness, accuracy and quality. Again, what does this mean? How is a 7 year old with learning disabilities supposed to meet neatness expectations when I as an adult do not know what the teachers expectations are? Where are the concrete benchmarks of even starting with one assignment, that has two questions completed independently before we jump to having 9 assignments completed?

Goal number 2 was to have him increase his reading comprehension and fluency. Again, I asked what strategies they are going to use and what is the outlined plan? The facilitator told me we cannot dictate how the teacher teaches her material in the classroom.

So, this poor boy has these hefty goals, either he will meet them (without a plan in place) or he will not meet them, then this IEP group will reconvene again. To decide what? I am not sure. Since there is no plan, and we cannot tell teachers how to teach, what does a teacher do when what she has tried has not worked?

I am still baffled hours later of what the purpose of having stated goals is, if there is no plan.

The accommodation part of the meeting is tomorrow morning, so I will bring my list of accommodations and suggestions. I am sure the resource teacher will not be happy with me as she plans to have this wrapped up in 20 minutes. Not going to happen, if she has to try and lay me out a plan of action!

I left this meeting completely flustered, I can only imagine how his mom feels! Defeated, and dejected, as hard as she is trying, she cannot seem to find help for this young boy.

Tuesday

It is Tuesday morning. Which in our house is any other families typical Monday morning. Of course our family is not normal so why would one expect our Monday to be a Monday and a Saturday to be a Saturday not Friday?

The morning started off with one tired mama waking up at the crack of dawn to have a few minutes to have coffee in peace. I find the morning flows better if I have a few minutes to wake up and get myself together before I try to wake up two children.

As I went to wake up child number one, I realize I was waking up my husband as somewhere in the night they played musical beds. When I found the right child #1, I was finally able to arouse cranky boy and get him out of bed and downstairs to the kitchen. Over his buffet of cereal (yes, buffet, he likes to mix at least two kinds of dry cereal, sometimes as many as four. Does anyone elses kids do this???) he explained to me how unjust he felt it that I wake him up on school days. I feel for you buddy, I really do, but its life. He finished eating, got dressed then shed a few tears over practicing his violin and having to finish 4 questions on his spelling worksheet that he and his dad both missed while completing homework the night before.

We made it to school and cranky boy hovered with me on the play ground when he finally broke free of me, it was to watch a few kids play ball. He kept looking over at me with these puppy dog eyes, like a mom, your so mean look. But at school there is a no ball policy in the morning and I have had to remind him of this rule in the past. Yes, it sucks, no one has gotten in trouble yet, and double suck that one of the teachers plays ball with the kids, but rules are rules and they apply to my children.

Child #2, Where do I even begin? She woke up on her own which helps, but was upset that she was cold. She proceeded to tartly ask why I gave her blueberries with her pancakes, ummmmmmmm.... to eat sweetie?! Then as she is wrapped in a blanket talking with her brother, the dog snatches the last 3 pancakes off her plate, and let me tell you, did the waterworks start flowing. From there it was all down hill. She didn't want to get dressed, get her hair done or leave the house. She did not want to go with me to a meeting I had to go to, was mad over having to drop off papers to the accountant, as "I don't have to pay taxes" she stated. Of course, Ms. Child Therapist that I am, I responded with the emotional and completely inappropriate response of "then daddy and I get to go to jail because adults have to pay taxes." This "I don't want to do anything" attitude went on to the fact she did not want to go to dance class, the regular dance teacher was not there, which did not make it any easier. And the rest of the day........ is yet to be seen.

I love Tuesdays!!

Birthday Excitement

My sister's birthday was last week and we planned a special birthday dinner at a nice "adult" restaurant, one of those with glass cups and linen napkins.

This was Carson before we left for the celebration. What a handsome fellow!

Carson said he was tired but I thought he was just being impatient and dramatizing, but he closed his eyes about 8 minutes after ordering.

When his head started to bob and jerk, I knew he was not pretending. The poor kid was actually tired and slept all through dinner. We actually had to box up his food and carry him out of the restaurant. What a party animal!!

Yuk!

Dear Mr. Pigeon-

That is just so not right!!!

I know you only have a brain the size of a pea, but that is just disgusting. Off to the car wash before that bakes on the car window.

My Hour

This is my hour of peace every Tuesday while Adeline is in dance class. I get to have chips and queso at the Boulder City Pub. Except today it is a beautiful 65 degrees and I am enjoying a little patio dinning.

Friday when I am swamped with work I will have to remember my time today. This can maybe be my new mental "safe place!"

No Words Needed

This picture says a thousand words.


This was a family drawing that a 10 year old client drew in my office.

Sensory Sensitivity

With both my children's sensory sensitivity to sound, especially the vacuum, I hope they make tons of money so they can either hire a housekeeper or invest in a nice pair of ear plugs!!

They see the vacuum and run upstairs, shut the door and cover their ears.

At 20, I am guessing Adeline will still plug her ears when she has to flush a public toilet.

Sensory Sensation

We are a sensory family. This is a picture in my car of my storage area. There are two monkey squeeze balls, a baseball squeezy, tangle toy and the stretchy spaghetti. I hold any number of them depending on what feels right that day so I keep my hand occupied so I don't text and drive.

The kids use them to distract them from traffic or each other, depending on what is more annoying at the time. We take them into stores so I am not constantly hounded that they want to buy something.

We love our sensory toys and turning others in to sensory lovers too!