Random: DS is absolutely determined that what he formerly called his “penis boob” is not to be known as “his balls”. He has accepted the word scrotum. Testicles, he believes, is a silly, made up word, much more silly than “balls” which is too silly to be real. I never knew having boys involved so much discussion of genitalia.
DD1 had a total meltdown in the car today. Not a nasty, I-hate-you meltdown like I’m used to... no, this was a heartbreaking, something is clearly wrong meltdown and I couldn’t pull her out of it. She said she’s worried about gym class. GYM CLASS. Why?? Don’t know - just really upset about gym class. She loves gym class. It’s her first one of the year. And she was inconsolable.
I wish I understood her more. I wish I could have helped her. Nothing I could say helped.
On another note, my large town/small city is in the process of electing its second-ever mayor. And this race has been highly entertaining.
One candidate claimed to be “the” Assistant Vice President at my old company, and is pointing to her extremely successful 30-year career as her biggest selling point. Except that there are, quite literally, 2000-3000 AVPs at my old company, and if one is serious about one’s career, one can achieve the distinction of AVP in about 5 years. So I see someone with a stagnant career that can’t move up. But very few people in the town knows how that company works, so they say, “WOW! The only AVP! That’s amazing!!” Psst... it’s not.
Another candidate has claimed in print that every union, including the NFL Players Association, has endorsed him.
A third is waiting for an indictment, and will not drop out of the race.
It's picnic weekend again. That means I will spend tonight baking cakes after my hair appointment. Dh is working all weekend and DS is working tomorrow. DD and I will go up and set up my booth tomorrow, the cake stand, and spend my day pulling mutton and chicken to make burgoo. Not as bad as it sounds, we will drink a few beers in the process. I also get to go to church for workers mass, which just means I can go no makeup, hair in a ponytail, and shorts and tshirt, which for some reason thrills me.
Sunday, DS is getting up at 4 to help barbque the meat for sale. DD and I will get there at 8 to label and sort all of the cakes and the picnic starts at 11:00 and goes to about 4. It is a fun, yet exhausting weekend. I even give up a run day on Sunday, because I will get plenty of steps before the day is out.
Took DD (4) in to get a wart on her foot looked at that won't heal, they burned it off with liquid nitrogen. That was unpleasant for the both of us. But still better than me trying to treat it at home.
This weekend is bonkers, with swim, soccer, family birthday party...etc.
Question: At what age do you stop inviting the whole class to birthday parties? DS is in second grade, and we are currently planning his friend one. I booked the place, and now we are working on the invites and guest list.
Post by sandandsea on Sept 13, 2019 10:11:39 GMT -5
Tonight is movie night at school. It’s one of the easier fundraiser for the PTA but I’ve agreed to watch 2 other kids including my own 2 during the movie. I’m hoping they all sit and actually watch it. Tomorrow is pretty chill but Sunday will be crazy. We have a soccer game an hour away, followed immediately by a bday party and then our neighborhood picnic. We live in a neighborhood of a bunch of empty nesters and very few families so hopefully we can eat and run.
Question: At what age do you stop inviting the whole class to birthday parties? DS is in second grade, and we are currently planning his friend one. I booked the place, and now we are working on the invites and guest list.
I was wondering the same and last year said it would be this year and that we’d likely only invite 7-8 this year based on the activity ds wants to do. Ds will be 8 this year. But then bday parties got brought up last night at cub scouts and I started feeling guilty about not inviting all of his class. Ds is very social and has a lot of buddies so by inviting 7-8 there would be several left out.
Question: At what age do you stop inviting the whole class to birthday parties? DS is in second grade, and we are currently planning his friend one. I booked the place, and now we are working on the invites and guest list.
I was wondering the same and last year said it would be this year and that we’d likely only invite 7-8 this year based on the activity ds wants to do. Ds will be 8 this year. But then bday parties got brought up last night at cub scouts and I started feeling guilty about not inviting all of his class. Ds is very social and has a lot of buddies so by inviting 7-8 there would be several left out.
I did it last year (end of first grade) because I just couldn't justify inviting two full classes again. Between the two girls we settled on about 10-12 kids that they actually play with and it wasn't an issue at all.
Last night I watched the last 40 minutes of gym practice. They were pretending to compete on vault so all the girls were cheering for each other. It was DD turn and crickets none of the girls were cheering her on. On her second vault coach J gave the other 8 girls a look and one called out "go DD". This brought back a huge flash back from softball in 5th grade for me and I had all the worthless helpless feels last night. I asked DD if she noticed the girls not cheering for her and she did but said they were mad at her. I left it at that as DD didn't want to talk about it. DD isn't competing in the first meet in 2 weeks as she is missing some skills so I'm wondering if that is what is causing all this because the rest are.
Question: At what age do you stop inviting the whole class to birthday parties? DS is in second grade, and we are currently planning his friend one. I booked the place, and now we are working on the invites and guest list.
DD got invited to a couple full class parties in 1st, none in 2nd, and 3rd just started. In her circle of friends it seems like it is more a group of friends who hang together than a huge party. But when you have giant class sizes inviting everyone leads to an expensive party.
We've never really invited full classes to a party, with the exception of DD's JrK class that only had 12 kids in it. We have a relatively big social circle outside of school, so DD gets to pick a handful of kids from school, and that's it.
I think if you're contemplating inviting most of the class, you invite the whole class. But 3 or 4 kids? Meh.
Yesterday I totally didn’t want to work- really tired.
I’m sad/ mad today about 20 people complaining daily about nothing to my co-worker. Like looking for errors to be found, and being like here is the error oh I found one - glee. Um it’s literally no big deal and she double checks everything and knows and deals with them anyway, so it’s getting to the point of them all just being mean. And no one makes spreadsheets of their errors and talks to them daily about it who are co-workers and not their boss. It’s turned into a oh I gotcha thing. She is popular with everyone and respectful, so it’s not that she is unliked it’s the I’m better than you, so I will pick on these lower level people thing.
Skipping an adult birthday party tonight because we can’t handle fighting traffic to stay for an hour to get the kids home so they can go to soccer pictures at 7:50 am. Ugh
We did all class parties so no one got left out, and one child from aftercare complained that he still was. 😕 We only got 1-2 all class invites in 2nd grade, so I fully expect it to be done completely now that he is in 3rd.
Post by mommyatty on Sept 13, 2019 12:50:56 GMT -5
I just got a call from DS’s kindergarten teacher. He squeezed another boy’s arm yesterday and today knocked over the kid’s blocks because he wanted a blue block and the kid wouldn’t give him one. We need to work on using our words and being a nice friend. Sigh. Also when other kids ask to play with him, he often says he wants to play by himself. She’s going to try to “catch” him playing nicely so she can give him “brag beads” for doing something kind this afternoon.
I love his teacher. But lord, his sister did not prepare us for the level of crazy that is DS.
mommyatty sounds like a normal call about my 5-year-old kindergarten DS!
DH took off today with his college buddy on a 3-night road trip. They're heading to the Grand Canyon and then to Moab. I'm excited for him, because he doesn't get out much with friends, but I'm going to have a lot of solo kid time this weekend.
DD1 ended up having a great day. She got her first progress report, and her teacher has not read her neuropsych eval. So she’s calling her out for stuff like staying on task and focusing in class, which is spelled out as an issue in the eval. The school doesn’t do IEPs or anything. I’ve already reached out to the teacher about the report on Monday. She confirmed that she had a copy, but hadn’t read it.
So I’m trying to decide how long I wait before becoming a PITA parent.
DD1 ended up having a great day. She got her first progress report, and her teacher has not read her neuropsych eval. So she’s calling her out for stuff like staying on task and focusing in class, which is spelled out as an issue in the eval. The school doesn’t do IEPs or anything. I’ve already reached out to the teacher about the report on Monday. She confirmed that she had a copy, but hadn’t read it.
So I’m trying to decide how long I wait before becoming a PITA parent.
Can you schedule a 1 on 1 To go through it together? Meetings with teachers seem to get the most accomplished and provide a human element that assures both parties you’re on the same page.
One of our friends is throwing a party this weekend at her house.. kegs and eggs. Can you tell she was previously very active in her sorority? It should be a good time, even if it starts at 9am.. Sunday, we have (hopefully) the last contractor coming to bid for our bathroom reno.
We haven't even started the reno and I'm suddenly finding myself exhausted about it already and thinking "eh, I could probably live with it the way it is for another 10 years, even if it is fugly, the shower door is falling apart and the floors are failing. Totally functional."
Post by traveltheworld on Sept 13, 2019 16:54:53 GMT -5
Both DH and I have to volunteer for 5.5 hours each this weekend for the hockey league since both DS and DD will be playing this year. It's called "volunteering", but if you don't do it, you have to pay $275 more per kid. Sometimes I forget that other people are not as big into savings as we are, because when I complained about this with my work colleagues, all of them looked at me in puzzlement and were all like "why wouldn't you just pay the $275?" Hello - it's $275!!
Anyways, other than that, pretty low key weekend. Mostly just looking forward to hanging out with my kids.
Yes! My 6yo boy wants to know why his balls are there what's the purpose and will squeeze them. He wants to know what girls private parts look like.
Ugh that kid, hold me.
I'm trying to determine how to clean my house, run errands and do movie night tonight. I have an hour. Tommorow we have soccer our turn to bring snacks I don't have yet, a birthday party and we are hosting a playdate since friends have to go to a meeting without their kid. Plus I have a tea to go to with my mom tomorrow morning.
sandandsea - I requested a meeting in my email on Monday. I asked her to review and we could set up a time, and I gave her bullets on DD1’s issues - Exec function, no official ADHD but definite tendencies with a recommendation for retest in 2-3 years. Trouble focusing, especially during tests.
Overall, the reports were good. I was just surprised that she called DD1 out a little regarding her ability to stay on task in her first report when I explained that it’s a known issue. She’s not disruptive- she just gets caught drifting a bit.
I’m looking forward to meeting with her. It’s nice to have things written down this year.
Both DH and I have to volunteer for 5.5 hours each this weekend for the hockey league since both DS and DD will be playing this year. It's called "volunteering", but if you don't do it, you have to pay $275 more per kid. Sometimes I forget that other people are not as big into savings as we are, because when I complained about this with my work colleagues, all of them looked at me in puzzlement and were all like "why wouldn't you just pay the $275?" Hello - it's $275!!
Anyways, other than that, pretty low key weekend. Mostly just looking forward to hanging out with my kids.
I’m with your work colleagues. Lol. Our weekend/home time is so valuable. It’s one of the reasons I’ve avoided volunteering with the PTO. 🤣
My little kids woke up at 5am. DH and I were out at a super fun event last night and didn’t get home until 11:30. So I’m running on 5 hours of sleep. Currently chugging coffee
sandandsea - I requested a meeting in my email on Monday. I asked her to review and we could set up a time, and I gave her bullets on DD1’s issues - Exec function, no official ADHD but definite tendencies with a recommendation for retest in 2-3 years. Trouble focusing, especially during tests.
Overall, the reports were good. I was just surprised that she called DD1 out a little regarding her ability to stay on task in her first report when I explained that it’s a known issue. She’s not disruptive- she just gets caught drifting a bit.
I’m looking forward to meeting with her. It’s nice to have things written down this year.
Please remember it’s asking a lot to expect a general ed teacher to read, understand, and interpret a neuropsychologist report. Public school teachers would not be expected to interpret a neuro report on their own. (is this private school? In a lot of states private school teachers don’t have to be certified by the state and may not have any background in disabilities)
I think a meeting is a great idea so your expectations can be discussed. The way you’ve described it could easily mean she refocused, redirected or prompted your daughter...an accommodation that’s quite common when kids struggle w EF. Maybe I’m missing something though.
campermom - maybe you’re right. It is a private school that has just established an academic support center. So there is one person focused on supporting different learning needs. At the end of last year, I met with the support person and the principal, who gets involved with all cases. There are 150 kids in the k-8 portion of the school (assuming preschool and pre-k probably don’t require as much attention yet).
DD1’s teacher has 22 kids. I’m very new at this, but based on my conversation with the principal and support specialist last year, I was kind of expecting that they would huddle a bit and figure things out, then bring me in. That’s kind of what the principal led me to believe. But maybe that’s expecting too much? I’m very new at this, so I will take any and all advice 😊.
ETA: the neuropsych report was written in layman’s terms. I was able to read, digest, and interpret the majority of it without help. I have no background in education. I’ve never seen another one, so it surprised me to hear that a teacher would not be expected to review a report like this. Maybe our neuropsych wrote it knowing the school had no true specialist to interpret it, because it didn’t until this year.
Post by mommyatty on Sept 14, 2019 20:16:06 GMT -5
mae0111, to be frank, I feel like I’m paying for the right to be a pain in the ass when it’s warranted and to expect more out of my kids’ teachers than I could from a public school teacher. For example, DS’s teacher brought up that he tends to only parallel play at school, not look at other kids, and not talk to other kids. So today when we went to a Lego place, and DS immediately befriended two perfect strangers, I took pics and sent them to her with a note that he obviously CAN play with others, so we need to figure out why he isn’t doing it at school. We texted back and forth 3-4 times so she could ask me particulars about what I was seeing. Frankly, I didn’t expect her to respond on a weekend, but I totally expected we would communicate about it on Monday. Because I’m shelling out $20k for freaking kindergarten. And then donating a chunk of change on top of that. So I’m buying an excellent rapport with his teacher.