So I get this vague notice about a 4 day training for a new program. All Day. If we are interested... That is never how that works. So I anticipate being forced. I have no problem doing the training. However, one day is DD's graduation, and I have to be out of here at my regular time of 3:30. I don't know if this will come down, but I have already said, I am leaving. Period. I've seen plenty of others take a stand on things a lot less than a graduation.
This week is nuts. DH is gone tonight. I leave at 5:00 AM tomorrow for 2 days. He will get home tomorrow around 7:30 AM. I just hope the kids hear their alarms and the bus is on time. I told him if he walks in and 2 kids are sitting there, take them to school. I get back late Wednesday. Full day Thursday and am off Friday, which I have made plans for an out of town trip to the race track with friends. I am already exhausted.
I'm dragging. I've been fighting a nasty cold all weekend. Now I'm at the no voice, pray it doesn't become a sinus infection stage. Everyone at work is looking at me like I'm patient 0 but I have autoimmune issues and a simple cold escalates quickly for me so I'm not actually as sick as I sound. The cold coupled with staying up late for Game of Thrones and grey, rainy cold weather today has me feeling wiped out. I'm already looking forward to going home to bed.
Had a great meeting with my financial advisor over the weekend though. She's helping me refi my mortgage, get my student loans paid off more quickly, and setting me up for success now that I'm a single income household. She reassured me that I'm actually doing really well, all things considered. Just gave me some steps to clean up things now and then what to do for the next couple years to keep good progress going.
We spent the whole weekend painting and decorating the two kids bedrooms. I also twisted my knee working out so my whole body is sore today. But I got up early and got my workout in, so I am pretty proud of myself! I am not a morning person.
This week is pretty laid back for me at work. I wrapped up a bunch of projects last week and having them off my plate feels great!
We are back in full sports/activity swing with the kids this week but I am starting to have serious guilt that they 3.5 year old isn't in anything yet. I've always joked that she better not have any skills or interest because with two older sisters we won't have the time or money to pursue them, but it's kind of true. The thought of even adding one day of tumbling to our calendar makes me want to cry!
Post by covergirl82 on Apr 15, 2019 10:08:43 GMT -5
Interesting surprise walking into work today...one of our team members resigned on Friday and our manager accepted his resignation as of that day (declined his two weeks' notice) because he is going to a competitor. I had thought a few months ago that he was looking, so it wasn't a complete surprise. So now we're down an analyst, again.
Weekend was pretty good. My mom and I went to the Vera Bradley annual outlet sale in Ft Wayne on Friday. My mom is one of my best friends, so it we had a great time and enjoyed our time together. Saturday DH picked up clutter on the main floor and vacuumed and cleaned the floors. I took DD to the egg hunt at our church that morning, and then did laundry and some online training for work in the afternoon. Sunday was church, a relaxing afternoon, and then we had small group in the evening. We got about 4" of snow starting in the afternoon through the night. Hopefully it all melts today with the sun and highs in the upper 40s.
I am not a Game of Thrones fan (DH is), but I chuckled at the coincidence of all of the "winter is coming" stuff leading up to the new season starting, and then we get winter weather (inches of snow) the same day as the season premier, so it looked like winter when 9:00 pm rolled around.
It seems that all of my days are busy now...Soccer for DS1 on Thursdays and Saturday mornings and softball for DD on Thursdays and Fridays. And DD hasn't started games yet. Luckily I just finished teaching for the semester. I'm wrapping up grades on Wednesday I'm pretty busy at work. We are trying to wrap up a project before our big audit early next month. It's going to be close. And this week, DH and I started renovation on our bathroom. Someone else is doing the work for us, but we had to buy all of the materials this past weekend. I'm so grateful that my dad was able to watch the kids for a few hours so we could get it done. I can't wait to see the finished product on Friday. Not so happy about using the second bathroom on the ground floor. It has a shower, but no bathtub. Should make bathing the kids fun.
I’m traveling and I’m sick. That’s a crappy combination. I’ll get home late Wednesday, which means I have to miss DS’s Easter Egg hunt at school. I’m feeling really whiny.
Also I’m going to be traveling a lot the next few weeks, which just sucks.
Its April 15th! My donut client brought us in a giant bakery box full of donuts before 9am. I think that might be all I get to eat today. Wore my running shoes and running around like a crazy chicken
Post by soccermama on Apr 15, 2019 14:49:28 GMT -5
I'm having a super chill day at work, which is nice after our crazy weekend. DD's bday was Sat. so there was a lot going on plus she had a sleepover Sat. nite (no one got much sleep yikes).
I ran to TJMaxx at lunch and found a few cute tops & a pair of pants which was very exciting, lol.
I haven’t gotten much done at work. I’m having a very unfocused day. I originally had 7 meetings scheduled but ended up with only 3, so it was hard for me to shift gears with four hours I hadn’t planned on.
I’m also super nervous about the cardiologist tomorrow, which doesn’t help.
The kids are on spring break this week. DD2 is very content to hang around and play. DD1 is suuuuuch a pest. She just can’t entertain herself. At all. But since she hasn’t been able to control her behavior, I’m not really planning on taking them to very many places. DD2 has a play date, but I haven’t been able to set one up for DD1 because no one is responding. So I’m not sure if her bossiness is bleeding into her school relationships and kids don’t want to play? Or something else? Either way, loooong week.
The weekend was productive. DH and cleaned out the basement, the garage, and the linen closet. We got a ton of landscaping done as well.
Remember how I just started overseeing a new department about 2 weeks ago. I am pretty sure someone already put in their notice. So this is about to be super complicated quickly.
Post by traveltheworld on Apr 15, 2019 17:02:26 GMT -5
I'm finally recovering from my jet leg. You'd think that with all the traveling that I do for work, I'd be more used to it by now; but for whatever reason, this has been a hard one to get over.
We met with DS's psychologist this morning and went over his testing results in detail. She once again reiterated that she thinks DS would "thrive in any environment"; so that really doesn't help with our question of what we should do. She said that even if put him in the gifted program, he'd likely need additional enrichment outside of school as he is so far above the norm. Which...again...DH and I just don't think he's that smart. But, we asked that question multiple times and towards the end, I think she was starting to get a little irritated. She said most likely we'd need to come up with our own programming and just ask the school to implement it. So I guess that'll be my spring/summer project.
We start soccer tonight for both kids and I'm coaching DD's team. I do not play soccer and am completely non-athletic, but I figured running around with a bunch of 3 and 4 year olds shouldn't require any specific skills. Hopefully that's true.
Today has been busy. I had an interview right at the beginning of my work day for a magazine article on something I did for work back in 2016 and 2017. DS woke up determined not to go to school because he said he had a tummy ache. I dropped him off at STBXHs house and told him to decide, since I had to be back to his house in 90 minutes to take him to his colonoscopy. DS ended up not going to school, but has seemed fine minus the runny nose. I was able to get overdue bloodwork lab work done while STBXH was getting his colonoscopy done. I ended up taking the whole day off to be with DS.
traveltheworld, You don’t have to answer but I was a bit confused by the psychologist saying he needed additional enrichment above gifted and you and your DH not thinking he was that smart. So I thought maybe there was more you hadn’t included. Are you at a public or private school? I am not sure our school would go alone with us creating our own program and us just saying implement it.
Most of our enrichment with the kids has been more like museums, zoos, travel and sports, Scouts. We haven’t put them in additional academic classes at this point.
Post by erinshelley21 on Apr 15, 2019 19:38:57 GMT -5
I was gone running errands and at a bridal shower most of the weekend so I did not feel prepared for the week. Thankfully I was home most of the day and got the house under control and vacuuming done.
I made it to the gym and managed to cross a 2019 goal off of my list.
The last few weeks have not been kind to us so I'm thankful for a good monday.
I'm finally recovering from my jet leg. You'd think that with all the traveling that I do for work, I'd be more used to it by now; but for whatever reason, this has been a hard one to get over.
We met with DS's psychologist this morning and went over his testing results in detail. She once again reiterated that she thinks DS would "thrive in any environment"; so that really doesn't help with our question of what we should do. She said that even if put him in the gifted program, he'd likely need additional enrichment outside of school as he is so far above the norm. Which...again...DH and I just don't think he's that smart. But, we asked that question multiple times and towards the end, I think she was starting to get a little irritated. She said most likely we'd need to come up with our own programming and just ask the school to implement it. So I guess that'll be my spring/summer project.
We start soccer tonight for both kids and I'm coaching DD's team. I do not play soccer and am completely non-athletic, but I figured running around with a bunch of 3 and 4 year olds shouldn't require any specific skills. Hopefully that's true.
Have fun coaching! I played, referred, and coached (mostly hs girls) for years. US Youth Soccer has some good "lesson plans" by age groups - some are way too advanced (in my opinion) for that age group, but mostly I think the ideas are good. I've used these gamesbefore too with success. I hope I am not being presumptuous by sending ideas, I love soccer and so far my own kids haven't gotten involved. Our local program for young kids requires a parent on the field with the child and my DH's schedule means I usually have all of our 3 kids at once.
I am curious as to your meeting with the psychologist and what she means by "coming up with your own programming". Is she suggesting something above what your school offers for gifted students? My DS2 has been flagged twice as possibly gifted, but he's only 4 so they don't do anything at this age (he's in speech therapy so this came up as part of his special education evaluation). He's not age eligible for kinder next year so I'm going to have to supplement his preK program with something - I'm hoping the school can direct me to some resources because elementary education is not my wheelhouse.
Post by traveltheworld on Apr 15, 2019 22:33:48 GMT -5
waverly and greenmonkey1, We always knew DS was smart and the testing he did when was 4 showed that he was gifted (we never got an accurate score off of that test because he refused to participate in one of the activities), but this latest test showed that he is profoundly gifted - as in well above the cut off for the Davidson Institute gifted. The testing psychologist we used was the one recommend by the gifted programs in our city, and she said that out of the hundreds of the kids she has tested for the various programs, she has seldom seen kids with DS's score, and almost none with his presentation - as in, no other significant social or emotional difficulties. There are 4 charter / private schools / programs for gifted kids in our city, and the only one she thinks would meet his intellectual needs is the super special one that only has 25 kids in the elementary division - these are kids who get access to university courses in elementary school. But she emphasized that she doesn't think that'd be a good program for DS as he is very social and seems to be getting a lot of other positives from his regular school from the social aspect. Her opinion is that with the other gifted programs/schools, he'd be far ahead of the other kids in a relatively short time, so he'd need differentiation/enrichment even in those programs. So she thinks ultimately, we'd end up having to guide his IEP ourselves.
That's the part we have problems wrapping our heads around - I honestly don't think DS is that far above the normal smart range. But again, she is the one consistently recommended by all the progrs/schools and has a very good reputation in the gifted education community.
I guess the one good thing is she said we have endless options - DS would get into any school/program with his score at any time, so we can take our time deciding. She seemed very keen in ensuring that we "protect" his social development - she mentioned multiple times how rare it is to see someone with DS's IQ be generally able to fit in with other kids, so she thinks we should preserve that as much as possible ; and academically / intellectually, he'd do fine anyhow.
This week has already gone off the rails. Got notice yesterday that FIL has a ruptured appendix. He is out of state on vacation to meet up with some of his buddies. Emergency surgery overnight on Sunday. StepMIL is frantically trying to get there but the gusty weather on the East Coast keeps delaying her flight. Unsure how long he’s going to be in the out of state hospital.
DH is a total basket case about it. Trying to be empathetic because if it was my dad, I’m sure I’d also go straight to “I’M NOT READY FOR HIM TO DIIIIIEEEEEE.” But he seems to have forgotten the half a dozen ppl we know who have had emergency appendectomies and are totally fine. trying to remind him that yes, this is serious, but also common and ppl recover is getting me a lot of doom and gloom.
DD has a karate test today. Sensei posted the testing schedule last night at midnight. Dude. I need some notice.
She is taking a nature walk with her class today and the teacher sent home a note reminding everyone to wear rain boots because it will be muddy. We don’t have any. I’m irrationally annoyed by the assumption that everyone has specialty everything on hand. This is at least the third time in the last couple months that we’ve gotten a casual note home suggesting we be sure to remember your [thing that not everyone has] tomorrow.
traveltheworld- I get it. Gifted isn’t mandated in our state, so no testing or IEPs here. The school does differentiated learning. I have a feeling mine are gifted based on standardized tests being in the 95-99 percentile, but I too wouldn’t think profoundly gifted.
I totally agree with preserving the social skills as that more than intelligence is an indicator of life success. He is still so young and it’s definitely a journey. It might be more of things become more clear with time type thing as far as what kind of enrichment he needs. We are going with the easiest option of the neighborhood elementary school, but it’s a small district so no other schools in the district just 1 school for each age group. I love that it has bussing and is close by though and helps significantly with DS’s hearing loss far more than private would have. Good luck with your decision.
Late Monday update: I officially paid off one of my student loans! Took $700 out of savings and got rid of my smallest one so that I can then throw that payment at the next one and start snowballing the debt. I know it's not much, but damn, it feels good to be able to say I paid off something from that mountain of student loans.
traveltheworld - weekend Chinese school (it’s just a few hours and comes with homework) might tick the boxes for DS - DD has friends (in 5th grade) that are done with AB Calc.
In first grade the team did a great job with extra opportunities - totally voluntary - DD built a robot for one of them. Anything beyond basic prompts may be kicked back by the teachers - so maybe ask them to present monthly “I wonder” statements and then you can follow DS’ lead. One of them here was about nature and DD spent hours reading field guides for trees, I explained tree counts and she did a few in the woods around the creek, put together a leaf collection with scientific and common names and organized it from most likely to survive to least likely. Then she made one for a different biome with the same structure. That was 100% her - so based on my experience, teachers assigning open prompts was enough to get DD started. The big thing was the teachers’ engagement when she returned projects - the entire team looked at them, she took one to show the principal...I would think this would be scaleable - DD isn’t profoundly gifted but someone who is would just engage on their level. Library and amazon for books, see how it goes...
traveltheworld, The social thing is huge, and protecting it is super important. Both of my cousins were tested to be profoundly gifted, and moved to a school with special resources. They, however, were the much more typical presentation. And as adults they still struggle a great deal with typical social skills, like reading a situation, which can make applying their level of intelligence hard, and makes things like dating and having long term friendships really challenging. College, in particular was a struggle for both of them, due to the social aspects, not the academics.
traveltheworld - weekend Chinese school (it’s just a few hours and comes with homework) might tick the boxes for DS - DD has friends (in 5th grade) that are done with AB Calc.
In first grade the team did a great job with extra opportunities - totally voluntary - DD built a robot for one of them. Anything beyond basic prompts may be kicked back by the teachers - so maybe ask them to present monthly “I wonder” statements and then you can follow DS’ lead. One of them here was about nature and DD spent hours reading field guides for trees, I explained tree counts and she did a few in the woods around the creek, put together a leaf collection with scientific and common names and organized it from most likely to survive to least likely. Then she made one for a different biome with the same structure. That was 100% her - so based on my experience, teachers assigning open prompts was enough to get DD started. The big thing was the teachers’ engagement when she returned projects - the entire team looked at them, she took one to show the principal...I would think this would be scaleable - DD isn’t profoundly gifted but someone who is would just engage on their level. Library and amazon for books, see how it goes...
Those are great ideas. Thanks! I've joined a local gifted kids' parent facebook group, so I'm going to see if I can get some more ideas about what to ask for in his IEP. I want to be well informed when I talk to his school principal.
One of the reasons we kept questioning the psychologist about DS's score is that he doesn't seem to exhibit those intense interests/curiosities about learning as one reads about with other really gifted kids. He likes everything, but doesn't take the initiative to really dig into any one area, nor does he excel in any particular area. He literally wants to do everything - he already plays hockey, soccer, piano, swims, does enrichment math and Chinese; and he told me that for September, he wants to join track at school, chess, and basketball. We told him no. He can only pick 2 sports + 2 non-sports activities at any one time.
traveltheworld, could he do one day a week at the gifted school? I can see your hesitation on moving if he is flowing and doing well at his current spot.
I survived another tax season. We left by 8 last night. First client walked in at 7:58am the last walked out at 6:40pm. We had 36 who needed to pick up and only 3 no shows. That isn't including the people we had in making payments with extensions. I'm tired, still couldn't sleep last night and every muscle in my body aches.
DD pulled the I don't want to go to school today can I go to work this morning. She spent all weekend with me at the office so it isn't like she hasn't seen me. She has been pulling this all school year. I keep mentioning it to her teacher and she doesn't get it because DD always seems so content and doesn't give her any problems. I don't know what to do. We went through this in K and I couldn't get her teacher to see it either. DD is great at masking her emotions all day and unloading when she gets home. She does it at the gym to. Smiley happy DD all practice even when things are a disaster for her and we get to the car and she melts down over practice. Another mom was like how do you ever discipline that happy child. I was like she isn't always happy and the mom asked if she is one of those kids who only melts down at home and I was like yep.
traveltheworld, eh- I chalk that up to everyone is different. I was in gifted and talented, and I didn't dig into anything. The only thing I was really good at was reading. It's a bit more of personality plus the 7 types of intelligences www.ucg.org/vertical-thought/seven-types-of-intelligence. And someone can not be tested at that gifted level and still be an awesome artist/ musician etc. It's just one component that makes up your child. The hyper focus I associate more with twice exceptional (ADHD, autism) or more of the engineering mind which DH has, but I do not.