Child Study meeting

February 10th, 2007

Thursday before school, we had a “Child Study meeting” at Christian’s school. We met with his teacher, math teacher, speech pathologist, school psychologist, and learning support person. The school nurse was supposed to be there as well, but she had surgery recently and was out. We really didn’t know what to expect at this meeting, but we knew we wanted to figure out what’s been going on with Christian.It went really well. I’m always overwhelmed by just how much his teacher cares about him. We talked about his strengths (he’s well liked and social, he seems confident, he’s a bright kid), and then talked about specific areas. They pulled him out of class for reading support and it turned out he’s reading at grade level now! Math he’s working at grade level except in problem solving (he gets lost in multi-step problems). So it’s really just writing that he’s struggling with (it’s still largely illegible). And he does still have attention issues in class, although his teacher said he’d settled down a lot in the last two weeks. (Funny considering he didn’t start drinking the Spark drink for focus until last Wednesday.)

So the next steps…. he’s going to be referred to an occupational therapist to help him with his writing. He’s going to have his writing evaluated and have a cognitive test (which benchmarks the results of the writing test). And we’re going to do a Bask (spelling?) test, which is a 128 question test that we take and his teachers take to screen for attention issues, depression, anxiety, and probably dozens of other things.

Seaview Classic Chess Tournament

February 3rd, 2007

Christian’s first rated chess tournament was fun today. 5 rounds of chess in a field of 81 competitors (K-6 with a rating of less than 800). Christian won two of his games! Not enough to qualify for state, sadly (have to win three games in one tournament to qualify), but certainly respectable. Now he wants to go again, so I’ll be signing him up for the one March 10 in Mountlake Terrace.Fun!

Advocare

February 2nd, 2007

In other news, I recently ran across Advocare, a nutritional supplement company. Normally, not my thing at all. In this case, a nurse friend became a distributor and I decided to read all about it and give the products a try. I decided to let Christian try the kids’ Spark drink, which is supposed to increase focus. In just this week, he reports doing better in school (in fact, he earned the privelege of sitting at a table with other kids again instead of at his solo desk). Meanwhile, I’m trying the Energy MNS. I haven’t been sleeping great, but I don’t feel it. I’m not feeling nearly as worn out as last week (even though this has been an awful week at work). I’ve also lost 4 pounds this week. We’re off to a good start, and looking forward to trying some of the other products.www.AdvoCare.com/0702290

Brandon’s conference

February 2nd, 2007

The conference with Brandon’s teachers went well today. His progress report says that he is a sweet spirited, quiet little boy. They said he does a good job of focusing on a task and doing his work carefully. They showed us a painting he did the first month of school that he had obviously spent much time and effort on. They said he enjoys building with blocks and painting, and is starting to play more with the other kids. They’re going to continue working with him on his alphabet, shapes, and counting, and they were glad we’re trying to get him into speech therapy, but overall they said he’s doing great! Yay Brandon!

Some results

January 17th, 2007

Brandon – had his hearing test today and aced it. He did a fantastic job of raising his hand when he heard the beep, and of repeating the words he heard. Yay, Brandon! His hearing is normal. On to a speech evaluation we go…Christian – got a call from the teacher, and she has scheduled an ‘intake meeting’ to determine where Christian is and the best things to do to help him succeed in school. This meeting will be 2/8 and it will be us, his teacher, his math teacher, the counselor, the nurse, and a support person. The great news is that they pulled him for a reading test today and he’s testing at a 2nd grade level… an improvement from the first testing this school year that put him at a 1st grade level! Yay, Christian!

Alyson’s milestone and fun stuff

January 11th, 2007

Little miss independent now theoretically sleeps in a big girl bed. Actually, her crib converted into a day bed and she chose to sleep on the floor by Christian’s bed instead of in the bed. Christian said she was actually in her bed when he woke up this morning, so she must’ve moved over sometime during the night. This afternoon at nap, she fell asleep in the hallway. So far we haven’t needed a baby gate, but I imagine that time will come.Other fun ‘Aly-facts’ 🙂
She now recognizes the letter ‘A’, takes the ‘A’ magnet off the fridge, holds it to her chest and says, “Me!”.
She throws away garbage, hangs up her coat, and says Please and Thank you better than her brothers!
She also understands complex statements. Today I told her that her cup was in the bathroom (perfectly logical place for it when you’re 2, I guess). I asked her to go get her cup from next to the sink in the bathroom, and I could see the little wheels turning in her head as she went and got it 🙂
She LOVES going to the nursery at church. It’s a pretty hard word to say, but we hear her say nursery all the time.
She enjoys helping in the kitchen and is very good at setting silverware and (plastic) plates.

I think that’s it for my list for now.

Custom List: Prayer List

January 10th, 2007

Prayer List

  • For usThat my business will be able to pick up the difference when I leave Orrtax July 1. That we’ll stay sane through this chaos!
  • For ChristianThat we’ll be able to find some tools to help him succeed in school and in life.
  • For BrandonThat he will open up to his speech therapist and participate. That his speech (and accompanying self confidence) will improve.
  • For AlysonThat she’ll stay the sweet, brilliant, calm child she is!

Quick updates

January 10th, 2007

Christian – is on the list to undergo complete educational testing. In the meantime, I got a book about ADD Nutrition which has a 30 day dietary plan for kids with attention issues, and we’re going to give that angle a try. We’re still trying any tactic we can come up with to try to help him and there have definitely been really good days and really bad days.Brandon – is going for a hearing test Wednesday and meeting with a speech therapist soon for evaluation and therapy. Now that he’s in preschool, he’s getting really frustrated with not being understood by his peers. We’ll have his preschool conference Feb 2 or Feb 9, so it’ll be interesting to see how that goes. He completely shut down at school the other day because his teacher didn’t get him something he asked for… not sure if he asked too quietly, wasn’t clear, or it was just a bad time, but he spent the entire remainder of the class face down on the floor and even declined snack. That and shyness has become the norm for him lately, so I’m anxious to get him some help. I did get him the very last spot in Full Day Kindergarten for Fall yesterday.

Alyson – is out-shining her brothers at the moment. She’s certainly having her ‘two’ moments complete with blood-curdling screams, but overall she’s an extremely happy, independent child. She loves puzzles and coloring and her new Dora castle and is enjoying learning letters and colors and shapes already. She is WAY clearer than Brandon is, speech-wise, which is really eye-opening.

Me? Barely keeping head above water. Selfishly want a foot or two of snow to fall tonight so I can stay home and get some work done. Several client files on my desk to wrap up. Lots of overtime at work (it’s beyond awful there right now – the stress is through the roof and on to the moon). I SO can’t wait to leave there. Have I mentioned I was insane enough to volunteer to be on the Board of Directors for our local Thrivent chapter? I’m the communications director. Poor Bill will probably have to help me improve the website. At least he’s staying sane through all of this (although he has a recording gig next week!).

Breathe in….. Breath out…. and go rescue dinner 🙂

Report card

December 13th, 2006

Well, Christian’s report card came home today. It’s on a scale of 1 to 4, 4 being above expectations.Christian counted them, he had seventeen 2s. Three 1s. Two 4s. And a handful of 3s.

He doesn’t seem to believe in himself at all, and I just don’t know what to do to help him. If he’d only put a little effort into it, I know he’d be fine. We have an appointment with our family doctor on Monday to see if she has any tips for us. It’s so hard to motivate a kid that just doesn’t care. I want my happy enthusiastic social kid back.

Christian’s Reflections

November 14th, 2006

The annual PTA Reflections contest theme this year was ‘My Favorite Place’. Tonight was the Art Walk, where we could go see all of the entries. Much to our surprise, Christian’s photography project received the blue ribbon Award of Excellence! The other two pictures in his division were very nicely taken and matted. Christian’s was a collage of lots of pictures of the skate park, all cut oddly and arranged at different angles. Apparently the judge liked his creativity and that they weren’t all going the same direction. We’re very proud 🙂