"My country, 'tis a bee,
Sweet little laverty,
Of thee I sing,
Land where my fathers died,
Land of the pills and fright,
For every mountain sight,
Let freedom ring."
LMAO. This is why I'm really not so sure about teaching songs using high-level vocabulary to 4-year-olds. ;)
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
My own little Junie B
You know those Junie B. Jones books? Or the Ramona books, going back a bit farther? I could write my own series about Erin.
Today she had a field trip to a local pumpkin patch. Like most field trips she goes on, it did not go well.
The first part was my own fault--I forgot to sign her up, so she almost missed it. She was #4 on the waiting list yesterday, so I told her last night I forgot to sign her up and she might not get to go. She was brokenhearted--they'd talked about it in class (going to the pumpkin patch) and she said "Oh, no, Mom, but I was so happy in class! I'm not going???" and cried and cried. Really rubbing it in, too. I told her how badly I felt about it and she said "Yeah, well, I feel HORRIBLE!" and sobbed some more. (She appears to have inherited the same Drama Queen gene Brian got, lol.)
Well, sure enough, a few kids canceled and she got to go. But then she didn't stay with the group, kept talking to strangers, etc., and got in all kinds of trouble for it and was almost told she wouldn't be able to bring a pumpkin home but managed to get one anyway--but then had to leave it at school for a day when "she behaves better." (lame...)
She has been doing so much better in school lately but this was out of the routine and structure of their everyday activities. Add in the extra excitement and her high degree of impulsiveness and, well, yeah--she's going to run off and chat up everyone she passes by. It's just what she does. I have pictures of her at 18 months or so, taking off with glee from our back yard, running out to the park behind our housing area. She's always been one to run in whatever direction catches her eye. So today, her teacher reported, the whole class would be over in one area, she'd be off at the petting zoo part looking at the goats. They'd be at the petting zoo, she'd be running over to look at someone's baby. Etc.
I'm telling you, she'll have an ADHD diagnosis too in a few years. She is a carbon copy of Brian at this age. His teachers acted like he was a big problem child, too...the difference was that I believed them. Now at least I know what's causing it. I wholeheartedly understand that if she's going to go on field trips she needs to stay with the group and there are consequences for not doing so. But I also know the poor kid wants so badly to behave, tries so hard to do it, but then the first thing that catches her eye--poof! She's off.
So she cried about her "horrible day" and now she's over it and hopefully will have a better day tomorrow. She's got Junie B.'s cheerfulness and spirit, at least. :)
Today she had a field trip to a local pumpkin patch. Like most field trips she goes on, it did not go well.
The first part was my own fault--I forgot to sign her up, so she almost missed it. She was #4 on the waiting list yesterday, so I told her last night I forgot to sign her up and she might not get to go. She was brokenhearted--they'd talked about it in class (going to the pumpkin patch) and she said "Oh, no, Mom, but I was so happy in class! I'm not going???" and cried and cried. Really rubbing it in, too. I told her how badly I felt about it and she said "Yeah, well, I feel HORRIBLE!" and sobbed some more. (She appears to have inherited the same Drama Queen gene Brian got, lol.)
Well, sure enough, a few kids canceled and she got to go. But then she didn't stay with the group, kept talking to strangers, etc., and got in all kinds of trouble for it and was almost told she wouldn't be able to bring a pumpkin home but managed to get one anyway--but then had to leave it at school for a day when "she behaves better." (lame...)
She has been doing so much better in school lately but this was out of the routine and structure of their everyday activities. Add in the extra excitement and her high degree of impulsiveness and, well, yeah--she's going to run off and chat up everyone she passes by. It's just what she does. I have pictures of her at 18 months or so, taking off with glee from our back yard, running out to the park behind our housing area. She's always been one to run in whatever direction catches her eye. So today, her teacher reported, the whole class would be over in one area, she'd be off at the petting zoo part looking at the goats. They'd be at the petting zoo, she'd be running over to look at someone's baby. Etc.
I'm telling you, she'll have an ADHD diagnosis too in a few years. She is a carbon copy of Brian at this age. His teachers acted like he was a big problem child, too...the difference was that I believed them. Now at least I know what's causing it. I wholeheartedly understand that if she's going to go on field trips she needs to stay with the group and there are consequences for not doing so. But I also know the poor kid wants so badly to behave, tries so hard to do it, but then the first thing that catches her eye--poof! She's off.
So she cried about her "horrible day" and now she's over it and hopefully will have a better day tomorrow. She's got Junie B.'s cheerfulness and spirit, at least. :)
Thursday, October 9, 2008
And the ADD count goes up by one.
I'm a bit irritated Blogger locked my blog for so long--it's been a crazy week!
On Monday, I had a consultation with our pediatrician about the boys and ADD. It has become *highly* evident that Brian's ADHD is now interfering with pretty much every aspect of life and it's time to do something more for him than various behavioral tactics and social groups. And Christopher started having similar issues last year (in that what I had always noticed at home was starting to have a big detrimental effect on his school performance.) You know it's bad when you're five weeks into the school year and one kid has had their teacher request a conference with you about classroom behavior and work habits and caused you to get a phone call from the principal about fighting, and the other kid has been switched out of their class to a new one and has had the school call poison control on him for eating a poisonous plant in class...among all the other near-daily emails and conversations with teachers.
So...Monday. We arrive at the doctor's office promptly at 5 pm for the consultation only to discover that since it's a teacher inservice day and the district's kids were all home from school, every child in the district decided it was Go To The Doctor Day and the dr was totally backed up. We waited in that little exam room for an hour. An entire hour. In a tiny little room with no tv, no toys, no books, no kid-appropriate magazines. I'm surprised I had any surviving kids for the dr to look at.
The appointment started with the dr skeptically eyeing Christopher and asking me, "What makes you think he has ADD?" Forty-five minutes later, the appointment ended with the doctor calling me "amazing," comparing me to a mom he knows of five kids who all have ADD, asking me if I have a babysitter and instructing me to get one because I absolutely MUST have a day off, and promising prescriptions at the very next visit. Ha.
So today was Appointment #2. Forms were filled out by C's teachers and he now has a diagnosis as well. He's not really hyperactive--not like Brian--but he is definitely fidgety, like me. He can't focus well, like me. He's easily overwhelmed and then shuts down when he doesn't know where to start, like me. He can hyperfocus on reading books, like me. He is incredibly forgetful, like me. (He'll walk out the door without his backpack. Or his shoes, lol.) Um...I guess this one can't be blamed on his dad. ;) (Adam gets the blame for Brian, though--B's ADHD is a clone of his dad's.)
So, Medication Day is tomorrow. I'm hoping it goes well--I hate the thought of side effects and potential long-term effects I won't know about for years. But I also hate the thought of those boys going down the same path as their dad, if this is not treated/managed. So here we go.
On Monday, I had a consultation with our pediatrician about the boys and ADD. It has become *highly* evident that Brian's ADHD is now interfering with pretty much every aspect of life and it's time to do something more for him than various behavioral tactics and social groups. And Christopher started having similar issues last year (in that what I had always noticed at home was starting to have a big detrimental effect on his school performance.) You know it's bad when you're five weeks into the school year and one kid has had their teacher request a conference with you about classroom behavior and work habits and caused you to get a phone call from the principal about fighting, and the other kid has been switched out of their class to a new one and has had the school call poison control on him for eating a poisonous plant in class...among all the other near-daily emails and conversations with teachers.
So...Monday. We arrive at the doctor's office promptly at 5 pm for the consultation only to discover that since it's a teacher inservice day and the district's kids were all home from school, every child in the district decided it was Go To The Doctor Day and the dr was totally backed up. We waited in that little exam room for an hour. An entire hour. In a tiny little room with no tv, no toys, no books, no kid-appropriate magazines. I'm surprised I had any surviving kids for the dr to look at.
The appointment started with the dr skeptically eyeing Christopher and asking me, "What makes you think he has ADD?" Forty-five minutes later, the appointment ended with the doctor calling me "amazing," comparing me to a mom he knows of five kids who all have ADD, asking me if I have a babysitter and instructing me to get one because I absolutely MUST have a day off, and promising prescriptions at the very next visit. Ha.
So today was Appointment #2. Forms were filled out by C's teachers and he now has a diagnosis as well. He's not really hyperactive--not like Brian--but he is definitely fidgety, like me. He can't focus well, like me. He's easily overwhelmed and then shuts down when he doesn't know where to start, like me. He can hyperfocus on reading books, like me. He is incredibly forgetful, like me. (He'll walk out the door without his backpack. Or his shoes, lol.) Um...I guess this one can't be blamed on his dad. ;) (Adam gets the blame for Brian, though--B's ADHD is a clone of his dad's.)
So, Medication Day is tomorrow. I'm hoping it goes well--I hate the thought of side effects and potential long-term effects I won't know about for years. But I also hate the thought of those boys going down the same path as their dad, if this is not treated/managed. So here we go.
Thursday, October 2, 2008
I've got my own "maverick" right here...
I hate that word now, btw, but somehow used it anyway.
Christopher is turning out to be one heck of a creative thinker. At least, that's what I'll call it. He also prides himself on being the class clown, so there's a few other names I'm sure could be attributed to him by someone less amused.
Anyway, he previously listed "Ebay" as a word with the "-ay" rime. This time, he had some reading comprehension homework to do--something about a desert. One of the questions was, "Would you find a fish in a desert? Why or why not?" His answer: "I would if it was dead, or dying." He explained to me that for all he knew, a fisherman could have been driving through on his way home, and a fish could have fallen off a hook, but since it was the desert, it'd be dead.
I really wonder what his teachers think of him sometimes, lol.
Christopher is turning out to be one heck of a creative thinker. At least, that's what I'll call it. He also prides himself on being the class clown, so there's a few other names I'm sure could be attributed to him by someone less amused.
Anyway, he previously listed "Ebay" as a word with the "-ay" rime. This time, he had some reading comprehension homework to do--something about a desert. One of the questions was, "Would you find a fish in a desert? Why or why not?" His answer: "I would if it was dead, or dying." He explained to me that for all he knew, a fisherman could have been driving through on his way home, and a fish could have fallen off a hook, but since it was the desert, it'd be dead.
I really wonder what his teachers think of him sometimes, lol.
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