G'day, everyone.
Fran, I'm glad difficult child has the supermarket job. And that walk with easy child sounds like a memory to cherish.
Jen, I'm always suspicious when they tell me how wonderful my child is, at an IEP meeting. If the kid is so wonderful, why do we need an IEP? Let's deal with the REAL story, please teachers! I've had IEP meetings which never got down properly to the real issues because they were so busy trying to make me feel good about GFGBs progress that we never dealt with how far he still had to go.
Sharon, sorry you missed book club but sometimes we have to make these sacrifices, in the name of rest.
Kjs, you've got to the point where you're keeping score on minutes of sleep achieved. Not good. A thought to hold on to - five minutes of sleep in the day can compensate for an hour or more missed sleep at night.
Sharon, I can't remember when I've ever had my nails done - I guess it's one thing to keep on my 'to do' list. Glad you enjoyed the science fair.
Linda, have you thought about local high schools for the old electronic bits? They can take them apart and build other things with them.
We had Open Day at difficult child 3's school today. It was much better than last year. There were some kids from a behaviour school there (these kids also do at least some subjects by correspondence) but only minor verbal conflict from one kid with difficult child 3, which I was able to step in and deal with. Later difficult child 3 saw this kid entering his drama session and looked upset, but he stayed and participated (as much as he does - in fact, more than usual).
The Open Day worked with the kids getting a "passport" on arrival, with their photo. The different departments provided a range of activities and for completing each activity, the student got a fresh stamp for his passport. Last year difficult child got about four things - this year, he had 8. He even went back after lunch (when everyone else was going home) to finish sewing a library bag. So he came home with a calico bag, a photo frame, a small dish (these last two made out of thermoplastic), a badge and very nice pen (these for completing so many tasks). He had fun, the school fed everybody (hundreds) on pizza and mother in law, who came too, really enjoyed herself. Except for the zoo visit, and the reptiles. She wasn't happy when they brought out a 3 metre diamond python. mother in law was sitting with a friend of hers, our neighbour who is a teacher at this school. The echidna was cute - he scuttled across the floor, very determined to explore everything in case there were some termites.
I also had the chance to talk to a couple of difficult child 3's senior teachers about the Geography problem - from the looks they gave each other, it sounds like this Year 8 course has been too much for a number of kids. They said they will look into dropping difficult child 3 back from the mainstream curriculum into a modified one. They agree he still needs things concrete, not abstract in the slightest. He was "left" too much in mainstream, he's missed out on so much and needs to consolidate the basics.
So all in all, a very productive day. mother in law & I did some shopping on the way home and I'm just finishing up some cooking preparation for tomorrow.
The weather here is weird. Every time we walked out of a shop, it felt like we were walking into a sauna. Today was warm (not quite hot) and I was wishing I'd worn a sleeveless shirt. This evening is cooler but we might need to pull a blanket off the bed tonight. And it's the middle of May! The sea temperature is still 21 degrees C (about the temperature of my shower yesterday morning!) so if tomorrow is like this I hope to take difficult child 3 to the beach, if I can persuade him. We shall see... but mother in law is finally believing in global warming.
Have a good Wednesday, everyone.
Marg
