It’s easy to concentrate on the concrete items in the IEP, when we’re dealing with the Monster and school. Concrete goals have easily measured results – is he learning to use the potty? Is he handing basic pre-literacy skills?
Soft skills are harder to concentrate on and evaluate, which only makes it harder that we’re honestly more worried about those soft skills. Continue reading
Tomorrow is picture day at the Monster’s school.
This isn’t anything new for him, since he’s had picture day at camp and nursery school before now. So this is perhaps the fourth or fifth time when he’s gone before the cameras to get snapped. Continue reading
We’re coming up fast on Halloween.
I’m not a horribly huge fan of the holiday – I just think it’s silly and meaningless, really – but it’s one of those things that a lot of children grow up with. In our neighborhood, there’s no celebration of it whatsoever.. but we don’t just live in our neighborhood. Continue reading
I’m not quite sure, now that I’m at the point where I am, that I remember what it used to be like when I was the Monster’s age.
Certainly, when I was his age, I was going to nursery school and the like. I’m sure that at that age, my mother was dropping me off daily and picking me up, not that I remember how much of the day I was there, if I liked it or not, etc. It never made much of an impression on me, apparently. Continue reading
So, the latest change around the house is that the Monster’s doing a lot more imitating lately.
We’ve always read to him – it’s one of those things that one hears is “what you’re supposed to do” to ensure your kids get an early start on things. And certainly, he’s got a very good head start, since he knows all his letters and numbers. Continue reading
I can remember being a kid, being in school, and always looking forward to the weekends.
Hell, let’s be honest – I scheduled my classes in such a way in college, when I could, to ensure I had four day weekends. Continue reading
We bit the bullet.
Obviously, nothing we’re doing is getting through to the Monster vis-a-vis discipline – there’s a lot of times that he’s either listening or not, and we’ve been blowing our collective stacks. (Or I’ve been coming home to find a very stressed out wife due to the Monster choosing not to behave and giving her additional grief while dealing with both kids at once.) And yes, we’ve seen the suggestions that have been made on other posts regarding 1-2-3 Magic. Continue reading
Next week’s the last week of summer camp for the Monster – then two weeks of ‘nothing’ before he starts his first year of public school.
We made the decision last week to not expand his ‘normal’ day camp from two days per week to five for the remaining weeks of the summer – it didn’t seem cost-effective for the six additional days of camp. Instead, the wife’s suggested the idea of putting him into swim classes for the remaining weeks, since the JCC offers small-group instruction five days a week for the two remaining weeks. Continue reading
Today was the last day of one of the Monster’s day camps.
We were fortunate to find out about a speech and language camp run by a local university, and had the Monster there three days a week in a program that gives him at least some social exposure to other children as well as therapy sessions that our insurance will cover. Unfortunately, because it is staffed by students from that same university, it’s not a whole-summer program – it ran only six weeks, and ended today, four weeks shy of the start of school. Continue reading
Summer is the time of year where we have a bit more free time – especially before the Monster starts public preschool in the fall – to actually do a bit of wandering about on recreational activities.
By far, the most frequent place we go is the pool at the JCC – it’s something we’ve paid for already and it’s an activity that he enjoys, as well as an environment where any behavioral issues aren’t going to be as apparent. (Well, save perhaps for in the kiddy pool if he’s taking too much time with other kids’ toys, though most parents understand that any unattended toys in that pool are fully up for grabs.) Continue reading