Thursday, November 5, 2009
Not much better today
Now in addition to the stabbing pain, I am getting the flu-like body aches. I hope this is not the H1N1 flu, since the injectable vaccine is still not available here in Orange County.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Blah
I feel really old today. And my pain level is an 8 out of 10. I wish the stabbing pain in my left hip would stop. It has been 8 days and it still won't stop. I may write more later, but my brain is completely empty except for the pain right now.
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Homework
Anyone who knows me well, knows that I carp a lot about the amount of homework K is assigned from school. It is really kind of insane, the volume of work these kids have to do at home, and I am not really sure what the answer is.
Having had children in both a Minnesota and a California school district, I can honestly say that Minnesota does it better. The Bloomington, MN school district has longer school days (about 5:15 hours more per week than here in Irvine), and far less homework, at least at the elementary school level. Basically all S had to do for homework was read for 30 minutes a day and an occasional worksheet to finish at home. He had the occasional larger project that needed to be mostly completed at home, but other than that, no real homework. In contrast, K has at least 45 minutes to 1 hour of homework (my estimation of how long an average child with no attention deficit should take) every day. She has had that level of homework since Kindergarten. And this is not including the 20-30 minutes of reading she is supposed to do every day. S even commented to me that K has more homework in elementary school than S had in high school (Bloomington school district).
K is an August child, so she is one of the youngest kids in her class. I think she lags less, developmentally now, than she did in Kindergarten. And her abililty (or lack of it) to focus has been an issue from jumpstreet. When we moved to Irvine, three weeks before school started, I had to scramble to get K and S enrolled in school, and although K had been evaluated for Kindergarten readiness in Minnesota, they had to re-evaluate her in California. So I took her to the evaluation and apparently she did well enough to be put in the "Later Gators". At K's school the "Early Birds" are the kids that are not as advanced academically speaking. The "Later Gators" are already starting to read on their own, where the "Early Birds" in some cases, are still learning their letters. So cool, K was a "Later Gator". Periodically throughout the school year, her teacher, Mrs. N. would approach me and tell me that K was not focusing well, but that it was not unusual, since some of the children were almost a year older than her. April conference time came, and I got a note from Mrs. N. that she did not need to have a conference with me, unless I wanted one. So, cool, K was doing well enough that there were not any apparent overwhelming concerns on the part of her teacher. How wrong I was.
About one week after conferences were over, Mrs. N. approached me after school and said, "I am going to move K down to 'Early Birds' because she is not focusing well in class." Mind you, this was 6 weeks before the end of the school year.
I responded as calmly as I could (I was really upset), "No, you are not moving her to 'Early Birds'. Our family has a routine, and you are not going to upset that routine." Again, wishing my brain had been along for the ride that day, it would have been nice for me to mention to her that she was the one that did not seem to need a conference with me, and that if things had been that terrible, she should have requested a conference. I heard later on, from another parent, that she had a list of kids that she had wanted to move down, she went down the list and asked each set of parents to move their kids and none of them budged. I upped my volunteer hours in the classroom, and had Mrs. N. send home the work that K did not finish in school. But I did not allow her to be moved down.
First grade was amazing for K. She had a young, energetic teacher and K absolutely thrived in there. I had an ongoing dialog with Mrs. B. regarding the focus and attention issues, and she assured me that K was doing well academically. After Mrs. N., Mrs. B. was really a breath of fresh air.
Again, anyone who knows me well, knows that last year was a particularly rough one for both K and I regarding the workload. This was second grade, mind you. Last year, K had a teacher that in my humble estimation, should have retired 10 years ago. This particular teacher is also the Gifted Education coordinator for the school. And she also had parent volunteers in her classroom every single day, and worse, parent volunteers were taking home stacks of the entire class' work to correct (against data privacy laws), leading me to wonder what the hell Mrs. F. does in there. But yet, she was still unable to keep certain kids in her class focused enough to finish work in class (K being one of those "certain kids"), and she had the kids take home "catchup work" quite regularly. K would get a "catchup work" bag at least once every two weeks, and this catchup work would take between 5 to 15 hours to complete. This was in addition to the homework which was taking K 10 hours a week to complete. Early in the school year I asked Mrs. F. if I should have K evaluated for ADHD, because the volume of work was overwhelming. She told me not to. She insisted that K did not need any help. (No, maybe not, but her mom does, because if this volume of work was going to keep up all year, which it did, K's mom was likely to commit Hara Kiri). I finally went "over her head" and contacted the school psychologist and arranged for her to observe K.
K had a particularly bad day in school on the day of the psychologist's evaluation. Mrs. F. approached me after school and lamented that K had a rough day, and that she was disappointed about that. I told her I was glad that K had a bad time during the observation, because then the psychologist could get an idea of what things were like at home, and that I may be able to get some help, or at least some strategies. About a week later, my husband and I met with the school psychologist, Mrs. F. and the principal about what was going to happen next. Since this meeting occurred one week before school let out for the summer, it was left with making plans for further evaluation in the fall.
That day after school, Mrs. F. (who must be Catholic - I recognize the whole guilt and shame deal from my own Catholic upbringing) approached me and said, "You better be grateful for what Ms. K (school psychologist) is doing for you. You need to bend over backwards and be grateful because the school district does not do this for just any parent."
I wish I'd had the presence of mind to say that the school district is mandated by law to at the very least do a preliminary evaluation for any parent that has concerns regarding ADHD and other learning problems. I also wish that I had said, "And I have not bent over backwards having K do 10 hours of homework a week and up to 15 hours of catchup work on top of it? Did you really mean to tell me that out loud, after we have sacrificed any chance for K to have any unfettered play time this entire school year?"
Cut to this year, K has Mrs. H. for third grade. I really like Mrs. H., she is another young and energetic teacher. But the homework is still taking longer than I think it should. And we are working on somehow getting it more manageable. About a week ago, we had a SST (Student Study Team - pretty much the Irvine analog to IEP) meeting. K does not have a full IEP, because academically speaking, she is gifted. Present at the meeting were Dr. P. (principal), Ms. K (school psychologist). Mrs. A (special ed. teacher), Ms. M. (speech/language pathologist), Mrs. H. (K's teacher) and I. We talked about K's educational experiences thus far, and I finally got to rant a bit about Mrs. N. I was told at that meeting that I did the exact right thing for K, regarding Mrs. N. wanting to move K down. I was given some strategies for homework, and told that if I needed more pointers to just ask. It was a really good meeting. I was also told that I should have K tested for the Gifted program, because according to her STAR testing (the California standardized tests) she qualifies as gifted. Not sure what the Gifted program entails, but if it is an "in addition" program rather than a standalone program, I think we will pass on it. No point in killing the poor child by burying her in paperwork.
Having had children in both a Minnesota and a California school district, I can honestly say that Minnesota does it better. The Bloomington, MN school district has longer school days (about 5:15 hours more per week than here in Irvine), and far less homework, at least at the elementary school level. Basically all S had to do for homework was read for 30 minutes a day and an occasional worksheet to finish at home. He had the occasional larger project that needed to be mostly completed at home, but other than that, no real homework. In contrast, K has at least 45 minutes to 1 hour of homework (my estimation of how long an average child with no attention deficit should take) every day. She has had that level of homework since Kindergarten. And this is not including the 20-30 minutes of reading she is supposed to do every day. S even commented to me that K has more homework in elementary school than S had in high school (Bloomington school district).
K is an August child, so she is one of the youngest kids in her class. I think she lags less, developmentally now, than she did in Kindergarten. And her abililty (or lack of it) to focus has been an issue from jumpstreet. When we moved to Irvine, three weeks before school started, I had to scramble to get K and S enrolled in school, and although K had been evaluated for Kindergarten readiness in Minnesota, they had to re-evaluate her in California. So I took her to the evaluation and apparently she did well enough to be put in the "Later Gators". At K's school the "Early Birds" are the kids that are not as advanced academically speaking. The "Later Gators" are already starting to read on their own, where the "Early Birds" in some cases, are still learning their letters. So cool, K was a "Later Gator". Periodically throughout the school year, her teacher, Mrs. N. would approach me and tell me that K was not focusing well, but that it was not unusual, since some of the children were almost a year older than her. April conference time came, and I got a note from Mrs. N. that she did not need to have a conference with me, unless I wanted one. So, cool, K was doing well enough that there were not any apparent overwhelming concerns on the part of her teacher. How wrong I was.
About one week after conferences were over, Mrs. N. approached me after school and said, "I am going to move K down to 'Early Birds' because she is not focusing well in class." Mind you, this was 6 weeks before the end of the school year.
I responded as calmly as I could (I was really upset), "No, you are not moving her to 'Early Birds'. Our family has a routine, and you are not going to upset that routine." Again, wishing my brain had been along for the ride that day, it would have been nice for me to mention to her that she was the one that did not seem to need a conference with me, and that if things had been that terrible, she should have requested a conference. I heard later on, from another parent, that she had a list of kids that she had wanted to move down, she went down the list and asked each set of parents to move their kids and none of them budged. I upped my volunteer hours in the classroom, and had Mrs. N. send home the work that K did not finish in school. But I did not allow her to be moved down.
First grade was amazing for K. She had a young, energetic teacher and K absolutely thrived in there. I had an ongoing dialog with Mrs. B. regarding the focus and attention issues, and she assured me that K was doing well academically. After Mrs. N., Mrs. B. was really a breath of fresh air.
Again, anyone who knows me well, knows that last year was a particularly rough one for both K and I regarding the workload. This was second grade, mind you. Last year, K had a teacher that in my humble estimation, should have retired 10 years ago. This particular teacher is also the Gifted Education coordinator for the school. And she also had parent volunteers in her classroom every single day, and worse, parent volunteers were taking home stacks of the entire class' work to correct (against data privacy laws), leading me to wonder what the hell Mrs. F. does in there. But yet, she was still unable to keep certain kids in her class focused enough to finish work in class (K being one of those "certain kids"), and she had the kids take home "catchup work" quite regularly. K would get a "catchup work" bag at least once every two weeks, and this catchup work would take between 5 to 15 hours to complete. This was in addition to the homework which was taking K 10 hours a week to complete. Early in the school year I asked Mrs. F. if I should have K evaluated for ADHD, because the volume of work was overwhelming. She told me not to. She insisted that K did not need any help. (No, maybe not, but her mom does, because if this volume of work was going to keep up all year, which it did, K's mom was likely to commit Hara Kiri). I finally went "over her head" and contacted the school psychologist and arranged for her to observe K.
K had a particularly bad day in school on the day of the psychologist's evaluation. Mrs. F. approached me after school and lamented that K had a rough day, and that she was disappointed about that. I told her I was glad that K had a bad time during the observation, because then the psychologist could get an idea of what things were like at home, and that I may be able to get some help, or at least some strategies. About a week later, my husband and I met with the school psychologist, Mrs. F. and the principal about what was going to happen next. Since this meeting occurred one week before school let out for the summer, it was left with making plans for further evaluation in the fall.
That day after school, Mrs. F. (who must be Catholic - I recognize the whole guilt and shame deal from my own Catholic upbringing) approached me and said, "You better be grateful for what Ms. K (school psychologist) is doing for you. You need to bend over backwards and be grateful because the school district does not do this for just any parent."
I wish I'd had the presence of mind to say that the school district is mandated by law to at the very least do a preliminary evaluation for any parent that has concerns regarding ADHD and other learning problems. I also wish that I had said, "And I have not bent over backwards having K do 10 hours of homework a week and up to 15 hours of catchup work on top of it? Did you really mean to tell me that out loud, after we have sacrificed any chance for K to have any unfettered play time this entire school year?"
Cut to this year, K has Mrs. H. for third grade. I really like Mrs. H., she is another young and energetic teacher. But the homework is still taking longer than I think it should. And we are working on somehow getting it more manageable. About a week ago, we had a SST (Student Study Team - pretty much the Irvine analog to IEP) meeting. K does not have a full IEP, because academically speaking, she is gifted. Present at the meeting were Dr. P. (principal), Ms. K (school psychologist). Mrs. A (special ed. teacher), Ms. M. (speech/language pathologist), Mrs. H. (K's teacher) and I. We talked about K's educational experiences thus far, and I finally got to rant a bit about Mrs. N. I was told at that meeting that I did the exact right thing for K, regarding Mrs. N. wanting to move K down. I was given some strategies for homework, and told that if I needed more pointers to just ask. It was a really good meeting. I was also told that I should have K tested for the Gifted program, because according to her STAR testing (the California standardized tests) she qualifies as gifted. Not sure what the Gifted program entails, but if it is an "in addition" program rather than a standalone program, I think we will pass on it. No point in killing the poor child by burying her in paperwork.
Yep, See I already forgot to post
I totally missed yesterday so I will be making two posts today.
Mondays completely stink and I think they should all be taken out of the calendar. It was not a complete trainwreck of a day but I totally got my wires crossed with my cousin as to where we would meet at Disneyland and we completely missed each other. Compounded by the fact that I left my cellphone at home. I don't call it an electronic leash for nothing.
Then, the strategies that seemed to work for motivating K to do her homework last week did not work yesterday, so it took K two hours to do one math worksheet. *facepalm* Hopefully, today's homework will go much better.
The good news is that the Phillies won last night, forcing a game six!
Mondays completely stink and I think they should all be taken out of the calendar. It was not a complete trainwreck of a day but I totally got my wires crossed with my cousin as to where we would meet at Disneyland and we completely missed each other. Compounded by the fact that I left my cellphone at home. I don't call it an electronic leash for nothing.
Then, the strategies that seemed to work for motivating K to do her homework last week did not work yesterday, so it took K two hours to do one math worksheet. *facepalm* Hopefully, today's homework will go much better.
The good news is that the Phillies won last night, forcing a game six!
Sunday, November 1, 2009
NaBloWriMo
It is November 1, so it is National Blog Writing Month (coincides with NaNoWriMo - National Novel Writing Month). I am not confident with my ability to write fiction, so I will just be blogging every day in November. This exercise will test my ability to focus on a project and stick to it, because I have the attention span of a Tse Tse Fly. We shall see.
Today, so far, has been a really good day. We took the Brownie troop and the Tiger Cub den to the Pacific Marine Mammal Rehabilitation Center in Laguna Beach. The Brownies all earned a special "Marine Life" try-it today. Try-its are the Brownie version of merit badges, they have to actually complete four different related tasks to earn them.
We learned about the difference between sea lions and seals, learned about what they do at the center to help sea lions, seals, dolphins, and small whales. The volunteer, Kathy, showed us some of the hazardous things these sea mammals encounter, and how these hazards harm them. We also got to watch the staff feed the sea lions and seals. The kids even got to see a sea lion's eye (it was in a jar, preserved, so people can see how large their eyes are. Some of the girls were pretty skeeved out by the eye in a jar, but K was very interested. K has mentioned that she wants to be a veterinarian when she grows up, so it is a good thing that the eye did not creep her out.
It was a very nice outing, and we had a gorgeous day, as far as the weather goes, to go there.
On edit, I forgot to add that the H1N1 flu has hit K's school. We ran into one of the parents at Target yesterday and one of their kids got diagnosed with it on Friday. They also found out that out of 25 children in that child's class, 13 were absent on Friday. Still no injectable H1N1 vaccine here in Orange County. To say that I am nervous about this is a severe understatement.
Today, so far, has been a really good day. We took the Brownie troop and the Tiger Cub den to the Pacific Marine Mammal Rehabilitation Center in Laguna Beach. The Brownies all earned a special "Marine Life" try-it today. Try-its are the Brownie version of merit badges, they have to actually complete four different related tasks to earn them.
We learned about the difference between sea lions and seals, learned about what they do at the center to help sea lions, seals, dolphins, and small whales. The volunteer, Kathy, showed us some of the hazardous things these sea mammals encounter, and how these hazards harm them. We also got to watch the staff feed the sea lions and seals. The kids even got to see a sea lion's eye (it was in a jar, preserved, so people can see how large their eyes are. Some of the girls were pretty skeeved out by the eye in a jar, but K was very interested. K has mentioned that she wants to be a veterinarian when she grows up, so it is a good thing that the eye did not creep her out.
It was a very nice outing, and we had a gorgeous day, as far as the weather goes, to go there.
On edit, I forgot to add that the H1N1 flu has hit K's school. We ran into one of the parents at Target yesterday and one of their kids got diagnosed with it on Friday. They also found out that out of 25 children in that child's class, 13 were absent on Friday. Still no injectable H1N1 vaccine here in Orange County. To say that I am nervous about this is a severe understatement.
Monday, October 19, 2009
I Hate the Media
Because both K and I have asthma and I have a compromised immune system, it is important for both of us to get the flu shot. Well, this year adds another wrinkle, we also need to get the H1N1 shot. But we cannot get the nasal spray version of it because that is live virus and it would be dangerous for the both of us. So we need to wait for the injectable attenuated virus immunization.
Last week, I went to my clinic to get my regular flu shot. They did not have the pediatric dose of the regular flu shot (WTF???) and I was told to call every week on Wednesday afternoons or Thursday mornings to see if they got regular peds flu vaccine in. Okey Dokey!
We have been put on the waiting list for when H1N1 injectable attenuated vaccine comes in. Meanwhile, the news media is acting like all the H1N1 vaccine is readily available, when NOBODY has the injectable attenuated version. Worse than that, they are reporting that people who are at highest risk really should have gotten the vaccine by now, because people are already dying. UM, THANKS, assholes. Nice to foment a shitstorm of hype about this when there is absolutely nothing people can do but wait and hope their providers actually RECEIVE the vaccine and that there is enough vaccine for everyone that needs it (I have my doubts about that). I am nervous enough as it is, without the damned hype and doomsday scenarios. I have enough personal drama, thank you very much.
Last week, I went to my clinic to get my regular flu shot. They did not have the pediatric dose of the regular flu shot (WTF???) and I was told to call every week on Wednesday afternoons or Thursday mornings to see if they got regular peds flu vaccine in. Okey Dokey!
We have been put on the waiting list for when H1N1 injectable attenuated vaccine comes in. Meanwhile, the news media is acting like all the H1N1 vaccine is readily available, when NOBODY has the injectable attenuated version. Worse than that, they are reporting that people who are at highest risk really should have gotten the vaccine by now, because people are already dying. UM, THANKS, assholes. Nice to foment a shitstorm of hype about this when there is absolutely nothing people can do but wait and hope their providers actually RECEIVE the vaccine and that there is enough vaccine for everyone that needs it (I have my doubts about that). I am nervous enough as it is, without the damned hype and doomsday scenarios. I have enough personal drama, thank you very much.
Friday, August 7, 2009
Unadvised endeavors
I am going to start this post stating that I am amazingly and wildly out of shape. Four months of pneumonia and the cascade of asthma plus the ensuing depression makes it really difficult to get motivated to work out.
Two weeks ago, at my daughter's swim meet, they had a "Parent's Relay". The original email stated that each parent would swim 25 yards (one pool length). So I got myself signed up to do the relay. The day of the relay they told us we would be swimming 50 yards. Well, I was not going to back out, what is one more length of the pool, right?
They had us do a warm up lap or two (I chose to do only one lap, to preserve my energy, especially since I had forgotten my inhaler in my other handbag, so did not have that available). I felt pretty good, confident that I would be OK out there. How very wrong I was.
I opted to swim second for my team. That was probably a good thing. So I bellyflopped off the blocks when it was my turn, swam to the end of the pool. No problem, so far, so good. About half way through the second lap, I started gasping for breath. So I tried to slow down and breathe. Then my body just stopped working. I was trying to will my body to do the freestyle stroke and really nothing was happening. So I did the only thing I could think of, I flipped over to my back and started to do the backstroke. I was still very winded, and not moving very well. I started to panic and cry, thinking I was going to die out there in the pool, making a complete ass out of myself in front of my daughter and everyone. I finally made it to the end of the pool, but could not climb out on my own and had to be pulled out. I really should have dropped out of the thing once I found out it was 50 yards. What on earth was I thinking?
I take a bit of pride in the fact that I DID finish my leg. And I did not die out there.
The next day, we had a family kayaking day for the Brownie troop. Matt, K, and I rented two
kayaks, one single and one tandem. I put Matt in the tandem with K, because if I got stranded I did not want K stranded with me. I was really nervous about the kayaking, especially since I had really gotten in over my head swimming the day before. But it was a lot easier than I thought (and way easier than canoeing, which I have done before). I almost capsized my kayak a couple of times, and got seriously soaked, but it was really fun. I really want to go again.
Two weeks ago, at my daughter's swim meet, they had a "Parent's Relay". The original email stated that each parent would swim 25 yards (one pool length). So I got myself signed up to do the relay. The day of the relay they told us we would be swimming 50 yards. Well, I was not going to back out, what is one more length of the pool, right?
They had us do a warm up lap or two (I chose to do only one lap, to preserve my energy, especially since I had forgotten my inhaler in my other handbag, so did not have that available). I felt pretty good, confident that I would be OK out there. How very wrong I was.
I opted to swim second for my team. That was probably a good thing. So I bellyflopped off the blocks when it was my turn, swam to the end of the pool. No problem, so far, so good. About half way through the second lap, I started gasping for breath. So I tried to slow down and breathe. Then my body just stopped working. I was trying to will my body to do the freestyle stroke and really nothing was happening. So I did the only thing I could think of, I flipped over to my back and started to do the backstroke. I was still very winded, and not moving very well. I started to panic and cry, thinking I was going to die out there in the pool, making a complete ass out of myself in front of my daughter and everyone. I finally made it to the end of the pool, but could not climb out on my own and had to be pulled out. I really should have dropped out of the thing once I found out it was 50 yards. What on earth was I thinking?
I take a bit of pride in the fact that I DID finish my leg. And I did not die out there.
The next day, we had a family kayaking day for the Brownie troop. Matt, K, and I rented two
kayaks, one single and one tandem. I put Matt in the tandem with K, because if I got stranded I did not want K stranded with me. I was really nervous about the kayaking, especially since I had really gotten in over my head swimming the day before. But it was a lot easier than I thought (and way easier than canoeing, which I have done before). I almost capsized my kayak a couple of times, and got seriously soaked, but it was really fun. I really want to go again.
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