Because homework has been awful! I think there are two reasons that its been so bad recently.
First, G has hit a wall. The novelty of the beginning of school is done, the shine is gone. All that writing he has to do? Not fun anymore. Now it just sucks.
Second, the work is getting harder. Its getting difficult for me to swallow my thoughts and just have him do what his teacher has assigned. I don't always see the point of his assignments, but his teacher is also a colleague. She's so nice and organized, and I see lots of positives. I refuse to air negatives to G, and I also try very hard to never air negatives to our colleagues. However, I don't like all the assignments, and the one time I tried to ask for an alternate way of doing the work, I got shot down.
What do I do? Some of the assignments are pointless or could be done a different way. I don't want to be the crazy parent that harasses her, especially since we work together. I don't think we'd qualify for a 504 plan to get the assignments altered.
Rock and hard place. That's where we are at. For now, I'll just keep trying to stay sane while G is having meltdowns over all the homework, and I'll farm some of it off to Hubby. I deal with kids with ADHD that don't want to do their work all day long. It'll be his turn.
Tuesday, November 4, 2014
Sunday, November 2, 2014
Halloween
Ugh. I absolutely hate Halloween. I think a large part of it comes from being a teacher and having to deal with the excitement leading up to it, then the candy coma on the flip side. All day Friday, I felt anxiety clenching in my gut. Wild kids at school. Wild kids at home. G hadn't slept well in days.
School was actually okay. We worked hard this year on keeping the excitement to a minimum, hoping to decrease the number of significant behavior problems. I don't know for sure, but I feel like it worked. My students, 5-11 year-olds with disabilities, were great. No major issues.
We had to stop by the grocery store on our way home to pick up a couple of staples. G and J were monsters. Not in costumes- just in behavior. We made a mad dash and got out.
I fed the kids while waiting for Hubby to come home, all the while making sure the kids knew not to open the door if I was downstairs or in the bathroom.
We live in a quaint neighborhood with lots of smaller houses very close together. We hire off-duty police officers to close our streets so that its safer. It gets crazy. For a town of 70,000 people, its a big deal to get 1,500 of those people in your neighborhood. People were ringing my doorbell much earlier than they should've, but I ignored them since our porch light was off. (Doesn't everyone know that's the rule?)
At 6pm, the kids were fed and in costumes, so out I went with them while Hubby handed out candy. The first bit was great. It was light enough out that I could easily visually track both boys. J gets a little more nervous, so I hung with him. G, with his poor social skills, was accosting people. He'd walk up to other kids, get 12 inches from their face, and say loudly, "I know what you are! You're a _________!" I tried explaining that they know what they are, seeing as they picked the costumes out and were currently wearing them. It didn't help much.
We made it through about a third of the neighborhood, then headed home to meet up with our friends who were going to go with us. By this time, it was starting to get dark. We were lucky that Ms. D, the mother who was going with us, was dressed as a giant glowing jellyfish. She became our traveling meeting point. We went by a few houses that we'd been to before, waiting for Ms. D's boys to get their candy.
Two houses down from us, G decided to practice his balancing skills by using a small retaining wall as a balance beam. Sure enough, in the near dark, he toppled it. Fortunately, we know the neighbors pretty well, so we went up to let them know. I explained that we'd come back in the morning to fix it.
Off we went, turning down another street. By this time it was pitch black. Oh, did I mention what G was for Halloween? Darth Vader. In an all black costume. "What about his glowing red light saber?" you may ask yourself. He didn't have it. I had to confiscate it since he'd been whacking people with it. People we didn't know and who probably didn't like being hit with some random kid's light saber.
G got lost twice. Took a couple of years off my life. Ms. D and the boys, including J, would go one direction, and G would go another. Fortunately Ms. D, the glowing jellyfish of awesomeness, took J with her while I went looking for G. Both times, G showed right back up 3-5 minutes later near where he'd disappeared. I tried not to panic, but you always hear those stories about abductions. He sure came off looking like there wasn't anyone watching him at a few points.
Anyhow, I'd grab him, give him a good stern talking-to, then look around for the jellyfish. After the second disappearance, I took him home and made him put on pajamas. I did let him come back down for awhile after the candy was all given out.
I survived. And I learned a really important lesson. Next year, G will be dressed as something enormous and glowing. A jellyfish, maybe? A hot air balloon? A twenty foot tall lightsaber? Be prepared, people. Its on.
School was actually okay. We worked hard this year on keeping the excitement to a minimum, hoping to decrease the number of significant behavior problems. I don't know for sure, but I feel like it worked. My students, 5-11 year-olds with disabilities, were great. No major issues.
We had to stop by the grocery store on our way home to pick up a couple of staples. G and J were monsters. Not in costumes- just in behavior. We made a mad dash and got out.
I fed the kids while waiting for Hubby to come home, all the while making sure the kids knew not to open the door if I was downstairs or in the bathroom.
We live in a quaint neighborhood with lots of smaller houses very close together. We hire off-duty police officers to close our streets so that its safer. It gets crazy. For a town of 70,000 people, its a big deal to get 1,500 of those people in your neighborhood. People were ringing my doorbell much earlier than they should've, but I ignored them since our porch light was off. (Doesn't everyone know that's the rule?)
At 6pm, the kids were fed and in costumes, so out I went with them while Hubby handed out candy. The first bit was great. It was light enough out that I could easily visually track both boys. J gets a little more nervous, so I hung with him. G, with his poor social skills, was accosting people. He'd walk up to other kids, get 12 inches from their face, and say loudly, "I know what you are! You're a _________!" I tried explaining that they know what they are, seeing as they picked the costumes out and were currently wearing them. It didn't help much.
We made it through about a third of the neighborhood, then headed home to meet up with our friends who were going to go with us. By this time, it was starting to get dark. We were lucky that Ms. D, the mother who was going with us, was dressed as a giant glowing jellyfish. She became our traveling meeting point. We went by a few houses that we'd been to before, waiting for Ms. D's boys to get their candy.
Two houses down from us, G decided to practice his balancing skills by using a small retaining wall as a balance beam. Sure enough, in the near dark, he toppled it. Fortunately, we know the neighbors pretty well, so we went up to let them know. I explained that we'd come back in the morning to fix it.
Off we went, turning down another street. By this time it was pitch black. Oh, did I mention what G was for Halloween? Darth Vader. In an all black costume. "What about his glowing red light saber?" you may ask yourself. He didn't have it. I had to confiscate it since he'd been whacking people with it. People we didn't know and who probably didn't like being hit with some random kid's light saber.
G got lost twice. Took a couple of years off my life. Ms. D and the boys, including J, would go one direction, and G would go another. Fortunately Ms. D, the glowing jellyfish of awesomeness, took J with her while I went looking for G. Both times, G showed right back up 3-5 minutes later near where he'd disappeared. I tried not to panic, but you always hear those stories about abductions. He sure came off looking like there wasn't anyone watching him at a few points.
Anyhow, I'd grab him, give him a good stern talking-to, then look around for the jellyfish. After the second disappearance, I took him home and made him put on pajamas. I did let him come back down for awhile after the candy was all given out.
I survived. And I learned a really important lesson. Next year, G will be dressed as something enormous and glowing. A jellyfish, maybe? A hot air balloon? A twenty foot tall lightsaber? Be prepared, people. Its on.
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