Flu. Blue. Boo Hoo.
Oy. Dizzy. Fever. Achey.
Oscillococcinum has made a major dent, hence I can log on without feeling like I'm going to fall over from the screen dizzies. (Remind me, when I'm no longer contagious, to hunt down and kiss those responsible for the availability of Boiron's homeopathic remedies. I was entirely certain that they were crap when I first encountered them, tried some to appease my stepmother -- believing utterly that they would be wholly ineffective, and was astonished to find that they worked a treat. Can't explain them. Use them to the exclusion of nearly all other medicine.)
DiSH punked me. No one told me, when I set up my contract, that a land line was required to avoid a $5/month charge (for downloading programming updates via satellite instead). In recent days, a notice has popped up on the screen when I turn the thing on, alerting me that plugging it into the land line will save me the charge. The billing supervisor hung up on me when I suggested that this, and the subsequent misinformation given to me by the regular billing phone attendant (who told me both that the charge would not appear on future bills and that I could solve the problem once and for all with a wireless phone jack attachment) left me with little alternative but to contact my state attorney general's office of consumer affairs. Charming. I think I'm going to push, via the AG's office, to get out of my contract. Since Doc has her own account in NH, I can ditch this and just up my Netflix maximum.
What else?
The Boys are being angels. Thank all that his holy.
HBH's reading test results are back. His Reading level is 12th year, 9th month (which means college freshman). His Instructional level is 11th year, 6th month. Have I mentioned he's in fifth grade? Oy. The G&T program at his school has some unhappy hitches (like the kids still have to do all of their regular classroom work, as well, so the take-away message is: it's bad to be smart because you just get more work. M says that they straighten this out by December, each year, and they end up only having to do the G&T work in areas of duplication. Also, the G&T teacher thought a great assignment was to have the kids of a timeline of the history of libraries. I shit you not. A) totally brainless busy work, B) boring as hell, C) totally beneath grade level. Double oy.
His PT conference is next week and M's going to talk with his main teacher (whom they both really like) about ways to create an environment in which he's getting challenged to learn the same personal skills that the other kids learn -- personal responsibility, accountability, how to self-teach things that are difficult, etc. As it stands, he can pretty much fart around and still get an A in everything. There's no place where he's really being challenged or has a significant consequence if he doesn't do all of his assignments. It's important for his emotional maturation process to go through those developmental stages and the combination of boredom and lack of proper and meaningful constraints / consequences is rendering him a snarky pain in the booty.
I can relate. I didn't hit a subject that I couldn't just get or stuff I couldn't just do until 8th or 9th grade. I had zero skills for coping with that. I had no clue how to study, no idea how to tackle something in pieces, etc. It was disastrous. No one took it seriously. I'd get all these lectures from teachers and guidance counselors about how I wasn't "living up to my potential". It was crazy-making. Part of the problem was that my verbal skills -- both spoken and written -- were quite advanced, such that being able to articulate the challenges I experienced seemed to cast them as less than credible. It wasn't until I took a couple of night classes back in 2004 that I began to comprehend how to create those missed building blocks for myself. It was thrilling! Now I feel ready to do the thing I've not done: enter into a program of study and see it through at least Masters level. Before I figured: what's the point? I'll wash out. Me, with the genius IQ.
So, I really hope they get HBH sorted while he's still young enough to make good use of it in a timely way. Besides, she'll need the practice for HCH, whose tests, so far, indicate that she's ahead of her brother. Yep.
OK. Getting dizzy. Time for a nap. Cheers
-Dot
Copyright 2007 Dot's Stuff. All rights reserved. Please pass the Oscillococcinum.
Oscillococcinum has made a major dent, hence I can log on without feeling like I'm going to fall over from the screen dizzies. (Remind me, when I'm no longer contagious, to hunt down and kiss those responsible for the availability of Boiron's homeopathic remedies. I was entirely certain that they were crap when I first encountered them, tried some to appease my stepmother -- believing utterly that they would be wholly ineffective, and was astonished to find that they worked a treat. Can't explain them. Use them to the exclusion of nearly all other medicine.)
DiSH punked me. No one told me, when I set up my contract, that a land line was required to avoid a $5/month charge (for downloading programming updates via satellite instead). In recent days, a notice has popped up on the screen when I turn the thing on, alerting me that plugging it into the land line will save me the charge. The billing supervisor hung up on me when I suggested that this, and the subsequent misinformation given to me by the regular billing phone attendant (who told me both that the charge would not appear on future bills and that I could solve the problem once and for all with a wireless phone jack attachment) left me with little alternative but to contact my state attorney general's office of consumer affairs. Charming. I think I'm going to push, via the AG's office, to get out of my contract. Since Doc has her own account in NH, I can ditch this and just up my Netflix maximum.
What else?
The Boys are being angels. Thank all that his holy.
HBH's reading test results are back. His Reading level is 12th year, 9th month (which means college freshman). His Instructional level is 11th year, 6th month. Have I mentioned he's in fifth grade? Oy. The G&T program at his school has some unhappy hitches (like the kids still have to do all of their regular classroom work, as well, so the take-away message is: it's bad to be smart because you just get more work. M says that they straighten this out by December, each year, and they end up only having to do the G&T work in areas of duplication. Also, the G&T teacher thought a great assignment was to have the kids of a timeline of the history of libraries. I shit you not. A) totally brainless busy work, B) boring as hell, C) totally beneath grade level. Double oy.
His PT conference is next week and M's going to talk with his main teacher (whom they both really like) about ways to create an environment in which he's getting challenged to learn the same personal skills that the other kids learn -- personal responsibility, accountability, how to self-teach things that are difficult, etc. As it stands, he can pretty much fart around and still get an A in everything. There's no place where he's really being challenged or has a significant consequence if he doesn't do all of his assignments. It's important for his emotional maturation process to go through those developmental stages and the combination of boredom and lack of proper and meaningful constraints / consequences is rendering him a snarky pain in the booty.
I can relate. I didn't hit a subject that I couldn't just get or stuff I couldn't just do until 8th or 9th grade. I had zero skills for coping with that. I had no clue how to study, no idea how to tackle something in pieces, etc. It was disastrous. No one took it seriously. I'd get all these lectures from teachers and guidance counselors about how I wasn't "living up to my potential". It was crazy-making. Part of the problem was that my verbal skills -- both spoken and written -- were quite advanced, such that being able to articulate the challenges I experienced seemed to cast them as less than credible. It wasn't until I took a couple of night classes back in 2004 that I began to comprehend how to create those missed building blocks for myself. It was thrilling! Now I feel ready to do the thing I've not done: enter into a program of study and see it through at least Masters level. Before I figured: what's the point? I'll wash out. Me, with the genius IQ.
So, I really hope they get HBH sorted while he's still young enough to make good use of it in a timely way. Besides, she'll need the practice for HCH, whose tests, so far, indicate that she's ahead of her brother. Yep.
OK. Getting dizzy. Time for a nap. Cheers
-Dot
Copyright 2007 Dot's Stuff. All rights reserved. Please pass the Oscillococcinum.