Stuff & Things
It's been a while since I posted, so I thought it was probably time. Life has been busy, as per usual. This weekend marks the last weekend that I will have to deal with Girl Scout cookie sales, which have been going on for the last 6 weeks. SO CLOSE to being done. Ugh. Every year I take this on, and every year by the end of it I feel like I'd rather lay down in front of a train then do it again, and yet, I do. Rinse, repeat. This year was just made more rough because now we have the nephew staying with us several nights a week, and so that is taking up a lot of time and energy that I just don't feel like spending trying to sell COOKIES of all things.
But it's just about over. Thank goodness!!
Moving on, the nephew has been with us for about 6 weeks so far. Not very long, really, but in some ways it has seemed a lot longer. We love having him, WHEN we have him. The biggest issue is the pull-back we are now getting from his mother, and subsequently from him, regarding staying with us. He has gone from staying with us 5 days/4 nights a week (we had initially agreed on 4-5 nights a week, with us REALLY pushing to have him Sunday nights as he desperately needs the extra study time, and there is no where else for us to squeeze it in - but alas, that has happened exactly once), to him staying with us 3-4 days/2-3 nights a week. The weekdays that he doesn't sleep at our house he still stays with us until about 8:30 at night, and gets dropped off at our house in the morning in enough time for him to shower and eat breakfast, and for me to take him to school. So really, it just amounts to him going to his Mom's to SLEEP those nights, but it's been a bit of trial and error to figure out a set schedule for all of this because he NEEDS it. When he has a stable, set schedule, he does well. When he doesn't, well...he doesn't.
Also, both him and his Mom have this awful pattern that they have fallen into many times, wherein whenever he improves AT ALL, they think that everything is now fine, and it is okay to slack off again. So he'll get a few good grades, think that he is done working, and then flunk for the next couple of marking periods. Rinse, repeat.
Since now that one of the driving reasons for her FINALLY agreeing to have him come stay with us was, all of the disciplinary problems he was having, has practically vanished now that he has switched schools as he is still getting comfortable with the new setup, she seems to think that everything is fine, and will stay fine. And she just wants to kind of downgrade us to being 'tutors', which yeah, no. We ARE acting as tutors, but its not just for his classes, but for his LIFE.
I mean, YES, he is HORRIBLY behind in school. Which is why he is in so many resource classes. And yes, I was horrified to discovery that my 14 yo nephew who is in Freshmen algebra had literally NO ABILITY to do basic division without a calculator. (You can bet your ass he has been doing long division worksheets at home most night, I don't care how readily available calculators are these days so the schools apparently don't bother teaching it, the boy should be able to do division in his head, and this is how he will get there.) But tutoring him in the content of these classes will accomplish NOTHING until he can learn basic (and then more advanced) note-taking skills. (He had ZERO note-taking skills when he started staying us. As in, he never took them in any classes. EVER.) We have managed to move him forward to what I would honestly consider to be only the most rudimentary level of skills at this point. And he is SUPER-resistant to improving it further. And the reasoning behind WHY is that he just doesn't see the point. Trying to impress upon him the need to learn these skills is going to take time. Time that we aren't getting right now.
Not too mention, it feels like we fall back 2 or 3 paces every weekend that he goes home, and only move forward about a half pace every week. It's slow, and unsteady, and having him with us LESS is not going to help. But honestly, we don't have much choice, so we will do what we can with the time that we have, and just hope that we can help.
On a separate note, I can not express how glad I am that Friday is FINALLY here. I spent the last two weeks VERY busy at work, and also, sick. Quite sick. As in, I was down for the count the last two Saturdays in a row. The first Saturday that I was sick, I thought it was just a 24 hour thing, as by Sunday I was improved enough that I was okay to attend our annual "Trip to the Museum" planned with the two 7 yo nieces and the 3 yo nephew (it was his first trip) and we didn't want to cancel. But, that trip wore me down, and that Monday I was sick again. (Luckily, the office was closed that day.) By Tuesday afternoon, it just got worse. I was working from home by that point, as I had too munch to finish and couldn't call out completely. I muscled through the rest of the week, finally going back into the office for a full day on Friday. Which meant I pretty much didn't move from the couch Saturday, or most of Sunday. Then I DID call out from work on Monday. But this past Tuesday I was finally starting to feel human, only for poor Magus to finally get what I had. Which is apparently a 10-day virus. So, yeah, I am looking forward to NOT being sick this weekend. *fingers crossed*
In other, completely unrelated news, SIMON GAGNE IS BACK WHERE HE BELONGS WITH THE FLYERS!!! *SQUEES* That was just about the high-point of my week. And will probably remain so for a good long while.
Crossposted at http://skybound2.dreamwidth.org/1022234.html. Please leave your comments over there. (If you can't access that post, please comment here and I will add you to my reading list over there! Complicated enough yet?)
But it's just about over. Thank goodness!!
Moving on, the nephew has been with us for about 6 weeks so far. Not very long, really, but in some ways it has seemed a lot longer. We love having him, WHEN we have him. The biggest issue is the pull-back we are now getting from his mother, and subsequently from him, regarding staying with us. He has gone from staying with us 5 days/4 nights a week (we had initially agreed on 4-5 nights a week, with us REALLY pushing to have him Sunday nights as he desperately needs the extra study time, and there is no where else for us to squeeze it in - but alas, that has happened exactly once), to him staying with us 3-4 days/2-3 nights a week. The weekdays that he doesn't sleep at our house he still stays with us until about 8:30 at night, and gets dropped off at our house in the morning in enough time for him to shower and eat breakfast, and for me to take him to school. So really, it just amounts to him going to his Mom's to SLEEP those nights, but it's been a bit of trial and error to figure out a set schedule for all of this because he NEEDS it. When he has a stable, set schedule, he does well. When he doesn't, well...he doesn't.
Also, both him and his Mom have this awful pattern that they have fallen into many times, wherein whenever he improves AT ALL, they think that everything is now fine, and it is okay to slack off again. So he'll get a few good grades, think that he is done working, and then flunk for the next couple of marking periods. Rinse, repeat.
Since now that one of the driving reasons for her FINALLY agreeing to have him come stay with us was, all of the disciplinary problems he was having, has practically vanished now that he has switched schools as he is still getting comfortable with the new setup, she seems to think that everything is fine, and will stay fine. And she just wants to kind of downgrade us to being 'tutors', which yeah, no. We ARE acting as tutors, but its not just for his classes, but for his LIFE.
I mean, YES, he is HORRIBLY behind in school. Which is why he is in so many resource classes. And yes, I was horrified to discovery that my 14 yo nephew who is in Freshmen algebra had literally NO ABILITY to do basic division without a calculator. (You can bet your ass he has been doing long division worksheets at home most night, I don't care how readily available calculators are these days so the schools apparently don't bother teaching it, the boy should be able to do division in his head, and this is how he will get there.) But tutoring him in the content of these classes will accomplish NOTHING until he can learn basic (and then more advanced) note-taking skills. (He had ZERO note-taking skills when he started staying us. As in, he never took them in any classes. EVER.) We have managed to move him forward to what I would honestly consider to be only the most rudimentary level of skills at this point. And he is SUPER-resistant to improving it further. And the reasoning behind WHY is that he just doesn't see the point. Trying to impress upon him the need to learn these skills is going to take time. Time that we aren't getting right now.
Not too mention, it feels like we fall back 2 or 3 paces every weekend that he goes home, and only move forward about a half pace every week. It's slow, and unsteady, and having him with us LESS is not going to help. But honestly, we don't have much choice, so we will do what we can with the time that we have, and just hope that we can help.
On a separate note, I can not express how glad I am that Friday is FINALLY here. I spent the last two weeks VERY busy at work, and also, sick. Quite sick. As in, I was down for the count the last two Saturdays in a row. The first Saturday that I was sick, I thought it was just a 24 hour thing, as by Sunday I was improved enough that I was okay to attend our annual "Trip to the Museum" planned with the two 7 yo nieces and the 3 yo nephew (it was his first trip) and we didn't want to cancel. But, that trip wore me down, and that Monday I was sick again. (Luckily, the office was closed that day.) By Tuesday afternoon, it just got worse. I was working from home by that point, as I had too munch to finish and couldn't call out completely. I muscled through the rest of the week, finally going back into the office for a full day on Friday. Which meant I pretty much didn't move from the couch Saturday, or most of Sunday. Then I DID call out from work on Monday. But this past Tuesday I was finally starting to feel human, only for poor Magus to finally get what I had. Which is apparently a 10-day virus. So, yeah, I am looking forward to NOT being sick this weekend. *fingers crossed*
In other, completely unrelated news, SIMON GAGNE IS BACK WHERE HE BELONGS WITH THE FLYERS!!! *SQUEES* That was just about the high-point of my week. And will probably remain so for a good long while.
Crossposted at http://skybound2.dreamwidth.org/1022234.html. Please leave your comments over there. (If you can't access that post, please comment here and I will add you to my reading list over there! Complicated enough yet?)