Yeah, time did get away from me the last couple of weeks. School is busy heading into the last couple of weeks for the term with assessments, report cards, activities, you name it, it is looming over all of us!
I went book shopping last Friday when I had a lunch date in town with my hubby! Would you believe all these years we have met 2 times for a midday lunch date? Neither of us have had jobs where it is remotely possible for such a civilized happening! Teachers are not renowned for their long lunches (HAHAHA!!) and with Lyle on site and all the security and safety rules it never happened. So, I took the bus into town, walked to the office and sent him a text that I was downstairs! So nice! Granted, it was a quick order type of place, but we did get to sit down and visit like real people with no kid interruptions, so plenty enjoyable. We even walked all around the botanical gardens on the riverside before he had to get back to work. Anyway, book shopping! You will get to see them when we get home for a visit. Grandma and Grandpa-would you like a field guide to Australia birds, or a common birds and their habitats in narrative form? I found both!
Big time score here as well, I bought 3 tickets to see the Bolshi Ballet next weekend! They will be performing The Bright Stream, which has not been performed outside of Russia until now, and was banned under Lenin. The tickets are on the 2nd balcony, so nosebleed section for sure, but the girls and I are very excited to go! Since the boys missed out on this one, I bought family tickets to the Queensland ballet to see Giselle. It is a much smaller venue and we have decent seats, so pleased there. The kids really enjoyed Annie last year, and Ian and Annika are so good when we take them out (as long as there is a parent between every kid, we are gold!) it is a pleasure to take them with us. I have to remember to buy Ian a new pair of dress pants though-I put his old ones on him-and yep! He has grown nearly 4 inches this last year! High water pants!
The lower grades had their Fun Day yesterday. They have all sorts of stations they can visit to make, create, and enjoy. Ian made a pasta necklace, got a spider painted on his face, listened to a story and got a cool bag from the public library ladies. He also drew a funny face on a balloon! I got to take a couple of his friends around with him and we all had a good time. He certainly did not argue about bedtime last night and slept an extra half hour this morning!
I had a meeting with Ian's teacher and the school psychologist as well yesterday. I requested that they test Ian as he has been struggling so much with remembering information, processing information, and reading. He knows just a few sight words, still doesn't know most of his letters, and looks to see what others are doing so he can understand the instructions for an activity. On the good side, they didn't tell me what I didn't already know, which is our boy is bright, but struggles with learning. His math is well above average, and his patterning and problem solving skills are literally off the charts (you should see the intricate layouts for his cars, legos, army men, etc. Military strategist bar none here) but his letter recognition and recall is waaayyyy low. His speech has come a long way and no problem understanding him now! We will be working to figure out how he can learn in the classroom, but multi modal input is going to become a primary focus for him. Think drawing letters on his back, him drawing with his finger on the table or on his hand, lots of repetition, etc. He also has very poor working memory skills-this means that he cannot hold more than 1 piece of information in his head at a time and use it. No wonder reading is so hard! It is as if he is seeing the words new every single time. Since he is a great puzzle solver and pattern maker, I am looking for home reading systems that will break reading down into patterns. It will be a very phonetic approach, with lots of repetition (and mom, this goes above and beyond Spaulding method!). What a ride this will be. The psych did note that Ian is a sunny personality who is willing to put his best into a task and such a polite guy! Ian loved the time spent with him, and wants to see him just to play those games again! On a clinical side, the psych is fascinated with kids like Ian as he doesn't see them too often-really high in areas and really low in others, complicated with the memory issues. Challenging, but rewarding to work with. I'm grateful that I am his mom and know what to DO with all this information to help him to learn. I'm grateful Ian is so good at trying his best and willing to work to please me and himself. I'm grateful for his sunshine and happiness and crazy games he can play for hours. I'm grateful for his sisters who are willing to read with him and help him with his homework and step over his layouts instead of messing them up and causing world war III in the playroom. I'm grateful to his daddy who loves his boy over the moon no matter what. I'm glad I have a kid who will be able to find what he wants to do with his life and be happy.
On that positive note, I'm off until next week!
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