Nubby had a minor potty regression this week, but is back on track. The trigger seems to be having my attention divided, particularly when the guys are home. It's just not on Dan's radar to ask or check to see if she needs to go, so I have to be extra vigilant until she gets back to alerting again. Fortunately, we have 2 months to get her back into the routine.
We've got an abundance of social things going on these days, more than we can keep up with, actually. A nice change from last fall when things got overly lonely. Nub and I went to a local beach with another family and had a lot of fun. We have open house for school tonight (not at all social) and another playdate on Friday.
The Jedis are settling into their routine, and A-man is clearly going to have a rough year. His teacher is dismissive and unpleasant. Communication with her tends to confirm every negative thing I've ever heard about Steenrod. She sees wiggly boy who can't stay on task. I know a smart boy who is a perfectionist and who is constantly working out a narrative in his head. Dude will be a writer of something. He struggles to focus on the task at hand because he really does have the channel changing inside his head all the time.
Last night I worked with him on actual homework for 45 minutes, then another 45 after dinner to work on his spelling lesson. He should ace it, but he just doesn't always understand the directions. I was sure I'd be homeschooling IM if the need arose, but school is much more of a challenge for A-man. I do feel that something is wrong when he has a teacher he doesn't like and who seems to not like him, or at least seems to be only able to focus on the negatives that she sees in class. However, I know his attitude would be better if she were more encouraging. Now that I'm on this end of the parent-teacher relationship, it's time for me to be the stereotypical parent and blame the teacher, only I usually tend to blame my kid ;). I know my boys are nutty and are a handful.
Steenrod has a tendency to try to push those kids out to protect their standardized testing scores. What they don't get in their shallow perspective is that my kids are really bright. I feel like NCLB makes drones, and my kids are just a lot more imaginative than traditional education is set up for. Still not feeling like homeschool is right for now, but I may have to make a change for A-man in January to protect my kid from hating school forever!
Woah. How about a teacher change? I wish I would have done that for my son when he was in kindergarten. I think it was really bad for his self esteem. They don't need to be criticized all day. Or maybe get in the classroom and "help" but really go to observe? These kind of teachers drive me nuts. They are the ones that do it because its a job, not because they love it.
ReplyDeleteWe've already had words, so I think helping in the class is out, plus M couldn't come. The only other teacher was IM's teacher last year, and she was only a bit better. Prayers needed as I wade through these possibilities!
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