School Update.

The school year is settling into a predictable pattern for both the boys and the adults. We've all adjusted to the schedule, the extra curriculars, the timing of activities, etc. The 1st cardmarking is over for the boys. Brendan's and Brett's conferences are under our belts. Bryce continues to attend Early On 1 day per week with me and has speech at the house 1 day per week. I continue to get headaches trying to juggle it all!

Brendan's had a rough adjustment to middle school. Not in terms of making friends or finding his classes, but in terms of the amount of homework received. He really had never had homework throughout the years spent at the gifted magnet school and he's had a bit of a shock with the amount of homework in the 7th grade gifted magnet program. He's also never had to study. Without embarrassing him, I'll just say that he has a 3.5 GPA. His nemesis, Social Studies, is proving to be quite a challenge. I work with him on time management, working ahead and currently we're discussing the idea that homework is not ONLY work you didn't finish in class, it's also spending a bit of time in each subject going over material.

Brendan is really enjoying Band and has an excellent Band Director. The Band Director posts his weekly goals and objectives on a website and I must say, for a fellow that wasn't trained at WMU by Suddendorf & Dunnigan, he's really quite amazing. I am impressed with what he covers each week in class. Brendan is considering switching from flute to trumpet. Who am I to say "no" to that?! He's reluctantly participating in Solo & Ensemble Festival in January. Brad and I gave him NO CHOICE on that one. We both did it in 7th grade, he can do it, too. He has an excellent sound on the flute, especially considering he's only played 1 year. He seems to enjoy practicing and likes working ahead in his band book.

Brett loves 2nd grade and has a lot of friends. He has the shortest bus ride that the 2 boys have EVER had to elementary school: 40mins in the AM and 33 mins in the PM. This is amazing considering that the transfer run that Brett is on used to have 27 buses and now only has 15 due to budget cuts. Less buses=faster times? Strange, but true. He is looped with the same teacher & children from last year, in a 1/2 split. Brendan had this same teacher, which is nice. He comes home every day with stories about recess or getting carrots off the lunch cart or talking about math group or sharing, you get the picture. He's our social butterfly, he knows everyone and talks to everyone. Surprisingly, our conference did not consist of "Brett talks too much." Instead it was "Brett is a social asset to the class, making positive peer connections with other students."

Bryce really enjoys going to his school.  His class meets one day per week and I attend with him. The children rotate through gross motor, music and fine motor rooms. Bryce seems to like the gross motor room and does not require me to direct him when to switch to the next room. He just follows the teacher and ditches me. Many of the children in his group has global issues, whereas Bryce's reason for qualifying is strictly speech. One aspect of the school that I dislike is that we are supposed to provide constant narration of what the child is (or isn't) doing. What if I'm saying "The cow is up" when in Bryce's mind "the cow is jumping" or something like that? I don't want to put words in his mouth. I want him to have words, of course--his own! Not mine.

Bryce also receives speech for 1 hour per week and the teacher comes to our home. This has been interesting to say the least. The teacher has learned that she needs to pack activities for Bryce that are different from the other children. They are all the same "grade", but because Bryce just has speech issues and has tested cognitively much older than he is chronologically, he needs more complex work to do. Today it was tangrams on a magnet board and cars on a track to illicit the words "stop" and "go". Bryce turned the latter activity into "1,2,3 GO" or "8,9,10 GO", which is only understandable if you are fluent in Bryce-speak. While Bryce has made strides in speech (he's testing now at 23 mos and entered the program testing at 15 mos), and was exited from OT, hitting the 36 month ceiling on the test at 31 months of age, I do not anticipate him being exited from speech upon completion of this school year. I'd love to be proven wrong, but he'll have to make huge gains for that to happen.