Hen23's Journal~Goodbye

[Farmfresh]

We are supposed to start back tomorrow and I confess I have already looked up that February break time!

Interestingly some of the local districts that were supposed to start back this morning were called off for snow days due to the cold temps and the mess that is still everywhere. Who knows I may be off tomorrow as well.

 

[Henrietta23]

We got spoiled last year. Our district always has Jan 6th off for Three Kings Day and it fell on a Tuesday so we had the days right through the 7th off. Not this year. Oh well. We do still have Wednesday off but I will be at appointments all day. Dentist for both me and DS and haircuts as well.

 

[Farmfresh]

Got the call at 4:30 - NO SCHOOL TOMORROW.

 

[Henrietta23]

Got the call at 4:30 - NO SCHOOL TOMORROW.

Yay!!!

 

[Farmfresh]

I don't know if they called it for the temperatures which are below zero wind chills or if it is because of the leftover snow that is EVERYWHERE. Many of our side streets are still iced in.

What ever the reason I think I will sleep in!

 

[Henrietta23]

I don't know if they called it for the temperatures which are below zero wind chills or if it is because of the leftover snow that is EVERYWHERE. Many of our side streets are still iced in.

What ever the reason I think I will sleep in!

Isn't it great to know ahead of time so you can do just that??

 

[Henrietta23]

Another week has come and gone. January is a quick month in our school district. We're back on Jan. 4 then off again on Jan. 6 for Three Kings Day. That split this past week exactly in half. We have a full week this week then MLK Jr. Day off and a professional day the day after that. Then it's three full weeks and we're at February break already!
We've finally gotten the tree down but there are other decorations to put away.
Today was the children's pageant at church, the story of the Wise Men. One of the teens narrated and the 11 younger children acted out the story. DS was Melchior and he did an awesome job, looking thoughtful and stroking his chin as he ponder that star in the East. We had 4 little girl sheep, one of whom wandered away to find her mother mid-pageant. Two of the shepherds were brothers and the younger one kept annoying the older one, until the older one shoved the younger one off the step. No tears, no injuries, just one embarrassed mom.
DS is feeling a little full of himself this week. Besides being the lead Wiseman in the pageant, we discovered the church camp we attended last summer used a picture of him in their brochure AND in the statewide church quarterly paper he was written about in the "parish pearls" section that shares neat things some of the churches are doing. They get the information from the individual churches' newsletters. We have an ad running in ours for our eggs. DS sells them after church each Sunday and donates $1 from each dozen to a project our church supports in Haiti. The paper picked up on the ad and wrote a little piece noting that while they weren't sure who this person selling eggs is, they found the ad intruiging. DS doesn't know it yet but our Mission and Outreach committee is planning on recognizing him at the annual meeting in two weeks. There will be no living with his ego, but we are very proud of him!
I am actually going to try to close my eyes for 10 minutes before I have to start dinner, go to the grocery store and plan a Cub Scout meeting. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

 

[Farmfresh]

Wow that is great to hear! I am so glad you are instilling your son with these good values. A little ego stroking for this kind of thing is exactly what is needed to help these values become important for his whole lifetime. Great job!

 

[Henrietta23]

Aw, thanks! He can be a real pill at times, like any 7 year old and today when he blew up when he was reminded he needed to collect those eggs I took him to the website for the project in Haiti and showed him (again) those 5 gallon buckets that are the only source of water for some, the crumbling building that serves as a medical clinic, the children thrilled to receive their first ever toothbrushes. I felt like a big meany but I also told him if he continues to whine about it either his father or I will be collecting the eggs and the money. $1 may go to Haiti, but the other $2 go partly into his savings account and partly to support his Lego habit. It's an ongoing lesson, that's for sure!

 

[Henrietta23]

DS sold 5 dozen eggs at church today. That's $10 more for Haiti. He decided to increase his donation to $2 per dozen. We ran out and could have sold several dozen more. I spoke with the girls and they'll try to do their part.
We've been wrestling with decisions regarding school for him for next year. He is having some issues at public school. He frequently has a tough patch in late winter/early spring where he just has a harder time focusing, as if he's a little burned out. I've been doing a lot of talking and thinking. It occured to me after a conversation with his teacher about upcoming testing that maybe it isn't just him, that the atmosphere of the school changes as the pressure of testing hits. The teachers are under the gun to get the kids ready for the tests. The administration is under pressure to get those test scores up. It's nuts. I work in the system. I see it happening. DS is in a 2nd grade class with 25 other students. They work at tables elbow to elbow. He's very much a creative hands on learner and suddenly he's got worksheet after worksheet thrust at him. He summed it up pretty well on Friday. "As soon as I'm done with my work, she gives me more!" I bet she does! His reaction is to start daydreaming or getting involved in whatever is going on around him. Then she gets annoyed with him and makes him take the work home to do here. He does anything he can to avoid it and melts down ruining everyone's evening. Ugh. This has really only been this bad the past two weeks when the whole emphasis of everything has been "Let's get ready for testing!" They don't even do the CT Mastery Tests in 2nd grade but we have to start getting them ready NOW NOW NOW! All this and we actually have been happy with his teacher. She will tell you herself that she's a little ADHD but she has been so good with DS to this point, understand his busy little body, that he isn't ADHD, just active with a particular learning style. She just can't cater to that in the present situation.
So this has led to discussions with various people. My mom who taught for 35 years, other public school employees who have had kdis in the system or in private school, our priest and his wife whose kids went to private school. We have limited options here in our district at this point. 4 public elementary schools with scores so low that we have a choice to send to any of the 4. Due to budget cuts last year there are 25-26 kids per class from 2nd grade through 4th. All paraprofessionals were laid off last year unless they were one-on-one with students with special needs. Art was reduced to half an hour once a month. They still have PE and music but I think there's a good chance we'll be looking at cuts there this year since there really isn't much else that can be cut. Other choices include the private Montessori elementary school with a tuition of close to $7K. Not an option for us. He went to another Montessori for Pre-K through K and it was a great fit for him but we just can't do it with that tuition! There's the local Catholic school which we are going to be looking into. That was a topic of discussion with our priest after church today. He is the director of board of the local "no freeze" shelter and one of the women on the board has a son in that school. Some how they got talking about it and he thought of DS. He was at a fund raiser with her today after my conversation with him and when he got back he told me she'd be happy to talk to me. Catholic Schools Week is coming up with opportunities to visit and for DS to shadow another student to see for himself. Average class size-12, less than half what he's in now. There would still be tuition, but less than half that of the Montessori school. If it seems like the right fit we'd make it work. There's the difference in religion, since we are not Catholic ourselves. I've known other Protestant kids who have gone there and it shouldn't be an issue. The magnet school our town voted for should have its ground breaking in April and wouldn't be ready until DS's going into 5th grade. It will have Environment/Culture theme and would be right up DS's alley as far as interest BUT there are forces in town trying to undo it all and I'll believe it's going to be built when they actually start. AND it enrollment will be by lottery so there's no guarantee he'll get in.
There's a charter school a few towns away that we could try to get him into but it's the kind of thing that if he wasn't there for kindergarten chances are slim since there's a long waiting list.
And no, home schooling is not an option for various reasons. He and I would not do well together with it and I have to work. I think he can do great in a classroom. We just have to find the right one!
A lot of people in our town move out when their kids hit school age and go to another close by town with a school system with a much better reputation. Also not an option. We're not in a position to be moving and we actually like living here. Our taxes would go up significantly. We've given it two years hoping that public school would work and it just doesn't seem to be the best choice. I've contacted the principal of the Catholic school and will call the mom from the school tomorrow.
I really really need to get out the seed catalogs and start planning. Once the Pinewood Derby project is off my workbench I can start thinking about setting up the grow lights and figuring out how to keep the mice from eating all the seedlings this year. Ooooo that made me soooo mad! All that work and they ate everything!
4 day weekend for the kiddo, I have professional development Tuesday. Not so nice weather for tomorrow so a good time to do some planning!