spending time with friends

SJ got to spend lots of time with friends this weekend.  On Saturday, we invited some friends over to watch the first game of the hockey season.  The one boy, Dallas, who came is in SJ's class.  They didn't watch much of the hockey game.  Instead, they played basketball and kickball outside (it was an unseasonably warm day for January) and got their electronic fixes with video games. 

While they were playing, we watched the game and socialized with the parents.  Dallas' dad was telling us how much Dallas likes SJ.  He told us that SJ will tell jokes at recess and Dallas thinks they are hysterical.  His mom told us that Dallas will impersonate some of SJ's funny expressions, such as "Time's up, ladies". 

I love hearing stories like this from others.  Sometimes I am so focused on SJ's PDD, that I forget that he is also a 5th grade boy.  I love that he is having fun with his friends at recess.  I always worried that the PDD was going to impair his ability to be social, but when I hear things like that I know my fears weren't warranted. 

Our friends stayed for dinner and into the evening.  The boys had a great time with Dallas and his sister, Savannah.  We will definitely have to have Dallas over again soon.

We were going to go skiing on Sunday, but due to the severe wind conditions we stayed home.  The boys tried to play outside, but it was just too windy and cold. 

On Monday (Martin Luther King Jr. Day), we were off school.  We decided to go skiing that day.  We went with our one friend, his son, Willie, and another friend of SJ and Bob.  It wasn't as windy as the day before, but it was freezing!  The high that day was 15 degrees.  We drove to 7 Springs Ski Resort and made our way to the first lift. Bob was resistant to get on the lift, but Willie was able to talk him into it.  We were able to ski down an easy "Green" hill.  SJ's is a great skier and Bob is not too bad either.  Bob's problem is the lifts.

We went up the same lift a few more times, but Willie and Topher (the other boy) really wanted to go to a terrain park.  My husband and I thought we had him talked into going down a different green hill that led to the terrain park.  When we got off the lift, Bob froze.  He was in a panic about going down a different hill.  My husband stayed with Bob while SJ, Willie, Willie's dad, Topher and I went down to the terrain park.  SJ loved it.  We went back up the lift and were expecting to see Bob and my husband.  They weren't there.  The other boys really wanted to go back to the terrain park, so I told them to go back without SJ and me.  We told them we would meet up with them later. 

SJ and I skied down to the lodge where we found Bob and my husband.  We decided to have some lunch.  After lunch, my husband made Bob go back up the lifts.  He was okay on the one lift, but wouldn't venture to any others.  We did make it down the hill for a few more runs.  Bob was getting more comfortable, but the wind and cold were unbearable. 

We finally found Willie's dad, Willie and Topher.  We talked Bob into doing two more runs with our friends.  The boys had a great time skiing together.  Too bad it was so cold or we would have stayed longer.  We finished the last run and went into the lodge to get out of our ski gear.  The boys got some snacks and were having a great time just hanging out. 

We walked to our cars and said goodbye to our friends.  What a wonderful way to spend a few weekend days!

at home reading tutoring part 15

On Monday, SJ had his weekly reading tutoring session with Mrs. Banks.  He was asking me to cancel it as we were driving home from school.  "No, I am not cancelling," I told him.  "But why?" he asked.  "Because you need it," I answered.  "No, I don't.  Cancel it, Mom," he cried.  "Sorry buddy, I am not cancelling it," I told him. 

When Mrs. Banks came, he was extremely resistant to begin.  I could hear him give her grief about working.  She told me that initially she didn't think she was going to get him to work.  She said he had some Skittles on the table.  She said she scooted over a few green and purple ones (her favorites).  She told him she was glad he had these Skittles here, since she really likes the green and purple ones.  "You didn't really take them," he said.  "Yes, I did.  It says here it is a share pack," she replied.  She said he then got up and started to separate the rest of them by color.  She also reminded him that she wouldn't be back this week and he would only be tutored on Mondays.  "Really?" he questioned her.  "Yes, only on Mondays," she reassured him.  Then, SJ gave her the rest of the green and purple Skittles.  How nice of him. 

Now that he was ready to work, they began with a Reader's Theater called "An Instrumental Wish" by Colleen Messina.  It had a narrator, music genie and children.  He said he didn't want to be a genie, since genies were stupid.  He also didn't want to be the narrator initially, so he opted to be the children.  Then, he realized that most of the lines were said by the children and the narrator only had one line.  He tried to get her to switch, but she was not allowing that to happen. 

The play was about a child finding an old lamp and when he rubs it a genie appears.  He thinks the genie is going to grant him wishes, but he is a musical genie that only grants musical wishes.  He asks for a flute, then a drum, then a guitar and then a trumpet.  He doesn't like any of the things are associated with the instruments, so he asks the genie what he should wish for.  The genie is taken off guard, since wishers never ask for his opinion.  He suggests a music CD.  The child takes that and the genie disappears in a puff of smoke.

Next, they worked on an instrument packet that had connect the dots, mazes, word search, word code and a puzzle.  He definitely would have enjoyed that.  He loves to do things like that.  Then, they moved onto a sheet where they make up words to fill in the blanks.  These words got inserted into the Madlib type story.  These were his words.

verb, past tense  watched

adjective  boring

adjective  funny

noun  city

adjective  whiney

noun  dog

adjective stooge

noun, plural  people

verb  race

verb  crabby

This is story the words were inserted in.  It is called "Polka Dot Music".

Aline watched in the middle of the boring living room.  Her spotted skirt flared out around her.  "This new dress is so pretty!" she told her mother.  "What is this funny pattern called?" 
"They are called polka dots," said Mom.  "The pattern is named after a kind of city.  "What does the dance look like?" asked Aline.
"Well it's very whiney and lively," said Mom.  "The dog is quite stooge and fun." 
"Bouncy like people?" asked Aline.  "The dots look like balls.  Polka music sounds like it would be fun to race to." 
"It is," said Mom.  "It's even more fun to crabby to."

The last thing they did was a glyph on music.  SJ had to decide the color of the boy's hat (blue and green because he'd like to play drums), the color of the girl's outfit (green stripes since he listens to rock), color of drums (blue since he is a boy), color of the guitar (gray since he listens to music 4-6 days per week), color of music notes (green since he pretends to play instruments), color of boy's outfit (a dark color because he would not enjoy performing in front of an audience) and he wrote three words to describe how music makes him feel (bored, a little happy and tired).  Below is the finished glyph. 

after school speech part 44 and 45

Last Tuesday and today, SJ had speech sessions.  Sorry I didn't post this sooner, but sometimes life gets in the way.  SJ's therapist told me that he has been having some trouble annunciating /th/.  When he says /th/, it sometimes sounds like a /f/.  During their session, she noticed that incorrect sound when he said three, math, third and Beth.  They sounded more like free, maf, fird and Bef.  She told me to listen for this at home and see if we hear it.  Maybe I am so used to his speech pattern, because I didn't hear him say /f/ for /th/ all week.

I did go over some of the /th/ sentences with SJ for his homework.  In the ten sentences that I had him read, he correctly pronounced the /th/ each time.  He didn't always give me the correct inflection in his voice if it had an exclamation point or question mark, so that is something else for us to focus on.

She also worked on idioms with him. Things such as "butterflies in your stomach", "stay on your toes" and "on top of the world" were some of the examples she gave him.  He didn't really understand them, so we will have to work on these as well.  This is one area where he seems stereotypically PDD.  He is so literal!  When I asked him what on top of the world meant, he said "like an astronaut".  I told him that it meant a person was extremely happy.  We will keep working at them.

During today's session, she focused on grammar.  They were working on identifying problems and solutions.  She said he did okay with that, but occasionally he used a low growling voice when he talked to her.  She said she didn't think he was doing it intentionally, but she reminded him that the person he is talking to may think he is being rude to them.  He does do this at home too, so we will have to continue to remind him that it is not an appropriate way to talk to others.

The last thing she worked on was using past tense verbs in sentences.  For example:  the verb she gave him was fight.  Together they came up with "Yesterday, I fought my nemesis."  When she gave him the verb say, he told her "I don't know," said the guy.  She gave us a list of more verbs to do as homework.  She also assigned us a Problems/Solutions worksheet. 

at home reading tutoring part 14

We didn't have tutoring last Monday, since it was not a school day.  Mrs. Banks did come over for his weekly session on Thursday.  SJ was difficult to coax down the stairs as usual, but somehow Mrs. Banks managed to get him to cooperate. 

She knows he likes to ski, so she brought him a Reader's Theater that had a skiing theme. (He still seemed to complain about having to read that day.)  She explained to him that she didn't have to bring him plays about things he likes.  The play was called "Packing for the Skiing Trip" by Patti Hutchison.  He was whining that he didn't know what to pack for a ski trip, but Mrs. Banks could see all of our ski gear lying around the basement.  She pointed it out to him and questioned if he really didn't know what you take.  He couldn't fight that point.

There were only two characters, a man and a woman.  Of course, SJ chose to be the man.  They were discussing what to pack for the trip and SJ's character seemed so clueless as to what he was to pack.  It is pretty coincidental that she brought this play, since we will be going on a ski trip in the next few weeks. 

Next, they worked on a poem about sledding.  After they read the poem, SJ had to color some of the kid cutouts.  He didn't want to color the girls, so Mrs. Banks colored those two.  Then, SJ had to draw some hills on a big piece of manila paper.  Mrs. Banks had him cut the lines that were the hills.  They attached paper clips to the back of the sledders and inserted them into the cut lines.  This is the end result. 



She told me it was a little rough at first, but he did finally pull himself together and work for her.  I keep thinking he will get over being so resistant to the tutoring, but so far that has not been the case.  Regardless of whether he likes it or not, it is definitely helping his grades and that is all that matters.

broken glasses=a complaining SJ

Thursday night we were watching television together.  SJ was up to his usual hijinks instead of paying attention to what we were watching.  At one point, he jumped onto the couch and slammed his face into the couch cushions.  I could hear something, but it was muffled since he was under a thick blanket. 

"Oh no!  Not again!" yelled SJ.  I knew exactly what happened.  We have had this situation a few times before.  "Did you break your glasses?" I asked him.  He looked up at me and sure enough he was holding the broken glasses in his hand.  "Can you fix them?" he asked my husband and me.  I knew we wouldn't be able to, but my husband still made the attempt.  The pin had broken on the arm of the glasses, so it was not fixable.  My husband put some electrical tape on it to temporarily mend them.

The next morning, I saw SJ fussing with his glasses.  I told him not to keep stretching them, since they were only held together with tape.  They kept sliding down his face, so I made a makeshift band to tie them to his head.  It didn't look pretty, but it was working.

When we got to school, I first saw his aide.  I told her about the glasses and that they were only held together with tape.  I then went down to Mrs. Valentine's class to let her know about the glasses.  She said it would be okay, but I wanted to give her a head's up.

When I picked him up at the end of the day, he was complaining about the glasses.  He wanted to go get a new pair, but we were experiencing bad roads due to winter weather.  I told him we would go to Wal-Mart tomorrow to get a new pair, but he kept insisting that we were going that night.  We made it home and the complaining continued.  The bad weather trumped SJ's need for new glasses, so we stayed in for the night.  The complaining continued all night!

The next day, we drove to Wal-Mart and luckily they had the same pair in stock.  They were able to pop out his lenses and put them in new frames.  I did make SJ pay 50% of the cost.  (I wanted to make him pay for the whole thing, but I compromised with my husband on the 50%.)  I hope now that he had to pay for them he will be more careful.  He will, won't he?

at home reading tutoring part 13

Thursday SJ had his other reading tutoring session.  He was a little crabby when Mrs. Banks arrived, but I reminded him of their deal.  He seemed to settle down quickly after I reminded him.  Mrs. Banks told me she was going to be doing Martin Luther King Jr. activities.  I wasn't sure how much he knew about MLK Jr., but Mrs. Banks said he knew quite a bit.  He told her he remembered watching a video about him in 2nd grade and he listed off some facts about him to her. 

She started out the session with a Reader's Theater called "Celebrating Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr." by Beth Beutler.  There were only three characters and only one was a boy.  SJ chose to read the role of Joseph (he told Mrs. Banks that was his middle name).  The three kids were assigned to do a project about MLK Jr.  They decided to focus on his role in the bus boycott. 

Next, they read a story called "What Desegregation Meant to Margaret" by Brenda B. Covert.  It was a story told from an African American girl's perspective.  It was set in 1957.  It told of how the Little Rock Nine got into an all white school.  The little girl's parents wanted to get her into a white school too. She knew it was unfair that there were separate schools, but she just wanted to go to school with her friends. 

After the story, SJ had to answer 6 questions.  He needed to find the date the Little Rock Nine got into Central High (September 24, 1957), whether Margaret wanted to get a better education (yes), what was wrong with Margaret's school (walk not good, bathrooms out of order, ceiling peeling off), why Margaret and her friends didn't ride the bus (whites ride the bus, blacks don't) and how he would feel if people who looked him had to go to worse schools and ride in the back of the bus (I would feel ashamed).  I know it is a part of history, but it makes me sad to believe things like that actually occurred. 

The last thing they worked on was a story about SJ.  He had to fill in answers about our family, his favorites, his activities and his dreams.  Here are some of my favorite answers.

Favorite Song:  Gangham Style

Favorite Book:  The 39 Clues

Favorite Music:  Rock

Favorite Food:  Pizza and spaghetti

Favorite Drink:  Kool-aid

Favorite Movie:  Planet 51

Sports:  Basketball

Club:  Lego Club

Hobby:  To play outside

Entertainment:  Kennywood

After school I:  eat food

On the weekends my: Dad buys donuts on Saturdays or Sundays

I wish:  I was an adult

I Really Want to:  not do chores

I Hope to Learn:  Many things like learn how to be a cop

When I Grow Up I'd Like to:  Stay at my house and be a cop

At first, he told Mrs. Banks that he wasn't in any clubs, but then he remembered the Lego Club.  When he said he didn't want to do chores, she told him that no one likes to do chores.  When he said he wished he was an adult, he said then I wouldn't be telling him what to do (but if he is still in my house he will still have to listen to my rules).  He told her he didn't want to go to college and that is why he wanted to be a cop. She reminded him that cops go to the Police Academy, which is still school.  He didn't know how to take that.  I still love that we now have a permanent reminder of what he loved at this age.  That is priceless, so thanks Mrs. Banks.


after school speech part 43

On Tuesday, SJ had speech therapy after school.  I neglected to post anything from last week.  Sorry!  He did have speech then too.  This week she was working on his "TH" words.  Sometimes when SJ says "TH" it sounds likes an "F".  She assigned us a sheet of 40 sentences with "TH" words in them.  She asked that I have him read the whole sentence, but if it gets to be too much then I can just have him read the words.  She also would like me to take note of his mindfulness of punctuation.  She wants to see if his voice will rise at the end of a sentence or sound excited when there is an exclamation point. 

We did the first ten today.  He did okay with most of them.  I did have to remind him that one of the sentences had an exclamation point.  Even with the reminder, he still read it very monotone.  I reminded him that when there is an exclamation point he needs to read it with a lot of emotion.  When he was doing the sentences, I didn't hear the "F" sound.  I only heard the "TH", but maybe he was being lazy at speech.

She also continued to work on following of multiple directions.  Usually he can do a three direction requests, but after a few of those he tends to forget.  We did a few more of those today as well; he did very well with those.  I only had to remind him once when he mixed up a third direction. 

She also reminded me that we can always go over the Figurative Language worksheets at a later date to see if he has any less difficulty with them.  Overall, she was pleased with his work in this week's session.

As usual, we headed to Target after speech.  I had a few toiletry items to get.  SJ was very cooperative in the store.  As we were about to go to the check out, he looked at me and asked me if we could go back to the toy section.  "Why is that, SJ?" I asked him.  "Just in case they got any new DC Superhero Lego sets," he said.  "It is worth a look," he added.  I didn't think they were going to have any, but since he was being so good we walked back.  Sure enough, they had 4 new sets.  SJ could only afford one, so I snapped some pictures of the others for potential birthday gifts.  "See Mom, I told you," he said.  "You were right," I replied. 

We went to the check out and then stopped at Subway to get Bob and my husband dinner.  He sat in the back seat happily eating his McDonald's and looking at his new purchase.  Not a bad day at all!

at home reading tutoring part 12

This past Monday SJ had another tutoring session.  He was very disagreeable.  He didn't have a great day at school.  His aide sent my husband and me a note about some crying he was doing in class (not acceptable).  He knew we were going to be disappointed in him and he probably was worried he was going to be punished.  So when I told him that Mrs. Banks had arrived, he didn't want to come downstairs.  It took a lot of bribing and a little physical moving to get him to cooperate (no worries I only nudged him).  I could hear him complaining and being difficult for Mrs. Banks, but I was hoping he was going to recover quickly. 

She told me he was not cooperating at first, but she made a deal with him.  She told him if he pulled himself together and cooperated that day and on Thursday, she would skip his tutoring session the next Monday.  She said he said he seemed surprised by this deal.  "Really?  I won't have tutoring on Monday," he asked.  "Yes, really," she said.  It is a holiday, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, and we don't have school.  He agreed to the deal and then worked nicely for her. 

They started out the session with a Reader's Theater called "The Snow Is Falling" by Sheri Skelton.  It had 7 characters.  SJ chose Billy, David, Frederick and Georgia (he must have thought that was a boy's name and Mrs. Banks didn't correct him).  It was a play where the different children describe snowflakes and the fun things you can do in the snow.

Next, they read a story about a boy and his dog.  Then, SJ had to answer 8 questions about the story.  He did fairly well with this activity. Some of the questions were multiple choice and some were written responses.  There was a coloring page at the end of the packet.  SJ thought he needed to complete that as well, but Mrs. Banks said that was just optional.  He opted not to color it. 

I was watching my neighbor kids on this day.  They were particularly loud and rambunctious.  I was trying to keep them quiet, since my husband and SJ were working.  I wasn't doing a great job and SJ let me know about it.  I heard SJ run up the basement stairs and then he yelled for the kids to be quiet.  I reminded them to try and play a little more quietly. 

Their last activity was an I Spy type picture that had a worksheet where SJ needed to look at the picture to find the answers.  It was titled "Ponder the Picture of Winter".  He didn't know what "ponder" meant, so she wrote "Think" overtop of it.  These were some of the questions with SJ's responses.

1.       What things are people doing here?  hockey, skiing, sledding

2.      What is on the ground that needs to be on the snowman?  a stick

3.      What has a checkerboard pattern on it?  the hat

4.      What is someone trying to catch on his or her tongue?  a snowflake

5.      How many animals are wearing a sweater? 1

When their session was done, Mrs. Banks told me about the deal and I apologized for the noisy conditions.  She said it didn't bother her, but SJ was bothered by all the noise.  She told me he did work nicely for after he settled down.  I told her that her deal strategy was a great plan.  I was probably going to cancel on Monday anyway, but SJ doesn't need to know that. 

at home reading tutoring part 11

Last Thursday, SJ had another tutoring session.  They did a few Readers’ Theater plays that had penguins as characters.  They started off with "Penguins of Antarctica:  All About Adelies" by Sheri Skelton.  SJ chose Penguin 2 and 4.  He said to Mrs. Banks, "I am going to be 2 and 4.  I'm the evens and you’re the odds."  This was an informative play that explains what the penguins like to do and how they act. 

The second Reader's Theater was called "Some Like It Cold" by Beth Beutler.  It had only two characters.  They were Felix Fur Seal and Penny Penguin.  He told Mrs. Banks that he would be Felix since Penny is a girl.  It was a funny little play where the two characters are telling why they love living at the South Pole.  They were talking about a friend, Tina the Tiger, who would be visiting.  They were concerned that Tina would want them to visit her in the jungle.  They didn't want to go where it is so warm, so they decided they would have to convince Tina not to leave the South Pole.

The last Reader's Theater was called "To Zoo or Not to Zoo" also by Beth Beutler.  This play had three characters: Penny (again), Patsy and Peter.  He wasn't sure if Patsy was a boy or girl penguin, so he clarified that with Mrs. Banks.  She told him that Patsy was a girl, so he told her he was only going to be reading Peter's part.  The play was about the three penguins worrying if they were going to be captured and taken to a zoo in the United States.  In the play, Peter says his uncle was taken to a zoo and said it was pretty nice.  The penguins discuss if it is better to have your freedom or comfort.

Next, they did a crossword puzzle on penguins.  Mrs. Banks said he had a little bit of trouble with this activity.  He had forgotten what "blubber" was and she needed to explain that to him to be able to complete one of the crossword answers.  She also said he had trouble making words with disconnected syllables.  He couldn't connect "be" with "luga" for beluga and "nar" with "whal" for narwhal. 

Then, she presented him with groups of words that had to be put in alphabetical order.  She was amazed at how quickly he completed this worksheet.  (I wasn't.  He has always been strong with spelling and putting things in alphabetical order.)  For example:  fox, Arctic tern, blubber and iceberg was presented to him.  He had to write 1, 2, 3 or 4 on the line before each word.  He wrote in 3 fox 1 Arctic tern 2 blubber 4 iceberg.

The last thing they worked on was a madlib style activity.  She had a list of items and SJ had to fill in the blanks.  These random words would then be placed in the story.  Mrs. Banks had to help him with some of the words.  There was a lot of his usual "I don't know", but Mrs. Banks doesn't put up with this tactic.  This was his list.

name Peabody

adjective mean

color black

noun-a food fish

noun penguin

noun-a body part legs

adjective blind

verb-gerund form painting

adverb happily

noun-place city

adjective wiggly

noun town

adjective whining

verb eat

This is his story after his words were plugged in.  Enjoy!

There once was a penguin named Peabody.  He was a mean penguin.  He wore a black coat.  His favorite food was fish.  He liked to hold a penguin on his legs.  This penguin lived on a very blind iceberg.  His feet were cold from painting on the ice!  One day he bought a ticket.  He would go somewhere warm for a change.  He got on a jet and happily flew to the city.  Boy, was he surprised when he climbed down from the jet!  "This place is very wiggly.  I did not expect to see so many towns!  It is a whining place to visit, but I will never want to eat here."

She said he laughed and laughed when they read his story out loud.  I just bet he did.

at home reading tutoring part 10

Two Mondays ago, we were back to our routine.  The boys were back in school, so that meant on Monday afternoon SJ had speech therapy.  Mrs. Banks told me she would be a few minutes late, since she had to pick up her son from the gym.  I told her SJ would be fine with that.

They started their session with a Reader's Theater.  This one was called "The Old Woman and Her Bear" by Sheri Skelton.  There were 8 characters, two of which were female.  Of course, SJ chose not to read either female character.  He chose Narrator, Kunik (a bear) Kasiagsak (a hunter) and Tutigak (a little boy). 

Mrs. Banks said that when SJ got to the first Kunik line he read it in a bear voice. She told him that he would have to read it in a human voice too.  He complied, but he read it in a very deep voice.  She said he did that every time he got to a Kunik line.  She said it was hysterical.

Next, they moved onto a non-fiction paragraph on polar bears.  SJ had to read the passage and then answer some questions.  She said he did fairly well with this activity.  After he answered the questions, he was to write a story about polar bears.  He was complaining about all the writing he had to do in Mrs. Valentine's class today, so she compromised and only made him list five facts about polar bears.  This is what he wrote.

Different fur from normal bears, paws help them swim, eat seals, from the Arctic and biggest kind of bear.

Then, they worked on an activity deciding the best word match for each definition.  She said he had some trouble with this activity.  For example:  The large bird lives in north regions during summer months and flies south in autumn.  It returns to its summer home in the spring.  This bird travels in a large group, forming a shape that looks like the letter V.  He needed to answer with goose.  He told Mrs. Banks that he never saw a goose fly in a shape of V.  That is not true, but maybe he didn't remember.

The last thing they worked on was a Polar Bear Glyph.  SJ had to decide how many clouds there would be (3-he has seen a polar bear at the zoo), color of the polar bear's hair (brown-he has brown hair), what kind of clothing it would wear (a scarf-he is a boy), color of the ice (light blue-he has straight hair), how many birds are in the sky (2-his favorite dessert is popsicles), color of the fish (red-he likes pork) and what color the drawn ball would be (orange-he likes to play basketball).  This is his finished glyph.

school's back in session and skiing

After a few days, SJ recovered from the flu.  He had a high fever, no appetite, aches and pains for a few days.  The day before school resumed, he was back to his normal self.  On Thursday (last Thursday), the boys were back to school.  Neither boy wanted to get up and they were both VERY CRABBY!

SJ didn't want his normal breakfast (pancakes) and he was complaining all the way to school (all 3 miles).  I was very worried that I was going to get a bad report from Mrs. Valentine.  When I got to their school at the end of my workday, I was relieved when she wasn't waiting for me. 

I saw SJ and Bob waiting for me in the office.  There wasn't a tear to be seen on his face and he appeared relatively happy.  "How was your day?" I asked him as we walked to our car.  "Good," he said.  "I didn't have any trouble today," he added.  "I am glad.  See you were worried for nothing," I told him.    We drove home and I got the kids that I watch from the bus stop. 

SJ has been helping with the kids that I watch.  He plays with the one five year old.  They both share a love for the Mario plushies.  The kids also are fascinated with the train set that we still have up.  When they get into trouble on the train track, SJ's name can be heard being loudly yelled by one of the five year olds.  They think he is a train expert.

Friday morning wasn't any easier than Thursday.  There was a lot of complaining about getting up and they were both moving very slowly.  SJ kept saying he was "too tired" for school, but I kept reminding him that it was a short week.  Fortunately, I was greeted by a happy SJ at the end of the day.  We had the kids again on Friday.  Bob was busy playing on his computer with his friends, so SJ was again up to helping me with the kids.  When either of the boys helps with the kids, I put a few dollars in their account for their "pay".  SJ likes that part of my watching the kids. 

On Saturday, Bob had indoor soccer and SJ and my husband left early for skiing.  They met our one friend, who also has a 5th grade boy, at the ski resort.  They were there for a few hours.  My husband told me they had a great day at the resort.  SJ is not afraid at all of skiing.  He loves it!  They skied down beginner and medium hills.  They also spent time at the trick park.  My husband took some video of SJ sliding his bottom along their rails that you are supposed to slide your skis on.  Too funny! 

Even though he didn't get to skiing over New Years, SJ and my husband got to still get in some bonding time.  Now if he can get Bob to go to, that is something else that could be potential "Brother Time". 

guests, sleds, games and the flu

Sorry, I am still trying to catch up from before the New Year.  So, I am up to the Friday before New Years.  We had my husband's high school friends over to our house.  We try to get together with them once a month, but sometimes it is closer to every other month.  I made a barbeque beef dish in our crock pot and the friends brought some side dishes. 

Bob wanted to play SJ's new Christmas game, Headbandz.  He gathered up six people and they played that game for quite some time.  The rest of our guests were down in the theater room playing Rock Band.  SJ was not hanging out too much with our guests.  He was hiding out upstairs in the playroom playing Wii by himself.  I tried repeatedly to get him to join us, but he didn't want to come downstairs.
That is not totally uncommon, but he usually plays with the one friend's son.  (We later realized he was coming down with something.  Keep reading.)

We had a great time with our guests and made plans to get together with them at the end of January.  (We won't be hosting this time.)  I always love when we get together.  They are a great group.  I think it is so wonderful that my husband has been able to keep in touch with his close high school friends.  Sadly, I am only Facebook friends with my high school friends. 

The next day we were invited to go sledding at a classmate of SJ's.  The dad texted my husband and told him to have us come in the evening.  He said there would be sledding and a bonfire.  It was very cold that night.  The dad had a huge bonfire started.  The kids started sledding as soon as we got there.  They have a great yard for sledding.  The kids kept sledding the whole time we were there.  My husband tried a few runs, but gave up and joined me by the fire. 

SJ and Bob had such a great time at our friend's house.  SJ has known this boy for a few years.  They have been on the same soccer and baseball teams and have been in each other's class a couple of times.  The parents have always been extremely accepting of SJ and never were flustered by his occasional meltdowns.  They are great friends to have!  We stayed at their house for a few hours and then made our way home.

Sunday we had more guests at our house.  My parents brought one of my cousin's and my cousin's son to our house to watch the football game.  The boys weren't interested in watching the game, but my dad never left the basement.  Bob told my mom how much fun Headbandz was, so we all played that.  SJ liked the game at first.  He was laughing so hard when people were asking the others questions to figure out what they were supposed to be. 

After 30 minutes, he started to lose interest.  I made him continue to play for a few more minutes.  I am trying to teach him that he can't just quit in the middle of a game.  We finished up the game shortly after that.  The boys then went upstairs to play video games and my mom and I joined the men downstairs.  My aunt and uncle also came over to watch the game.  Everyone left when the game was over. 

We just hung out for the remainder of the evening.  We were supposed to go to our friend's cabin for New Years, but Bob is super allergic to dogs.  Our friends were all bringing their dogs and they told us their cabin was small.  We thanked them for the invite, but decided to spend New Year's at home.  They asked us to join them for skiing, so my husband was considering it for him and SJ. 

Unfortunately, SJ woke up sick on Monday.  He had a high fever and didn't even want to get out of bed.  He stayed that way all day Monday and Tuesday.  So no skiing, no party, no nothing.  We just watched the New Year's programs and rang in the New Year quietly.  I hope you had a healthier new year than we did!

funeral, bad weather and an extra day with Uncle Greg

The day after Christmas we had one heck of a day. First of all, my husband's aunt died unexpectedly two days before Christmas. Her viewing and funeral were scheduled for December 26th. I tried to get someone to watch the boys, so they wouldn't have to go. I try to shelter them from such sad events. Unfortunately, my parents were working and my sister was unavailable. I could have used our babysitter, but it would have cost me a small fortune. (It was kind of far away and we were going to be there for hours.)

Of course, the boys had nothing appropriate to wear to a funeral. A few days earlier, my husband had gone out shopping and bought both boys a pair of dress slacks. SJ's fit fine, but Bob's were way too big. I took his pair back the next day and also bought each of them a sweater. (Upon inspection of their closets, they didn't have anything acceptable in a shirt either.) The boys didn't care for the slacks or the sweaters, but I thought they looked great!

We were supposed to be at the funeral home around nine. It is at least 45 minutes from our house on a good weather day; however we were driving into a blizzard. It took us over 90 minutes to get there. The boys kept asking us how long we were going to stay at each location. We anticipated going to the funeral home, the cemetery and then a restaurant last. We gave them an estimate of three hours total. Right before we arrived, my husband's sister called us on our mobile phone to let us know they cancelled going to the cemetery and the wake. They were going to have a service only at the funeral home. The boys seemed relieved that we would not be there as long.

We paid our respects to my husband's aunt and her children. The boys did very well through the service. After the service, some of my husband's relatives were going to a closer restaurant to eat. We opted not to go since the weather was so bad. We started driving home at 11:30 a.m.

The weather got worse. There were jackknifed trucks and cars crashed all over the highways. My husband drove slow and we inched our way home. We stopped at Target about halfway home. We all went to the restroom and got some snacks. We continued our journey home driving slowly and very cautiously.

When we got off the highway near our house, the local roads were just as bad. We tried two times to get up the one road near our house. We u-turned and tried the other road. It was worse. SJ asked my husband to find another road. My husband reminded him that there weren't any other roads. We decided to try the first road again. When we got to the trouble spot, he had all of us move back and forth in our seats to inch our car forward. It worked! It took us 3 1/2 hours to get home! That was crazy!

My brother-in-law made it to our house a few hours later. By evening, the snow stopped and we were able to get out to pick up some take out chinese food. The boys hung out with Uncle Greg and got some more bonding time in. SJ just loves Uncle Greg. He follows him around and is always showing him videos on his IPod.

Greg was going to leave on Thursday, but he opted to stay until Friday morning. While the boys, Greg and my husband were having male bonding time, I decided to return some Christmas items. I picked us up some yummy food from Panera and we watched a movie in the evening. Although we had the sad event of my husband's aunt passing, we still had some happy moments in the last few days.

 

Christmas Day 2012

SJ was the first to get up on Christmas morning.  He got up around 7 a.m.  He came into our bedroom to wake my husband and myself.  The rule in our house is the boys are not allowed downstairs until we go down too.  SJ also woke up Bob, my sister-in-law and my brother-in-law. 

We made our way downstairs and SJ was super excited to see his pile of presents.  Bob's pile was considerably smaller, but his big present was an expensive one.  SJ opened his presents first.  He got some games (Headbands and Cup Stacking), a new scooter, Frisbee, Little Big Planet Karting, Epic Mickey for his 3DS and of course the highly wanted Lego sets.  Immediately, he wanted to leave the room to start building one of his sets.  We told him he had to stay until everyone was done opening their presents.  He begrudgingly stayed.

Bob opened his presents next.  He got an Xbox and some games (Rubik's Race, Fact or Crap, Tetris Link).  Then, I opened my presents and my husband followed me.  As soon as we were done, SJ was off with one of the three Lego sets he received.  I made breakfast for everyone and we enjoyed the morning. 

Later on that day, we packed up ourselves and drove to our nephew's house.  He had set up his Xbox in his game room and the boys were down there for most of the evening.  Most of my husband's relatives were there and it was a very nice evening.  The boys were pretty tired around 10, so we drove home.  They were passed out in their beds by 11:00 p.m.  That is a true test of a good day.  Kids, who are exhausted from so much fun, fast asleep.

Christmas Eve fears, tears and laughs

Ever year on Christmas Eve, we have my husband's family over for dinner and presents.  We occasionally have my parents too, but they were spending the holiday with my sister's family.  We had our traditional ham, mashed potatoes, etc.  Every one brings a side dish or beverage, so it is not as stressful as you may think it could be.

My stress is always how SJ is going to react when he opens his presents.  He had his mind set on Legos, but the Legos he wanted were out of my in-laws budgets.  I worried he was going to be disappointed and react poorly. 

We opened presents after dinner.  We always start with the youngest (who happens to be SJ) and go up to the oldest (my brother-in-law or my mom if she is attending).  SJ started opening his presents.  He opened his Christmas pajamas first (traditional present from my husband and myself).  His reaction was not great, but he wasn't crying.

Then he moved on to the aunts and uncle presents.  My brother-in-law gave him a gift card (always a good idea).  My one sister-in-law gave SJ Super Mario Yahtzee and my other sister-in-law gave him IPod speakers.  Immediately, the tears started.  My worst fears were coming true.  (And to make it worse, I was the one who told them what to get him.  Way to go Mom!)  Fortunately, my in-laws are well aware of his behaviors, so they ignored his poor behavior.

Bob went next, then the nephews and my niece, etc.  My niece was especially concerned with SJ being upset, but I told her he had Legos on the brain.  I reminded her that he would be fine and he has to learn to not react so poorly.  My husband talked to him and so did I.  After we explained to him that the Legos he wanted were a lot of money, he seemed to calm down.  I told him that Santa was probably going to be bringing them. 

We showed him how the speakers worked and opened the Yahtzee game.  He then seemed to be back to his normal happy self.  My sister-in-law brought a Christmas trivia game.  SJ read the questions and had us in teams of boys vs. girls.  The team that got to 10 first one.  Some of the questions were hard, but it was funny hearing SJ be an emcee.  Every one enjoyed the game and there was a lot of laughing during the game.

Our guests stayed for a few more hours.  They were at our house fairly late.  Around 11:00 p.m., SJ told me that the remaining guests (our nephew and his wife) should leave.  He was concerned Santa would not come if we still had guests.  I told him to go to bed and our guests left shortly after. 

Even though SJ had some bad moments, overall it was a lovely Christmas Eve.  I hope all of you had a lovely Christmas Eve as well. 

celebrating Christmas early with Grammy and Pappy

My parents were going to my sister's house for Christmas.  They rotate between my house and hers every year.  If it was our year, they would spend the night at our house and be there in the morning to watch the boys open their presents.  My husband and I were going out to dinner the Saturday before Christmas.  My parents were going to watch the boys while we were at dinner, so we decided they would just spend the night there.  SJ doesn't always want to stay the night, but we told him we would be there early on Sunday to get them.  (Also, we were going to be exchanging presents with my parents, so SJ was super excited about that!)

We arrived that Sunday at my parents' house around 11 o'clock.  My mom and dad were making brunch for us and my sister who lives locally.  SJ was anxious to open presents, but I told him that we would open them as soon as everyone was done eating.  The brunch was yummy!

Everyone met in my parents' living room.  We sorted the presents by person and let the youngest one open first (that is SJ).  He was so excited that he got a Lego set that he wanted.  He also got a fun Ninjago sweat jacket.  My sister gave him a gift card to the Circle Store (Target).  Bob got a Manchester United soccer shirt, Catchphrase and a mouse.  My sister gave him some cash (in the same amount as SJ's Target gift card).  SJ said, "Hey, why didn't I get any cash?  I like cash too."  He is too much!

After SJ and Bob opened their presents, my sister opened hers, I opened mine, my husband opened his and then my parents opened theirs.  Everyone liked their presents.  Bob liked his shirt so much that he put it on as soon as we got home. 

We stayed another hour and then drove home.  The boys wanted to play outside in the little bit of snow we had gotten.  It was a great way to begin our holiday season!

at home reading tutoring part 9

Two Wednesdays ago (sorry the holiday is sucking up all my free time); SJ had a great day at school. The whole school watched Ratatouille in the afternoon. The teachers were collecting a few dollars from each student for movie treats such as popcorn and drinks. All the money collected went toward the money going to charity.

When I picked them up at the end of the day, SJ was happily chatting away about the movie and how much he loved the popcorn! And then I reminded him that Mrs. Banks was coming over for another tutoring session. It was as if I sucked all the happiness out of him. "Why? I already had tutoring this week," he said. "Well, you won't have any tutoring over the break, so we are getting it in now," I told him. "That is not fair," he said. Maybe it isn't, but he was having tutoring anyway.

Mrs. Banks arrived at her normal time and she had her daughter, Abigail, with her. Her daughter is in college studying to be a Special Education teacher. She also used to babysit for us, so SJ was familiar with her. Even though he knew her, he was still VERY DIFFICULT! He was refusing to come downstairs. My husband had to remind him that he would lose some privileges if he didn’t listen.

Once he was downstairs, he showed Abigail around the theater room and then they got to work. I had a Christmas work party that evening, so I am guessing at the order they did things in. My husband did tell me Mrs. Banks said he was slow to get started, but he did work for her. By the papers that were left, it appears he did A LOT of work.

I know they began with a reader's theater (I heard them as I was leaving). It was a play called How Santa Got His Job by Stephen Krensky. SJ had selected Narrators 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12 and 14. It was a story about all the odd jobs Santa had to help him become a great Santa Claus. It was a very cute little play.

Next, there was an opened ended paragraph called Santa's Stuck. SJ had to decide how the story ended. This is what was written on the worksheet.

The night was Christmas Eve. I had been asleep for hours when I awoke to hear our cat meowing in alarm. When I found her, I immediately spotted the trouble! There, in our fireplace opening, two red legs with black boots were hanging and thrashing about! When I moved closer I could make out a muffled "Help!" Good grief-Santa was stuck in our chimney! I had to do something fast...

Then SJ had to answer some questions before he decided on the ending.

1.     What's your best idea to get Santa out of the chimney? Pull him out by his feet.

2.     What items (if any) will you need? Your rope. Tie it around his feet.

3.     How long do you expect it will take to get him out? 30 minutes.

4.     Will other family members wake up and help? Mom and Dad will help.

5.     Will Santa give you a reward for rescuing him? What would it be? Yes. A Lego set.

Next, SJ had to write the ending. This is what he wrote.

So, I tried to pull him out by his feet. But it didn't work. So, I used a rope. I tied it to his feet. Mom and Dad helped me. 30 minutes later, Santa popped out. Then, he gave me a gift of Legos.

That was a great technique that Mrs. Banks used to help SJ organize his thoughts. If she had asked him to just start writing, he would have probably resorted to his normal "I don't know" response. He did a nice job on that worksheet.

Then, I found an I Spy type worksheet. SJ had to find the following objects in the picture: rain hat, pick, igloo, number seven, moon, ballet shoes, barbell, necktie, bird and marshmallow. He did very well with this activity.

 

 

Mrs. Banks then moved on to something more difficult. She had SJ choose words for a Mad Lib style worksheet. She had Abigail scribe SJ's answers. For example: verb run, noun shoe, verb past tense puked, adjective yellow, etc. This is the story with SJ's fill in the blank answers.

Hans and the Milky Lake

"Hans," said Mom. "You may go outside to run, but must be careful. You are made of shoe. Stay away from Milky Lake. It will make your toes race and fall off." Hans puked a little. Mom always gave him that story. He didn't really think it was true, though. He did like to play near the clock. He liked to watch the yellow waves seeing up on the shore. Sometimes he would try and skip cups across the surface. Would it really make his toes crumble and fall off?

Hans stood on the green beach and slowly moved closer to the waves. A orange white sign came close and slumped the tip of his toe. It tickled, but his toes did not fall off. Mom was wrong, he thought. He stepped into the next wave and began stamping his feet. It was fun until he saw bits of blue cookie pointing into the lake.

"Oh, no!" said Hans, and he began to rush home, leaving a trail of crumbs behind.

Mom saw him crying and knew what had happened. As soon as his people were dry, she gave him popcorn feet held on with sandwich. They worked as well, but Hans never forgot why they were there.

As you can see, his answers don't always work, but he at least completed the blanks.  It is a little comical too! 

 

The last thing they worked on was a stocking glyph. By answering questions, SJ had to decide the color of the stocking top (green-his stocking is hung over the fireplace), stocking (red-I stay home on Christmas), patch on toe and heel (orange-favorite Christmas song is Frosty the Snowman), number of stars on the stocking (5-favorite character is the Grinch), what color the five snowflakes were around the stocking (light blue-he does not like to wrap presents), what color to trace the stocking (blue-he likes snow) and how many candy canes were coming out of the stocking (4 candy canes-he's on Santa's good list).  The picture below depicts his choices.