after school speech #10

Last Wednesday SJ had his weekly speech session.  She said he had a great session.  She reviewed the words that he answered for the defining by using patterned definitions.  He did a little better with them after the review.  She asked me to review them again for homework.

She also reviewed the antonym worksheet.  She gave him definitions for the words so that he would be more able to identify the correct antonym.  Out of the 10 she reviewed, he needed prompted with 4 of them.  She asked me to review these as well for homework.  

She also assigned him a homework sheet on comparing and contrasting.  He only had a little trouble with this assignment.  Here is one of the topics.

Two fast food restaurants:  McDonalds and Dairy Queen

Compare:  You can eat at both.  They both have fries and burgers.

Contrast:  The primary food at Dairy Queen is ice cream.  The primary food at McDonalds is burgers.

Last, she assigned him a worksheet on Synonyms.  He had to read a sentence and write a synonym for the word in bold.  Here is an example sentence.

It's not safe to play in the street.

He wrote the word road.  There were 10 sentences in total.  He needed prompted on 3 of them.

after school tutoring #8

Last Monday SJ had his weekly tutoring session with Mrs. Banks.  What a difference a week makes.  Not only did he have a fine day at school, he also gave not one complaint about tutoring.

They continued to read more of The Island: Escape.  She had SJ make a prediction as to what was going to happen.  He predicted that some of the kids were going to get off the island.  He was partially correct, because the character JJ did escape.  He was very proud that he was somewhat right.

They answered some comprehension questions and then played Farkle.  When his session was over, Mrs. Banks said he worked very hard for her.  I am always very pleased to her that.

dave and buster family day

On Saturday, my husband and I decided to have a family day.  Since the boys LOVE video games, we thought we would take them to Dave and Busters.

It is almost 40 minutes from our house.  SJ was complaining about the drive (nothing new), but we knew once we got there they would love it.

Well, SJ did love it.  Bob was a different story.  He was very crabby and stubbornly not wanting to play games.  That didn't effect SJ.  He went around and tried the various games.  He tends to prefer the games that reward you with tickets.

After playing games for over 90 minutes, we went into their restaurant for a late lunch.  After we ate lunch, we went back to playing games.  Bob's mood was much improved after he ate lunch.

We played 4 person air hockey.  SJ got out first and surprisingly took it well.  My husband was out second.  I ended winning the game (I am not sure how that was possible).  

We played games until we were out of tokens.  We had enough tickets for each of the boys to get something.  They got two plushies.  

It ended up being a nice outing even if it started out a little bumpy.

after school speech #9

Last Wednesday was speech day.  SJ's therapist worked on antonyms.  She went over the worksheet we had down for homework.  He still had trouble coming up with antonyms for these words:  gloomy, shy, slim, weep, tug, slender, bashful, timid, glum and arrive.  She asked me to review these words for homework.  

She also went over defining words with patterned definitions.  She asked me to review 5 of them for homework.  One of the words we reviewed was:  A highway is a place for ______.  He needed to answer with driving.

They also did a little work on completion of comparative phrases.  She did 11 with him and assigned the remainder for homework.  He had A LOT of trouble with this assignment.  We will have to continue to work on this topic.  

She also assigned him a paper on synonyms. He did very well with that assignment.  She also assigned an additional antonym worksheet.  He only had trouble with a few of those.  

bad, bad day plus after school tutoring #7

Last Monday, I was greeted at the end of the day by Mrs. Banks.  (That is never a good sign).  Apparently, SJ had been difficult all day, but especially at the end of the day.  

He had to go to reading flex with Mrs. Hare.  Mrs. Hare is a reading teacher, but her room is in the hallway with 1st and 2nd grade.  He didn't want to go with her, since she is a "baby teacher".  Mr. Brown tried to talk to him, as well as his aide, Mrs. Q.  

He was difficult during flex time.  He continued to cry about it.  Mrs. Banks tried to talk to him, but he was not settling down.  She warned him that I would be there shortly.

So when I got off the bus, she was waiting for me.  She told me what happened.  I could see that he was very upset. I told him to settle down.  I told him if he was still crying when I got to the office there would be an additional punishment.

I apologized to Mr. Brown and Mrs. Banks and then I walked out the kindergarteners.  Fortunately, SJ had calmed down when I got to the office.  

I talked to him about what happened.  I told him he had to write an apology to the teachers and he would be banned from electronics for 24 hours.  

Thirty minutes after we got home, Mrs. Banks arrived for tutoring.  He didn't want to go downstairs, but I made him.  He wasted 15 minutes of their session with his crabbiness, but then he got to work.

They read a few more chapters of The Island: Escape.  They answered comprehension questions and played a short game of Farkle.  

Although he had such a bad day, he at least ended on a better note. 

halloween party at school

Two Fridays ago, it was the Halloween party at SJ's school.  I got picked to be a party mom and I was thrilled.  (It is SJ's and my favorite holiday and it is his last Halloween party in elementary school.)

I arrived around 2 at his school.  I was dressed in my Velma costume.  The other mother and I got the kids ready for the parade.  They paraded through the school and outside of it for the parents to see them dressed in their costumes.  

When their parade was over, they came back to the room.  We had set up some games for the kids to do.  The other mom brought in "gross out" boxes.  I brought in a candy corn guess game.  This is what my finished product looked like.  

The kids enjoyed both games.  The winning guess on the candy corn was 600.  There were actually 666 in the jar (a must for Halloween).  

The rest of the time, they hung out socializing and eating their treats.  

It was a weird feeling for me that day.  On one hand, I was so happy to be there. On the other hand, I was sad that this was the last one.  I guess it is all a part of growing up.  (I don't have to like it, though). 

trick or treat 2013

Two Thursdays ago, it was Halloween night.  SJ was super excited!  As soon as he got home from school, he put on his Halloween costume.  

This year he was going as a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle.  He went as one a few years ago, so I was surprised when he chose one again.

This time he went as Leonardo (the one with blue accessories).  He was telling people when they asked him who he was going to be he would say, "Leonardo.  Not DiCaprio or DaVinci."  So funny!

It was a very rainy night that evening.  He was going to walk around with one of our neighbors, since Bob feels "too old" for the tradition.  He hung out at our house to pass out candy.

We had decorated our garage as a Haunted Garage.  We had Bob hide in the garage to scare the slightly older trick or treaters.  The kids loved the haunted garage. 

When SJ was done (he was soaking wet), he helped out with the scaring of the kiddos.  After we were all done with trick or treating, we went over to Willie's house to hang out.  

SJ changed into a martial arts outfit, since his costume was still wet.  We had a great time at Willie's house.  We only stayed about an hour, since it was a school night.  

Even though it was wet and gloomy, we still enjoyed our Halloween night.

halloween party for sj

Two Saturdays ago, SJ had a Halloween party at our house.  He invited 10 friends, but only 8 could attend.  We started out the party with a zombie brain eating contest.  Only 4 of the boys were willing to try it.  It was very fun to watch.  

Then, the pizza arrived.  The boys had pizza, chips and drinks.  After they ate, we went downstairs for apple bobbing.  Again, only a few of the boys were willing to participate.

We went back upstairs.  I had snacks made up for the boys.  I had caramel apples, witch hats (pretzel thins stuck in miniature Reese peanut butter cups) and gluten free vanilla cupcakes.  

Next, I gave all the boys flashlights and sent them outside to play "ghosts in the graveyard".  I had tombstones set up with lollipop ghosts hidden in the yard.  They stayed outside for almost 30 minutes, but then it started raining.  

They came inside and we sent them into our Haunted Garage one at a time.  They really enjoyed that.  (We really enjoyed seeing their reactions.)  

The last thing we planned for the boys was a movie.  My husband put on The Invisible Man.  The boys really enjoyed the movie.  I think they enjoyed the party and I know that SJ did.  All the planning, building and baking was worth seeing his happy face.

after school speech #8

Last Wednesday SJ again had his speech therapy appointment.  When his session was finished, she said SJ told her about our Haunted Garage (for Halloween only), his upcoming school Halloween party and trick or treating. She said he worked very hard during their session.

They worked on defining by using patterned definitions. He was given a sentence and he had to complete it.  For example:  A bee is an animal that _____.

He answered with "buzzes".  Out of the 15, he only needed prompting on 4 of them.

They also worked on describing things.  He did very well with that activity.  He had to describe two things he may find in an art store, a library, a restaurant, etc.  No prompts needed.

They also worked on antonyms.  There were 24 words and he only had difficulty with 3 of them.  Yeah!

She assigned us a worksheet on classifying.  There were 10 clues and then SJ had to name the category.  He needed prompted on only 2 of them.  One of the ones that gave him trouble was the following.

Companies make their business mining silver, copper and iron.  What are these things called?____.

He didn't know that they were minerals. Overall, I was very happy with how well he did.

after school tutoring #6

Last Monday, SJ again had his weekly tutoring session with Mrs. Banks.  She said he did a very nice job, but she had something interesting to tell me.

She said they were about to begin reading more of The Island: Escape when SJ made a declaration.  He said, "I think we should change the way we read," he said.  "What should we do?" Mrs. Banks asked.  "I think we should each read a whole page instead of every other paragraph.  You know, I am a 6th grader," he said.  "I am aware that you are a 6th grader," she replied.  

She told him that would be fine if they read a page at a time.  "Who is going to read first?" she asked him.  He flipped through the pages of the first chapter.  He then said, "I will read first."  

So he read first and they read two more chapters of the book.  Then, they answered some comprehension questions.  

I was so happy to hear about his declaration.  I am glad he is feeling more confident in his reading abilities.  The tutoring is really helping him tons.  It is well worth every penny.