holiday valley weekend

Last Thursday we left for our ski trip to Holiday Valley ski resort.  We were going with Willie's, Topher's and Meryl's families.  We left our house around 6:00 and drove the 3 1/2 trip caravanning with Willie's family.

It was very rainy and dark on our way there. After the 3 1/2 hours, we arrived in Ellicottville, NY.  Willie's dad got the key to the rental house and we started unloading.  Topher's family arrived 30 minutes after we did.  Then, Meryl's family showed up 20 minutes after them. We hung out that evening and had a relaxing night with our friends. 

It was raining like crazy when we woke up on Friday.  Everyone was concerned that we weren't going to be able to ski.  Fortunately, the rain changed to snow right around noon.  

We gathered up all of our ski stuff and drove to the resort.  We skied for a few hours and then drove back to the house. When dinner time came, we drove into the cute, little town to have dinner.  

We decided to eat at the Ellicottville Brewery. The waitress gave us two tables.  We had all the kids sit at one table and the adults sat at a table near them.  The kids all behaved very nicely at the restaurant (and a bonus was delicious food). We went to a chocolate shop for dessert, but both of my boys didn't want anything.  

The girls wanted to do some shopping, so my husband took all the boys back to the house. When we got back, the boys were playing Minecraft until bedtime.  

On Saturday, it was a full day of skiing.  SJ is a much better skier than Bob.  Bob is a nervous skier.  SJ has no fears.  He does any kind of hill. He especially likes the terrain parks.  

At one point, my husband and Bob were off doing some green (easiest) hills.  SJ wanted to go through a terrain park.  The rest of our group was off skiing another part of the resort.  I stayed with SJ, but I am not skilled enough to ski terrain parks.  I told SJ that I would ski down the adjacent blue hill (medium) and meet him at the bottom.  

The hill I skied was a little steep. I was waiting for SJ for what seemed like 10 minutes (it was actually closer to 5).  I was concerned that he might have fallen.  When I finally saw his orange helmet coming down the hill, I felt a huge amount of relief.  

I asked him why he took so long.  His response was, "Well, I fell going over a jump, but I didn't break any internal organs."  Thank goodness he didn't hurt anything, including internal organs.  

After 6 or 7 hours of skiing, we all drove back to the rental house.  Some of the adults wanted to go out to dinner, but the kids wanted to stay at the house.  They all wanted Subway, so Topher's parents went to pick up their food.  

One of the couples stayed at home to supervise the kids.  While the other adults went wine tasting and to dinner, the kids played at the house.

On Sunday, it was our last day.  After breakfast, we packed up our cars and drove to the ski resort.  We skied until 1:00.  Bob and SJ had a great time skiing.  

We stopped at Burger King's drive thru for lunch and then we started our 3 1/2 drive home.  It was at that moment that SJ realized he forgot his TMNT and Indiana Jones movies. We couldn't go back to the house since we didn't have the key anymore.  I called the rental office and they said they would mail them to us. So nice!

after school speech #16

Last Wednesday, SJ had his weekly speech session.  He was pretty crabby about going, but his therapist said he worked very hard for her.  

They worked on predicting and outcome.  She said he got 80% of the predictions correct. They also worked on completing sentences.  For example:  

You wear a bathing suit when you go ___________.  

He had to answer with swimming.  She said he did fairly well with this activity.  He had some trouble with unfamiliar words like leotard.

Next, they worked on antonyms.  He had to read a sentence and circle the antonym for the bold word.  For example:

I got detention because I was tardy for class.

SJ's choices were late, prompt or overdue.  He had to choose prompt.  Out of the 11, he had difficulty with 4 of the sentences.  He could correctly answer 2 of them with prompts and 5 of them independently.

Last, they worked on a main idea worksheet. She said he had some trouble with this activity. He had to read a passage, underline the main idea and draw a line through each non supporting detail.  This was one of the passages.

Ellen's dog, Nibbles, is an unusual dog.  He's four years old today.  Whenever anyone pets him, Nibbles sneezes.  And it's not just your average sneeze-it's a humongous, blow-out sneeze!  Nibbles also sneezes after he eats or drinks anything.  Nibbles has light brown hair with white paws and a white chest. Maybe we should give Nibbles a more unusual name to go with his unusual habit-like Gesundheit!

With assistance, he was able to underline Nibbles sneezes and crossed out that Nibbles was four years old and that he has light brown hair with white paws and a white chest. She said she will continue to work on this skill.

last school valentines day party for sj

Last Friday was SJ's Valentines Day party.  In the upper elementary grades, it is not required that you do valentines cards.  It is optional.  If you do choose to exchange, you must bring in a valentine for everyone.

At first, SJ was not going to exchange.  "I hate Valentines Day," SJ said over and over again. So, I was very surprised that he wanted to pick out valentines for his classmates when we were at Target on Wednesday.  

He picked out two boxes of Angry Birds valentines.  He wrote them out as soon as we returned home.  He was trying to decide how to decorate his box.  He went back and forth a few times on what he was going to do.

I bought some colored paper and let him be creative.  He chose the orange and yellow paper.  He said he was making a Call of Duty Zombie mystery box.  Here is the finished box.

When I picked him up at the end of the day, he was in a very good mood.  "Good party?," I asked.  "Yeah.  Most of the kids liked my box," he said.  I was thrilled to hear that.  I was happy, but I was a little melancholy to think this was his last school holiday party.  Can't he be 5 again?

do you want the bad news or the funny news?

Last Thursday I was stopped at the end of the day by SJ's flex teacher.  Flex teachers are special area teachers (art, computer, library, etc.) who help the classroom teachers work on skills with small groups of students.

He told me that they were working on math skills in the computer lab.  SJ has not been enjoying flex time.  He gets very frustrated and has trouble controlling his emotions.  

Mr. Chip is being very patient with him and I really appreciate his efforts.  He had a student observing him on Thursday.  SJ again got frustrated over the skill that they were working on.  He started crying and hitting the computer. Mr. Chip tried to settle him down, but he wasn't having any luck.  

The student offered to take him for a walk to settle him down.  He was able to calm him down and they returned to the computer lab. Mr. Chip said his frustration returned, but the student was able keep SJ somewhat calmer.  

The student was with Mr. Chip when he was telling me about SJ's behavior.  I thanked him for his kindness and he told me he has special needs siblings.  No wonder why he had so much empathy.  I told Mr. Chip that SJ would have a consequence and thanked him for his efforts.

On a funny note, the principal stopped me on my way to the office.  "Did the receptionist tell you what SJ said yesterday?," he asked me. "No," I replied.  He said that she had asked him if he was excited for Friday.  He just shrugged as if he didn't know.  She reminded him that it was the Valentines Day party.  He said, "No.  I don't have many romances in my life."  Many romances?  Hopefully at 11, he doesn't have any romances!

after school speech #15

Last Wednesday was SJ's weekly speech session.  He hadn't had speech the week before due to bad winter weather.  He was complaining a lot when I told SJ he had speech that evening.

When he is acting like this, I am always concerned that this behavior will spill over into his speech session.  Fortunately, that behavior was reserved solely for me.

His therapist said he worked very nicely for her. What a relief! She told me they worked on antonyms.  She reminded him that antonyms are opposites.  

She had him read 11 sentences and then he had to circle the word that was the antonym for the bold printed word.  For example:  We store things we don't use in the attic.  (closet, basement, garage)  SJ circled basement.

Out of the 11 they discussed, he was able to answer 7 without prompts.  One of the words he needed prompted on was inclement. She explained that it meant bad.  Then, he could correctly select mild.

after school tutoring #12

This Monday SJ had his weekly tutoring session with Mrs. Banks.  Since they finished The Island book, she brought a new book for them to begin.  It is titled Niagra Falls or Does It?  by Henry Winkler (yes, The Fonz!).  

Mrs. Banks told him that I would have known this author from Happy Days, but of course SJ would have never heard of or seen that show.

They read the first few chapters.  I could hear him laughing through the floor boards (one of my favorite sounds).  When the session was over, she told me he was cracking he up.  He related to the main character, Hank Zipzer.  He felt he was very similar to him.  He felt the writing teacher was very similar to his writing teacher.  

He then asked her why they can't read "good" books like this in school.  A fair question, but she has to pick books that fit the curriculum.  

After they finished the chapters, they did a Groundhog Day glyph.  SJ had to decide the color of the groundhog's hat (blue-he is a boy), the color of the scarf (green and pink-he has seen his shadow), the color of the body (dark brown-he didn't think he would see his shadow), the color of the shadow (black-he likes winter), the color of the nose (pink-he does think Punxsutawney Phil can predict when Spring will arrive), the color of the title (orange-he likes playing outdoor with his friends) and the name of the groundhog (Dick Cheney).  See the finished glyph below.

When he showed Mrs. Banks his completed glyph, he only showed her the groundhog's first name.  He laughed and said, "That is a real name, you know."  She told him she did know. Then, he revealed the last name.  She laughed and questioned the name.  He said, "Dick Cheney shot people he thought were birds." She corrected him and told him he accidentally shot someone while hunting.  He is too much sometimes.

friends' friday and super sunday

This past Friday we were just hanging out at home.  SJ was on Minecraft, Bob was playing XBox online and my husband and I were watching television.  Then, the phone rang.  

It was Topher's mom (my friend Faith).  She invited us over for an impromptu get together.  I told her we would be over shortly.  The boys gathered up some things and I grabbed a snack to take.  

Willie's family was there and Meryl and Goldie's family was there too.  The boys went off to play video games while the girls watched television in their basement.

After awhile, SJ got bored with the video games.  He came downstairs and set up the Bubble Talk game.  Several of the adults joined him at the kitchen table.  We had a great time playing that game.  We all laughed so much.  I would definitely recommend this game to families with preteens.

We stayed at Topher's house fairly late.  We thanked them for having us and went home. The boys slept in the next day, but we had nothing scheduled.

On Sunday, SJ was to go skiing with my husband and Topher's family.  Unfortunately, it was too warm to ski.  We decided to have our friends over to watch the Super Bowl.

I had the boys help me get the house company ready.  It took a big chunk of the day.  Our friends arrived around 5:30.  Our guests included: Topher's family, Willie's family, Meryl and Goldie's family and a co-worker of my husband. 

We ate dinner and many snacks while we watched the slightly boring Super Bowl.  The kids played upstairs (they were not too interested in the game) while the adults chatted throughout the game.  

We did have a football poll going.  Willie's dad won two of the quarters, Meryl won the third quarter and Bob won the final.  At least the poll kept the game a little exciting.

Everyone left as soon as the game was over (it was a school night).  It was another great weekend with our friends.

after school speech #14

Now that SJ's new speech therapist is done with testing, he was back to regular speech sessions last Wednesday.  She said he worked very hard for her (always nice to hear).  

First, they worked on antonyms.  On the worksheet, there were boxes with 4 words in each box.  SJ had to circle the two words that showed the opposite meaning.  For example: best, most, burst, worst.  SJ circled best and worst.

Next, they worked on synonyms.  It was a worksheet that had careers (she explained to SJ that they are also "jobs") in a word bank.  SJ had to read the sentence and fill in the career that was a synonym.  For example:

A synonym for pilot is __________.

SJ had to select aviator from the word bank. When all 10 sentences were finished, SJ had to take the one circled letter from each job to show a synonym for career.  The ending word was profession.

Last, they worked on cause and effect.  SJ was given a sentence and he had to draw a picture to show one cause for the sentence.  The first sentence was "My aunt told me I did a good job."  Then, SJ drew a picture of a girl who emptied the dishwasher.  See the following completed worksheet.