after school reading tutoring 6 & 7

During the last two weeks that SJ had his reading tutoring sessions, they started a new novel. They are now reading Scat by Carl Hiaasen.  

When they started reading it a couple of weeks ago, SJ said several times that he was not using this book for his 2nd Nine Weeks book report.  He stated this fact to me and Mrs. Banks.  Mrs. Banks said that was fine and she didn't leave the book at our house.

Then, a few days before he was to present his choice to Mrs. Page, he decided he was going to use this book for his book report.  When Mrs. Banks was at our house that week, he told her he was using Scat.  She told him she would leave the book with us, so that we can read in between tutoring sessions.  

She told me that he did an excellent job and she was impressed that his focus has improved. That is always nice to hear.

after school speech part 5

Two Tuesdays ago, SJ had his bi-weekly speech therapy session.  I wasn't able to take him (I was meeting a friend for yoga), so my husband kindly took him.  

He said the therapist worked on Main Ideas. She gave him a paper with pictures.  She read him a sentence and he had to identify which picture showed the main idea.  She said he did very well with this activity.  

Next, she read him a list of words and then he had to give her the main idea.  For example: vanilla, chocolate, pumpkin, strawberry.  He had to say: flavors, pies or yogurt.  She said he did well with this activity as well.  She asked us to finish this activity as homework.

halloween 2014

This Halloween was another rainy night.  SJ was going as Scout from Call of Duty. I wasn't sure if Bob was going to trick or treat (considering he hasn't for the last few years). He surprised me, however, and wanted to go out with his horse head mask.  That was fine with me.

They went out together and were joined by two of Bob's friends.  They stayed out longer than I thought since it was so cold and rainy.  While they were gone, we entertained the neighbor kids (and a few others) with our haunted garage.  

They returned about an hour later.  They went through their candy (SJ doesn't eat chocolate and Bob doesn't eat the fruity candy) and swapped.  Then, they played Mario Cart in the theater room while we waited for the trick or treating to finish up.

After 8:00, we were to go to Willie's house. Bob wasn't feeling well (he actually had a fever), so he stayed at home.  We dropped off Bob's friends and went to Willie's.  SJ played with Willie and Topher while we visited with our friends.  We only stayed a couple of hours and then drove home.

I was happy that SJ didn't have to do the tradition by himself this year.  It was very good for him socially to be out with kids who are the same age.  

boo! did I scare you?

SJ wanted to have a Halloween party again this year.  I told him he could invite a few friends over the weekend before Halloween (apparently a girl in his grade was having a party Halloween weekend). I also told Bob he could invite a few friends as well.

Most of the boys that were invited did come. We had a total of 15 (including SJ and Bob) boys between the ages of 12-14.  I wanted to have planned activities, but my husband reminded me that they are too old for that.  

We had turned our garage into a haunted house, so we had two boys at a time go through it.  While the other boys were waiting their turn, they were noshing on "bloody" joe's, mummy dogs, chips, pretzels, cookies and candy.  The boys weren't overly frightened by the haunted house, but they seemed to like it.  

After they all went through, we decided to show Ghostbusters in our theater room.  For the boys who were not into that film, I told them to go outside and play graveyard tag.  I had set up some "headstones" in our backyard.  They seemed to love that.  

After three hours, the party was over.  All the boys left smiling and SJ was thrilled that his party was a success.

after school reading tutoring #4 & #5

Wow, I am so far behind on blogging!  Well, SJ had two reading tutoring sessions over the last three weeks.  He read two chapters with Mrs. Banks during each session.  In between sessions, either my husband or myself read the remaining chapters with him.  SJ had his first book report due at the end of October, so we were running out of time.  

Mrs. Banks said he was doing a great job with the comprehension questions and was very pleased with his effort overall.  I told her I would show her his report when it was finished. 

His teacher, Mrs. Page, gives them many options for book reports beside the traditional book report.  He chose to do a newspaper article.  He did three articles that highlighted the beginning, middle and end of the book.  This is what the report looked like.

Mrs. Banks was impressed with his report.  I was hoping that Mrs. Page was impressed too. Fortunately, she was.  He got an A+.