Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Time for an update.

So I am actually getting up another update for this month... How about that?




Okay yeah I know don’t get too excited. I don’t think anyone reads this anyway, but that’s okay b/c it’s my history of my life. Or something likes that anyway. Besides I’m way to narcissistic not to have an online blog. Who doesn’t want to read about me? Right?

Okay so updates and life.

Well we went to the school parent teacher conferences a couple of weeks ago and we got some great reports.

Lehna’s teacher loves her. She said she’s just such a neat kid. She has a vocabulary of not a normal 2nd grade child, which I find hilarious. She told the teacher the other day that she was hoping that they were going to cancel school, b/c the snow was coming down so fast, she was worried that the Kindergartens were going to be lost in the snow banks. This of course makes me laugh. Compared to their testing of her to other kids in her class, she is above average. She is very high in her skill set in Math. She is actually above average as far as the district. Her reading wasn’t “as high” but still good. The teacher feels that she isn’t challenging herself very much on reading and knows she has the ability to do more. So they had a goal of going swimming if they had a total of 10 points from an AR test that they have to take. The scoring I feel is VERY complicated as far as how they total the points for the testing, but the concept is easy to understand. The AR portion of the test is actually a computer test, kind of like a comprehension test, it consists of 5 points. If the student doesn’t miss any questions they get ½ a point. If they do miss some than they get percentages of points. So they would have to read more books in order to get a full 10 points, basically. So Lehna the start of March only had 2.5 points... and had to get 10 by the end of March. So we have worked with her to where she was reading 2 books a night and now she only has to read two more books in order to get all of her points. The teacher sends us a note telling us that she needs to “slow down now” LOL I tell you can’t win for losing :) So she should be able to meet her goal and be able to swim with her class. She was telling me yesterday that right now there are only 5 kids that are currently meeting the goal of swimming. So we’ll see.

Maya also had her conference and they said she is the “comforter” in the class. She wants everyone to be happy and she’ll be the first to go over to the crying child and make them feel better. She also has improved so much over the last couple of months with having to sit in her chair and staying on task. In preschool we knew that she had trouble staying on task b/c the teacher would say that she would rather be playing than working n what they needed her to work on. Her teacher also said that academically she is very bright. She is very strong in Math and did above average in class. She is doing really well. They did say that she does struggle with reading. Know her sound of letters is not improving much so we need to work with her on that. Its funny b/c I was reading some of her homework that she brought home of their writing journal and it looked like she only had the first sentence written and nothing else. I asked her about it and she said that the teacher didn’t have time to help her. So I didn’t think too much about it. Well what she is doing is writing the first line of the “topic” and then she doesn’t write anymore. She doesn’t write anymore b/c she doesn’t know the sounds of the letters and doesn’t try to guess, so she gives up. So we are slowly working on this with her because she is one of those that really don’t want to do school work at all. So getting her to do anything outside of the school building it tough. So they did say that she likes to be the “little sister” they like when the older class members (b/c she has Kindergarten and 1st grade in her class) come and help her. So of course that hasn’t been helping her reading/writing b/c they have been doing the work for her. I have a feeling that is happening in CLC as well. I think the teachers in there are “helping her” but they are giving her the answers. So we are trying to get her to bring her homework home and not do it there at CLC. Which of course again we run into the other problem where she doesn’t want to do the work and she knows that someone at CLC will do the work for her so why should she bring it home?

Nikolai has also had some schooling, well more like we have had schooling. Tait and I have been working with a speech therapist for Nikolai. Nikolai doesn’t speak very much and so we have been working in an in-home therapist as well as classes in which they teach us all kinds of things to try with Nikolai to get him to speak more and give him more words in his vocabulary. He is doing well, we are still working with him and it’s been a learning process to say the least, but we are working on it. He has learned a bit more words and he is slowly starting to talk more but it will take some time. The class is slotted to last until May so it will take awhile. We just have to keep working with him.

So the girls’ birthday is coming up. Part of Lehna’s birthday present it to get her ears pierced. She is scheduled to get them done this weekend. I don’t think it’s going to happen, I think she will be so scared that she will back out. I have tried to explain to her that yes it will hurt, it will pinch, but it will be okay. So we’ll see what’s going to happen with that. I really want her to go through with it only b/c I know she really wants to have them done. I have told her that you don’t see the needle or anything it’s just a little thing that goes on your ear, so we’ll see, that will be a lot of drama I’m sure. Maya is so very excited to go to Indiana for Easter as she is over the moon about seeing Deklyn. She talks to her on the phone on occasion and she really enjoys that. She said that she will “spank our butts if we don’t take her”. We have told her that we will take her in a couple of weeks. In her mind that means days and then gets upset when a “couple of days” have gone by and we still aren’t there. I keep referring to her as being 6, as she will be couple of weeks and she tells me, “mom I am only 5 I am not 6 yet.”

This past weekend Lehna and I went to see Oz the Great and Powerful, or whatever the title is. It was a good movie. Lehna LOVED it. It was a very colorful movie full. The writing was a little hooky just kind of over the top with some of the lines and such, but as far as the whole entire movie it was good. Lehna said she can’t wait to see it again.

Our baby kittens are now not so little anymore. I can’t believe how much they have grown in such a short period of time. Tait is kind of “fed up” with them being kittens; which since he didn’t grow up around animals his tolerance of them is pretty short. I just love having them and being able to pet them and hold them. The kids are great with them. I am having them change cat boxes, feed them, and water them. They are learning responsibility for them. When they start complaining I simply tell them “well this is the responsibility of owning cats, you don’t want the responsibility, than you won’t own cats” That seems to get them back in line. They still aren’t very cuddly yet, they haven’t really gotten into that stage yet. They do sleep on our bed, which drives Tait crazy. But I just really enjoy having them around and snuggling.

Well that's my exciting update for now. 

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