A little birdie

I have been hearing this sweet bird for over a year now and thought I was hearing an owl. Only about a week ago I was enjoying sitting out in the sun on my deck and heard the sweet sound. I looked around and amazingly enough I spotted him in my very large maple tree. He was very kind and stayed long enough for me to photograph him. When I would hear him throughout the day I would wonder how an owl could be making so much noise during daylight hours. Now in case you think I'm odd for thinking this bird was an owl when I asked a friend if they knew what bird could be making the sound they too thought it was an owl. I believe this is a Mourning dove. In case your interested in hearing their sound you can go to the link I pasted below.

http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Mourning_Dove/lifehistory

Learning lessons

Some little lessons I'm learning along the way....

When bringing out toys from storage, be prepared for some increased fighting(chances are GREAT that only one of the new toys will be the one they BOTH want to play with!)...

If your husband helps clean up after a stomach flu episode, you might want to apply some disinfectant OR make sure to ask him to do it...(helps ensure that you don't find out after using that toilet the next day that it was only wiped with paper towels...ewww)

Don't give kids little stones kits EVER...OR...be sure you know where they are playing with them...(helps avoid vacuuming up a tiny stones graveyard from deep carpeting down the road)*sigh*...

Look on the bright side each day or you may want to go to sleep and NEVER wake up again!!! (Hold on to your lord Jesus tightly)

That's it for the day, I'm Positive there will be many more lessons to come :)

P.S. pardon any grammatical errors it's not my forte :(

Meeting with the school

Just a quick note as I have to run...We had the meeting with Mrs. Nelson, the school psychologist and our learning resource assistant (I think that was her title) anyway, we all decided and agreed to start David on an IEP (individualized education plan for those of you who are unfamiliar with the abbreviation) for behavior. At this point there are no learning deficits and David is at the top of his class. He will leave the classroom for about 10 min each day to spend a little time with the special ed assistant to work on improving behavior at school. He's a GREAT kid just needs a little fine tuning :) Thanks all for your encouragement to me it means a lot.

(By the way, this picture was taken after David used a permanent ink marker on his face...ooops!)

More on David

I wish I had a cute picture to post with this entry but I've been to lazy to upload any new photos. So maybe next time. Anyway, just a quick note to say that David's allergy testing came back negative for allergies to milk, soy, egg whites, peanuts, wheat, and fish. So I'm not strongly considering any specialized diet. I try to limit the amount of sugar and foods with artificial coloring in David's diet which I haven't really noticed to affect him all that much anyway but it's healthy. We meet with David's teacher, the school psychologist and a learning specialist on Friday to go over the results of the testing that has been done over the last month or so. Just a note ADHD includes three main components, hyperactivity, distractability and impulsivity. It's not necessary for all three to be exhibited in a child with ADHD. Only one need be present in order for a child to be diagnosed with ADHD. I've heard from a couple of people that they thought that if a child can sit still and concentrate then they wouldn't have the diagnosis. Actually children with ADHD can sit still and concentrate if in a new and novel situation or if they are excited about something. David mainly falls into the distractable and impulsive part and can sit still and concentrate but mainly when he is very interested in something. Another thing I have found interesting is that it's not only David's teacher that has had difficulty with David's distractability and impulsivity but also I have to work with his Sunday school teacher to help him and now his Mad Science teacher. More and more I am trusting that this diagnosis of ADHD is accurate for David. He's a wonderful boy and has a marvelously distracted brain.

Meeting and blood work

Just a quick update with more to follow in the next week or so. For about the last two or three months I have been taking David into his classroom each morning and helping him go through his a.m. routine: Hang up coat, give teacher his folder, write his name and go to his station. We just had a meeting with David's teacher and the principal yesterday and they would like me to just drop David off in the morning or have him ride the bus again. They think David needs to work on developing his independance again. It's a welcome break for me really. I wanted to lend a hand but it's a big job each morning especially when your not a morning person. So next week we'll start that up. I have had a lot of advice from people about seeking out a special diet for David and looking into Naturopathic care. I talked to David's pediatrician about doing a special blood test to detect if he has allergies to any types of foods. I think it determines the major allergies like peanuts, dairy, gluten etc.., She agreed to let me have that done. We did the blood work on Monday but I haven't heard back yet. If the testing shows that he does have allergies then I will consider a special diet and naturopathic care. We already usually avoid most of the things that would be considered a problem for a child with ADHD.

Post meeting with the School...

David loves his teacher Mrs. Nelson and she adores him. It really makes a mom feel good to know that her child is in good hands. Well, last post I mentioned we would be meeting once again with David's teacher and the school psychologist and I thought the principal but I guess he wasn't in on it this time. Anyway, they wanted to discuss the "next step". Even with the ticket system in place David still struggles to follow routine, stay on task, and handle carpet time well. He's doing better but not where most kids are at this stage of the game. Mrs. Nelson likes and would continue to like me to come in daily as would I, however, the school psychologist believes that David needs to be able to handle being at school without me there. I respect that and even agree mostly with that point. Sooo, I will begin to phase out my involvement on a daily basis. Today was my first day in weeks that I didn't stay to help out. I did come in 15 minutes early picking up David to see if there was anything I could help with. What can I say, I've grown to love the place.
The other next step is to have David thoroughly tested by the school, all of what's involved I don't completely remember, but I know their will be some in class time observations made of him and some meeting up with the school psychologist to answer questions, etc...all of this to see if David needs special education assistance. Basically they want to see if what he is being taught at school is sinking in. Howard and I don't have any problems with that so that should take place in the next week or so I guess. I wasn't exactly clear on the time frame.
I guess that's all for now. I'll let you know how the testing turns out.

The continuing saga of David's schooling...

David and his beloved caterpillar

In case you've been wondering how things are going on the David front here's an update. Awhile ago we implemented a ticket system at home for chores. He can earn a ticket or two worth .10 cents a piece for doing a chore. This seems to work out pretty good at home and so we have extended the system into David's school life. Some of the tickets are used to earn a break during class to do something like drawing at teachers desk or come to see mommy out in the pod area when I'm volunteering...which is almost every day lately :) More on that later... David also earns some tickets to bring home for family meeting on Wednesday nights where he can cash them in to earn a special trip to ice cream, omsi, pizza etc... or for some toys. That's a longer term reward so for the short term he can earn the class rewards of the "breaks" and can also get a ten minute early release from class to go home with me instead of riding the bus. If it's been a rough day then he stays for the full length of the class and then we leave. It's a little bit of a sacrafice for me but it's worth it to help David.

The extra volunteering all started about two weeks before christmas break. Mrs. Nelson wanted to have the kids do a special calendar for a christmas present to their parents. This involved painting the kids hands in twelve different ways, one for each month of the year, and stamping them on the top of the calendar. We got started late with the project and I felt the need to lend an extra hand to help it get done in time for Christmas. Well, as many in our area know the weather had other ideas about when Christmas break should start and we didn't get the calendar done despite working every day for a little over a week. Since I was there every day David was able to take little breaks here and there with me and Mrs. Nelson noticed it had a bit of a calming effect on David. Soooo...after Christmas break was over I began my daily volunteering again, to finish up the calendar and now also to support David in his continued success at school. Mrs. Nelson has been overwhelmed with all my help and has often commented that she doesn't want me to get tired of helping. I reassured her with the fact that I had planned to homeschool David but felt too overwhelmed to do it on my own...I was just glad to have a partner.

So now we are back from Christmas break...finishing up those calendars :) and helping to support Mrs. Nelson each day. I'm not sure if I'll be there every day, maybe not for the full time but as much as I can and Daniel will let me. By the way, Daniel is by my side and doing soooo well. He is AMAZING. I bring him snacks, paper, crayons, stickers, paint, his leapster, my ipod :) (which for those of you that know my boys lost it before and might be wondering if I'm in my "right" mind to let them borrow it again, It's all good, It's just Stuff. :) and besides I have two now so at least I'll always have one...right?), and then there is always all the toys at school for him to play with. Anway he keeps busy and hasn't been complaining so for now that's what we do each day.

So that's how things are going. We have another appointment to meet with the Principal, School Psychologist, and David's teacher, Mrs. Nelson on Jan 12th. That's next Monday. More to follow...