Maybe

I can’t wait until the baby is born.  Maybe. 

Until January he was settled and he worked hard.

Since January he’s been a perpetual motion machine.

Distracted.

Mom’s expecting a new baby in April.  Maybe once the baby comes he will settle down again. 

Arms stop swinging.  Legs stop kicking. 

Maybe

A Reader Dilemma

Last summer I was invited to go to Europe with my husband to plan a trip for his employer.  For the past 22 years we’ve taken at least one trip a year.  I’ve learned I don’t do well on long airplane trips: the cramped space, stale air and nothing to do makes me fidget.  Flights to Europe are difficult because I can never sleep as we fly east.   I always take plenty of reading material.  This is the time I wish I weren’t such a fast reader. As we planned to fly from Detroit to Toronto, and onto Athens I was ready.  I had many new books on Kindle, and I don’t mind rereading books if I have to.  All plans changed when my Kindle would not work.  Suddenly I was facing 10 or more hours in the air, multiple 2 hour flights between destinations and several days at sea with nothing to read!  After searching the internet for suggestions and fixes I tried multiple ideas.  One even included me untwisting a paperclip, to press some unseen spot.  It didn't work. Several posters suggested pressing buttons and flipping switches.  No luck.  I accepted the inevitable, I'd have to pay airport prices for many books.

The flight to Athens was long.  I read long into the night. I kept trying to find a magic combination of Kindle reboots.  Nothing!   We finally landed and were escorted to our hotel.  Exhausted we headed to our room for a quick nap.  Ever hopeful, I used my converter to plug in my Kindle charger.  I flipped the on/off switch for the hundredth time.  It came back to life! 

For the rest of the trip I was able to use my reader, but I never really trusted that it would work.  Several times it would shut down in the middle of a book, I’d turn it back on to find I had to flip through the book to find my place.   A week or two after we returned from Europe my Kindle died for the final time.  Well timed, our kids had just bought me a new one for my birthday.

A Day Without a Schedule

My students thrive with a routine.  Our regular morning specials class was cancelled.  Lunch would not happen at school because it's a half day.  Our dismissal time is 35 minutes after our regular lunch time.  None of these were in my control.
Rather than try to structure a normal day I tossed the schedule out the window.
No need to read Morning Message, 4 students gathered around it and read it before I finished tying shoes and checking folders.  I just encouraged them to reread it while the others gathered on the rug. We did an art project.  A fun craft that needs a lot of time.  Scissors, glue, tissue paper and feathers all before 8:30! We finished it, then we started another project!  Huge Easter Eggs and water color crayons!  Between projects a guest reader read a book with movement and then provided us an unusual snack.  As the eggs pictures were placed on the rack for drying we read a story and got our backpacks.  They were all amazed we were going home.
I never skip writing, but today it was the perfect day to break that rule.  But I bet they'll have a fun day to write about tomorrow!

Shhh Don't say it!

Today as I was looking in my files for a couple of art projects for spring I found lesson plans for 1992.  Not mine, a recently retired teacher's plans.  It was amazing how much the primary grades have changed.
Tomorrow as I sit in our Professional Development and hear of all the assessments we need to administer and enter, I'd better keep my mouth shut!

How Much?

Today as I sat down for my review with my principal she asked me if I do any professional reading.  How Much?
Tonight, while I was doing our taxes, I totaled up my Amazon expenses for last year $774.32.   That's how much!

Junk or Joy?

Behind the barn sat an old truck.  It may have stopped working there after one last load of grain was hauled from the elevator or perhaps it was pulled there by Dad on his old Ford tractor.  It wasn’t planned as a play structure.  Anything moving or not became a game or toy for the five kids in our family.

The old style of door handle was shaped like a loop.  The semi-circle made a perfect design for tying a jump rope, one girl would twirl and the other could jump.  With the tailgate up was a great spot for hide and seek and when it was down we made pirates walk the plank.  We climbed to the roof and we were out of reach of pesky little brothers and we could see down the rows of corn. 

My younger brother practiced his driving skills by the hour, three years old and already accomplished at driving a stick.   A sister learned the dangers of smoking, when her pretend cigarette caught fire, it didn’t really catch fire, her finger just sported a really interesting burn pattern for several weeks.  Mom took the lighter out of the dash after that particular game, but Jeanie never did take up the smoking habit again. 

My last memory of the old truck was the warm afternoon Mom, Dad and all the big kids searched the farm for my younger brother.  He’d wandered off.  We looked in all the barns and storage sheds.  The longer we searched the more frantic our calls.  He was finally found sound asleep in the truck, the perfect place for an afternoon nap. 

A Journey Toward More Help

He cried so hard the first days of school I was afraid he would make himself sick.  I found him friends, held his hand and rubbed his back.  We took walks, found amazing toys to play with and still he’d burst into tears.  Mom said he’d never really been away from her, but I wondered if it was more.

In October Mrs. M. worked with him every morning for 15 minutes, or for whatever time was left after washing his face and hands.  Sometimes one wipe would do, many times it took more.

In November he still couldn’t identify his name when surrounded by 2 other very different names.  I keep trying to help him learn more.

December, Jingle Bells, is sung with the letters of his name MANY times each day.  Finally, he can identify his name, and say the letters in his name, five letters, no more. 

Starting in January I had Mrs. M work alone with him for 45 minutes each day.  When she was out for a day, he was NOT happy!  Now he can write his name, if the a and u aren't reversed I will still celebrate it more.

We had a team meeting in January and we agreed some testing should be done but the psychologist is so so over worked.  It has been months! Now he knows 1 and 2.  Next 1,2,3, finally he recognizes 1-6, on a good day even more (once). 

The testing began. Oh no, he’s out sick.  Wait another week or maybe even more!

 Will all his gains keep him for qualifying for extra help?  Almost, but today he qualifies for special education.  He will have a small group, a teacher who will guard his needs.  Most of all he won’t spend most of the day being asked to do things that are so hard for him.  No tears, no more!

And his teacher?  Well, she feels like she opened the BEST gift ever, for him!  For now he will get MORE help.