Thankfulness Thursday

Isn't it amazing how fast the time goes once the school year starts? It becomes a cyclone of alarm clocks, homework, meetings, extracurricular activities….Then Friday rolls around and it still doesn't stop. Everything moves so fast, the next week sort of sneaks up on you to start the whole process again. Fortunately, Gus is adjusting pretty well.

This week, I am thankful:

1. That Gus, although he's been a little up and down at school, has had at least two solidly good days. For the second time, this week, he completed all of his independent work without any prompting. It might seem like a small thing, but being able to complete tasks is one of his biggest challenges in school. The fact that he's starting off the year showing that it can be done is amazing.
   
2. That Gus is learning to type this year. As I mentioned when I blogged about his Annual Review, Gus will be allowed to use a word processor for at least part of his statewide exams this spring. That access is important because, while his handwriting has improved enormously, it is still often illegible and overcrowded. Plus, it takes him a very long time to write things out, and it's very tiring. During yesterday's visit to the class, I got to see the typing software he's using (which is kind of old so I don't think I'll be able to get a copy for home) is lots of fun. There are 'missions' that look like some of the old-school video games (like Space Invaders of Gallaga) that I can see have great appeal for him. When the missions are completed, random historical facts pop up. That has his name written all over it. If I can get the name of the software from his teacher, I'll update with it.
   
3. That I finally swallowed all anxiety and went ahead to register My Autism Insights as its own domain. Once I have the site up and running, I have some exciting plans down the pike! I'll probably transfer the content of this blog over there and then will just pick up where I leave off. In other words, you should have access to all the old posts as well as new material. So keep an eye out, and I hope you'll stay with me as My Autism Insights continues growing!
   

What are you thankful for this week?

Thursday Thankfulness

Hello, world! School's just about to wrap up its second week and we're finally starting to get into some sort of routine. Here's what I'm appreciating today:

I am thankful:

1. That Gus has had a really good first full week. At least half of every day, his teacher reports that he's been 'on.' One day this week, he even finished his independent work independently! This has been virtually unheard of, so it is a big deal. Great way to start off the year, dude!

2. That our new kitten is assimilating into our family and our household routine. I think he may be helpful for Gus, who was totally focused on him the first day he was home. Gus gets a little jumpy when the kitten is feeling particularly pouncy, but he's been petting him, playing with him a little and even allowing the kitty in his room before bed or in the morning. I think they'll be great friends.

3. That with both kids in school full days, I am getting a lot accomplished during the day. I've been able to get better work hours, and when I'm not working, I've been developing a project I've been sitting on for weeks. These longer days are also allowing me to do something that feels a little foreign: relax. Every day for about an hour, I just chill out - no errands, no work, no writing...it's quite nice.

So that's my gratitude this week. What are you thankful for today? Have a great one!

Focus Building Year

Now that Gus is on the cusp of his 'tween years, it seems more important than ever that he learns to manage himself without the need of constant adult prompting. Middle school is right around the corner, and state exams are at the end of this school year. While he'll get every accommodation available, it will be a major hurdle for him. I'd like to see him do well.

I'm not a big fan of standardized tests as the only way to determine what a child has learned, but I'm more interested in how he will view the results. I want him to do well because if he doesn't he'll feel badly – plain and simple. So whatever we can do this year to help him succeed, we'll do. The two big areas in need of major development are: focus and self-regulating. Gus will need to learn not only to focus, but also to recognize when his focus has shifted off task. He will also need to start controlling his impulses. We've seen some progress over the summer, but if he's going to manage a three-hour test, he's got a long way to go.

This morning I read an article (not a very recent one) about certain video games that could help to build focus. The games mentioned in the article seem older, but the concept intrigues me. One of the things that can hold Gus's attention for hours is his video games. I'm wondering if we can find a focus building game that is reasonably priced. (The Brain Train games were particularly astronomical.) It doesn't seem like a 'fad' method because another article published just this month in the Redding Pilot online, also discusses neurofeedback that uses video games as a basis. Play Attention seems like a possibility, but at $100 a month, I'm not so sure. They offer a free demo CD.

I'll post again if we decide to try it out.

What will your child be working on this year?

The Return of Thursday Thankfulness

I've been quite remiss lately with posting, but now that school is back in session, I can hear myself think again. It seems rather appropriate that Gus started school on a Thursday. Today I am thankful:

1. That Gus not only started school again, but that he was eager to start school again. Yesterday he said that he had "art-room-sickness," similar to homesickness but for the art room at school. He was a little nervous about starting 3rd grade, but that's normal. He'll have the same teacher and several friends in his class. He seems more concerned about the level of expectation and about getting his work done. This tells me that he values good grades, he wants to do well, and just maybe, he'll be a more motivated than ever to work on his focus and concentration. My fingers are crossed.

2. I am thankful that Gus go his bus monitor from last year! This is a big win, because she is just amazing and adores him. I couldn't have bought a better start to his day.

3. I am thankful that MM enjoyed her first day of school yesterday as well, despite the new bus driver whom has made her his sworn enemy already. We've got full day school now, which means that I have time to myself! I've got some projects that have been on hold all summer that I plan to move on, so extra thankful for that.

If your child has started school, did the year start off well? Please share your gratitude in a comment and have an awesome day!

Joining In

There was a slip-n-slide. Today was one of those hot, muggy days when the air feels like oatmeal in your lungs. The floors felt like they were coated with dew. Yuck! Gus came home from school completely exhausted, played on the computer for a while during the first rain storm of the day, and then watched his favorite show. In the interim, MM noticed that a couple of her friends were playing with the slip-n-slide across the street. I let her go over - Gus doesn't usually want to get involved.

I asked him after a little while if he was interested in coming out, but predictably, he said no. I told him that if he changed his mind, he could put on a swimsuit and come on out. I didn't really expect him to, but I wanted him to know he was welcome.

Imagine my surprise when I turned around and there he was!

That in itself wasn't the biggest deal, but as the crowd of kids grew to proportions that are typically unmanageable for him, I started to notice something quite interesting. The kids had started arguing about turns. Gus had been taking a turn behind one particular girl. No matter how many of the kids cut the line, no matter where he ran off to, no matter how many times his turn got skipped, he always got back in line behind the same girl and waited without complaint to go down the slide. The kid with Asperger's behaved better than almost all the others out there. There is just no end to life's ironies.

I'm quite proud of him today. He might not be able to stand in line per se, but he's gotten the concept of taking turns nicely. Well done, Gus!

Thankfulness Thursday - Almost Forgot What Day it Is

This week has gone by so fast, I didn't even realize it was Thursday! It's late and I just got back from a bike ride, so I'll have to be brief. This week I am thankful for:

• Finishing my first ride with the cycling club! I did the whole 17 miles and only had to walk halfway up one hill! I feel quite accomplished! And I made it home in time to say goodnight to the kidlings! Bonus!
• Having a few days to hang out with my kids before Gus starts summer school. We've done some organizing and shopping for our upcoming camping trip, took a few trips to the playground and saw some of the neighborhood kids. It's been a pretty mellow, if busy, time.
• Summer finally showing itself! It's been so cold and wet, I was starting to wonder if we'd somehow time/space warped to Seattle. It was actually hot enough for the sprinklers and kiddie pools! I hope it's here to stay!

What are you thankful for this week?

On a more somber note, RIP to three icons who passed this week: Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett & Michael Jackson.

IEP Assessments

I recently wrote an article on Understanding IEP Assessments for Bright Hub and thought I'd put some comments here as well. I've always found the assessment score portion of Gus's IEP to be more complicated than deciphering the Dead Sea Scrolls, but I've come to gain a little better understanding of them. They're not quite as complicated as I thought (very close, but not quite). The odd thing is that the keys to understanding these things seem to be some nationally guarded secret – none of our service providers could ever give me a solid explanation for what it all meant. So here's my attempt at demystifying the matter.

The first things you need to understand are the terms and acronyms. Most of the assessment scores will be expressed as one or more of the following:

• SS – standard or scaled score. This is the score of the assessment itself. For instance, the SAT has a different scale (200-800) than the AP exams which are score on a scale of 1-5.
  
• Percentile – the percentile shows where your child falls within the range of other students being tested. A score in the 98^th percentile means your child scored in the top 2 percent of students tested, or better than 98 percent.
  
• AE/GE – age or grade equivalents tell where your child's skills are in comparison to kids of different age groups or in different academic grades.
  
• Raw Score – I've never seen this on our IEP, but it's useful to know just in case it comes up. The raw score is the actually number of successes your child has on each of the different test components. For example, your child might get 8 correct responses on one test out of a possible 10.
  

Many assessments use similar scales, but some have their own (just to keep parents hopping and guessing, I'd imagine). If you find out what assessment tool was used for your child in each area, you can try to find out what the scale is and take it from there. Some common tests are:

• General or Comprehensive
  
  • The Brigance Comprehensive Inventory of Basic Skills (CIBS)
    
• Speech/Language
  
  • Oral and Written Language Scales (OWLS – they're not just for wizards anymore)
    
  • Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT)
    
  • Expressive Vocabulary Test (EVT)
    
  • Educational – Woodcock Johnson III
    
• Motor/Physical Skills
  
  • Bruininsky-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency
    
  • Peabody Developmental Motor Scales
    
• Behavior
  
  • Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales
    

The article goes into a little more detail about scoring and interpretation, so if this is a topic that tends to confuse you (like it did me) by all means, check it out! And if you know of any assessments that I can add to the list, by all means, please share! Have a great day!

Wendy Portillo, Again?

Apparently, in Port St. Lucie, having a class vote an autistic child out of his kindergarten class is not an offense that bears permanent removal from the school system. That's the message that will be sent if Wendy Portillo, the teacher who committed this grievous act, is not only rehired, but given back her tenured position. Are they kidding? If he were my son, I would have wanted the woman's head on a platter, forget her job.

Kristina Chew blogs about this at Change.org, and I'd urge you to sign the petition to keep this woman from poisoning any more young minds. People with disabilities deserve the same rights as anyone else, and we can't have teachers misguiding our youth to the contrary.



P.S. I didn't forget about Thursday Thankfulness - just a little delayed. Will try to get it posted over the weekend!

*Old newspaper image by Hugo Gernsback

Asperger's Q & A

A commenter had some questions for me, and instead of responding just in a comment, I thought I'd post the answer here in case anyone else was interested. I may do this periodically if anyone's got a question that requires more than a couple of lines of reply.

Q: How old was Gus when you found out about him? Did you know before he was born? I ask this because I don't know how you learned to be so good with handling him. Was it all learning as he aged?

A: Gus was about eighteen months old when we noticed that he wasn't taking much interest in other children. I'd pick him up from day care and see him at one end of the play yard while the rest of the class was at the opposite end. At home when we'd take him to the park, he'd always gravitate away from other children. That was what gave us the first inkling that something was different about him. However, he had sensitivities right from birth. He was always hyper-alert and extremely sensitive to noise. I'm sure plenty of people thought I was a complete, overprotective psycho the way I insisted on total silence when I was trying to get him to sleep, but it was necessary. He was always fidgety and in constant motion - it's largely the way he processes information. Things like fine motor development were delayed, but since he was my first child, I had no point of comparison. I didn't think of anything as 'problematic' until that toddler stage. Another thing that tipped us off around that time was that Gus had been acquiring language and vocabulary at a remarkable rate, but then he stopped for a while. That was the point when we started to see a lot of tantrums, and I started having trouble managing his behavior. But once he got into Early Intervention and was given some communication tools, the meltdowns became much less of an issue. So to answer that part of the question, we didn't know anything before Gus was born, there were signs almost immediately after he was born, but we didn't definitively know that he'd need some special help until he was about 2.

As for handling him (I'm not sure I always handle him so well), it's all been a learning process, and I've had a great deal of help. One thing that made a big difference for us was that my husband and I made the decision that I would spend the majority of my time at home with Gus (and later MM). This allowed me to really learn who he is and how to meet his needs. In addition to that, we've been very lucky with the professionals who have worked with Gus from teachers to pediatricians to therapists. When Gus was in his uncommunicative stage, a parent trainer (social worker from our school district) worked with me to help me manage my own reactions to his behavior. The support of family and friends has been a great help, and the network of autism bloggers I've come across over the past few years has been wonderful resource for information and support as well. So I can't take all the credit for learning how to deal with the challenges of Asperger's - it's been a real group effort, and I'm always refining my approach because my amazing boy changes constantly.

I hope that answers the question! If you have questions or would like to share similar experiences with your child, please feel free to chime in! Have a great weekend!

Time Article on ADHD

Thanks to a Tweet by Dana Jonson, I saw this Time article entitled Kids with ADHD May Learn Better by Fidgeting. In essence, the article highlights a small but thorough study done by Mark Rapport that demonstrates when kids with ADHD are fidgeting, their brains are stimulated in a similar way as with stimulant medications. It seems that if they are allowed to fidget (obviously not to the point of climbing walls) they may actually focus better (even if that seems backwards to a teacher whose brain doesn't work the same way).

I love coming across studies like this because they validate what I've always known about Gus. From the time he was born, two things were very evident: he was extremely alert and taking everything in, and he was never still. Before he could walk, his little legs were always going. I remember trying to teach him to count when he was about 18 months old. Whenever I would ask him something or tell him something, he'd always run to the opposite end of our apartment and then come back with a response. Clearly, this was his way of processing information. So, this day when I worked on counting with him, I took a bunch of apples to the living room and gave them to him, one at a time. Each time he would run and put the apple in the kitchen and we counted up as he returned for the next one. He learned many things doing laps around our apartment.

One of the things I appreciate about his current school program is that when he needs to fidget or move around, he can communicate that to his teacher and be allowed to do so. Before coming into class, he might hop through the hall like a kangaroo to his seat. Then he can start his morning assignment. The movement seems to help a lot.

ADHD is only part of Gus's trouble with focus, because he also has a bunch of sensory integration issues, but ADHD is also the one that we've been advised on occasion to try to medicate. Maybe this study will bring about a shift away from medication and toward giving ADHD kids a little more freedom so their minds can work the way they're wired to. And maybe 'Least Restrictive Environment' might take on a more literal meaning.

And maybe now I won't feel so bad when I don't stop Gus from running the length of the house. He's just stimulating his brain!



*image from cksinfo.com

Thursday Thankfulness

I know it looks like I've been slacking, and that's probably because I have. After being cooped up for the fall and winter (which to me all equates to 'winter' once it drops below 40 degrees) I've been like a big kid, wanting to be out in the open air as much as possible. So you'll probably notice that I've only been posting a few times a week. That'll change come the fall, but I will definitely keep up my Thursdays - they're good for morale! This week I am thankful for:

My tomato plant which is not only still alive after the transplanting, but growing at a frightful rate! I would have felt awful if I'd killed it. Now we just have to figure out what to do when it starts to reach the ceiling, as my father-in-law wisely pointed out. I'm envisioning some sort of Jack and the Beanstalk-esque post coming before the end of the summer.

I am thankful that Gus's field trip was a success! Monday, we went on an epic journey, to the wilds of Queens, NY to see a production of Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. Originally, the whole family was going to attend the trip, but MM decided to stay home with her dad instead of taking the 2+ hour bus ride each way. So I had the rare chance to spend some time with Gus. The show was a blast. I never got the name of the actress who was playing Alexander, but I have to say it was exhausting just watching her. She never stood still for a second on the stage - I've never seen an adult with that much energy (and living with my husband, that's saying quite a bit)! And she had to sing! I don't know how she didn't pass out, but she was amazing. The show held lots of laughs and was totally worth the ride. The trip back was entertaining for me as well. At one point, Gus was seated behind his friend who is also a Pokemon expert. I had brought one of Gus's Pokemon encyclopedias to keep him from getting too antsy on the trip. The boy in front started passing back notes about the Pokemon DS game and then would ask Gus to turn to a specific Pokemon in the book and then pass the book through that space between the window and the seat. Then I'd hear, "Aw, that one looks great!" or something similar. This went on for well over half an hour. Hilarious! More importantly, I got to see Gus bonding with a friend. Priceless.

I am thankful that it's nice out so that I can go for a bike ride as soon as I finish this post. One thing I've noticed is that I've got a lot more patience when I a) do something for myself once in a while and b) get exercise c) get out of the house. It seems like this should be so simple as to be unworthy of mentioning, but any parent, especially those who work from home, can attest that it is often hard to pull yourself away and trust that the world won't stop turning when you stop turning the crank. I'm still not convinced, but the sun is out and telling me to be a little selfish. So if the world stops because I'm not sitting at my computer working, or doing laundry, or any of the other 3,950,242,538,408 things I need to do in the next hour...blame it on the sun. I'm out of here!

What are you thankful for today?

Thursday Thankfulness

Sorry about being MIA so much. There's been a lot to do with birthday preparations and nice weather and spring cleaning. Fortunately, there have been some things to be thankful for this week, like:

1. 1. I am thankful that Gus earned an academic achievement award from school for the third quarter! And he did pretty well at the assembly when he went up to receive it. And his music teacher gave him a respect award as well.
2. I am thankful that Gus is learning to read music at school. I remember music class as a kid and it never involved learning a single notation. We just sang. Now, Gus is learning to play the recorder and he's telling me notes by sight already. It's a skill that every kid really should have access to and I'm glad he's enjoying it.
3. I am thankful for the little taste of summer we got last week! Not many people enjoy such hot weather, but for me it was indescribably great to not have to wear layers or socks or anything heavy. And now I'm equally glad for the milder temps were getting again, mostly for Gus's sake because of those eczema flareups (which magically went away when it dropped to 60 degrees).

So, what are you thankful for today? Sorry to be so brief, but Gus's bedroom is going to be the next spring cleaning victim...er, recipient. Hey! I'm thankful that Gus is the one member of this family who doesn't get upset over getting rid of things!

Have a great day!

Where Does Quirkiness End and the Spectrum Begin?

Last summer I read a book called Kids, Parents and Power Struggles by Mary Sheedy Kurcinka. While I don't typically read a lot of parenting books, this one stuck with me. Kurcinka talks a bit about temperament and personality types, and what I found most interesting was that some of the extreme manifestations of different types of behavior came very close to mild manifestations of behavior that you might see in a child on the minor end of the autism spectrum. For example, some traits that she discusses in her book are persistence, sensitivity and activity. There's a scale to measure if your child exhibits these traits at a high level or a low level. I remember reading and thinking that there seemed to be a pretty thin line between a highly persistent child and one on the spectrum who might be mildly obsessive. From her description of the sensitivity trait, I wondered where the separation was between a highly sensitive child and a child with mild Sensory Integration Disorder. It occurs to me that these distinctions are purely subjective. I have to wonder if this subjectivity, coupled with a culture that strikes me as obsessed with conformity and sameness, might be a factor in what often appears to be a sudden rise in autism diagnoses.

Years ago when I was in elementary school, I got straight A's, but I rarely paid attention, I often daydreamed, I sometimes got out of my seat for no good reason (one spring I used to sit on top of my desk trying to sun-bleach my hair), and I was often disruptive but not overly active. If I were the same student today, I might be diagnosed with ADD, but back then no one felt the need to classify me as anything. I was just a really smart kid who was probably bored and talked a lot. When Gus was about 18 months old, I noticed that he always seemed to isolate himself from the other kids in his daycare class, but being that I had a deep appreciation for solitude and little experience with 'typical' behavior for a child his age, I wasn't inclined to think of his behavior as problematic. My bigger issue was with his teachers who never seemed to be aware that he was at the opposite end of the play yard all alone.

The more I learn about the autism spectrum, the more similarities I notice between my son and myself, the more I question the validity of some of the things that have been labeled as 'dysfunctional.' I rock side-to-side; if Gus did that he'd be stimming. My friend had a lot to say and a doctor asked her if she had ADHD. Why couldn't it just be a simple case of her having a lot to get off her chest? When did every little difference become such a big issue?

I'm not suggesting that individuals on the autism spectrum don't need extra support because often they do. What they don't need is the stigma of being damaged in some way because of their differences. Maybe instead of trying to force these individuals to perform in a way that is unnatural for them, perhaps the world needs to do a little adapting to the fact that we are not all carbon copies of each other, nor should we be.

Busy Weekend

image by: Ian Britton via Freefoto.com

I've been MIA for a few days because the weekend was just incredibly busy. I was very excited that Gus had an exceptional time in terms of his behavior.

Saturday, the kids spent the day with DH and with their grandfather while Grandmother and I were at a bridal shower. Thankfully it was a magnificent day, so they got to go to the park for a good 3 hours. It always amazes me how much good the outdoors can do for Gus. If only it was nice out all the time and he could have all his classes outdoors. He didn't wander off at all, but all reports, which is huge for him. When everyone came back in, he was much more mellow than he had been on his last visit. He slept almost the whole way home but still slept through the night. Sunday morning, he was still in his calm space.

Sunday afternoon, we went to his little cousin's birthday party. There were a lot more children than I anticipated, and he tried to leave a few times, but all in all, he handled the party well. He held it together when they sang happy birthday (just had his hands over his ears and looked like he wanted to bolt, but didn't). And there was one very surprising and nice aspect of the day. The birthday boy's older brother is also on the spectrum, so he and Gus generally sort of orbit around each other without interacting much. Well yesterday, they actually 'hung out' for a while - Gus watching his cousin play a video game. There were words exchanged! They stayed up there together until Gus wanted a turn to play. His cousin got mad when he was made to share and that was the end of the bonding. But it's a start!

Gus woke up a couple of times last night, but he was still pretty chilled out this morning, so hopefully it was a good day at school as well.

How did your early-spring weekend go?

Thursday Thankfulness

I'm a little late today, but two more walls have been given two fresh coats of paint, so please forgive me! Today's thankfulness:

1. I am thankful that Gus will be getting the appropriate and needed services in a great environment next year. Our annual review went better than I'd hoped because I was expecting a real fight on our hands.

2. I am thankful for the wonderful support from Gus's teachers, aides, therapists, counselor, and peers. Knowing that he's in a good place makes it easier to feel hopeful about his future.

3. I am thankful that I only have one small wall and the foyer left to paint, and I give kudos to people who do this for a living. I never knew how difficult a job painting a living room could be. However, as tough as it is right now, I'm going to feel damned good about myself when it's done!

What are you grateful for today?

Annual Review: Win!

Today was Gus's ever-stressful, anxiety-provoking annual review. I've been mentally preparing myself for weeks now, preparing for an epic battle. I anticipated that there would be fists banging on tables and possibly threats to call lawyers or to remove Gus from the school system. (Okay, so my imagination can get a little overactive, and I'm a sucker for a worst case scenario.)

DH took the day off to attend the meeting, and just prior to the meeting we made our last pre-battle preparations: We stopped at Dunkin' Donuts for a sugar and caffeine boost (French vanilla with extra sugar). If I've learned nothing else today, I've learned that a non-coffee drinker should never drink coffee before a meeting that will last more than 5 minutes.

So there we were, ready for the smackdown, doing mental calisthenics, readying our arguments and rebuttal. The smackdown. Never. Came.

Not that I'm complaining.

Gus will remain in his program next year with the same services (OT reduced by half an hour, but I'm okay with that). Since state testing starts next year, he will have a multitude of accommodations: word processor availability, extra time, separate room, redirection prompts, reading of directions...there may have been more, but I lost count. Summer services are in the package as well. If our luck holds, he may even be able to stay in this program (barring any drastic changes) until the end when he transitions to middle school, but I won't count my chickens just yet. A win all around.

There were some annoying moments, or maybe it was just my caffeine enhanced scrappiness. The minute I was asked about my visit to the other school that had been suggested, I started throwing around the word 'safety.' But there was no rebuttal. The chairperson agreed that it wasn't as appropriate as she thought. I got a little miffed that she mentioned that we might want to eventually consider medication for Gus (that always gets me bristling, even if we happen to be thinking about it). I let DH handle that topic, which he did very tactfully. The psychologist irked me a little when he wondered if Gus was really getting all that he could academically. My response was something along the lines of, "He's performing at grade level or higher; how much more do we need him to get right now?" Low expectations? No. I just don't feel the need to pressure Gus to be a super-genius.

There was one nice moment when the physical therapist gave her recommendations. She mentioned that Gus often runs into the middle of kickball games because he lacks safety awareness. Apparently, the kids know him now, and when they see him coming, they just wait until he's in a safe place and then resume their games. I found that to be sweet, especially when contrasted against the neighborhood kid who was giving him funny looks at the bowling alley. They haven't teased him or been mean - what a nice thing to hear!

I'll admit, I was having a really hard time behaving at the meeting this year. I'm sure the coffee had something to do with it. Maybe it had something to do with knowing that the chairperson had lied in the past regarding my son. She did get a little closer to my good side once I saw that she was being at least somewhat sincere about how much she likes Gus. A few sarcastic comments escaped, but I bit my tongue when standardized testing came up. (Because of course that's an accurate measure of what a kid can do - we all know that. Don't get me started on that one.) When the psychologist asked me to sign a permission form for something, I very nearly said, "no," just to see what he would do, but I controlled myself. However, the guy sitting next to me didn't escape my mischievous streak. He loaned me a pen and when he asked for it back, I said, "What would you do if I said no?" He didn't seem amused by that. The next time he loaned me the pen, I said I wasn't giving it back. No reaction. And they say my son is robotic. Pfft.

By the end of the meeting I was really antsy, but fortunately we had to run out of there or we'd miss the school bus. So that was our day - we were very lucky. I'm very glad to be working with the same team next year. I'll also be very glad when this caffeine buzz wears off - there's a good reason I drink tea.

So fess up, have you ever been tempted to misbehave in one of those meetings for any reason? They're long; they're stressful. It's hard not to crack under the pressure! C'mon, share your story!



P.S. I know at least one teacher friend who really ought to weigh in on the whole question of standardized testing. I threw that in just for you!

Thursday Thankfulness: It's Almost Spring!

It's raining today, and I'm happy about that. Know why? Because it's not snowing! Spring is right around the corner and that's a good time to bask in some springtime gratitude!

1. I am thankful that tomorrow it will officially be spring! In honor of this, I've planned that Sunday I will take a vacation from my computer screen and do some spring cleaning. DH is going to a gaming convention for the day, so I will rally the troops to do massive overhauls of their bedrooms and we're going to start painting the living room. Gus has been asking to help and I figure if I let him help with the priming, it should be pretty harmless. I won't even let myself think about what could possibly be wrong with that theory.

2. I am thankful that I've had lots of work lately. the project I'm working on today is a little insane with a killer deadline, but the paycheck will be beautiful when I get it in my hands. However, I do apologize to all my social-networky pals. I haven't forgotten you and I'll be back soon!

3. I am thankful for my son's 'team.' I'll be going to talk with them tomorrow, and I even if they don't have anything new or spectacular to tell me, I love the fact that they have stuck with him for the past 2 years. Gus is a really good kid, but you have got to be on your toes at all times with him. He's fun and incredibly smart, but also can be exhausting. so, kudos and many thanks to Gus's staff - they rock like the Flintstones!

4. And an extra bit of gratitude because I'm that happy about the spring! I am thankful for Gus's obsession with Pokemon. Yes, I know it's probably not the healthiest thing in the world, but consider the mileage I get out of this fixation.

Getting dressed in the morning: "You can't battle any gym leaders until you get dressed."
Eating breakfast: "All the best Pokemon masters eat breakfast and they feed their Pokemon, too."
Homework: "If you have 3 Pokeballs and 7 Dark Pokemon to capture, how many more Pokeballs do you need?"

See? Everything can have an upside!

Please feel free to share your thoughts and gratitude below and have a great day!