I’ll be writing about our weekend over the coming days – I just need to have some time to get a few more photos taken and to collect my notes, and then I’ll be getting that cranked out.
This morning, though, was my meeting with the Monster’s providers. With the bus problems last week, and my irate emails to the school system, his IEP coordinator asked me to come in this morning to discuss the implementation of FAPE vis-a-vis his education. Continue reading
I’m very fortunate in that I have a job that gives me a lot of flexibility about how I work.
One of my biggest fears, once I was promoted to management earlier this year, was that I’d lose a lot of that flexibility. The flexibility I’d had as a software engineer had allowed me to take work-from-home one day a week, when the Monster was two, to go with him to the PIES program, and it allowed me opportunities to spend the day at home working when he was off from school due to the occasional professional days earlier in the year. Continue reading
I’m sure, before too long, y’all will be a little tired of hearing about travel anxiety with the Monster.
We’re planning another outing that will involve an overnight stay, this time to Busch Gardens in Williamsburg, VA. For a lot of families, I’m sure this wouldn’t engender the terror that we have with such trips, but… it’s there, and it’s from history. Continue reading
The biggest problem with the school year ending, and with the bus problem being unresolved, is that there are differing opinions about what I ought to be doing about the problem.
There’s really no good course of action – three days later, the Baltimore City Public Schools have still not answered any of my emails regarding the matter. There is no positive purpose to the “ignore it and he’ll go away” logic since, plainly, the Monster is returning to their schools in the fall. Continue reading
The bussing issue reared its ugly head again.
For anyone who is new to my blog – or doesn’t follow my tweet feed – the Monster is bussed from our house to his elementary school and back each day. The school he attends is not our zone school, which is five minutes away and roughly in our neighborhood, but all the way across the city. His bus ride, on a good day, is somewhere between thirty-five and forty-five minutes. Continue reading
As I mentioned yesterday, this weekend we managed to make a trek up to Pennsylvania for a trip to Sesame Place for a few hours of fun in the sun and a visit with Chica and Kelly.
(As I always state with reviews – I was not compensated in any fashion for this review. We paid for our own admission to the park.) Continue reading
I had figured, when we left the house yesterday afternoon, that I’d probably be getting home tonight and trying to put down my thoughts about our trip to Sesame Place (in-season) before Falling Skies starts… but the review will come tomorrow, actually, because something better came up. Continue reading
Since school is out in the next few days, we’re going to be hitting the road on and off through the summer to make some use of the free time without homework to try to squeeze in some fun.
Of course, this kind of hitting the road also entails additional difficulties that we don’t face at home. Continue reading
While 1-2-3 Magic’s worked wonders at times for the Monster’s behavior, there are times – especially as he’s becoming a more willful five year old – that the system isn’t doing much to curb the excesses of his behavior.
We’re finding that he’s getting sent to his room more often these days for not listening when we’re asking him not to do things as much as he’s getting sent for actual misbehaving. The shrieking has gotten out of hand, even with a suggestion from his OT to try to substitute something else to keep his mouth occupied like a party noisemaker, and yesterday he went so far as to actually hit the wife. Continue reading
The school year ends next week. At the moment, the last day is supposedly Wednesday, but the pre-K “moving up” ceremony is Monday, so we’re not entirely sure that the Monster actually has school after that.
It’s been an interesting year, that’s for certain. He’s been doing fine and keeping pace with his pre-academics, as they refer to the course load at his grade level, even if he’s not necessarily gaining much ground on the other skills that he’s delayed in. Continue reading