Well, all the good vibes are most appreciated...
DH had an interview with a Member of Congress and the Member said that he would get in touch with him on Tuesday. Then Tuesday came and went and we heard nothing. Then Wednesday passed, and Thursday...and the Member has still not gotten in touch.
Yes, it is disappointing. I told DH that it says a lot about that Member re: keeping one's word. It's just hard to hear the "it's probably for the best" message when it's been 7 months.
In the meantime he is still interviewing. I truly wish he would broaden his search a bit. But he won't.
I've been sick with some sort of "bug" and the kids had something (with fever) over the weekend. Thankfully they were better Sunday night so Natalie could go to school on Monday and Nicholas could go to preschool as well. Natalie will get her first report card on Friday February 9. We are all anxiously awaiting the news on that day -- which is also the 100th day of school!
Please continue the "please hire him!" vibes!
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Friday, January 12, 2007
Good vibes appreciated...
There may be some positive news looming on DH's job hunt...good vibes and prayers most appreciated!
Tuesday, January 09, 2007
Eye exams
Natalie went for her first "full blown" eye exam over the weekend. She has perfect eyes and no color blindness.
I have what is called "lazy eye" and it was never diagnosed early enough (as a young child) to be patched early on. So I'm stuck with what I have and literally have no depth perception thanks to it. I didn't want Natalie to be in a similar predicament, and I wanted to rule out things that may have helped inattention at school, so I scheduled the appointment with my eye doctor.
Natalie did great with the appointment and the eye doctor was fabulous! Seriously, if you know anyone that ever needs a recommendation for a good eye doctor for kids in Arlington, VA, tell them to contact Dr. Trisia Jarvis.
I have what is called "lazy eye" and it was never diagnosed early enough (as a young child) to be patched early on. So I'm stuck with what I have and literally have no depth perception thanks to it. I didn't want Natalie to be in a similar predicament, and I wanted to rule out things that may have helped inattention at school, so I scheduled the appointment with my eye doctor.
Natalie did great with the appointment and the eye doctor was fabulous! Seriously, if you know anyone that ever needs a recommendation for a good eye doctor for kids in Arlington, VA, tell them to contact Dr. Trisia Jarvis.
Kindergarten progress
I seriously need to figure out how to be a better Kindergarten parent because the transition from daycare/preschool parent to Kindergarten parent is not going well for me.
Prior to Natalie starting Kindergarten, I was concerned that she might not be "ready" due to her August birthday and some trouble with her "listening ears". In the first few weeks of Kindergarten, Natalie's teacher and I emailed each other several times about Natalie's inattention and not following class rules. Looking back on these exchanges, I can see that the teacher was viewing these emails as communicating what was going on in the classroom vs. asking me to "fix things". Of course I was trying to "fix things".
Natalie is doing great in school as far as "academics" (!!!) go. She was NOT reading when she started Kindergarten -- she knew her letters, the sounds that they make, the difference between lower case/uppercase, could count to 50 -- an "ordinary kid" in my mind. Just two months into Kindergarten, she (and about five of her classmates) has "taken off like a rocket" (her teacher's description) and is reading far above grade level, can do addition and starting to do subtraction from 1st grade workbooks, etc.
But she is NOT doing her "Writing Workshop" well AT ALL. In "Writing Workshop" the students write stories in "composition books". The stories start out with something as basic as a series of three pictures -- the beginning, middle and the end of a story, etc. Then they start by adding words with the best spelling that they can -- "skl" for the word "school", etc. When we met with Natalie's teacher at parent-teacher conference (in early November), DH and I were told that her baseline "assessment" is great (as I'm sure many of the other children in her class are as well) but that she wasn't really participating in Writing Workshop. By the end of November, her classmates had 20 pages completed in their notebooks and Natalie had 3 pages done.
So I stepped up writing activities at home. When we went away for our weekend trip for Thanksgiving, I had Natalie write a "packing list" for our trip. Some of the items she wrote down (3 books, with books spelled correctly) and other items she drew pictures of (3 and then a picture of her in a bathing suit). I had her help me create a shopping list for holiday grocery shopping. For Christmas I bought Natalie some "pretty notebooks" so that she could do more writing.
On Sunday, I asked Natalie to write a story in one of her new notebooks. She was all excited to do that but it turned into an absolute cry-fest. I enlisted DH's help to get her to write a story. She was so VERY upset that she almost started hyperventilating. :-( So I emailed her teacher about it and she offered some suggestions as to how to get her to write more.
So now we are concentrating on writing about the constellations. At school, she is writing about the sun, the moon, and the planets. And I'm trying to do better about always trying to "fix" things and letting a great teacher do her job.
Prior to Natalie starting Kindergarten, I was concerned that she might not be "ready" due to her August birthday and some trouble with her "listening ears". In the first few weeks of Kindergarten, Natalie's teacher and I emailed each other several times about Natalie's inattention and not following class rules. Looking back on these exchanges, I can see that the teacher was viewing these emails as communicating what was going on in the classroom vs. asking me to "fix things". Of course I was trying to "fix things".
Natalie is doing great in school as far as "academics" (!!!) go. She was NOT reading when she started Kindergarten -- she knew her letters, the sounds that they make, the difference between lower case/uppercase, could count to 50 -- an "ordinary kid" in my mind. Just two months into Kindergarten, she (and about five of her classmates) has "taken off like a rocket" (her teacher's description) and is reading far above grade level, can do addition and starting to do subtraction from 1st grade workbooks, etc.
But she is NOT doing her "Writing Workshop" well AT ALL. In "Writing Workshop" the students write stories in "composition books". The stories start out with something as basic as a series of three pictures -- the beginning, middle and the end of a story, etc. Then they start by adding words with the best spelling that they can -- "skl" for the word "school", etc. When we met with Natalie's teacher at parent-teacher conference (in early November), DH and I were told that her baseline "assessment" is great (as I'm sure many of the other children in her class are as well) but that she wasn't really participating in Writing Workshop. By the end of November, her classmates had 20 pages completed in their notebooks and Natalie had 3 pages done.
So I stepped up writing activities at home. When we went away for our weekend trip for Thanksgiving, I had Natalie write a "packing list" for our trip. Some of the items she wrote down (3 books, with books spelled correctly) and other items she drew pictures of (3 and then a picture of her in a bathing suit). I had her help me create a shopping list for holiday grocery shopping. For Christmas I bought Natalie some "pretty notebooks" so that she could do more writing.
On Sunday, I asked Natalie to write a story in one of her new notebooks. She was all excited to do that but it turned into an absolute cry-fest. I enlisted DH's help to get her to write a story. She was so VERY upset that she almost started hyperventilating. :-( So I emailed her teacher about it and she offered some suggestions as to how to get her to write more.
So now we are concentrating on writing about the constellations. At school, she is writing about the sun, the moon, and the planets. And I'm trying to do better about always trying to "fix" things and letting a great teacher do her job.
Wednesday, January 03, 2007
Summer Camps
Yes, it is the third day of the new year and we are already mired in Summer Camp decisions.
Over the weekend I learned that my daughter's elementary school has a summer camp program. So I had DH call today to sign her up -- more as a "backstop" so we would have something in place.
There are 120 spots in the summer camp and THEY ARE ALL FILLED and we are #53 on the wait list. Unfreakenbelievable.
So -- I managed to book three weeks at an arts camp for the summer. Just seven more weeks of summer camp to secure. And it looks like No One has summer camps operating in the last two weeks of August.
I honestly do not know how working parents with more than one child pull this off. I'm in awe of people that manage this with multiple children.
Over the weekend I learned that my daughter's elementary school has a summer camp program. So I had DH call today to sign her up -- more as a "backstop" so we would have something in place.
There are 120 spots in the summer camp and THEY ARE ALL FILLED and we are #53 on the wait list. Unfreakenbelievable.
So -- I managed to book three weeks at an arts camp for the summer. Just seven more weeks of summer camp to secure. And it looks like No One has summer camps operating in the last two weeks of August.
I honestly do not know how working parents with more than one child pull this off. I'm in awe of people that manage this with multiple children.
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