What's the big deal about organization anyway? Maybe he's just creative...

Today I had a parent/teacher conference with Goober's teacher. I dread parent/teacher conferences. Before my kids were of school age, I never thought I'd be the mom who hated parent/teacher conferences... but alas, things are never what you expect when it comes to children.

The first thing I hate about conferences is the fact that they're always scheduled at 7:30 in the morning.  I typically get the kids to school around this time (they don't have to be there until 8, but Munchkin demands socialization time) so it's not as if I'm not awake.  It's that I'm not awake.

At 7:30 the coffee has not had a chance to work its way through my system. It is all I can do to drive the kids to school without veering into a ditch and the kids' teachers expect me to be wide eyed, bushy tailed, dressed in something other than pajamas, and ready to listen to them tell me my kid sucks criticize my parenting tell me I suck talk about my child's strengths and weaknesses.

So yeah, that's the first thing I hate about parent/teacher conferences.

The second thing I hate about them is that they consistently tell me the same things that I've already read in notes, or noticed myself, or heard from other people already.  And I want to ask them why it's important that I come in and listen to them tell me these things to my face so I can bask in the humiliation of it all in person.

I can remember back to Bug's first parent/teacher conference in kindergarten.  It was no big deal.  Because, really, in kindergarten as long as your child doesn't eat paste or stab the other children with dull scissors, it's pretty much no big deal.  I figured we were off to a great start with school and patted myself on the back for a parenting job well done.

Unfortunately, things have changed over the years. I'm now fully aware that Bug is slow when it comes to writing, that he's disorganized, that he's melancholy, that he forgets to turn in assignments.  I know that Munchkin talks too much in class, has a hard time when she doesn't get her way, and can be bossy.  Shocking!

Today's conference wasn't all that bad.  Goober's in first grade now and I've learned that the conferences really don't start to get rough until about third grade.  But I did get to hear how polite he is, how he's disorganized, and how he's a strong reader.  Like a criticism sandwich.  They must hold teacher seminars on how to have these conferences because it always goes like that.  Compliment, criticize, compliment, sign paper, check.

The thing is, these are things I already know.  Yes, Goober is disorganized.  He's messy.  He's the kid who jams papers in his backpack sans folder and forgets to give me permission slips until the day before the field trip when his teacher finally threatens that he'll have to sit in the office while the rest of the class goes to the zoo.  I know all of these things.  He's like that everywhere.

Just once I'd like to sit down with their teacher and act shocked.

But Goober's room is spotless at home! He asked for file folders and a label printer for his birthday! We forced those LEGOs on him in an attempt to get him to think outside the box.

Yes, I know my kid is disorganized.  It's probably my fault because I'm disorganized.  Or maybe that's just how he is.  Maybe he's going to be an artist or a musician and his right brain is just too dominant for him to bother with petty little details like paperwork and color coded folders.

Or maybe he's just a disaster. But either way, I know.

Goober has two teachers.  One is considered his "homeroom" teacher and is where he reports in the morning and learns science and math.  The other teaches him reading and writing.  They played good cop, bad cop with me this morning.  His homeroom teacher told me how polite he is and how he hugs her and how he wants to please.  The reading teacher told me how he daydreams too much and how he won't finish assignments because he is scatter brained.  Then his homeroom teacher told me how he's so smart and above grade level.

Criticism sandwich, with two chefs.

And I smiled and nodded and signed. Check.

In which the Spaz thinks maybe she should have done it differently...

We're one month in and I'm beginning to have doubts about my decision to homeschool Bug.

We're behind. Way behind. And I'm just not sure exactly how we're going to catch up.

Now, before you flame me for being irresponsible with my son's schooling, I'd like you to know that I blame this entirely on our school district.

That's right. It has nothing to do with my own disorganization or procrastination AT ALL.

No... seriously.

We ran into our first problem on September 9th when Munchkin and Goober had no school for Rosh Hashanah. Since I had been told that our schedule would follow the school district's schedule, I was surprised when Bug had a full day of lessons scheduled. We had plans for the day so I let Bug play hooky that day and figured we'd make it up as we went along.

We still haven't completely made it up. What can I say? We're a busy family.

So then, for 3 days this week Bug was required to spend the first 2 hours of each day doing diagnostic testing for the district at the elementary school. While I did enjoy having a couple of hours to myself for those days and I met another amazing mom who I have a lot in common with while dropping Bug off, we still had a full day of lessons scheduled on those days and only a few hours each day to complete them until Munchkin and Goober got home from school. (That was a horribly long sentence.)

And then the kicker came in when yesterday was a half day for the regular school kids. Of course, Bug had a full day of lessons scheduled, and hadn't even put a real dent in what he was overdue on by the time his siblings came loudly through the front door to distract him.

So now we're 2 to 3 full days behind and Bug is terribly overwhelmed. He looks at his lessons as this weight bearing down upon him like an anvil in a Warner Brothers cartoon. And I don't know how to make him feel better.

Somehow we need to get through this and get ahead of the game and it's not going smoothly. I've realized with horror how difficult it is to have one kid homeschooling with a structured program like the one Bug is using (Connections Academy if anyone has any experience), while his siblings are attending regular school.

Unfortunately the next couple of weekends are booked solid, as well, so we're going to have to figure out how to bang this out during the week. I'd like to say I can forgo some of the activities on the weekends but I honestly just can't. And I wonder if I've failed my son by selecting this for him...

But then I think back to last year when Bug went to regular school for 6 hours every day and then sat for the next 6 hours at the kitchen table crying because he couldn't get through his homework. So many nights I sent him to bed without finishing it because I had to decide whether it was more important for him to write an essay or get a good night's sleep. And then I know that this is a better option. It's just a lot harder than I thought it would be.

Those gifted kids are big babies!

Here in the middle of the third week of school I think I've finally got a bit of a routine going as far as transportation goes.

7:15 AM - Watch Bug board school bus
7:20 AM - Drop Goober at Pre K
7:25 AM - Drop Munchkin at school
7:35 AM - Home and back in bed starting work

The afternoon is a little more chaotic.

2:15 PM - Walk 1/2 mile to Munchkin's bus stop
2:25 PM - Grab Munchkin and walk 1/2 mile + 20 feet to Bug's bus stop
2:30 PM - Wave as Bug's bus passes us on the street
2:35 PM - Arrive at Bug's stop and wait as bus loops around entire huge neighborhood and gets back to his stop because school district doesn't believe an 8 year old can walk 20 feet on a sidewalk to his home all by himself. Whatever.
2:45 PM - Melt into pool of sweat on sidewalk. Get Bug and walk the 20 feet home as a group.

Then we do our homework and I clean up the house a bit and before I know it it's 5:00 and time to drive up to the pre-school and grab Goober. At home I throw together dinner and we all eat.

I'm sort of starting to see some organization here! Exciting, indeed.

Today, I was feeling a little under the weather and I took the van to pick the kids up at their bus stops.

Both stops are pretty active ones. Traffic is fairly light and similar at both stops and about 10 to 15 kids get off at both stops. Both stops are for elementary school children.

At Munchkin's stop all the SUVs and minivans line up on both sides of the road, the bus pulls up, the parents all sit in the vehicles with them running, and the kids go right to their respective cars and get in all by themselves.

At Bug's stop all the SUVs and minivans line up on both sides of the road, the bus pulls up, the parents all spring joyously from their vehicles and grab their children by the hand and walk them to their cars making sure each child is buckled securely before leaving the stop.

I was sort of surprised when all the parents got out of their cars to walk their children from the bus. These are not kindergartners, either. Most kids appear to be at least in 2nd grade or older. The difference, however, is that these children are all in the gifted program.

At first I figured it was just a product of parents being sheep. You know, one mom got out of the van to run to the bus and all other parents followed suit because we all have that innate fear inside of us that we're not doing a good job and that we need to be veritable June Cleavers.

But then I wondered if it had something to do with the type of parents that end up with gifted children. Are parents of gifted kids more coddling than parents of non-gifted kids? Are parents of gifted kids more protective? Are they better? Are they more hands on?

I'm not more of a coddler and I'm definitely not more protective. I'm of the mind that if they're screaming they're still breathing. Does that make me a better or worse parent? I don't know... I think it just means I'm raising my children more independently. I hope that they don't expect to be babied for every little boo boo they get in life, yanno?

So Bug ran to the car all by himself. He made it just fine.

If you can read this, thank a teacher!

I am so excited about today. Seriously! I've been waiting for today for what feels like an eternity. I'm not kidding.

What is it, Spaz? What is it that could have you in a state of such anticipatory glee? What?

I'll tell you what.

It's Works For Me Wednesday time again. Yeah, baby!

That's right, it's time for the blog carnival that tops them all! No offense to any of the other blog carnivals that I love and participate in. I really do love y'all.

But there's a special place in my heart for Works For Me Wednesday. It was my first (I think) and it has brought me much traffic and many of my regular readers. I love Shannon for starting it, I love you all for clicking over and reading from it, I love Works For Me Wednesday.

(big exhale)

I'm so glad it's back.

Oh! Right! I'm supposed to post about something that works for me!

Sorry, it's been so long I nearly forgot. :)

I've got a great one, too. See, it's back to school for us and for most of y'all, too. This year Bug entered the gifted program and every night he's required to read for 30 minutes as part of his homework.

Munchkin scored academically and intellectually high enough to enter the gifted program (we're still working on the maturity level), too, so The Man and I decided she should probably join him in his 30 minutes of reading.

In fact, The Man and I think maybe the whole family should make a point to sit down with a book for 30 minutes of quiet time every evening. Because reading? That works for us.

Photo by ninjapoodles<

So last week we packed everyone up and headed down to our local library. All three of the kids picked out a couple of books (and so did The Man and I) and we brought them home. Now, we've done this before with disastrous results. The first time we returned the books like two weeks late. Totally my fault, I am so disorganized!

The second time Goober completely lost one of his books and I spilled tea all over one of The Man's books, ruining it. Oops. There's a $50 mistake we won't be making again.

This time we made a new rule. The library books are ONLY to be read in our living room (aka the room we never go in) and not taken out of there. There are nice plushy couches in there and it's a quiet room and heck, there's even a fireplace! It's the perfect place to curl up with a book. So now it's our reading room. Not only do we actually use the room, but the library books will always be able to be found and it's highly unlikely we'll ruin any of them.

That completely works for me.

Speaking of reading, I was alerted to a great program that TJ Maxx is sponsoring this year. They've partnered with Save the Children and launched a website where they've created a little game called The Great Book Adventure Game. It's a cute little game where you choose to be either a bus, a rocket ship, or a submarine and you travel along giving books to little animals, aliens, or marine life. I know what you're thinking...

Spaz, aliens don't read! They automatically absorb knowledge through highly advanced receptors! Duh!

I know, I know... just go with me, here. The people at TJ Maxx and Save the Children must have overlooked that. Forgive them.

Not only is this game SUPER cute and sort of addicting, but every time you play TJ Maxx will donate a book to impoverished children living here in the United States! Did you know that there are more than 2.6 million children living in rural poverty right here in our country? Take some time to read about what Save the Children does to help with literacy for these children.

But wait, there's more! (Hee hee, I just had to use that line.)

When you register to play, you'll be entered to win a $1000 shopping spree at TJ Maxx.

Cha ching!

Have you seen the selection of purses at that place? Heck, there's one in my area that carries Valentino and Prada dresses. I practically raced over there to enter.

Reading and improving literacy definitely works for me! For more Works For Me Wednesday posts, check out Rocks In My Dryer!

Hey, wait! Before you go, please take a few minutes to nominate a blogger for the Little Fish award! It's just one way you can share the bloggy love!

I wish she'd shut up about back to school already...

Conversation with Munchkin in the car home this afternoon:

Me: So what did you learn in school today?
Munchkin: Everything.
Me: Everything? So you're done with school then? We don't have to go back?
Munchkin (rolls eyes): No Mommy, I mean everything for today.
Me: Oh, of course... well what did you learn then?
Munchkin: I don't know.
Me (exasperated): Did you go to PE today?
Munchkin: No, we had library.
Me: Did you check out any books?
Munchkin: We didn't actually go to the library. We watched a movie.
Me: Oh cool, what movie was it?
Munchkin: I don't remember the name of it.
Me: What was it about?
Munchkin: An alligator was eating kids.

WTF?!

I send my child to school to be traumatized by natural Florida wildlife.

I also learned today that Bug's new school is so overcrowded that they can't actually eat lunch in the cafeteria. The kids who bring their lunches sit at their desks and the kids who buy lunch go to the cafeteria and buy food and then they bring it back and eat it at their desk. No wonder it takes me a half hour to get through the school pick up line to get him in the afternoon!

Speaking of the pick up line at Bug's school. It's quite the chaotic event. Bug's school is on the corner of two relatively decent sized roads and some parents choose to park their vehicles on the side of the road and just walk up to the school to grab their child. This causes mayhem as some cars try to get "prime parking spots" closer to the school than others and parents and kids are walking all over the place and I'm fairly positive there will be some injuries there before the school year is up. I'm sorry, but it's worth my extra few minutes to pick Bug up at the school and make sure he doesn't get run over by some mad frantic parent or some high school kid that happens to be traveling through the area. The crossing guards are all blowing their whistles like twenty bazillion times and yelling at people who block the crosswalk and getting all bent out of shape. Those ladies sure need a cocktail, that's all I have to say. A cocktail after work, of course. Drunk crossing guards would be bad.

Cars are trying to get into the parking lot from both directions and this poor administrator woman is trying to direct the traffic and practically getting run over by parents who have been waiting for 20 minutes and are all angsty. She lets two cars in from one direction, then two cars in from the other and so on. She has this big smile plastered on her face even though all these parents look at her like she's got a target painted on her backside. Perhaps she has had a cocktail.

The pick up line itself is a snake through the parking lot much like a line at Disney World, which is sort of funny because you can actually see your child waiting WAY before you can actually get to the child. There is much waving from cars (including between me and Bug). Today between picking up Munchkin and then Bug I spent an hour and a half of my life and probably a half gallon of gas.

I'm can't wait till Bug is assigned a bus.

Back to school - Part Deux

Pick up today was fun.

I arrived at Munchkin's school at 1:15 and was FIRST in the car pick up line. How's that for prior planning, Mom?

I used my 45 minutes to tidy up the car so when I opened the sliding door to the minivan to let her in I wasn't horribly embarrassed that all the teachers and aids could see my mess. Or worse, nothing actually fell out on to the pavement when the door slid open. Been there, done that.

Then I read blogs from my cell phone. I am such a geek.

Munchkin got in the car, pouting, and asking how many days she was going to have to stay in this school. *sigh*

Then it was on to pick up Bug.

The rain hadn't been too terrible while picking up Munchkin but it really started to pour on our way to get Bug. Torrential downpour. The heavens opened up and unleashed a fury of rain on to my poor minivan. It was rough going.

Bug's school is overcrowded so they're building stuff. More buildings, more offices, more stuff. Since it's the first year I've had a kid at this school I have no clue as to whether the construction was going on last year, but it's a mess over there. Picking him up was joyful, let me tell you. Combine the first day of elementary school with terrible construction with a main road with a tropical storm.

Oh yes.

I arrived in the vicinity of the school at 2:15 thinking I was doing well. I didn't get Bug in the car until after 3:00. I wish I had taken a picture of all the poor teachers out in the pouring rain with umbrellas trying to direct traffic. They really deserve a raise.

Bug was SOAKED when he got in the car. Soaked through to his underwear. This morning The Man had given him an emergency poncho to put in his backpack for such an occasion but Bug had read "emergency" on it and thought he wasn't supposed to use it unless his life was in danger or something. *sigh*

Bug was grumpy. Dentist appointment tomorrow, torrential downpour or not.

His new folders are soggy... I hope they dry cause I'm steering clear of any school supply aisles for a while.

On the way home I gathered Goober up from his preschool where he seemed happy to see me, even though I interrupted snack time and he was thoroughly enjoying his Cheetos.

Goober gibber gabbered excitedly all the way home and then they changed clothes and did homework while I filled out a billion emergency contact and consent forms. It's good to be back in a routine again.

I need a nap.

Back to school, Tooth Pain, & Tropical Storms

Today was the first day of school. It was a little unconventional this morning since we were still finalizing all the hoopla over the gifted program and all so we had to be at Munchkin and Bug's school from last year really early to meet with a school psychologist and ESE coordinator.

Which meant we had to drop Goober off even earlier at his new school. Which meant we were up before the sun. That's always fun.

Last night Bug declared that his tooth hurt. I'm a bad mommy in this regard and I know it. About a year and a half ago I took Bug to the dentist and the dentist declared he had a cavity that needed filling. So I took Bug back to the dentist to fill said cavity and Bug lost his little mind when they tried to give him a shot of Novocaine. He freaked so violently that the dentist told me I needed to take him somewhere else. Thanks for the support, Buddy.

It was then that insurance problems happened and all kinds of mess and one thing led to another and Bug didn't go back to the dentist. I mean, come ON... the tooth was just going to fall out eventually anyhow, right?

Evidently that logic is flawed.

Yesterday Bug bit into an apple and it caused such insane pain that he has agreed to now go to the dentist and let them do whatever they need to do. Poor guy. I totally dropped the ball on this one. He's my first child so I'm kind of learning with him. Ahem...

I guess the poor little man's tooth hurt so badly that he didn't get a lot of sleep last night. I gave him some Children's Motrin to help with the pain and hopefully make him sleepy but he was still awake at 1:30 in the morning. Just laying in his bed... being awake. It was around 2:00 that I finally fell asleep and when I woke up at 6:00 poor Bug was on the couch asleep. I hated to wake him up.

Once I got them all dressed (The Man, too) I had them stand for the obligatory "First Day of School" picture. I tried and I tried to get Bug to smile... but it wasn't going to happen.

It wasn't until about 10 minutes later when they were eating their bagels that I realized I had it in my power to get Bug to smile.

Ya gotta love kids.

After breakfast we were off to school. Goober was dropped off first and announced to his new school that he was "Reporting for Duty!" with a salute. No issues with that kid at all.

Then we were on to our school psychologist meeting. I had The Man sit in the car with Munchkin and Bug while I went in for the meeting. We were still waiting on teacher evaluations from the teachers that the kids had last year and everything at the school was hub bub and chaos, being the first day and all.

Bug's evaluation came back and all looked good. Then Munchkin's came back... and there were problems. Due to the teacher's evaluation, it appeared that Munchkin will have to stay at this school for a little while. There are some questions as to her maturity level and I completely understand. I've mentioned before that she's got some attitude issues and it obviously has been spilling over to school. That and an unwillingness to apply herself are a couple of the issues that would cause her some problems in the gifted program. Her teacher this year will be working with the ESE Coordinator to try to get Munchkin over these humps and hopefully she'll be ready to move on to the gifted program next year.

It was hard to break the news to her. She had spent the whole weekend mentally preparing herself for this new change and we had to break her little heart. The poor Man had to take her to her class this morning and reassure her. I can't wait to pick her up and see how she's doing.

Next it was time to bring Bug to his new school. He got to make a fashionably late entrance to his new classroom and it was chaotic. I'm sure it wasn't anything out of the ordinary but when we walked in the teacher had all the kids unwrapping new supplies and putting together a big binder and it was just loud and crazy in there! My poor Bug looked like a fish out of water when we left him and it about broke my heart. You'd think I would have been crying about dropping Goober off at pre-school this morning... but nope, it was my older kids that had my heart today.

As The Man and I left Bug's classroom the rain started to come down. By the time we were on the road home it was pouring down and the roads were starting to flood. Hello Fay! At this point we have a good chance of schools being closed tomorrow just after they began. I'll be driving Bug to the dentist, tropical storm or not! I wonder if they have a backup generator on that drill.

So now I've got 3 kids to pick up this afternoon at 3 different schools and a tropical storm raging down on us. These are the days I just love being a mom.

Goober loves shots!

My Blogger Dashboard looks different this morning.

I've been frazzled, my peeps. School starts on Monday morning here and all of my 3 will be entering the school system again this year. Things have been a little crazy around here.

Goober is starting a new pre-school this year. Being that his birthday is September 12th and the school board's cut off date is September 1st, he's not eligible to enter kindergarten until next year. I was all upset about this a year or so ago but these days I'm sort of happy I'll have an extra year with him in the end.

He's so excited he can barely contain himself. He has a little box of supplies all ready to go to school on Monday with his name plastered all over everything in black Sharpie marker. This new school even has a pool and they give the kids swimming lessons once a week!

Goober had to get shots to go to school. His appointment was scheduled for Monday and on Sunday night I told him.

"Tomorrow I'm going to take you to the doctor and they're going to give you some shots."
"Shots?"
Goober knew nothing of shots.
"Yes, and it will hurt a little but afterward we'll get you a lollipop."
"Lollipops! I LOVE shots!"
Oh boy.

Monday we sat in the waiting room with about fifty kajillion other parents and kids who all needed to get shots. Goober is a talkative little guy and he had no problem making friends with some of the other kids.

"I'm going to get shots!" He announced with glee. "I LOVE shots!"

The other kids thought he was crazy.

When we got into the exam room (after an hour and a half of the waiting room) Goober was very excited to get to pee in a cup. I was not so excited, but was thankful it was Goober and not Munchkin. Munchkin peed all over my hand when we had to do this.

The doctor came in and checked him out and told me he was perfect.

Except for one little thing that I was worried about. Goober has an umbilical hernia. When he was born it was just nutty how big it was and now it's so much smaller I was sure it wasn't even a problem. It's just an outie, right?

Wrong. It's still a hernia and he needs to have surgery to correct it. I'm so sad about this. My poor little guy under the knife! Our appointment with the surgeon is the 28th so I'm trying to forget about it until then.

After I was told that my little man was going to be sliced and diced, it was on to the shots!

"I LOVE shots!"

Except shots hurt and Goober wasn't exactly anticipating that. He had to have two shots in each arm and after the first one he had had ENOUGH of that shot thing.

"I HATE shots!" he cried through tears. I cried, too.

My poor little man. I got him a hot fudge sundae from McDonalds to compensate.