Sandra Tayler's Blog, page 140

School day two

Day two of school and advocacy is required on behalf of children. The first is a (hopefully) minor schedule change for Kiki and should be completed quickly. However Kiki is a bit overwhelmed by high school and will likely need extra support for at least a month.

The second case for advocacy is going to be much longer and more complicated. For the first time I have identified an administrator who is an obstacle to my children having a good school experience. And that is a kind

School begins

The first day of a new schedule is always exhausting. This week I get to have three of them.

Today Link and Kiki both went to school for orientation days.

Tomorrow Kiki, Gleek, and Patch will attend their first day of school, but Link will not because he attended orientation all day today.

Thursday is the day that I will finally get to run through a complete day of what will be my new schedule.

I'm going to be tired this week.

Mirrored from onecobble.com.

The Next Sugar Experiment

Once Gleek and I concluded our brief experiment with using an alternative method for balancing her body for sugars, we talked over what worked and what didn't. It was obvious that Gleek is sensitive to sugars, this is not news. I figured that out around the time she used her first words to beg for candy. So we made a plan for our next experiment. I suggested that we log the food that Gleek eats and how she behaves. Gleek added that she thought we should do a one-day-on-one-day-off sugar ...

Schedule as puzzle

The first step to assembling a jigsaw puzzle is to spread the pieces out on the table and turn them over so I can see the shapes and colors. At that point the table is covered and it looks like there is no way for all the pieces to be assembled into a coherent picture. This is exactly where I am in planning the family schedule for Fall. I have all of these things which need to fit in somewhere, but I can't see how. It is a bit overwhelming. And so I apply the same method I use when...

Experimenting with sugar and alternative medicine

In Terry Pratchett's books the witch Granny Weatherwax uses Headology to help people more than she uses magic. Headology uses both psychology and trickery to adjust people's behaviors. In the case of a man with chest pains, Granny told him that he'd been bewitched by nymphs who lived in a waterfall. All he had to do was hike to that waterfall, bow three times, sing a song, and leave a small offering once per day and the nymphs would leave him alone. Or something like that. My memory of t...

Howard's trip to Australia

Howard's trip to Australia has led me through exciting new lands of forms and paperwork as I figured out how to send books via a customs broker, buy an international plane ticket, make reservations at a hotel on another continent, file for a visa, find the tax forms to report earnings to both the Australian government and the US government, open a banking account in Melbourne, arrange for volunteers to help at the booth, and assorted other odds and ends. Truthfully, each thing has been...

Kiki on the road

There are many times in a parent's life when she wonders what on earth she was thinking when she agreed to a particular endeavor. I've felt that way about lessons, birthday parties, games, toys, and treats. Today's revisitation of the feeling was the moment when I sat in my van with Kiki at the wheel. She rounded the corner with a little running dialog.
"and now I slow… and turn signal… all is clear… so gas." Then her voice raised an octave "Not clear! Not clear!" I watched the car...

Two Kids, Two Schools

Gleek and I climbed into the car and I backed out of the driveway. We were our way to meet her new Fourth Grade teacher and to take a quick reading test. Gleek sat quietly in her seat. Subdued. Not a typical emotional state for her.

"Are you worried about school starting?" I asked her.

"Yeah." she said quietly.

"Last year was pretty hard." I said, hoping to give words to her feelings.

Gleek nodded and blinked several times in a way which is common when she is trying not to cry. She was so ...

Thoughts on being older and managing my own thoughts

On Sunday I attended a social event with a group of people whom I enjoy. There were a couple dozen of us there and I had a great time. It was only after the fact that I realized that I was the oldest person at the event. (Howard stayed home with sick Patch.) All of these people are peers for me, many of them are approximately my age, only younger by a year or two. But all of them have families who are younger than mine. They are still firmly in the world of Elementary school and...

The Addams Family

This afternoon Howard discovered that Kiki had never seen The Addams Family. The oversight has now been rectified. Gleek and Patch watched it also.

I have to say that the movie still disturbs me on various levels. I laugh and I am disturbed. This is why my kids had not yet seen the film. It also means that the filmmakers did a brilliant job of hitting their intended mark. Patch and I have already had a discussion about how things in the movie are funny because they are exactly the...