SCHOOL

The twins have a field trip today. It was the easiest day to get ready for school ever!  A break from the nonsense is nice.

Talked to the special ed gal at the twins' school. James is doing very well. He is applying himself and cooperating very well. He likes his teacher. She is amazing. She is the one that has been a special ed teacher and knows how to work with kids like mine. In fact, she asked why she doesn't have Missy in her class as well. Hmmmm.... well, nobody even considered putting the competitive twins in the same class! I know for certain I am not going to homeschool James next year either because this teacher is going to teach 4th grade  and James will continue with her. I won't mess up a good thing. He is learning. I see new sparks of interests. He comes home talking about all the great things he is learning and doing. Last year he never told me anything about school.

Missy, on the other hand. UGH. She has managed to be so uncooperative they are letting her have her way. They can't get her to learn anything if she is mad about special ed so they have been leaving her in her home room. They sent a para to sit by her and work with her there. Missy walked all over her. Refused to do work and basically picked what she wanted to do. The special ed gal who is in charge found a tougher para that MIssy can't manipulate so easily.... That teacher took her right back to the beginning of the book and made her do ALL the work she had skipped. It took 2 weeks to catch back up to where she should have been. I'm glad for that. I shared my worries about this kid just floating along in school because she is hard to deal with, but I also let them know I understand . . .  I mean, what are you gonna do?

Anyway, James' teacher wants Missy in her class next year as well as James. That is something to look forward to? Maybe she hasn't figured out that Missy is a different ball of wax from James. I don't know. Maybe she knows how to handle this kid.

I asked for specific interventions to be put on Missy's  IEP coming up for review. Mainly ways to teach her to practice skills that she does not have... because, as hopeless as it might seem from my last post, there is good news in regards to teaching kids to compensate or LEARN executive brain function skills. "They"say these kids CAN be taught. I'm going with that. The Special ed gal must have been educated in this and I told her, though I know NOTHING, I trust that she does. She agreed that this is the direction we need to go. She also said she would be getting some input from a colleague more educated in such things.... She thought she might be able to get me more info on how we can get Missy evaluated  - neuro-psych evals, or whatever. '

I know I don't know what I'm talking about. It seems that unless I know exactly what I want from professionals in the medical field or from the Department of Developmental Disabilities, etc... it won't be offered. I HAVE TO ASK specifically. Problem is, I don't know to ask for.

On a sweeter note, Missy earned some Eagle tickets.... I don't know how... haha! but they are points for good behavior that all the kids work for. She went and bought a stack of bookmarks from the Eagle Ticket store just so that she could give them to her friends and teachers. She gave every one of them away. I let her know I was very proud of her for thinking of others. She never told us about it. The Special Ed gal is the one that told me.