Amazing Week

OK…so the title is a bit sarcastic because it really hasn’t been that amazing!  It’s been eventful at times and boring the other times.  Though incredibly busy.  And school hasn’t even started yet!

I had all kinds of posts being prepared for this week and of course that means that life took over making me lucky to get anything done.

Tuesday, I was spending practically 1/2 the day trying to fill out an application for a new checking account with an online bank I already do business with.  I gave up after calling three times, but I may need to call them again today because they still haven’t fixed the problem!  I messed up the application because of information they gave me and was unable to correct it so I’m trying to get them to delete the application so I can start it over.

On Wednesday, my 8-year-old had a horrible nose bleed (both nostrils) for no reason we can figure out.  He’s had it before, but it’s been about 2-3 years.  That took a good 30 minutes to stop, then I had all the clean-up to do, while he sat watching cartoons like it never happened.  Kids are so resilient!

Thursday was another busy day.  We did a quick grocery shopping in the morning for buy one, get one free items.  In the afternoon we had to go to my 11-year-old’s new school to pick up his 7th grade schedule and get him the required 7th grade shot.  I dragged him around a bit looking for his classes and timing how long it will take for him to get to his Gifted Social Studies class from his Algebra I Honors class on the other side of the school.  Lucky for him all his other classes are in the same two hallways next to each other!  His classes are: Gifted Language Arts, Band (he’ll be playing the baritone), Technology (1st semester–he chose Art for the 2nd semester, but we haven’t received that schedule yet), Algebra I Honors (HS credit), Gifted Social Studies, and Gifted Science.  I’m hoping it will be a good year for him!

That evening I was getting ready to prepare dinner and my 8-year-old comes running out of his brother’s room screaming and crying.  I immediately thought his nose started bleeding again, but it turned out that he clipped his finger in a folding chair and tore a chunk off the pad of a finger.  More blood and cleaning up, though this one wasn’t as messy.  It did push dinner back some though.

Yesterday I also found out I won a prize from Stacks and Stacks blog giveaway!  So that is one good thing that happened this week!

Hopefully the rest of the week will contain less blood and more good!  *Crossing Fingers*

New Dresser

I need to get my youngest son a new dresser.  The bureau he has is old with small drawers and drawer pulls that are falling off.  My husband had it before we got married and it’s been used in various locations, for different purposes, and has been different colors.  That it has survived for over 13 years is a miracle!  LOL!

But now it’s time for it to go!

I’m thinking about getting him a 3-door wardrobe.  It will fit nicely in the spot his bureau currently is located plus give him extra places to put his clothing.  If I add another rod to create double hanging space, then I could move his clothes out of the closet and add more storage for his toys.  He really needs the space since his room is the smallest of the two boys.

I’m also looking at this step stool so he can get things off the top shelves by himself.  If he was younger, then I probably wouldn’t even bother, but at 8-years-old he should be able to get his own stuff from the shelves!

Though I’d much rather have him get rid of some of his old toys, I know that’s not necessarily going to happen right now.  He’s a whiz at getting rid of papers, but toys are a totally different matter!

So Proud and Amazed!

Earlier in the year I wrote about reading lexiles and how high my 8-year-old’s lexile was here.

His teacher re-tested all of her students to find out if they have improved in their reading and comprehension since the middle of the school year.  This will also help them start out the new school year in August.

My 8-year-old now has a 962L lexile score!

Let’s put this into perspective here…

…he ended 1st grade with a 423L.  At the beginning of 2nd grade he had a 750L, at mid-year he had an 873L.  And now at the end of 2nd grade it’s at 962L.

So in one year he went up 539 points!  And he really seems to enjoy reading unlike my other son, who reads just as well, but has to be forced to read a book unless he’s extremely interested in it.  I think we may start running out of books for my youngest to read in the school library in a couple of years unless they get a lot of new ones by then!  I’ve already chosen books from the 3rd-6th grade section for him to read throughout the school year, though 2nd graders really are not allowed in that section.  I also have a book list we may check out over the summer at the public library.

I used the Lexile.com book finder to search for books within his lexile range that were also age appropriate.  He ended up with a lexile range of 860L to 1010L, and I entered an age range of 8-10.  From there I chose books I thought he may enjoy and placed them on my reading list, which I then printed out.  We have 43 books on the list, though some are series so there may be more for him to read.

We’ll have to see what is available when we go to the library this summer!

Sick Child and Painting

My 11-year-old is sick again.  He has childhood asthma so every time he gets a cold, it gets into his lungs and makes him wheeze.  I sent him to school on Tuesday because it was just beginning, by Wednesday it was full-blown wheezing and fever, and today (Thursday) there’s no fever, but the wheezing is still there plus he’s worn out.  So today will be the second day home for him.  I expect he’ll be back to school by tomorrow (Friday) though not completely better so no physical activity for him.

This is something we’ve been dealing with practically since he was born.  What he is going through now is really minor and easily managed than what he had to go through when he was younger.  In the past it was so bad that the Albuterol and nebulizer would barely work to ease his breathing, he refused to take the steroid medication, and he was in the hospital frequently.  Once we barely got him out in time for Christmas!

Being older now helps a lot!  He rarely needs the nebulizer anymore and never needs the Albuterol.  Also, it doesn’t last for weeks as it did when he was younger.  Usually it’ll last a few days at most, then he’ll get over it as quickly as it came on.  Thank goodness for growing out of it!

Because he’s having trouble breathing though, I’m unable to do any more painting until probably next week.  I don’t want the paint fumes to bother his already weak lungs.  The middle of next week will be soon enough to paint my walls again.  Hopefully, I’ll be able to get a bunch done so I’ll at least have a couple of rooms complete.  I’d love to finish up the foyer, hallway, and kitchen, then save the rest of the great room until after my summer classes are finished.

I guess I’ll just have to relax myself for a few days!

Middle School Transition

My 11-year-old son is about to go to middle school this August for 7th grade.  Since he’s considered gifted, we have to have periodic IEP (Individual Education Plan) meetings with a local representative, the school counselor, and one of the gifted teachers.  The meeting I went to today was to discuss his transition from the elementary school to the middle school.

I didn’t have too many questions, but it was nice to be able to talk to one of the gifted teachers and his guidance counselor!

This is what we discussed:

• He’ll be taking all three of the gifted classes.  These classes are Language Arts, Social Studies, and Science.  He’ll have the same classes and teachers for 7th and 8th grade.
• He’s an excellent candidate for the Algebra I Honors class as math is his strong area.  This means he’ll be getting high school credit for this class as long as he maintains a B average.  He will also be able to take Geometry in 8th grade for high school credit.
• He’s interested in the Art and Technology electives.  These are only 1/2 credit electives so in addition he’ll have to choose either a full credit elective or two more 1/2 credit electives.
• P.E. is one of the electives that normally are required to take each year, however, the guidance counselor has advised me that we can get a waiver for each year.  It’s not a widely known practice, but it can be done!  I can sign him up for something outside of school and he won’t have to deal with locker room and P.E. issues, which is something he’s not happy about, and I’m worried about it since he’s younger than his classmates (he skipped 1st grade).  I’d much rather him have a good middle school experience and pay for him to get his physical activity satisfied elsewhere.
• We also discussed how my son has already chosen where he would like to go to college (Full Sail) and that we may be bringing him to visit in the next year or two so he can check them out and see what he needs to take during high school.  The gifted teacher asked jokingly if he could come and tell her 8th graders about planning ahead!  LOL!

So overall it was a really good meeting!  It seems the teacher (who will be his gifted Social Studies teacher) and the guidance counselor were excited to get my son with what I told them about him.  The kids go over with their teachers the beginning of May, then they’ll be bringing home the forms to sign up for the classes with their current teachers’ recommendations.  I can’t wait to get him over there!  He was so disappointed last year when he thought they were going to the middle school, then at the last moment the school district decided to put 6th grade into the elementary school.  But that’s a whole other story!

Does anyone else have a child about to go to a new school?

FPS Trip

My 11-year-old son and I are going to Cape Canaveral Sunday through Wednesday for the FPS (Future Problem Solvers) State Competition.  I’m going to bring my laptop, but don’t know if I’ll be able to get online or even have time to post while I’m there. 

I’ll do what I can, otherwise, I’ll post about the trip on Wednesday or Thursday!

My son’s team came in third in the District competition so they won’t be competing at State…still a great accomplishment since they only had three team members and the others had four.  He will be competing, however, on an individual basis.  I’m crossing fingers he doesn’t get too nervous! 

It’s his first time!

I’ll be there not as a chaperone, but as an evaluator along with three others.  So I won’t be with my son most of the time, but I can go check out what they are doing on occasion.  They will be having other activities throughout the time there and a dance on the last night!

It should be interesting!

Orthodontist News

My 8-year-old son had his first consultation with the orthodontist today.  Normally it’s a little early to start going to the orthodontist, but in his case it’s right on time.

He was born with a cleft palate, which was fixed at 10 months old.  Even with that we still do not know if his teeth problems are due to the cleft palate, or if he is just unlucky enough to have these problems that need to be corrected so young.

He has several issues, some of which will not actually be fixed until phase 2 when he is a teenager.

Right now phase 1 will include:

• a spacer attached to bands around two of his top teeth that will be used to stretch his palate.  This is needed to fix the left side of his teeth, which have one type of a crossbite, where he has an underbite.  He could have this in for up to 6 months!
• a couple of weeks to a month after the spacer goes in, he’ll need to have some braces attached to the top four front teeth.  He has a few issues that this will need to correct.  The first is a gap in his front teeth.  The second is a different type of crossbite, where his teeth meet and not overlap.  The third issue is an adult tooth that we are waiting to come in that is coming in sideways will need to be turned around.

If more of his adult teeth come in during the treatment, then she said we could fit in a correction for them as well and not have to deal with it later.  He does have an area where we had a baby tooth pulled out (we had three teeth pulled in the back when he was 5 years old due to problems with them) and apparently there is an adult tooth missing where that baby tooth was that we didn’t know about until now.  She said that may not be a problem in his case and she can use that space.  He has a lot of teeth up top that are coming in on top of each other.

So now what are the next steps and how much is all this going to cost?

I didn’t want him to have to deal with the rest of 2nd grade and new braces all at the same time.  I’ve requested to have the spacer put in after he gets out of school for the summer so he has some time to get used to it and we can help him with cleaning around the appliance in his mouth.  Plus we’ll need to turn the spacer once a day for the first couple of weeks to slowly stretch out the palate and it’ll be easier to do with him at home.  We have to keep an eye on his palate and make sure it doesn’t tear where he had his surgery.  It shouldn’t be an issue because the doctor that performed the cleft palate surgery did a tremendous job with very little scar tissue, but she said to watch just in case.

He’ll be going in on May 31st for the records appointment.  That’s where they put a file together on him, take an extra x-ray, put bands around two of his teeth that the spacer will fit into, and make an impression of his teeth so they can have the spacer made.

Oh and they’ll need a $400 deposit that day to get everything started.

Depending on the insurance we have at the time, we should get it back.  The cost of phase 1 is $1500.  Our current insurance will pay for everything.  Assuming we have this insurance at the time.  We’ll have to see what happens in May!  Regardless, I’m not worried about the cost right now.  The important thing is that my son gets this taken care of before it’s more difficult to fix later.

At least they have a payment plan/financing if our insurance falls through in any way!

The spacer should be ready to put in around June 14th.  Everything else is a wait and see from there!  It’s really going to depend on how well his palate stretches and how quickly the remaining adult teeth come in.

Is anyone else dealing with braces with their children?

They’re Winners!

My oldest son is part of the Future Problem Solvers (FPS).  At his school there are four teams…three teams of four and one team of three.  My son was part of the 3-person team.

They had their first competition yesterday, which I proctored, where they had to take a scenario and follow six steps–that include a ton of writing–to come up with solutions to the problem.  Then they have to come up with a solution based on a futuristic scene.  They have two hours to complete the packet.

This year’s District Competition was about orphaned children (or street children) in Brazil.

Since he is in 6th grade, the teams are considered in the Junior category.  Our teams were competing against teams from a neighboring county, but within our district.  There is also a Middle category (7th & 8th grades), and a Senior category (9th through 12th grades).

Winners get to compete in the State Competition in April, though all teams get to go to State if they complete a written scenario that was done earlier.  There are other activities, such as team building exercises, that are scheduled for those kids that are not competing at the State level.

Out of our four teams, all four placed 1st through 4th beating the other county’s FPS teams!

The team in 1st place is considered the District Champion.  This team also won two years ago for our school (no one from our school competed last year).  They get to compete in the State Competition.

The team in 2nd place never had any students compete before and they also get to compete in the State Competition.

My son’s team came in 3rd place.  This was the first time these three had worked together.  The team my son was on in 4th grade came in 8th so this was a big step up for him!

The team in 4th place also never had any students compete before.

The coach also gets to take 2 students from the 3rd and 4th place teams to compete in the State Competition as individuals.  This means they will compete against the teams that won, but instead of working with their teams, they will have to complete everything on their own during the 2 hours.

My son is going to be one of the two competing as an individual!

He’s a little nervous about being able to complete the packet within the 2 hours by himself, and he says he has trouble with steps 2 and 6, but we’ll work with him so he’ll feel more comfortable before they go to State in April.

I’m crossing his fingers that he does well on his own.  It will be a big confidence booster for him…not that he really needs it.  He’s the most mature and laid-back 11-year-old I’ve known so far!

They don’t know the actual scenario until the 2 hours begin.  All they know in advance is a topic.  This allows them to begin researching to get general ideas for the competition.  However, during the competition:

• they are not allowed to have any notes from prior to the competition
• they cannot use computers (no research or typing their steps allowed)
• no discussing anything except with there team members (they cannot ask any questions outside of their groups…individuals have no one to ask questions).

So sometimes the research they do in advance is worthless depending on the scenario and what they can remember at the time of the competition.

These are some truly amazing children!  I would never be able to do what they do during competition!