Today a couple of us at work were amazed that it’s already going to be September tomorrow. How is that possible? Have I really been at my “new” job for 10 months? I guess it’s not so new anymore. It still feels new, though. I still refer to it as being new. My 10 months being unemployed seemed interminable compared to the last 10 months of solid employment.
The kids have now been in school for a couple weeks and it’s a lot more work this year than last year. Cootiegirl’s teacher is “tough” (as tough as a 2nd grade teacher can be) and poor CG is not enjoying herself much. She LIKES her teacher, but she hates the homework. Add in the fact that she’s not a strong reader (in fact, the report we received today shows that she’s dreadfully behind in reading skills), which is not helping. All my attempts to get her to read phonically this summer have been for naught, and I fear that she’ll continue to fall behind this year. Tonight I wrote a nice, long email to her teacher explaining CG’s history with reading and asking for resources to encourage and aid CG in her advancement in reading skills.
As for Cootieboy, I’m not worried so much about his reading as his ability to listen in class. He has been written up for not listening just about every day since school started. I’d like to tell myself he doesn’t listen because his teacher is not challenging him, but I think he’s not listening simply because he wants to have FUN, not sit in a chair and listen to his teacher. In his computer class he received high marks for listening, though. But that’s because he thinks computers are fun. Tonight as he went to bed I told him that he needs to listen and pay attention to more than just his computer class, but to EVERYthing – we’ll see what happens.
Still obsessed with “Doctor Who.” I’m down to my last few David Tennant episodes. I’m devastated that the time of the Tenth Doctor is so close to being over for me. It’s funny though – watching all these episodes so quickly, I’ve noticed one thing. In almost EVERY episode he says, “I’m sorry, I’m SO sorry.” It’s hilarious and makes me think there HAS to be a Doctor Who drinking game out there in the world, and that deserves three drinks every time he says it (a quick hunt shows that yes, there are tons of Doctor Who drinking games, although I didn’t see a reference to “I’m sorry, I’m SO sorry,” which is surprising).
Why yes, we DO still have a fish aquarium – thanks for asking! Unfortunately, it’s not doing well and I think that once these last four fish kick off it’ll be the end of it. We’ve had it for two years and none of the original fish are still alive. I’m down to my last corydora catfish and since they are schoolers, and he doesn’t have a school, I predict he’ll die from loneliness in the next few days. At that point I’ll have three tetras left. They will get to live out their days without any hassles. I just hope I have all females so I don’t have a tank full of fish fry. So far I haven’t had to worry about that, but you never know. In any event, once we have no more fish, I’ll dismantle the aquarium and take back that section of the TV room.
Tomorrow the next White Elephant notice goes out. We’ve already got 17-18 official “yes” responses. Yes, it’s the party of the year, people. And I can’t wait!
Have you considered outside help for CG’s reading lack? Kumon or something like that? A friend’s daughter was struggling in her schoolwork and they did some testing to determine what her problem was and it turned out she was behind in her reading skills. 6 months into Kumon tutoring and her grades in all of her classes improved greatly.
Last night I emailed her teacher about resources the school might have – but yes, at some point if she continues to lag behind we’ll need to look into a program of some kind.