Thursday, January 26, 2006

Updates to Previous Posts

One of my non-blogging buddies emailed me recently to ask that I update some of my previous posts (I get it, L, you're still reading. Thanks, BTW.) Anyway, here it goes:

Jan. 18, 2006: So now I want to kick a 10 Year Old's @$$!
Not much to report here. I asked my son if he minded that I talk to the bus driver and he said no. One afternoon last week, I spoke to Mr. Kenneth (my son's is the last bus stop so Mr. K had time to chat). I explained about the coveted back seat and that there was one kid who kept calling my son a 'retard,' among other things. Mr. K asked which kid and when I told him, he said, "Oh man! That kid is bad. He's always giving me trouble. I'm gonna have a talk with him and I guarantee it's not going to be a problem anymore." (Thinking to myself: at least not on the bus.) For now, the rotten kid sits in the seat directly behind the bus driver. I know we could've taken the easy way out and suggested that my son sit elsewhere, but sometimes you just have to stand up for yourself (or have your mom do it for you), know what I mean?

Jan. 2, 2006: Happy 2006!
Okay, so I'm not doing so well with my resolutions.
1) lose weight - I've lost one pound. Two actually, but one missed me and returned home to my hips.
2) drink more water - some days I do well, others I don't
3) drink less Diet Coke - again, some days I do, other days (such as today) I don't
4) pick a hobby and stick with it for the entire year - for the past couple of weeks, I've been making beaded jewelry. My neighbor taught me and I've made a couple of things. She and I are going shopping for more supplies on Saturday. Will it last the year? We'll see...

Our family resolutions are:
1) less yelling - I've been doing pretty good here.
2) pray the rosary as a family once a week - oops!
3) set aside time at least once a week to play a board game as a family - not regularly, so this is still a work-in-progress.

Nov. 3, 2005 - My Kid Rocks!
My middle son was tested for the gifted program. They use a 'matrix' to determine whether a child should be evaluated further and my son missed it by a point. They administer an aptitude test and depending on your score, you get 1, 2 or 3 points toward the matrix. Then they look at the last standardized test and, again depending on the score, assign 1, 2, or 3 points for the language portion, and the math portion. The maximum matrix score would be 9 assuming a child earned 3 points on aptitude, 3 in math and 3 in language. A child scoring 6 (or higher) would be evaluated further. My son scored 5 on the matrix. He was disappointed at first but got over it quickly. His next standardized test is this spring and he's matured a lot in the past year so if he scores exceptionally well, we can request that he be reevaluated (if he's still interested). I'm not thinking that far ahead. By the way, he still rocks! One B and the rest A's on his report card. Yay!

4 comments:

~d said...

BTW, I have heard abt this testing....and in Kindergarten what do you think is the chance a teacher would single out a child...or do you think it is more plausible that the parent planted the seed?

Elle*Bee said...

It can happen either way, actually. The parent can request the test, or the teacher can recommend it. It's a pretty 'competitive' program so a kid could be pretty disappointed if he doesn't make the cut. We kept it pretty lowkey w/ Sam though. We didn't talk much about why he was being tested. He's in 3rd grade so he pretty much figured it out, but we tried to be nonchalant about it. But yes, some kids do get into the program early. Things have always come easily to Sam at school, but it was only this past year that I realized how much he has blossomed.

~d said...

Oh where oh herre has Elle*Bee gone? Oh where oh where can she be ???

Elle*Bee said...

i'm here. my adhd has been raging and i can't seem to complete a single thought, much less start a blog post. i'll try soon...