We are doing a brilliant thing here at Chez GEW. We are moving the kids' room.
We have three bedrooms, and our kids share a room, so the extra room is a playroom/office. The problem with this arrangment, however, is that it really ends up being mostly playroom and not so much office. As a result, the kids' bedroom and the playroom are, quite regularly, in full states of destruction. The bedroom they have been sharing is fairly small, and the playroom isI rather large. Recently, I suggested that we move the kids' bedroom to the room that has been the playroom, and then turn the small room into a and office/guest room in which kids do not play.
At first, no one liked my idea. Hubby didn't like it because he knew it would be tons of work to move the furniture and sort the crap. The kids didn't like it because they are happy and safe in their room, and the playroom has a sliding glass door that would be scary at night.
But on Sunday, after Hubby's brother came for dinner with his family (which includes two girls, ages 2 and 6), I said, " I want everyone to come look at the bedroom and playroom." Both rooms were destroyed.
Hubby took one look and realized that I am a genius. Well, maybe not exactly a genius, but he did come around to my idea. And somehow, even the kids became convinced.
So we have moved the furniture and steam-cleaned the carpets. Now I'm sorting through Polly Pockets, and plastic jewelry, and rock
collections trying to purge but also keep what matters. Right now, the kids' new room has no clutter. None. It is absolutely beautiful. The two room are the cleanest they have been since we moved into the house. The kids are amazed, and I think they love it.
Granted, the hallway is full of crap, but I will tackle that today. Granted, we have cousins coming to visit this weekend, and the room will be destroyed again, but with some clutter gone, it cannot end up so bad as before. And the capper? Only one room will be destroyed. The new office/guest room will be golden.
Even better? I now have a place to work on the dissertation in peace. We even have room for me to bring in a new, big bookshelf that can hold all of my PhD books. This could be huge, people. Huge.
Someday, the kids will want separate rooms--the boy girl thing, you know. But I think we have a year or to before they insist on that. And last night, as I gazed upon the beautifully clean and sparse study, I decided that maybe they will have to stay put at least until the PhD is finished.
Showing posts with label kids. Show all posts
Showing posts with label kids. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Update on the Boy and His Schoolin'
Some of you might remember the post I wrote back in August when I was surprised to discover that the Boy, a second grader, had been placed in a split first/second grade class with mostly first graders. I was sad and nervous because all of his friends would be on the other side of the school, and I was afraid he would become disconnected from them. Also, I was worried that it was a comment on his low reading level.
Well, the school year is creeping (lurching?) towards its end, and I thought I would give you an update.
In short, it's been fine--great, in fact. I really like his teacher. She is so encouraging, and she is his biggest fan. She "gets" him in a way that his teacher last year never did. She understands his strengths and she helps him work on his weaknesses. She is particularly good with reading and writing. His first grade teacher last year gave students a lot of worksheets for which they would cut out letters, paste them back on, and write words and maybe sentences. This year's teacher, in contrast, has the students (second graders and first graders) read actual books--daily--and discuss them and write in journals. They talk about detail, voice, narrative structure, and grammar. I am blown away by how well her first graders are writing and reading, especially compared to the work I saw from the first graders last year with the other teacher.
As a second grader in this teacher's class, my Boy went from reading way below grade level to reading almost at grade level. Several things contributed to his progress. At the beginning of the year, the teacher made sure to give him easy books to build his confidence. Then, she gradually moved him along. Also, he has participated in a program called Natural Reader that has helped his fluency. Most of the second graders in his class worked regularly with another teacher who would visit the class a few times a week.
In addition, we had him assessed by Lindamood-Bell. Some of you may be familiar with their program. I've had many friends who worked for the company, and I've always heard good things about the work they do with students. During February, they had a discount on their diagnostic evaluation, so we took the Boy. He scored in the 99.9th percentile on the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test. However, on the Symbolic Imagery Test, he scored in the 7th percentile. This means that he had great trouble visualizing letters and words in his head. We were not surprised by this low score. The Boy has a terrible time with spelling. Terrible. And he can can see a word, learn it, and then not recognize it two lines later. So he wasn't learning sight words, which meant his reading fluency was very low. In short, he's probably dyslexic (he has many of the symptoms, including the fact that he holds his pencil in a fist grip), but they don't really use that label because it's not very specific.
He spent four weeks doing work at Lindamood-Bell. He had instruction four hours a day with one other Boy. It's definitely a pricey program, but it costs less for "group" instruction (which for him, consisted of just him and the on other boy). Despite the fact that he sometimes he was sad about having to work so hard each day, he really thrived there. The teachers were fantastic, he really liked the other Boy in his "group" (who was a fourth grader), and he made great progress. His symbolic imagery is much better, so now he can "see" words in his head. As a result, his fluency has gotten much better. Mostly importantly, he seems happier.
Spelling will always be a challenge for the Boy*, and we'll have to keep practicing his imaging skills. But, all in all, it's been a great year for his learning. I look forward to lots of reading practice over the summer, and I think that now, sometimes, he even likes to read a little bit--if it's the right content at the right level. He's definitely proud of the work he's done.
And his regular school teacher was very supportive, and after he finished the program, she had him give some spelling lessons to the class. That made me very happy.
On the social front, he has maintained all of his good friendships from last year, and he has made another good friend from the grade below him. They are still all girls, but they are the best kind: the kind that love bugs, nature, camping, and my Boy.
*My husband has the same symbolic imagery problems. And he does not spell well. I remember one of the first little love e-mails that he sent me, saying I was his "sweat hart." From him (who has a BS in aerospace engineering), I learned that spelling skills are not, in fact, always correlated with intelligence. He tells me that, even now, he cannot picture the word derivative in his head or be sure how to spell it, even though he's probably written it thousands of times in his life. For those of us who are good spellers, isn't that wild? The brain is a very interesting place. And a bit quirky, I'd say.
Well, the school year is creeping (lurching?) towards its end, and I thought I would give you an update.
In short, it's been fine--great, in fact. I really like his teacher. She is so encouraging, and she is his biggest fan. She "gets" him in a way that his teacher last year never did. She understands his strengths and she helps him work on his weaknesses. She is particularly good with reading and writing. His first grade teacher last year gave students a lot of worksheets for which they would cut out letters, paste them back on, and write words and maybe sentences. This year's teacher, in contrast, has the students (second graders and first graders) read actual books--daily--and discuss them and write in journals. They talk about detail, voice, narrative structure, and grammar. I am blown away by how well her first graders are writing and reading, especially compared to the work I saw from the first graders last year with the other teacher.
As a second grader in this teacher's class, my Boy went from reading way below grade level to reading almost at grade level. Several things contributed to his progress. At the beginning of the year, the teacher made sure to give him easy books to build his confidence. Then, she gradually moved him along. Also, he has participated in a program called Natural Reader that has helped his fluency. Most of the second graders in his class worked regularly with another teacher who would visit the class a few times a week.
In addition, we had him assessed by Lindamood-Bell. Some of you may be familiar with their program. I've had many friends who worked for the company, and I've always heard good things about the work they do with students. During February, they had a discount on their diagnostic evaluation, so we took the Boy. He scored in the 99.9th percentile on the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test. However, on the Symbolic Imagery Test, he scored in the 7th percentile. This means that he had great trouble visualizing letters and words in his head. We were not surprised by this low score. The Boy has a terrible time with spelling. Terrible. And he can can see a word, learn it, and then not recognize it two lines later. So he wasn't learning sight words, which meant his reading fluency was very low. In short, he's probably dyslexic (he has many of the symptoms, including the fact that he holds his pencil in a fist grip), but they don't really use that label because it's not very specific.
He spent four weeks doing work at Lindamood-Bell. He had instruction four hours a day with one other Boy. It's definitely a pricey program, but it costs less for "group" instruction (which for him, consisted of just him and the on other boy). Despite the fact that he sometimes he was sad about having to work so hard each day, he really thrived there. The teachers were fantastic, he really liked the other Boy in his "group" (who was a fourth grader), and he made great progress. His symbolic imagery is much better, so now he can "see" words in his head. As a result, his fluency has gotten much better. Mostly importantly, he seems happier.
Spelling will always be a challenge for the Boy*, and we'll have to keep practicing his imaging skills. But, all in all, it's been a great year for his learning. I look forward to lots of reading practice over the summer, and I think that now, sometimes, he even likes to read a little bit--if it's the right content at the right level. He's definitely proud of the work he's done.
And his regular school teacher was very supportive, and after he finished the program, she had him give some spelling lessons to the class. That made me very happy.
On the social front, he has maintained all of his good friendships from last year, and he has made another good friend from the grade below him. They are still all girls, but they are the best kind: the kind that love bugs, nature, camping, and my Boy.
*My husband has the same symbolic imagery problems. And he does not spell well. I remember one of the first little love e-mails that he sent me, saying I was his "sweat hart." From him (who has a BS in aerospace engineering), I learned that spelling skills are not, in fact, always correlated with intelligence. He tells me that, even now, he cannot picture the word derivative in his head or be sure how to spell it, even though he's probably written it thousands of times in his life. For those of us who are good spellers, isn't that wild? The brain is a very interesting place. And a bit quirky, I'd say.
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Critter Camp
Recently StudentMum posted about how to entertain the kids during summer, and she lamented that England doesn't make the same use of summer camps that we do here in the U.S. Although our kids haven't done any sleepaway camps, last week they attended their first day camp. Wait, I take that back, a couple of years ago, the Girl did a Mermaid Camp, and she loved it. But last week, both kids did a Critter Camp together at the same time, and they both loved it. They got to see and talk about various critters while hanging out with other kids. And Hubby and I got to have each morning to do whatever we wanted or needed to do, which, for him, usually involved surfing or working on outside parts of the house and which, for me, usually consisted of working on the dissertation or cleaning out inside parts of the house. But one morning, we just sat at the table and read and drank our warm morning beverages (he's coffee, I'm English Breakfast tea), and realized what a win-win this whole "camp" thing is.
I used to poo-poo all of those scheduled summer things. Why can't kids just be free? Typically, we take our month-long road trip to Colorado, and we just hang out as a family all loosey-goosey for a month. We didn't do the big trip year so that we could be more productive around the house, and I have missed the trip. But I am glad that the kids got to do the camp, and I think we'll look for other camps next summer that will work around our summer road trip. Who knows, maybe we can even do a camp while we're at one of our road trip destinations. I still believe in kids having a lot of open free-time to play or draw or whatever, but this whole camping thing is not half bad.
Anyhoo, camp week was great. But this week, I'm going to have to start working since classes start--ack!--in less than two weeks, and I'm also scheduled to lead some professional development workshops next Thursday and Friday. Time to work on syllabi and workshop material. Summer does fly by . . .
I used to poo-poo all of those scheduled summer things. Why can't kids just be free? Typically, we take our month-long road trip to Colorado, and we just hang out as a family all loosey-goosey for a month. We didn't do the big trip year so that we could be more productive around the house, and I have missed the trip. But I am glad that the kids got to do the camp, and I think we'll look for other camps next summer that will work around our summer road trip. Who knows, maybe we can even do a camp while we're at one of our road trip destinations. I still believe in kids having a lot of open free-time to play or draw or whatever, but this whole camping thing is not half bad.
Anyhoo, camp week was great. But this week, I'm going to have to start working since classes start--ack!--in less than two weeks, and I'm also scheduled to lead some professional development workshops next Thursday and Friday. Time to work on syllabi and workshop material. Summer does fly by . . .
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Paring Down
We need to do this at Chez GEW. We need to pare down.
This is not a new realization, but every once in awhile, I realize that our failures to keep things simple are having negative effects on our children. Today, several things have brought the issue to the forefront.
As I have said in the past, I allow my children to bring bugs and small creatures into the house. I think that allowing them to do this helps build their connection to nature. However, what with spring being sprung, there is a plethora of life out there right now--caterpillars, tadpoles, salamanders, pill bugs, etc.--and too many of them are finding their way into our house. And it's not just that I am running low on kitchen counter space. No, the problem is that I fear that my kids are becoming somewhat cavalier about the life and death of these creatures. Some pill bugs died? Oh, well. There are more. A caterpillar died? Oh, well. There are more.
Since my goal is to sensitize them to nature and life cycles--rather than desensitize them--we must make a change. So last night, Hubs and I spoke to the kids about limiting our creature intake so that we can take really good care of each creature (and the increase in my kitchen counter space will also be much appreciated). We will only have about two critters at a time (not counting our permanent residents--the dog and the lizard).
And the creature realm is not the only realm that needs attention. In every way, we have too much stuff. I'm sure the kids got more Easter loot than they needed. I know they have more toys than they need. This summer will be the summer for paring down. And I mean it this time. We are foregoing the usual month-long trip to Colorado (*cue sad music*) so that we can do chores at home: clean out the garage, clean out all of the closets, have a garage sale, take stuff to Goodwill, visit the dump, etc. Will we finish the summer lighter, airy-er, and more nimble. And with, I hope, fewer critters languishing in random jars around the house.
I want my children to appreciate the value of things rather than the quantity of things--don't we all?--and I haven't done the best job of teaching them to do so. I need to do better. I was struck by my friend's recent post, in which she demonstrates that old things have value and that it's worth putting in some effort to save money while also creating unique things that you like--rather than piling up a bunch of crapola from the dollar store.
*This post is dedicated to our Betta fish (named "Betta") who is at death's door and who will probably perish before the day is done. He has been with us for almost two years, and he will be missed. Well, hubs and I will miss him. I hope the children will care at least a little bit.
This is not a new realization, but every once in awhile, I realize that our failures to keep things simple are having negative effects on our children. Today, several things have brought the issue to the forefront.
As I have said in the past, I allow my children to bring bugs and small creatures into the house. I think that allowing them to do this helps build their connection to nature. However, what with spring being sprung, there is a plethora of life out there right now--caterpillars, tadpoles, salamanders, pill bugs, etc.--and too many of them are finding their way into our house. And it's not just that I am running low on kitchen counter space. No, the problem is that I fear that my kids are becoming somewhat cavalier about the life and death of these creatures. Some pill bugs died? Oh, well. There are more. A caterpillar died? Oh, well. There are more.
Since my goal is to sensitize them to nature and life cycles--rather than desensitize them--we must make a change. So last night, Hubs and I spoke to the kids about limiting our creature intake so that we can take really good care of each creature (and the increase in my kitchen counter space will also be much appreciated). We will only have about two critters at a time (not counting our permanent residents--the dog and the lizard).
And the creature realm is not the only realm that needs attention. In every way, we have too much stuff. I'm sure the kids got more Easter loot than they needed. I know they have more toys than they need. This summer will be the summer for paring down. And I mean it this time. We are foregoing the usual month-long trip to Colorado (*cue sad music*) so that we can do chores at home: clean out the garage, clean out all of the closets, have a garage sale, take stuff to Goodwill, visit the dump, etc. Will we finish the summer lighter, airy-er, and more nimble. And with, I hope, fewer critters languishing in random jars around the house.
I want my children to appreciate the value of things rather than the quantity of things--don't we all?--and I haven't done the best job of teaching them to do so. I need to do better. I was struck by my friend's recent post, in which she demonstrates that old things have value and that it's worth putting in some effort to save money while also creating unique things that you like--rather than piling up a bunch of crapola from the dollar store.
*This post is dedicated to our Betta fish (named "Betta") who is at death's door and who will probably perish before the day is done. He has been with us for almost two years, and he will be missed. Well, hubs and I will miss him. I hope the children will care at least a little bit.
Monday, March 22, 2010
Conversation Over Waffles
Boy: I have a joke.
Girl: Okay.
Boy: Don't order caterpillars at a restaurant!
Girl:
Girl: What's the funny part?
(and while watching Tom and Jerry)
Girl: We've seen this one! Jerry wins!
Boy:
Boy: Jerry always wins.
Girl:
Girl: Okay.
Boy: Don't order caterpillars at a restaurant!
Girl:
Girl: What's the funny part?
(and while watching Tom and Jerry)
Girl: We've seen this one! Jerry wins!
Boy:
Boy: Jerry always wins.
Girl:
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