A new week has begun

This weekend was pretty laid back.  We didn't go an do...we stayed home and worked in the yard. We have two gates to the back yard from the front.  One is by the garage and the other is out the front..."down the hill".  The gate down the hill is at the lowest point in the yard and, it appears, is in the path of a natural drainage swale.  Unfortunately, this swale was overrun with water a few weeks ago when we got 6.5 inches of rain in the span of a few hours. There was about 6 inches of silt built up over the pavers put down at the pass through...and then an additional 6-8 inches of sticks, pine needles, leaves and other debris that were caught up against the closed gate.

I spend a few hours removing the built up silt and debris from the pavers and walk through. I also found some leftover garden edging and used those to make a barrier around the pavers.  Nothing is going to stop 6 inches of rain, but maybe this will catch the debris before it hits the gate?  Since I spent a bit of time out there, I also noticed how poorly the grass grows under the trees there.  There are also a lot of weeds in the general vicinity.  I am contemplating landscaping the area with some good under tree plantings.  It would stop us from attempting to mow dirt and weeds and provide a prettier border between our yards.

So, while I'm dreaming...the plantings I put in at the front of the house where the living room window is...all but one of those trees and shrubs have died.  :(  So...I was thinking about how much I like to sit on the stoop and drink my coffee in the mornings and then I thought...well, could I make this area more of a patio area?  I could maybe pull some pavers from the back yard.  There are quite a few that are buried in ivy back there. I could put the pavers down (and slant them away from the house for better drainage) and put the small table and chairs that are on the back deck by the chiminea out front.  Then I could look out at the front plantings between the two houses...

Oh so many ideas...

Correction to last post...George got 2.5 out of 5.  I misread the scoring on the sheet.  It seems that part of his issue was not writing out the place value.  40 hundreds + 40 thousands...he left off the hundreds and thousands and that makes a HUGE difference.  I showed him his letter grade in Skyward this morning and told him that one grade does not make the school year...he's got a good shot at figuring it out and getting it back on track. Here's hoping!

Finishing out the week

Last night we had our first Pack Meeting of the year.  It was also the night to sign up for scouting for the newbies.  It went well.  I think we added 12 new scouts to the Pack.  We apparently had a goal of 15...so it ended up being a pretty good turnout. A couple people left with packets but didn't fill them out, so there's a chance (slim chance) we could add a few more.

George and friends were running around afterward while the adults cleaned up, made sure paperwork was in order and took care of the money issues. I am Treasurer currently and this was my first go at an "event" without the previous Treasurer around to hold my hand.  It went well.  I do need to make a deposit at the bank in the morning, though.

Last night, George woke up multiple times with a sore throat and stuffy nose.  I gave him allergy meds and Tylenol.  He wasn't feeling too fantastic this morning, so we made a trip to the Dr.  The answer is Allergies.  I was afraid it could be something more since we are back to school.  The doctor didn't rule that out entirely but felt that the lack of fever indicated more allergy than anything else and she also didn't see anything that would lead her to believe it might be strep.  So Zyrtec it is!

Dropped him off at school after the appointment, so he did manage to make the majority of the school day, thankfully.  He said he had a decent day...but when I went through his backpack he had a Math sheet that had 5 points out of 25.  I don't know what day the sheet was assigned.  But we will be reviewing it tomorrow.  George wanted to wait until he had a good night sleep so that he wouldn't be so grumpy.

Mom called his afternoon and she got her first letter from George yesterday!  She had some questions about his science experiments.  We will probably give her a call tomorrow and George can fill in the gaps.

Ho Hum

The rest of the weekend went with out issue.  George is getting back into the swing of things. Tuesday he came home from school and was a little excited because he was VIP...which I guess means line-leader? He was selected due to his math understanding and work.  I guess he shared the honor with another kid in the class.

This morning he had a bit a of a sore throat.  He said it wasn't *that* bad.  Since he isn't running a fever I didn't keep him home.  Half expecting a phone call, though.  :(

Otherwise, things are still moving forward.  He's fallen into routine and I think this is good for him. His room is a mess and I think he is still spending too much time on screens, but what do I know!

The rest of the week

We did great for the rest of the week.  He managed to get up and out with a little foot dragging, but not the mini-meltdown that was going on before.  I'll take it as a win!

Friday night was bumpy.  He didn't want to do his 10-20 minutes of reading out loud.  I gave him the night off.  I mentioned that he needs to learn to read and understand stories on his own because mom and dad won't read to him forever.  You would have thought I stabbed him through the heart!  He looooves being read to, and I know this...I just didn't think my saying this would feel like I was beating up on him!  So, I told him we would continue to read to him, but that he needs to also read for himself.  Still a battle.

Today we headed to Deanna Rose Children's Farmstead.  It was a fun time...I had forgotten that the baby goats are all named after Harry Potter characters!  We found George Weasley and the George's had their pictures taken together. Some day I want to go and just look at the gardens and flowers.  It's never going to happen with the boys with me!  It was very hot today and Eric was miserable and there was no way the gardens would hold George's interest in the heat.

We left Deanna Rose and went to the library. We had a book with a request that needed to be returned and I had one on hold to pick up...and wouldn't you know, Baskin Robbins is just down the street...almost on our way home, even.  With the heat, it just made sense to stop and have a bit of a treat. We got home, wrote our sentence to Grandma and took some zoning time...

Oh!  On Friday I also received an email from George's teacher saying that he had a good week and that she wouldn't have any grades to post because they mostly did testing this week. Good news!

And Tuesday Wednesday

So, he righted the ship Tuesday!  Yay, George!  I am so thrilled that he was able to get control and keep it through out the day!  Tuesday night's routine went well, too.  Eric went to the first PTA meeting of the year. So it was just the two of us for bedtime.  We worked through the routine so that it will be...well, a routine.  He did decide that he was ready for stories before his screen-free playtime was up. I reminded him that he needed to read out loud to me first. He did that...and for a bit longer than yesterday, but not a full 20 minutes. It was hard tracking time because my alarm is set on the checklist schedule and we did deviate from it.  He ended up reading until the alarm went off to *start* his 20 minutes. I did glance at the clock and *think* he read for around 10-12 minutes or so.  And then I read his new library book (Tuesday was library day) out loud and he was done for the night.  Except for the 2 wake ups... :(

On the downside, he had another mini-meltdown on the way out Wednesday morning, too.  I think it's the screen.  He's watching a YouTube channel in the morning when eating breakfast and when Dad announces, "Time to go!" there's a fit.  We have told him that if he cannot make the transition to leaving without the fit then we are going to have to take away the screen time in the morning.  He also didn't eat any protein Wednesday morning with breakfast. I tried and he said no.  Not sure if I should give it to him anyway or what to do.  I don't want to waste food, either.

Went to the library to pick up a book and wasn't able to find it on the shelves even though the library listed it as available. I didn't ask anyone for help because everyone seemed to be busy. I may request the book and pick it up when ready.

Wednesday evening routine went great.  It's a little different when Dad reads...he did ask him to read to him before reading the stories, so I had George read to me for a bit before songs.  We worked it all in and it went well.

Monday and Tuesday

I missed yesterday.  It's okay.  I'm still getting in the swing of things...and I have had a terrible headache that I am fighting through.

At any rate, George has his first full day of school.  I spent the day reading books to try and help him have a successful school year.  Did you know that there really aren't that many quick and easy to comprehend books on goal setting for elementary school kids?  Certainly nothing I can give to him to read on his own. So, I found a few that I am skimming to see if I can glean information to translate to an easier format for him to understand.

I also made a spreadsheet for us to use to track his progress through the school year.  His BIG goal is A-B Honor Roll.  I pulled up his report card and made a spreadsheet that tracks each graded area.  Then I have it broken down into days, weeks, months and quarters for the year.  My hope is to track as best we can daily and the check his teachers grade posting on Mondays so we can right the ship quickly if he starts to list.

I also made an after school to bedtime checklist/schedule.  It looks something like this:

 George’s Daily After School Checklist

ð         Home with a HUG!

ð         Empty Back Pack and Review with Mom and/or Dad

ð         Do rework on questions/problems answered incorrectly

ð         Write sentence to Grandma Ruth about what I did/learned today

ð         Screen time!!!

ð         Dinner

ð         Clear place

ð         @7:00-Devices plugged in and back pack ready for tomorrow

ð         Teeth, potty, pjs and non-screen play

ð         @7:40- 20 minutes reading before bed

ð        @8:00-Mom and Dad stories/songs

So, the general idea is that we will follow these steps every day when he gets home from school and make adjustments as needed,  Some days this schedule won't work due to Scouts or other after school events, but for the most part, this should be what we do.  Last night was rough on the 20 minutes of reading on his own before bed.  He did about 6 before he checked out.  I know that we can build on that and that we all have nights when we might not want to read so much.  It's okay.  I got a solid 6 minutes of reading out of him and he did a very good job.

He fell asleep quickly which was great...but was up a couple of times in the night.  This morning he was up and ready and downstairs eating with no prompting. I thought all was well...until it was time to go.  He didn't want to.  It was a minor melt-down and was resolved in a few minutes.  BUT it took more stern talking than cajoling.  I did just realise that he did not have any protein with breakfast, so that may have been a contributing factor.

And so we continue.  I hope that the rest of his day is better than the transition this morning...and I hope we can make it through this evening without too many hiccups.

Ponderings and such

My annual blog post?

So, I am going to make an effort to post daily for the next month.  I need to get back into writing of some sort and this is a quick and easy way to do it.

School started for George on Friday.  It was a half day and he has Mrs. McBride.  We are excited for the 4th grade.  He was making really good progress at the end of the school year last year and through out the summer in the summer learning loss prevention program.  I hope he can pick up where he left off.  I am actively searching through Pinterest and online in general for tips and tricks to help him succeed this year.

In light of the above, have been discussing goals in our house over this weekend.  He has decided that he would like to make A/B Honor Roll. This is a very Specific goal. It is easily measurable. I am not sure how to implement the Actionable portion.  I will discuss this with his teacher.  I do know that, at a minimum, we are going to break it down to weekly check ups and see what adjustments might need to be made as we go along. As far as Reasonable...well, I am not sure how reasonable this goal is. He struggles a lot academically. BUT, I don't want to tell him that this goal is out of reach for him. He's a smart kid. We just need to get him to a place where he can focus.  The ADHD diagnosis and medication has helped.  But what worked impacted his appetite and he lost a LOT of weight. So, we moved to a non-stimulant medication. We have not yet tested it in an academic setting. As far as Timely...well, I would like to put a 1st Quarter timeline on it.  If he can do it 1st Quarter then he can certainly do it 2nd Quarter. BUT if he doesn't make it 1st Quarter then what?  Do we kick the can down the road?  How do I help him?  Do we hire a tutor?

In case you are wondering about the above...the above is an example of a S.M.A.R.T. goal. I was first introduced to this type of goal setting in the corporate world and now find it everywhere. SMART goals are Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Reasonable and Timely. A good goal need to be all of these.  George and I are also going to work on sub-goals to help bolster the overall goal.  I don't know what those will look like until I speak with his teacher.

I am also working on some goals for myself, too...but nothing concrete, yet.  Still pondering. When I come up with said goals, I will share them.