Acquara Independent School

Avery’s EI teacher came today. I had Nik deal with her because I’m sick to death of her and we have been trading off between Head Start and EI. Apparently, Avery sort of blew her away with his new found skillzez. He led Nik around by the hand, he made choices of toys and activities, he did turn-taking with her while playing with the lighthouse. He said “bye bye” and listened when Nik called him and told him to quit playing with the toilet seat. She got in her analyze and do her paperwork mode, but she did sit down and play with him for a while for the first time. She is burnt out. The stuff she is surprised about he has been doing to some extent for a couple of months, since the diet change. But she has made no effort to get to know him or what he can do. She has made no effort to find out why he is the way he is. Nik found out she has a case load of 27 for direct services, 6 consults, and then she runs a weekly group. That is ridiculous and I have sympathy, but I think she deals with it by putting her paperwork as her priority and she basically sits and does paperwork while here instead of interacting with him and actually assessing his needs. She fits what she wants into her documentation so it is done by the time she leaves. Special Ed services (and Public school in general) are not what they were in the midwest when I was working there. For example, their ECE preschool is two hours, two days a week when in NE and KS they were 5 days a week all day. The ratio is 10:1 rather than 5:1. I think the population here gives cause to the differences. More dispersed income, more immigrants, more ethnic and language diversity, more diversity in general make a more diverse population rather than homeogenious midwest. Also just higher numbers in general. I think I probably would have come to homeschooling had I stayed there, but it may have taken me longer because the deficits are not so blaring.

Big Kids:

• Word Time (TASTY ENOUGH)
• Math Lesson 136 and 137, Nickels and Pennies.
• Together Reading: Read nonfic Usborne Book “Pirates.” Went over Very First Readers (Book 1) word bank and read Pirate Pat again. Did worksheet (replacing one letter to get from Pat to nap (or something like that.)
• Naim, watched Lesson 29 ZigZat DVD again and did corresponding workbook pages. Circled W words, did W alphabet book page, read and illustrated book about Fun at the River.
• Aaron: lesson 15 in HOP-words that end in -ck. Watched DVD and read practice words and story in workbook.
• HWT: D on chalk board and D p. in book.

Filed under: Communication, Early Intervention, Handwriting, Language Arts, Math, Uncategorized | Tagged: Calvert Math, Discoveries in Early Reading, HOP, HWT, Usborne, Word Time |