Acquara Independent School

Oh, let’s see. We had Grant come. Avery and some speech stuff. Goddard Conference. Rose Festival. Tualatin Hills Nature Park. I quit Goddard, I returned to Goddard. I was sick a lot.  I’ll try to sort of go in order.

Avery and I worked with Kathy and the iPad and he basically rocked therapy. She did very well with what I had on the fly. She set him up with water and crackers and had him point on the iPad to which he wanted and he got that right away and did well with it. Then she had him choose between four different toys. He did well with that, too. For the first time, he outlasted her (the time he is allotted.) He could have kept going. We are having some problems with the old iPad that I want to dedicate to him. It is having battery life issues. There may be a possibility to replace the battery. Then I have to set up everything all over again on that one because it did not save from mine. She wants pictures of animals next time which I haven’t done yet. Goddard wants hard copy pictures which I also haven’t done yet. Ugh.

We went to Avery’s twice a year conference at Goddard. As he hasn’t been there too long, she did not have too much to report but it gave Nik a chance to meet her (he had a furlough day) and see the room and stuff. It went well.

Ok, I’m going to talk about my Goddard schizophrenia now. I have been going back and forth on what is right for Avery and the rest of the family. Literally flipping back and forth daily on whether to take him out or keep him in. Nik has been pushing me to take him out. He wants more of a family assistant and thinks we could get more for the money with a nanny/assistant. I agree. But he has not been doing the searching I have been doing to find someone. I have gone on the homeschooling boards, the VH boards, Sitter City, church boards and even Craigslist and I cannot find what we are looking for. Which is discouraging because it seems with high unemployment people would like to have a flexible job for some extra money. Anyway, people don’t want to work my hours (which are somewhat flexible) they don’t want Avery, they only want the twins (exactly the opposite of what I want) they only want to work summer, they sound great but don’t show up, etc. So, then I talked to Jean (EI) who badmouthed Goddard pretty hard, as well as Danielle kind of rolling her eyes at it. Then one day, Avery just had the biggest temper tantrum on the way and I just thought, this is stupid and I took him home. And then I wrote a big explanation that was probably TMI and disenrolled him that day, as it was June 1 and I have to give 30 days notice and did not want to pay for July.

And then keeping him home that day was awful, it gave me anxiety all weekend, and I was still in the midst of trying to find someone and that wash’t going well. I worry about the kids and their school, about me and working, about my complete Avery burnout, etc. And the fact that Goddard was working really great FOR ME, really as well as for big kids. And really for Avery, too, when he was home because I was less burnt out to deal with him and could concentrate on communication more. So, in weighing everything, and Nik finally giving in, I decided to put him back into Goddard, not 4 days after I took him out.

So, I have to go back and the director is ready for me to be pissy or something. I had to ask to put him back in and basically apologize for being a snobby bitch about the whole thing. It was not comfortable, I couldn’t hear him at all and was struggling with communication, and he kept asking me about things I said. I did a shitty job articulating anything, I had the kids at home and just needed to get out of there, so I basically sucked ass and got Avery back in and slinked away. I’m pretty sure they think I’m insane.

Oh, well. The best part is, when I took Avery back to his classroom, he was completely fine and happy  and ran to the teacher, Tracie, and sat in her lap. I was happy, but that was a nice cherry on top of my psycho diagnosis, I’m sure, for the director who saw the whole thing. I think the way I handled it with Avery that morning was better. I got him up early and spent some time with him, then prepped him for the transition. Duh. That worked so much better.

It is a balancing act for everyone. I will keep watch on Avery (he is letting me have the month to decide, which is nice.) But I don’t think it is terrible there for him and in the end, the kid might just have to take one for the team for awhile. Life goes so much smoother when we have some Avery respite. He may even like it eventually.

Moving on…We took a whole family field trip to Tualatin Hills Nature Park and went on a walk and to the interpretive center. We saw snakes and birds and squirrels and several signs of other wildlife. Kids need to build their nature hike muscle.  Pics below.

Grant came and they went to outdoors in one day. They played lots of UNO and Grant was teaching Naim chess, which was cool. Grant took care of Avery with Naim’s help and Aaron stayed at D’s house overnight while Nik and I had a day away. All systems seemed ok there. Grant can be an arrogant son of a bitch but I gotta love the guy a little because he is the only one (and this includes my dad, D’s parents, and D himself and several other people) who shows an interest in Avery and is willing to take all three kids on and always treats them equally. He is not so much experienced and skilled at childcare, but I know that he will keep them alive and treat them with relative kindness. The intention goes a long way for me.

He met us down town with D and the kids for the Rose festival. Kids did bumper cars and merry-go-round and stuff. It was fun.

I’m sure other stuff, VH and stuff happened as well, but I’ll stop there for now.

Filed under: Communication, Early Intervention, Fieldtrips, Physical Education, Science, Social Skills |