Random/Rant Post

Just a lot of little things...

The pack meeting last night was cute. As Mike says, the Cubmaster is really into this. He explained the wooden Arrow of Light that he makes each Webelo when they graduate. Jacob's Den Leader announced that Jacob earned his Bobcat badge and can now work on his Bear requirements. He was pretty proud of that. Jacob's den also did a skit for the pack. It was really cute but I don't think that many people could understand what they were saying. It's hard to understand a bunch of 8 year olds trying to say "sitting on an invisible bench" while not quite in unison. They had fun doing it, and that's what matters.

Daniel's den hasn't even met considering we couldn't settle on a meeting date. We will be meeting twice a month...once for a meeting and once for a field trip. That should be interesting. We've got a lot to do to earn the Tiger badge before Blue and Gold in February. I have no doubt that we'll get it done, though.

I was going to get photos of the boys in their uniforms but I forgot my camera. Can you believe that? LOL!

I'm feeling much better, but I'm at the point where everything's trying to come out. You wanted to hear about that, didn't you? LOL! Hannah's also doing well. I saw a thing on the news about how this past weekend, all of the area hospitals saw record numbers of kids with asthma problems. Not surprising since the pollen and mold counts are so high. It rained for a good deal of the day yesterday and it hardly put a dent in the counts. I'd love to open up the windows and get some air running through here, but I don't dare. Ugh.

I've avoided talking about it (because I think it's a crock), but I guess I can't avoid it. No big surprise that Daniel's getting reading help. He qualified last year and qualified again this year. I may have already posted that Daniel qualified for math help. Whatever. I'm not going to turn away free tutoring. About a day after the letter came home, I got a voice mail from Mrs. H, Daniel's teacher, requesting a conference. Umm...okay. We set it up for Monday. I was happy when Mike said that he'd come too.

Mike and I sit in the conference room and across the table are Mrs. H and Mrs. P, the school psychologist. He's having a great year, but he has some social issues. What? They're concerned that his love of Pokemon is hurting his personal relationships with his peers. He's 6. Does he really have personal relationships with his peers yet? Apparently, it's all he wants to talk about and he acts out scenes with his hands (they think it may be a coping mechanism for frustration). They're concerned because they feel that they really don't know anything about him. At one point, Mike mentioned that the kids were in the pool over the weekend and they both exclaimed that they didn't know we had a pool. How is that really relevant to learning at school? So he doesn't want to talk about what he did over the weekend. Is that really an issue? I guess it's also a problem that he has no "filter." He says what he's feeling, when he's feeling it. (Is this seriously a concern?) Oh, and the whole math thing was apparently because Mrs. H couldn't remind Daniel to stay on task. Ummm...right. I guess that behavior hasn't been an issue this year because of the introduction of a "paraprofessional" (teacher's aide). Someone in his class has an IEP (Individualized Education Plan...and no, it's not Daniel since it's a huge deal to get an IEP and I would certainly know about it.) that requires one and Daniel's reaping the benefits. Whatever. I did find it funny that as we were walking out, (I can't remember what this was in response to but...) the school psychologist says something like, "don't worry. We've got lots of time. After all, he's only 6!" EXACTLY!!!!!!

Okay, so that was Monday. Remember, they said that he was having problems socially because of his "obsession" with Pokemon. He comes out of school and is talking and hugging a classmate. Yesterday, he was chatting with a couple of boys while we were waiting for Jacob. A little boy made a point of coming over to say goodbye to Daniel and another came over to give a high five. Last night, I saw him laughing with friends at the pack meeting. Is this seriously a boy who is socially stunted? I with they'd just leave him alone and let him be a little boy. I wasn't really angry about it when we walked out of the meeting, but I certainly didn't feel like we accomplished much. The more I think about it, the angrier I get. And, you know what...I'm not even angry with his teacher. I'm angry with the psychologist. Not every child needs to be fixed.