Wednesday, February 09, 2011

Snow... Again? You Can't Be Serious

Isn't it a funny thing? Living in the south wishing we would get beautiful snow and never getting it....

Then all of a sudden it feels as if it is constantly snowing. Don't get me wrong, the area has only gotten about 12 inches of snow total. (For Nashville, at least) But the snow days. Our county has 11 built in and we have used them up. We have lost President's Day, an inservice day and 2 days off of Spring Break. Plus we are expecting significant (1-3inches) today.

Kind of reminds you of the old saying, "Be careful what you wish for."

The snow has given me something to think about though. There are many attitudes that there have been a few days where they shouldn't have closed school or should have started late. I see that those individuals do not take in the big picture.

Our county is good sized. This last snow fall the county ranged from .5-5". There are people that didn't get hardly anything to people that are still iced in. The district takes that in to account and acknowledges that it is safer for children to miss school and stay home.

My question is do you take in the big picture? or just how things affect you and your family?

Wednesday, February 02, 2011

Anybody else having problems keeping their kids on a schedule?

Sounds a bit controlling perhaps, it really isn't. See, B1 and B3 both of sensory processing disorder. Plus, we have had eleven snows days eaten in the last six weeks. Mind you two of those weeks was Christmas Break.

Needless to say, my sweet and compliant little boys (*cough*) have been a little more difficult than normal. If you think about it, who wouldn't be? We have school, no we don't. It is indifferent if we keep the home schedule the same, because the school schedule is what is throwing them off.

It was not a surprise yesterday when we got notes from both of their teachers saying they were having the same problem. Neither of the boys were able to sit in class and do their work. B1 was getting up and walking around the class, distracting others. B3 was playing with the glue, crayons, and drawing. Neither of them were having a good day.

B1 was reprimanded by having to do his classwork during recess. (Not really sure how I feel there since recess is when he gets the tension out and activity usually brings him into focus.) Missing recess really upset him, after an emotional release he got his work done though. So in all he was handled pretty well.

B3 was not dealt with the same way. To be honest I am not sure what the teacher did. Her note stated that B3 wouldn't do his work unless she stood over him. We have similar issue at home where B3 wants to go play his DS or play robots with B2 or even read with G3.

We spoke with both boys and encouraged them a lot to get their work done in class. B1 we asked the teacher to communicate a little better with us because she had indicated that it had been a problem and just got exasperated. B3 is a different story in that we have had a hard time getting the school to even acknowledge that he has sensory processing disorder, even with the diagnosis.

I contribute both of their behavior to the snow days and the winter break. How do you keep your kids on a form of schedule when there are circumstances that change it?

Tuesday, February 01, 2011

February is Heart Month ... #CHD

The month of February is Heart Month. In lieu of this, Benji's Broken Heart will be featuring post about families that have been affected by Congenital Heart Defects and also featuring some of the resources and advocacy groups that are available for CHD.

You are invited to visit Benji's Broken Heart and get to know about this condition that affects so many.