Laundry!!!!

When we got home from the store I told Maggie to put her snow boots way. Then, I went upstairs and found this in the laundry room.

So,I called Maggie to come upstairs Me: Maggie look at what I am looking at. Why are they in there? Maggie: Because that's where you put things to get washed Me: And you think that I am going to wash them? Where are they supposed to go? Maggie: blank stare and shrug of the shoulders......

Life skills from Ben

I think I have mentioned before that Ben brings home everything from school-lesson plans, things the teachers say, things they are taught, etc. Ben's school participates in the ROCKS behaviour program.  We have had the ROCKS guidelines on the pantry door for quite a while, but the behaviour management has recently expanded.....

ROCKS behaviour is a school program that tries to teach the kids positive behaviour in school. The teachers and the school counselor spend a lot of time working on it and the kids get rewards if they follow the program. ROCKS stands for Respect, Ownership, Cooperation, Kindness and Safety.  The funniest one on here is the bottom one that says "no bitting (Maggie)".  I guess she's bitten him once too often, although she is more into pinching at the moment

In the past week, we have now got some anger management tips.  Either the school is working on that now, or he thinks we need some advice at home, or both!!!!  I like the bottom one, roll paper into a ball and squeeze it for pressure!!!

Then, there are ways to cool down, which include eating your favourite foods.  Sounds like a good plan to me!!!!!

Parent meeting for Steger

I went to a parent meeting for Ben's new school last night.  It is going to be a very different year for all of them.  For a start, they will go from 40 kids in their year to about 400.  Ben's elementary school is by far the smallest in the district and one of 5 schools.  They also have a home room and move to different classrooms rather than stay in the same room all day.  I'm not sure I am ready for this, but Ben is very excited.....

Maggie's homework

Homework is always interesting in our house.  Usually, if we can get Maggie to read her book, we call that a success.  If she does anything else, it's a big plus.  Last night, we were working on words that started with sh, ch, wh, th.  I said to Maggie: "OK Maggie, you need to fill in these words.  They all start with wh, th, sh or ch.  So this first one is, 'not a little lamb, but a big -----".  Immediately, Maggie cried out with gusto "DOG"!!!!!!
No, Maggie, the word starts with sh, ch, th or wh.......

New hair cuts

Maggie and I did some bonding time yesterday and got our hair cut by one of her friend's mothers. After, we just had to take pictures of each other!!!!

Teeth!!!!!

Ben's teeth are doing very well.  He is about to lose several of his molars and so they are going to put a wire in his lower jaw to keep his teeth spread apart when they fall out so that it keeps his teeth from crowding.
Maggie is now in the SLU orthodontics system.  I took Ben to get a check-up on his teeth and they took a look at Maggie at the same time.  As we suspected, her teeth would be fine if she would just stop sucking her fingers!!!  If we don't do something soon, she will do permanent damage to her bone structure in her mouth.  There are very few things we can do about it.  They can put something in her mouth or they can put a brace on her arm at night, or both.  Not sure if anything will work, she is pretty tenacious about doing it-every time she thinks we are not looking in fact!!!  Still, she is now registered to do phase 1 of the SLU treatment and we will see how she can do.
Some of the fall-out from her moving her front teeth include the fact that she has now developed a lisp with her speech and that she is constantly making a sucking sound, which I think is because her lips aren't meeting any more & she can't swallow properly.  We have had her speech and language evaluated at school again because I still feel that there are some things that she says that I just don't understand at all.  She also says completely the opposite to what she means sometimes.  They said that essentially the only sound she doesn't make properly is the "r" sound (she says woom instead of room).  Her language isn't impaired enough to qualify for anything under special school district, but they did say that they think she should be completely evaluated in a year or so because it is likely that her language skills will impact her more as the curriculum becomes more advanced.  For now, I told them that I don't want her pulled out of the classroom any more than she is already.  She also needs to be exposed to the regular classroom and to the other kids.
Oh, and while we are on the subject of speech/language/interactions with other kids, I will mention that Maggie has developed quite a colourful language!!!  She is quite notorious for her cuss words & apparently told one of her friends that she's allowed to cuss and we said it was OK!!!!  Her favourite word is the 'B' words (as Ben & Maggie both refer to it), but she got in trouble at school the other day because she got caught saying "F you" to someone.  Every day brings something new.....

Moving on

Ben is in his last year at Hudson and will move to Steger next year, our school district has a 6th grade school where all the elementary schools integrate.  The principal, vice-principal and some of the teachers came to talk to the 5th grade today.  Ben came out of school so excited this afternoon and was telling me all about the visit.  The most exciting thing is that he gets to play a musical instrument next year and wants to play saxophone in the band.  He's wanted to play saxophone since he was about two, so we'll see if he enjoys it if he ever gets a chance to do it-places are limited.  He is growing up so fast.  I'm glad he's really enthused about moving schools though.