Discoveries

I have made a lot of discoveries this weekend. This post will take on a "Ten on Tuesday" feel but will be posted on Sunday. I guess it could be "Six on Sunday." I'll see if I can keep it to just six.

1. Sleep makes all things better. After two days of resting, napping and generally not doing much, I am starting to feel better. I did scrub all four bathrooms today but that was a necessity. I might go up and take a nap in a little while in hopes that I feel human again by tomorrow.

2. I might be able to do Cam's speech therapy on my own. Right now we are paying an independent SLP a good chunk of change each month for 30 minute weekly sessions.She is wonderful, but her techniques are simple and not completely out of my realm. Add to that it takes and hour in the car round trip to get to her office. While Cam would qualify for district services, that would mean I would have to pull him out of his current pre-k and put him in a district school for the rest of the school year. The district already told me that the paperwork would not be completed until April. That means pulling him out of his current pre-k for 2 months. I don't think that would go over very well with Cam. After doing some research, I think I can tutor him on my own with resources that I have found on-line.

3. I am not going to be able to teach even a part-time K position this fall. I have seriously contemplated applying for a part-time teaching position but with the teacher training, teacher in service days and work I would need to do at home, I justify my desire over what is practical. If I took a teaching job, I would need day-care for the kids for two weeks before school starts, day-care for every in service day and would probably bring work home most nights or weekends. It's just not the right time yet.

4. When Colin was going through anxiety issues at the beginning of the year his psychologist asked me about testing him for a gifted program. I told her I did not think he was gifted, just driven. I think maybe I was wrong. Colin seems to have the weight of the world on his shoulders. He thinks about the "big picture" in most issues. He craves routine, builds legos, models and whatever else he can get his hands on for hours. Case in point, on Thursday he walked in the door from school at 4pm. He went straight to his Lego Mindstorm, took it all apart and started building a new robot based on the instructions I pulled up for him on my computer. He took a 20 minute break for dinner. At 8pm, we finally forced him to go to bed. He only had one section left and finished that the next morning. He put the entire thing together by himself, based on a computer manual and it worked! I'm going to re-explore this gifted thing. He is an emotional wreck but it seems to only be based on guilt (i.e., I have more than others, I should not want more than I already have) and based on his need/desire to stay home and build things or to go out and have fun.

5. I don't like cold weather unless it's accompanied by snow. I don't like water unless it's accompanied by a beach.

6. A clean house is a happy house.