Crafty progress

Well how is every body's weekend going? Me? I should be busier then busy, but have yet to actually get anything done. Just to give you an update. The Boy moved to Texas with his mom this summer. He has now decided to move back home with us on a more permanent bases. I have mixed feelings on this. But other than that this is causing us to rearrange a good portion of our apartment. That is on top of trying to get ready for Christmas. Some of the plans for the weekend include the normal errands (library and grocery store), dig out and set up a Christmas tree, put away everything on two folding tables that are in the office (which is now being converted to our bedroom/office), laundry and other house cleaning, and paint a cupboard that the hubby sanded down for me. And well Hubby is scheduled to work OT all weekend.

But anyways I thought I stop by and share a small amount of crafty progress since last time.

First off we have some some cross stitch that I dug out. Now don't think that I got all this down over the last couple of months. The fact is I've been working on this for about ten years. But I know that I haven't touched it for at least five years. Newly worked on is the blue at on the what will be the wall and then tree and Santa in a rain coat on top of the bookcase.

I also add a couple more squares to my crazy afghan. Measuring it out I'm at about the half way point on the first row. So as a note to myself, I need 11 blocks for a total of 22 blocks in the first row.

I've also gotten both sleeves done and have now started on the body of my sweater. Not that one can tell by the picture but the bottom ribbing is down, as well as the pocket fronts. Then I'm about two inches into the body.

Well I hope everyone is has plans for a good weekend.

November Best of Kid Books

  

This has got to be one of my favorite kids books that I've read in a long time. It's The Man in the Moon by William Joyce. This is part of a new series called: The Guardians of Childhood. It is the first book and this one is a picture book. And it tells the story of the Man in the Moon. It has wonderful pictures and the story was wonderful too. Down fall, it's not one for the little ones. But I read it to Monkey and she liked, and it was also interesting enough for the adult that was reading it as well. This is one I bought for our collection. I also got the second book to the series Nicholas St. North and the Battle of the Nightmare King. We haven't finished this one yet as is a chapter book for independent readers. I'll let you know how that one goes.

Weekend Recap

Well how was everybody's weekend? Ours was really good. Busy but good. We left Wednesday for Des Moines to have Thanksgiving with my brother. We came home on Friday. So the that was about a 4 and 1/2 hour drive back home. Saturday was normal errand day. And then on Sunday it was a trip to Ikea and Mall of America.We picked up this at Ikea:

 It was about 1/2 off. And then we picked up some other miscellaneous stuff. And collected some ideas, for future buys.

When then headed of to MoA for lunch, to use a coupon/gift card that was expiring soon. Then we took to the girls to Nickelodeon Universe, or what used to be Camp Snoopy. The both got to go on some rides. Monkey was even able to go on the roller coaster by herself.

She said it was awesome!

Snack break.

After that we walked through the American Girl store. Someone (Monkey) has been asking for one for about a year and a half. I haven't given in yet. But I'm seriously thinking about it for her Birthday. We will see.

Sorry for any of you that stopped by yesterday for Meal Monday. But I can't  remember much from before we left. MM will be back next week.

The Bane of Parents. . . Conferences

On Tuesday we had parent/teacher conferences. This isn't our first conference but it was the first one for Monkey. We came out with mixed thoughts. And well some of mine not so positive.

You see Monkey just turned 5 in July. And has been in school now for six weeks or 12 days at the time of the conference. She never went to preschool. Not because we didn't want her to go, but cost and scheduling pick up and drop off from and to daycare. Made it near impossible. I know we could have figured out a way but I just feel preschool shouldn't have to be necessary. So we worked with her at home on some stuff and they worked on some stuff at daycare.

When we got to conferences we found out she was a chatter. NO surprise there. Not a big deal. But one of the things that did get me was that the teacher felt she needed more help. Gave us a sheet to fill out to sign her up for KIP (Kindergarten Intervention Program). What????? Intervention after less 12 days of school? You got to be kidding me. And Oh by the way it's due back on Thursday, two days to decide if we want her to be in this program. (Later when I was talking to my daycare lady, it seemed to us this was the program to push this year, Monkey being the 4th person she knew that was offered this and it's just the beginning of conferences)

What is this program you ask? Well she would go to school on two of the days she doesn't go to school. And the follow the curriculum that they are working on in normal class. And well right there is my first problem. I work, my hubby works, we have no family in the area that would be able to help. So there would be no way to get her to or from school. We have daycare at school on normal school days and she rides the bus home. All this had to be set up back in April for this school year.

Second of all why is this needed? Well she doesn't know everything she needs to know by the end of the school year. Key work END. We have 8 more months of school left.

I know some of you out there are going to dislike this comment of mine, but I wanted to tell her teacher 'You are her teacher, so teach her.'

Now don't get me wrong, I know teachers work hard, I have great respect for teachers. And parents should take an active role in helping their kids learn. But I send them to, so you can teach them, because I can't do it. But sometime I think the school districts get in the way too much, by providing this type of help. I feel too often that a child gets put into such programs just because it's offered. And most of the time with a little bit of help from the teacher and some effort by the parents, would help the child get to where they need.

For example with The Boy, who is now in 8th grade, was put into Title 1. Part of Title 1 is extra funding from the government to help kids who need extra help in Math and/or Reading. Now back when he was starting to learn to read he needed the extra help in reading and so his mom signed the form to allow this. But since he was in it for reading they then also placed him in it for math. Which he might have needed to work a little harder at but did not really need the extra help. Most of his time in the Math group was spent on helping other kids in his group. This group worked at a slower pace the normal class did. So he did not keep up with his class and when he did have math homework from his regular class, he didn't know how to do the problems, because they went over it while he was out for Title 1 math. Please tell me how much this actually helped him?

So to wrap up this part of conferences. We did not sign the form for Monkey to go the KIP. Will she struggle this year? A little. Will we work hard to get her to where she needs to be by the end of the year? You bet we will. Will her teacher have to work a little more with her? I hope she will.

Where does she stand on what she needs to know?

• letters? 31/52
• write letters? some
• letter sounds? some
• count to 32? no problems 1-8 but does get 10-12 right too
• count backwards from 20? we've got from 5 down pat
• Read a small book (they said level 4)? no

I would love to hear from anyone out there on how they feel their school? Am I wrong to feel that this way about my child's schooling?

Well I'll get off this soap box for now. You'll see another one here soon about the writing style that they are teaching her.