Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Photobucket Wednesday Already?

I didn't make it to the gym. I got carried away this a.m. in my tryst time.

I attended Nolan's ARD appointment. This meeting is held annually for the school district to make their recommendation as to what services Nolan needs. I accept or reject the offer. We HAVE to do this as our insurance won't pay a thing for speech unless we do this. I knew they were evaluating speech yesterday. It appears they also evaluated a few other things. I accepted their offer of 30 min a week of speech therapy at the school with a few other students.

I rejected their thoughts that Nolan has vocabulary problems. I couldn't quite believe they thought that. This child talks all the time! We read a LOT of GOOD books to him. I asked for examples and it cracked me up. We evidently haven't been studying the typical course of study. He could talk at length about the social strata of Ancient Egypt, he can explain parental rights/child rights in the Spartan society, he can tell you more than you want to know about Ancient Greek warfare and weapons, he can explain Passover, he can explain the mummification process, he can explain Japanese fish prints....but they are right, he doesn't know that a trumpet should never be called a horn and that a compas is not a funky clock. I'm not overly worried. This is bound to happen when your methods do not match the traditional scope and sequence.

They kept saying how great the socialization would be for him to have group therapy at the school. "He'll make friends and be able to play soccer with them after school." Well....HE HAS FRIENDS NOW. I DON'T KEEP HIM LOCKED IN THE HOUSE!" ::snort:: Hmmm.....maybe that shirt yesterday (see below) wasn't a good thing. I'll be sure to check his clothes very carefully before therapy next year. ::snort::

We got a lot of school done today. Isn't it funny that we are getting more school done in the summer because we don't have HoF, speech, Bible Study, drama class and whatever else we were keeping busy with? I plan to do extra work on vocabulary this summer. I'm a good homeschooler. I jumped right to and put in an order of vocabulary and spelling material from Rainbow Resource. ::snort:: ::chortle:: We'll get started with it now - because you know we homeschool sorta year round like. ::giggle::

I got produce ordered and the group email sent out.

We ate a few times.

Photobucket

4 comments:

Renee said...

DeEtta,
As a former (and I guess current) special ed teacher, I would NOT worry about their vocab assessment. I think they need to buy a new test - sounds like theirs is outdated.
In 2000, we moved overseas and put all our LPs in storage... then in 2004 we moved back Statside. John and Theresa (then 6 & 7 yrs old) saw the LPs and asked "What are these big cds for?".... we laughed.
I also question the evaluator's skills (I've given similar tests in my past career) and if anything I would have told the parent that the vocab score wasn't reflective of the child's true ability because he gave similar answers that really were correct (but not according to the test norms)

Linda said...

As a trumpet player, I beg to differ about that "horn" comment. While a trumpet and a FRENCH horn are two different animals...a trumpet IS indeed a horn. Hence my email/blog name: fifenhorn I play the fife AND the trumpet...but fifeandtrumpet didn't flow...so I dropped the and to an 'n, but still...

When I talk about my trumpets (and in this house, between my hubby and I, we have MANY) I often say, "let me grab my horn"...

they're getting lost in the minutiae of it.

DeEtta @ Courageous Joy said...

LOL Linda - you are right. My uncle had a doctorate in music and he called his trumpet and french horns both horns..... LOL

berrypatch said...

This reminds me of when I was attempting to get Ben out of speech. They wanted me to keep him in for grammar. He was six. I still shake my head at this. :-) He had only been actually TALKING for three years. You'd never know it to hear him NOW. ;-) The kid talks non-stop.