Random
Managed to get assurances for payments on money I've been expecting from a couple of sources today, which always makes the day better than wondering if you're going to get that money that's owed to you. It's been a year where great tens of thousands of dollars blink in and out of existence a few times before materializing, just to keep things "interesting." I'd really prefer boring ol' timely payments.
Turkey, white cheddar, tomato, mayo and a few leaves of basil in a pita make for a yummy lunch.
I have to miss Happy Hour at the Brooklyn tonight, celebrating my husband's birthday and mourning another friend's pink slip from his job. Katherine was given a pair of tickets to the Seattle Storm vs. the Minnesota Lynx for tonight. The tickets were given by her school's librarian for great improvement in reading. The girl is very proud of herself and I'm very proud of her, too.
Monday she's doing an end of the year reading of her own writing with her school's writer's club at the Richard Hugo House. Just today her teacher, himself a published poet, was telling me how gifted she is as a poet and how wonderfully expressive she is with language. I've always thought so, but it's nice to have these things confirmed by others.
The Columbia City Farmer's Market had beautiful strawberries and gorgeous fava beans available today. I bought both.
Met with Kate's teachers to talk over her IEP for next year and her progress this year. I'm definitely going to have to come up with some money for private testing, the state provided testing has really failed to address the core of her issues. Her teachers all feel that she is "exceptional" and very likely gifted (perhaps highly gifted) and that she's also clearly suffering with at least one learning disability more than the state testing uncovered. Her official IEP is for "written expression" but over and over again we're seeing evidence that she's dyslexic and very probably inattentive ADD (not the disruptive, stereotypical "hyperactive" type commonly seen in boys...in attentive ADD is different, often seen in girls and very often overlooked because it's just not as disruptive or troublesome to others as your ADHD). Her test scores are all over the board, from late second-grade level to late sixth-grade level, showing repeatedly that she's doing a great job of compensating for her learning disability in some cases and really struggling in others. It's great that she's able to compensate and isn't completely drowning, but I really worry that she's going to "hit the wall" in one of these upcoming years and really start to go fall behind in ways that can't easily be made up if we don't deal with the core of this now. If not for her reading room teacher, I'd feel like I was really tackling this one on my own. Thank god we at least got her out of the clutches of that awful, awful woman she had for a teacher half of last year. That horrible harpy had a long and lasting impact on Kate's self-image and self-confidence: I'm extremely sorry I didn't agitate to get Kate out of her clutches sooner.
I hope to go see Batman Begins at the Columbia City Cinema this weekend. Hooray for little local theaters!
Turkey, white cheddar, tomato, mayo and a few leaves of basil in a pita make for a yummy lunch.
I have to miss Happy Hour at the Brooklyn tonight, celebrating my husband's birthday and mourning another friend's pink slip from his job. Katherine was given a pair of tickets to the Seattle Storm vs. the Minnesota Lynx for tonight. The tickets were given by her school's librarian for great improvement in reading. The girl is very proud of herself and I'm very proud of her, too.
Monday she's doing an end of the year reading of her own writing with her school's writer's club at the Richard Hugo House. Just today her teacher, himself a published poet, was telling me how gifted she is as a poet and how wonderfully expressive she is with language. I've always thought so, but it's nice to have these things confirmed by others.
The Columbia City Farmer's Market had beautiful strawberries and gorgeous fava beans available today. I bought both.
Met with Kate's teachers to talk over her IEP for next year and her progress this year. I'm definitely going to have to come up with some money for private testing, the state provided testing has really failed to address the core of her issues. Her teachers all feel that she is "exceptional" and very likely gifted (perhaps highly gifted) and that she's also clearly suffering with at least one learning disability more than the state testing uncovered. Her official IEP is for "written expression" but over and over again we're seeing evidence that she's dyslexic and very probably inattentive ADD (not the disruptive, stereotypical "hyperactive" type commonly seen in boys...in attentive ADD is different, often seen in girls and very often overlooked because it's just not as disruptive or troublesome to others as your ADHD). Her test scores are all over the board, from late second-grade level to late sixth-grade level, showing repeatedly that she's doing a great job of compensating for her learning disability in some cases and really struggling in others. It's great that she's able to compensate and isn't completely drowning, but I really worry that she's going to "hit the wall" in one of these upcoming years and really start to go fall behind in ways that can't easily be made up if we don't deal with the core of this now. If not for her reading room teacher, I'd feel like I was really tackling this one on my own. Thank god we at least got her out of the clutches of that awful, awful woman she had for a teacher half of last year. That horrible harpy had a long and lasting impact on Kate's self-image and self-confidence: I'm extremely sorry I didn't agitate to get Kate out of her clutches sooner.
I hope to go see Batman Begins at the Columbia City Cinema this weekend. Hooray for little local theaters!
Hey. If you happen to be down this direction on the 26th, you should swing by. We're having a lawn party. I know it's a slim chance, but I thought I'd throw it out. (I won't be doped up on post surgery narcotics this time!)
A belated Happy Birthday wish, then, to the Pramas. Disconcerting, though, as I turned 36 a month ago and when I met Chris at Gencon I thought he came off much older than me. I don't know whether that speaks more positively of his maturity, or more negatively of mine. :-)
Well, there's about six different AD?Ds now, and the school surely is not up on this. Suggest you visit Brainplace.Com, the website of Dr. Daniel Amen, MD, who Mrs Clackablog and I have heard speak at UW Med School.
The gold standard for diagnosis now is a before-and-after meds brain scan using the SPECT test which is now fairly readily available in urban areas such as Pugetopolis; Amen, a board-certified pediatric psychiatrist, even has a clinic in Tacoma (although he's California-based). But, even without the scan, he's got practical ideas for figuring out which kind of AD?D is prevalent, and how to deal with it (drugs, diet and exercise, not just take a pill and go away).
I really, really like the idea of using an objective, verifiable test to point to the proper treatment plan, instead of the 'roll a d20' approach many psychiatrists and psychologists use. But, then, I'm fond of science instead of witch doctors (no offense intended to witches, BTW).