Monday's Musings

Our Host Student, unusually, stayed another night with us and so she was able to accompany me in taking Little Prince to school. She said it was lovely that parents and children gathered in the playground before school, and thought that the children lining up with their class to go in was great. When she was at Elementary School the children would be dropped off by car at the door, where older children would open the doors and welcome the child to school and wish the dropping off parent a nice day. The younger children would be escorted down the corridors by older children and taken to their classrooms. I definitely prefer our school's version!

After dropping Little Prince at school we had some time at home to watch a little TV, and Host Student introduced me to one of her favourite shows - Scrubs. It was quite funny but I think you need to know the characters better to properly appreciate it. We chatted all the way to the station and it was quite funny to hear how similar Host Student's interests and views are to LMS's :-) After seeing Host Student safely onto her train (its a Mum thing I have to make sure they get their trains safely!) I drove over to the Builder's Merchants to meet Handyman. I wasn't quite sure I was at the right Builder's Merchants so after waiting for ages for Handyman I tried ringing and texting him. He didn't answer! Great!! He has organised the order with a mate (who is giving us a great price) I have very little idea what I'm buying or who this mate is! Luckily Handyman eventually got in touch, to say he was tied up on another job and wouldn't be able to make it over to the Builder's Merchants. He did then ring his mate who came out to the carpark to find me, and take me to the office so that I could pay for whatever it is that Handyman has ordered!

After this I was in the mood for something a bit more girlie!! So I drove to a shopping centre with a couple of houseware shops. I had a great time just looking round, although I did find an African style plaque for the wall. Our Social Worker did point out during our homestudy update that we needed more African and Ethiopian art around the house. I don't just want to buy stuff for the sake of it and am only buying things that I really like, just like the rest of the art work in our house, which is from all over the world. I would also like to buy authentic Ethiopian artwork in Ethiopia, which has the added benefit of supporting the Ethiopian economy while we are there too.

After grabbing a quick bite to eat I headed off home again. I didn't have time to do much more than check out my yahoo groups before going off out again to pick up Little Prince. Me and my friend Post Lady hung around the playground chatting while the kids all played on the play equipment and ran round the field for a while. Then it was back home again to feed Little Prince and get him ready for an early-ish night, so that Drama Teen could babysit him while me and Mr Messy attended Little Prince's parent's evening. We had a late appointment so that Mr Messy had time to get home from work, which worked out perfectly as Little Prince was soundly asleep before we went, which made it a LOT easier for Drama Teen to look after him! She does on occassion look after him while he is awake, but not for extended periods as his behaviour issues and the fact that they argue and fight like cat and dog, makes it very hard work!

Parent's Evening - Little Prince's teacher is thrilled with how he has settled in this school year. He struggled mightily to settle down last year, but this year he has coped so much better. She told us that in maths he is working at a level a year above his age and that in science he has such an inquisitive and enquiring mind and takes everything in. He is making excellent progress in his reading too :-) We discussed his specific difficulties and how she is supporting him and helping him make progress. I told her of my recent conversation with the Occupational Therapist and relayed her comments about how the school was, in her opinion, working with Little Prince fabulously, and that it is perfect for helping him make progress. We talked about how she was working with Little Prince to do his weekly spelling tests verbally, rather than written as the rest of the class do. She said that it is working well like that and she is impressed with his ability to learn his spellings this way. I also confirmed that Little Prince likes the fact that he is doing his spellings just like all his friends, although in a slightly different manner. He hated it when teacher thought it would be better if he didn't do spelling tests, this made Little Prince feel he wasn't good enough to do spellings and was starting to knock his confidence. I'm so glad that school and teacher are able to make these small accomodations to help Little Prince not feel too different to his friends. Me and Mr Messy came away from the parent's evening feeling very proud of our special little man :-) He faces so many obstacles, but he tries hard and is always cheerful and eager to go to school and is making so much progress :-) Well done Little Prince :-)