Weekly News Roundup

Figured I'd better do a blog update before I get swept up in all the holiday stuff :) Caroline's test results showed that she is doing reading, math and spelling at the end of first/ beginning of second grade level. Her overall IQ score was 88th percentile, though she had some sections where she scored over the 95th percentile. Her academic testing was in the 99th percentile for her grade level for math and spelling and 97th percentile for reading. We sent her scores to the school and as I type I'm waiting to hear back finalizing a meeting for Monday with the principal and the head of the talent development department to discuss. The most likely recommendation I think is going to be to set up what's called a DEP, or differentiated education plan, which would be overseen by the talent development teacher. Less likely scenario would be moving her to first grade. It seems like there is a precedent for doing so but it would likely require more testing for her.

Becca seems to be doing better off her meds, at least at home. Her teachers continue to see a lot of confusion and zoned out behavior at school. At home she seems less stressed and is able to get her homework done quicker and with less drama. She has even been working on her homework on the bus ride home, which is kind of mind boggling to me that she can concentrate on a noisy bus. I have a parent appointment tomorrow with the therapist that we finally settled on for her, who hopefully can work with her to reduce her anxiety at school so that she will be able to get her assignments and tests done. Right now she's taking so long sometimes that it takes her a week to finish a math test and she misses all the "non critical" (ie fun) part of the school day because she's needing to keep working on it.

Ben seems to be doing well right now, he got all A's except for a B in science on his first report card and the second quarter seems to be off to a pretty good start. There's been a lot of drama with his teachers this year -- his social studies teacher missed the entire first quarter for personal reasons, and his math teacher quit in mid October and the new math teacher they finally found by Ben's report is not a good teacher. His science teacher quite frankly seems like a flake and constantly puts in his work as missing even though he has turned it in, and then Ben has to go hunt through her pile of stuff and find his homework to show her he did it. This has happened multiple times and it's the only class where this happens. Sigh.

Hoping for a quiet Thanksgiving week next week :) Wish me luck! I am working Monday and Tuesday and then have the rest of the week off.