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I seem to be experiencing brain drain today.....need to do stuff but can't cuz Pickle spent the night.
He's supposed to clean out my van he used to move stuff out with that is still full of his stuff, the basement, garage and storage too.  What did he move to his place anyway??

The weather is great out so I should go outside and see if my perennials are trying to come up early...we haven't had a real winter this year.  Maybe take a walk, go take a peek at Kaliko playing at her friend's house.
I ordered she and I some Vibram 5 fingers....hopefully will help with my knee pain and maybe with her ankle and pronating.  She needs to learn to run better, I can't do much but I can do a lil running.

I found out, whilst researching dyslexia, that fine and  gross motor skills are effected too.  Explains her hand writing and her clumsiness.  It's also been discovered that dyslexics have poor/low muscle tone in the upper body.  I'm not too worried about that at this stage of the game, she's a little young and so skinny right now! 

I will admit on here (cuz only my BFF knows) that I'm worried about my hubs.  For the 3rd time in a row, he's been denied for giving blood.  His hemo is too high.  According to the nurses there it could mean a heart condition....He's trying to improve his health, quit smoking last year, cutting back on the pop, eating a bit better.  We may have to lay off the red meat.  I'm making him an appt at the Dr. next week, we'll see what happens.  Get some answers from traditional medicine and then see what we can do the alternative route.  We just won't tell the MD about that part, yet.

Another admission today-I spend entirely tooooooo much time on Pintrest-lol!!  But I"m learning from some of what I see. I follow the link to the tutorial.....I've figured out what I'm making for the newest craft exchange I signed up for.  My partner sounds like a fun, colourful person-this will be easy!

Ok, must end this and do something productive with my time.....housework?  blah!  Maybe finish my knitting?  eh?  .........Idk.  Bother.......................

Frustration and Confusion

So, here I am again....frustrated after talking to the second in command (as she called herself) for our school district.....I was interested in finding out if we could use assistive technology for K at school, even tho it's not covered by her existing IEP.  #1 point she wanted to make clear is that we don't use label to define our students.  Even tho her own child is dyslexic, they don't describe his LD using a label.  Really???  

There is no cure for this!  It is something that has  to be lived with and dealt with daily for the rest of their lives.  Use the word, teach them how to adapt to a system that that thinks all students should fit into a box!  According to her all LDs are specific so how can we teach all students if they have to learn differently?  She only contradicted herself a few times.....

So, what it boils down to is that our district doesn't recognize dyslexia as a 'specific learning disability'. My opinion is that by not having to label specific disabilities, they don't have to train anyone to actually teach them in a real way that benefits the student......No. I'm not happy. I mentioned that TX has specifically trained teachers for dyslexia on every campus.  She said that violates fedeal law and someday it will come back on them.  How is helping LD students have the same educational advantages as non-LD students breaking the law??  To me that's what IDEA is supposed to be about!  No, i'm not a student of the law and legalese is a foreign language to me, but come on!!!

I like the definition of dyslexia that says it's not a learning disability, it's a teaching liability.  It is more fitting of what our education system is about.  They will label 'gifted' students and have specific programs for them. Why not have them for those others who are outside of that box and are struggling with the way our teachers are taught to teach?  The system is broken and I truely believe that someday we will be pulling Kaliko out of, what is turning out to be, an almost a toxic enviroment.  

Our district is in the middle of, at least, one federal lawsuit for violating the IDEA law.  Will it take more for them to realize that they are not meeting the needs of every student as they claim in their mission statement?  How long are we willing to put K thru it?

New project for Valentine's_Day

Sent from my HTC Inspire™ 4G on AT&T

Finally-lol!

so i posted a few months ago about wanting to re-arrange the living room, yeah, it's finally happening-lol!! so far, we're on day 3 of this lil adventure.  the 1st day was box up ALL the pix and nick-nacky things and clean.  yesterday we moved the very large furniture, had to have pickle come help with that.  now to decide on the final layout then decide what stuff to bring back into the space......

so the reason this is happening, you ask?  i received a text last week from my soldier boy.  "will you be ready for us to move in there in about 6 mos?"  YES!!!  my baby boy, his wife and daughters here!!  yes, we'll be crowded! yes, we have tons to do to make room for them! yes, we want them close to us!! the living room is just the beginning of getting prepared for their arrival.  the basement, where they will live, has to be emptied and re-arranged. then the garage has to be done too.  the garage, because some of my art supplies and tools will head that direction. all of my art supplies are in the basement.  all of it has to be condensed and organized.

will i ever get to paint or create something again?  YES!!!  i will make it happen.  i just entered another handmade gift exchange.  perhaps this time, i'll actually get pix posted.  i suck at this stuff.  course, if i didn't fight with the computer so much, i'd get pix of all i do posted more often ;)

Toodles!!

What Kaliko Wants To Learn

Here it is Jan 10 and I'm still reading"The Dyslexic Advantage" by Brock and Fernette Eide, and amazing book.  I don't make time to read, like I should, so this is taking awhile.  Part of what i read during K's basketball practice last night, was that dyslexics learn better when they are interested in something.  That is something public schools don't care about, they care about the basics.....so I asked K what she would like to learn about if she could pick any subject in the world to learn about. Her answer was not what I expected.  She said, "I want to know why the kids in my class laugh at me when I mess up a word reading." Wow!  That hit me like a rock!  I told her it's because they don't understand about her dyslexia.  She asked, "How can I make them understand?" So I asked her if she wanted to learn more about dyslexia and she said YES!  Alrighty then.  Now to make this happen for her.

First thing this morning I got on Amazon, my favorite place to buy books, and found books for children to understand dyslexia, 3 of them and another one for me. I'm very proud of her for wanting to understand about how her brain works but also find it heartbreaking.  She tries so very hard to do as well as her classmates and just can't keep up with them.  We do all we can to point out her strengths and victories, but i wonder if we do enough.  Pushing the testing thru was huge for her. Getting her IEP is a giant step in the right direction, even though it doesn't cover reading......if the school district would acknowledge dyslexia it would be extremely helpful.  If they had special clubs for kids with this gift so she wouldn't feel so alone.....they have clubs for the 'gifted' students and they get special field trips, etc.  Why not children like K that need special help too?  The usual "LD" kids get extra help and programs and kids like my Kaliko get left behind.  Is this something I can do?  I know there are other kids there that are dyslexic and they probably feel the same way......time to do more research.

I know there are a few private programs that cost more than most families in the area can afford, I know it's more than we can afford.  Private tutors that are trained in the Orrlingham technique or the Davis technique, but what about us with fewer resources??? Hmmmmmmm.......

K gets to be "Star of the Week" at the end of the month.  We've already started working on her board.  The first thing she asked to put on the board was a picture I showed her, a MRI showing the difference in activity in a dyslexic brain vs. a non-dyslexic brain.  She also wants a picture of Albert Einstein-lol!  I wish she didn't feel so defined by this, but her accepting it and wanting to be educated about it is something to be proud of.  Once she learns more she'll gain more confidence and that, in itself, is a huge victory!  I am so proud of my girl!!!