Tuesday 24 January 2012

Instruction Manuals

I've been thinking tonight how much easier life would be if kids came with their own individual instruction manual. It could pop out with the placenta!

If the Teenage Drama Queen has kids and they give her the sort of grief that she gives me, I will laugh hysterically. Today was a prime example. Her school contacted me this morning to ask why she was late. We live less than 10 minutes away from school so there is no excuse for her to ever be late. She had no proper excuse, her friend who normally knocks for her was off and she just didn't look at the time. If this was a one off then I wouldn't have made a big deal of it but she has been late about eight times so far this school year. The last time it happened,I told her that I would be harsh with her if it happened again so today I had to follow through with that. She has 6 weeks of very early bedtimes with no phone or laptop allowed in bedroom. I hope if she is in bed earlier then it might be easier for her to get up in the morning. She called me an idiot and told me I was overreacting but I did manage to get her into bed by half ten. It was supposed to be ten o'clock though.

Rebecca has been giving me a little bit of trouble lately too. She had her annual meeting with the Educational Psychologist last week which was brought forward so he could submit a report for her Statutory Assessment. One of his recommendations was that she follows the Toe by Toe scheme. I tried starting this with her in the summer. It is very good and I'd recommend it for anyone whose child has difficulty in reading. It has to be done every day for 10 - 15 minutes. The school are only working on it with Rebecca on a Thursday so the responsibility falls on me for the rest of the week. Rebecca is always quite tired after school and has been very grumpy and tearful so it has taken a lot of cajoling to get her to work on it. She also had a medical this week for the Statutory Assessment. I was disappointed as I didn't feel it was very thorough. She still has problems due to the hyper mobility in her joints and although I mentioned this, the Doctor didn't even examine them.

As for me, I'm still the same. Still knackered, still got a cough and still broke, but at least I'm still here!!

Speak soon

love Riki xxx

2 comments:

  1. I can not comment on Toe by Toe I use Alpha to Omega reading, writing spelling for dyslexia. Both are a good tool. It doesn't mattter who helps your daughter. Aim to work the weekend and 2 days in the week. The summer months are a bit easier with the longer days. I have found that who are committed, like you, do a better job of following through than teachers. This is because your daughter has your undivided time in a quieter environment. This accounts for a lot if she is easily distracted.

    Good luck and don't beat yourself up. You are doing amazingly well.

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  2. Thanks very much for your comment. I am still plugging away with toe by toe and at least have persuaded the school to spend more time on it too. We are really stuck on blends like sn at the moment so I am making flashcards to try and help

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