Today is Jonah's last day of school. Ian is done tomorrow. Well, Jonah's school was really done about three weeks ago. He's had a week of half days, and the teachers started handing out worksheets and doing brainteasers ages ago. The school year really ends in April, but they babysit the kids until June 22.
Jonah will go to his fancy camp on Monday. It's ridiculously expensive, so we can only afford to send him for a four week session. But he loves it, so we keep sending him. He's made some very nice friends in other towns, and he'll be a counselor in high school, which will keep him off the streets.
After much debate, we decided to send Ian back to his summer school camp. As part of his program, he'll attend a town recreation program in the morning, and in afternoon, he'll go back to his classroom for academic review and therapy. He doesn't need the academic review, but he does need more speech therapy.
We're getting closer to understanding Ian's strengths and weaknesses. Ian is a visual-spacial thinker. He builds fantastic Lego creations, and he's the pet of any art teacher. He can memorize a page of spelling words instantly. He does math problems in his head. It's hard to not brag about his gifts.
Ian has audio-processing problems. He has trouble hearing the difference between fifteen and fifty. That's why he's had so much trouble learning how to talk. While his right brain is super sized, his left brain is a pea.
I've been looking at various therapy that we can do after school with him. With so many snake oil therapies out there, we've got to carefully choose a program. Then there's the crap of trying to get the health insurance companies to pay for these therapies. I just submitted insurance paperwork for the third time for therapy that Ian had last fall.
My blog routine is going to shift after today, until the camp kicks in. I'll probably do a couple of quickie posts in the morning and then a longer one in the evening.
Apt. 11d 
Our summer began last week. This week, the kids are in a kayak camp (the little one, who thinks every experience is a 10) and in a Destination Imagination camp (the older one, who is much more demanding, and often thinks the grass is greener at the other side of the camp).
I’m a bit worried that they haven’t had enough relaxation time, but our local environment doesn’t easily promote free play and nothing drives me crazier than a kid who sits in my office and complains that she’s bored.
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The school year really ends in April, but they babysit the kids until June 22.
And they only get $8,000 a month. Those poor teachers.
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Our summer started long, long ago at the end of May. Here is the summer agenda:
–one “free” week
–one week of all-day space station-themed gifted camp for oldest
–two weeks of sewing camp for oldest (6 hours of machine sewing per week)
–one more week of all-day nature-themed gifted camp for oldest
–two weeks of Red Cross swim lessons for both (about 4 hours of lessons a week)
–three “free” weeks (will do some travel, not sure how much)
My husband thinks there isn’t enough science and math in the summer gifted program’s offerings, and told me to tell the director so. I did, and the director suggested that my husband could teach a class. He’d actually like to do something with lasers and optics in a couple of years.
The kids’ school is small, classical, and pretty academic (although broadly so). While the high school is still a work in progress, I don’t know if they will ever offer home ec/vo tech type stuff, so I think we should probably either outsource that or do it ourselves. For some time, my husband’s been taking the kids to do Lowes Build and Grow Saturday projects (I believe Home Depot has something similar), but it would be nice to find something more serious that’s still aimed at kids and teens. Maybe at the community college? I’m also thinking about 4-H for the kids, which would be something. There’s also some sort of kids’ cooking school called the Young Chef’s Academy, which may or may not be worthwhile.
I realize that athletics have a very minimal position on that list, but it’s too blooming hot to do any athletics not involving a swimming pool or a Wii balance board.
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Our summer plans are:
1. Vacation! Tomorrow! Wish me luck keeping my distance from the godless killing machines.
2. Kids will go 3x week each to the summer camp at the school across the street.
3. E will go 1x week to social skills group.
4. Both kids will do music lessons (flute and clarinet 1x week.)
5. Possibly the last week of the summer, we will drive to Niagara Falls. However, the stupid school schedule may mean that my husband will have to take his days off to be with the kids while I start orientation activities.
I can’t even imagine sending my kids to sleepaway camp the way so many of my online friends do. Cost is not an issue these days; it’s just that I can’t imagine sending them away from me for a week or more. I wonder if I’m failing my kids somehow. I don’t think E has ever been away from us overnight, and S has only been a few times.
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My older one (9) is doing a Girl Scout sleepaway summer camp this summer. I expect to miss her. But after a diet of the English Boarding School books, she’s been dying to have a sleepaway experience. I hope this one lives up to her expectations, but not so much that she revisits the desire for a boarding school. We do not plan to send her away to boarding school, even if she really really wants it. We’d miss her too much.
On board for the rest of our summer are piano lessons, swimming lessons, aikido, and then camps, a history re-enactment camp, climbing, drama, art, sailing, soccer, and more Girl Scouts. I’ve accepted that my kids actually like camps and structure, and are more like their dad than like me. I have no problem filling lots and lots of empty hours with my own amusements.
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Free therapy. Have Ian write with his “off” hand some. Tracing letters in a workbook for little kids or something like that. It will cost you minimal money and help develop the other side of his brain. Ditto with have him use the mouse on the computer, eat with etc. Try making it a game. If you can. (“Your so good at this computer game, but can you do it with your other hand? Let’s try it back at level one”). Although it’s got nothing to do with auditory processing it will help get that pea-brain side working and doing it’s share and will carry over to other areas. And it’s free.
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Awesome. Thanks, Western Dave. Didn’t know about that trick.
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Your so good at this computer game, but can you do it with your other hand?
I knew a priest who got very worried when his sister lost the use of her dominant hand (polio, this was a while ago). He taught himself to write with both hands. I’m not sure if it helped his brain, but it was a neat trick as when he wrote lefty, he could write backward just as quickly as forward.
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Raggirls all wanted “Drama Camp.” There is a fine, cheap one in town.
Done and done.
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