Things were going well...

until I wrote that last post! Things have been kind of crazy the last few days Sarah has been finding one thing or another to freak-the-heck-out about. Sat. she was upset because the other kids were in the pool and she wasn't ( hello maybe get in the pool?), yesterday she was upset because she didn't want to practice reading so she threw her book across the room, I told her to bring it back so she threw it again. Then she started to hit me so she went in time out so she kept running out of time out to hit me and tell me she hated me at least a few times until I laid down the law. This time she knew I was serious and stayed in time out I let her settle for 5 minutes and then came in to talk to her and all was well. Today she was upset because she forgot her show and tell. So it was hard to get her out of the car because she wanted to go back home and get it. Then once I got her the class room she wouldn't go in so I told her I would bring her a show and tell. Once I dropped Julia off I got Sarah a toy to show and brought it to Sarah; she told me that's not the one she wanted! Oh my goodness, what's a mom to do with this? I wonder what she is going to be upset about when she gets home. I hope nothing because I'm sure both of us have had enough drama for a while. I think it's time to get the sticker chart out and build some structure to our lives again.
I feel so bad for Julia because so much time and energy goes into containing Sarah that I worry Julia might feel pushed to the side. I always tell Julia how sorry I am about all of it and how proud I am of her for being so good. Julia needs a one on one day soon.

Things are going well; the girls finally have an organized room w/ Salamander pet;I've got a charged camera so I will start taking pictures again. The girls are very happy and very well behaved for the most part; I'm so glad the days of hours on screaming tantrums are over. They have really grown up a lot and I'm excited for them. Sarah has a play group on Julias' b-day to see how she does with the other kids at Waldorf, Dann and I then have a parent meeting a few days later, and then we will see if Sarah is accepted! We are really hoping she is but if not I know that she is still learning at her school; she just sang to me three different songs of the short vowels and I know she really enjoys her friends. We just know she would be better off at Waldorf but either way we know she'll do well.
Julia is 4 on Saturday! She wants a Pinata so I will try my best to Paper Mache it up with her favorite candies! As far as a present I'm not sure because she likes everything, I guess that should make it easier to choose! We're having it at my grandmas' place and Julia will invite a few friends.

Feeling The Momma Bear Instinct

I talked to Sarahs' teacher today, very casually she calls me during Sarahs' recess time when I'm dropping off some water for Sarah because of her cough. She tells me that she talked to the panel and they decided that Sarah should stay back a year,shouldn't Dann and I have been a part of this decision? I told her that Sarah has improved on her reading and some of the kids are behind her. Then she told me yes she's noticed Sarah improving in reading. Then she says it's mostly her writing that needs work and if she doesn't improve she wont be ready for first grade. Well to me I think since she's improved so much in reading, numbers, and her abc's in the past month or so then it's only fair to assume she can improve more with her writing in a couple more weeks. She told me she wanted to schedule a meeting with me to show me the difference in her writing and the other kids. I told her lets wait a few weeks or so. It would have been nice for her to schedule a meeting with me to let me know about all this instead of springing it on me like that in the first place. I know Sarah can improve and I get tired of her teacher overlooking so much of what Sarah is accomplishing. It's definitely an emotional thing but I think more so it would be good for Sarah to move forward because she has learned so much and it would be nice for her to keep with some of her class mates. It would also be good for her to move on to a new teacher with a different teaching style. Her teacher doesn't even seem to want to look into an option, like my mom suggested summer school, I think that would be a great option. The panel hasn't even tested her yet to see if she meets the qualification and it's not even the end of the year! Is today some magical cut off date where by Sarah ceases to learn or improve any more?! To me that is just negligent,this kind of attitude get's me so upset, I know it's not a big deal to repeat a grade but I feel like her teacher has way too much indifference on the subject, and Sarah deserves more of a consideration then that.

Neighborhood walk

Sarah had a field trip today, I chaperoned or herded 22 kids. There were 3 other adults, 2 stayed at the end of the line and Ms.Kimura stayed at the front not turning around once to make sure every one was following. I got to be the one who said pretty much for an hour straight "fill up the gaps, look left and right before crossing the streets, find your partner, hold hands, don't run and pull on your partner;oops you fell all right don't do it again, oops your doing it again, listen to Ms. Kimura." It was like parenting on amphetamines(I could never be a teacher). We all got through it though and Ms.Kimura got some cute pictures in the end. Now I am ready for about 24 hours of sleep.
It was a good idea for a field trip because Ms.Kimura would stop every once in a while and tell the kids a little bit about their every day surroundings. She told them about fire hydrants; not parking by them so that the fire trucks could, the drainage ditch;where does the water come from, why it has less water or more, and why it can get stinky, looking left and right before crossing the street (which maybe 1 or 2 kids actually did), and finally 7-11; what kind of things you get there and how you pay for it before you walk out. Hopefully it gave the kids a better understanding of every day life, if anything else they seemed to like being outside and looking at everything; some boys got really excited when they saw a Ferrari, a couple of kids were excited to point out their neighborhoods or condos;or hotel for one boy who was confused about the difference between condo and hotel, Sarah thought the same thing for the longest time. They were all really cute and very good kids.

Imagination

Sarah keeps getting the funniest ideas in her head and it all comes from one source;her pal Jubilee. This girl Jubilee has the wildest stories and one of the best imaginations that leads to loads and loads of fun for Sarah. The first time she came over to our house she was telling Sarah how she's an Indian (politically incorrect I know but she does have some Native American blood), so she told her although she is an Indian she hasn't learned to shoot a bow and arrow yet but they had to run from the wolves in Sarahs' play house(Sarah is convinced that she is an "indian" too and will get very upset with anyone who tries to convince her otherwise. The next story was about how Jubilee rides around her neighborhood at night by herself fighting Aliens (Sarah hung on to that idea for months but has finally decided she doesn't want to embarrass anyone so she will no longer be Alien Hunting at night). The last great story is "Mr.Black Hat"; Mr.Black Hat is a ghost who comes out at night to take apart peoples bones, he has shadow people as his posse, and cloud streaks in the sky are his ghost streaks. She told me about this yesterday after school and was chasing him for hours; the way you know he is there is you see a black hat. Then when it was time to take a bath last night Sarah was having a hard time listening and I told her that I was pretty sure that Mr.Black Hat only came to little children when they were not listening to their parents, then she decided that Mr.Black Hat was not real. I can't wait to hear what the next story will be!

Sarah can count to 29 now, with less then a week of trying. It just goes to show that she's a smart little girl. We're still working on reading but she's starting to get the hang of it.
Today was a Furlough Friday and a friend from school told us the other day that the Childrens Discovery Museum had a discount on F.F. so we met up with them from 9 to almost 12:40, there was so much for the kids to do that they didn't even make it to the 3rd floor. I will have to take Julia sometime, maybe in the summer.
There were all sorts of cool things, I wish I had my camera; everything hands on, lots of role playing with careers, they even had a stage with a dressing room costumes and a sound board. Maybe we could have a B-day Party for Julia there or something.

Had a teacher parent conference today and the teacher hasn't seemed to notice any improvement with Sarah. I've definitely noticed an improvement in the last week, she's getting the hang of the numbers. Once she gets in to the 20s she skips around but we will keep working on it. She is also having problems with reading so her teacher gave me 3 books to work with her every day.