Joys of Single Motherhood

In my last post, I worried aloud about Kid 2's learning "differences" and how on earth he could possibly succeed in middle school. Last week I met with his "home room" teacher and his "Section 504" teacher. (Section 504 is basically "special ed lite") I came away from those two meetings feeling optimistic about next year. I am traditionally a foe of all things Bush. When the "No Child Left Behind" program was enacted, I immediately dubbed it "Leave Every Child Behind". I worried about teaching to testing and funding mandates etc. despite the fact that both kids attend highly regarded and highly funded (approx. $14,000 per capita expenditure yearly. I remember when I/we briefly considered public school for Kid 1 when we lived in SF. The annual expenditure per student was just under $7,000.) National Blue Ribbon schools. Frankly, I've always regarded the whole "Blue Ribbon" school thing a giant crock of crap. I...

Next week is the parent/teacher conference for Kid 2, who is in his last year of elementary school. While Kid 1 happily sails through school--sails through life as a whole actually--Kid 2 is not so lucky. Kid 2 has a whole kit and kaboodle of "Learning Differences"...a little ADD, a lot of dyslexia and some motor skills issues. He is classified as a Section 504 kid so he gets occupational therapy, and help with math and reading and writing twice a week. He can take tests separately from other kids to decrease distractions, he sits up front, and the teacher is instructed to provide plenty of "redirection", which means "Hey, pay attention!". That's what I tell him. I'm sure the teachers have nicer ways of putting it. I tried medication last year and it didn't do a thing. Nothing. This year is a good year for Kid 2. He has a male teacher with 20+ years of teaching experience. He is known for running a shipshape classroom but he also clearly ado...

Sometimes I hate my kids. Not "hate" as in "hate crimes" or "hate mail", more like hate as in an intense dislike of squash or peas. But still, sometimes I fervently dislike them. Mostly my kids are nice so when they're not, it shows. Number 1, the tweener was just whining about maaaathhhh and how it's soooooooo haaarrdd and how she's sooooooo baddddd at it. And of course "everyone else is really good at it". In fairness, she is taking accelerated algebra and she's no math natural. She has to work hard--which she often forgets. She doesn't have to work much to do well in any other class, so she feels that she's the butt of a giant cosmic joke. After all, everyone is equally good at everything, so why should she suffer? She is smart enough not to go the "it's nooooottt faairrrr" route. So she whined and I was not completely sympathetic. I said something like "Just go to X period and you'll be fine. Th...