(The Photo is of the sunset tonight – just down the street from our house. We see those mountaintops from our living room window, but tonight I wanted a better view, so I trespassed. )
Kaleb has now given title to the list of offenses he receives from Morton – “The Morton Report,” he calls it. So today’s report went something like this: “he threw a chunk of ice at me and missed me by ‘this’ much, he spit on me, and he kicked me in the shin.” I’m always as sympathetic as I can be and usually ask, “So other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?” I really want to know about the rest of his day, but The Morton Report always gets top billing. (I had to explain myself to him the first time I asked him that question. He thought my humor was a bit sick, and I agree, but I can’t help myself.)
We had our first parent/teacher conference at school today, so we got The Kaleb Report. Unfortunately, the bulk of the time was spent on The Morton Report – not Kaleb. The teacher is beside herself, and said “medication is hopefully coming soon,” (for Morton, not her) as he’s been diagnosed with ADHD and probably a host of other problems. I feel horrible for her and Morton’s mother. Kaleb is the brunt of most of his “acting-out” but no kid in the class is immune from it. The teacher said Kaleb doesn’t always give her The Morton Report so she asked that we urge him to report all incidents, as she’s trying to get enough “evidence” to support her idea of hiring someone for recess time JUST to follow Morton around and keep an eye on him. Kaleb loved that idea, as recess presents the greatest challenges and they won’t allow the students to stay inside – they must go out, no matter what weather or terror on the playground awaits them. So, hope is on the horizon.
The little time we did talk about Kaleb, his teacher was mostly just questioning us – like have we had him tested and did we know his thinking is so advanced and is it really possible he can read so fast? She saw him read an entire book (“James and the Giant Peach”) during the lunch break and she couldn’t believe it (I do think he reads about 600-700 words a minute – maybe more.) She knows he’s bored in math as he’s doing algebra just for fun at home, and at school they are doing simple carryover addition and borrowing subtraction problems, but I think it’s good for him to do those routine things. He doesn’t really get bored with anything in school because it’s all in Norwegian and he just thinks it’s all fun as he does the math problems in his head. The teacher said she really hopes he gets better at Norwegian soon so all the barriers can come down and he’s able to mix with the children more, but he mostly stays by himself at recess or hangs out with a few American girls. We asked for the names of some boys in his class that might be a good fit for him to have play dates with and she’s going to send us phone numbers so we can work on his male bonding skills a bit more. But overall, we were delighted to hear that she LOVES having him in class and thinks he’s a very good student – respectful, not disruptive, does his work and obeys the rules (once they are explained). She said he’s had a problem a few times when he understood certain rules to be one way and then the kids did something another way and he got very upset and cried. Once she explained things to him he was OK, but he does have a strong need for things to be FAIR and right. She thinks it’s good for the class to have him there also as they are trying to teach “tolerance.” So, we were well pleased with the report we got. I took Kaleb out for pizza afterwards for a special treat as the local pizza joint had an all-you-can eat night for $11 ($15 for me). Can’t beat that.
Kory had a very frustrating day trying to get the snow tires on our van in below zero temperatures (Celsius). It never got above freezing again today. He broke several tools and finally gave up. I guess we pay for it to be done now as the clock is ticking and they must be on by tomorrow or we can’t drive the van! (They are very serious about their laws here.) Tonight Kory went to help his cousin Odd put in a new kitchen floor and that went much better than his day.
As for me, I make little inroads in this new language and get so excited when I can remember certain vocabulary words, and even more excited if I can put them together in some kind of sentence, but then when presented with the next concept in our textbook and how complex it all seems, I just want to bury my head in something and forget the whole deal. But I was a little bit encouraged tonight when Kaleb and I stopped by to visit Tante Kari and Tante Ruth and I was able to converse with them in Norwegian and they understood me perfectly! I must have talked for an hour and was completed exhausted afterwards but I told some good stories and even got the correct responses, so I know I told them right. Tante Kari was thrilled, as her and I have never really been able to talk one-on-one before because she doesn’t understand English, so I felt like it was a major breakthrough. Hallelujah! Imagine what the future would hold if I could just have an hour together with Kory (even speaking English) and he understood me perfectly.
Kaleb has now given title to the list of offenses he receives from Morton – “The Morton Report,” he calls it. So today’s report went something like this: “he threw a chunk of ice at me and missed me by ‘this’ much, he spit on me, and he kicked me in the shin.” I’m always as sympathetic as I can be and usually ask, “So other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?” I really want to know about the rest of his day, but The Morton Report always gets top billing. (I had to explain myself to him the first time I asked him that question. He thought my humor was a bit sick, and I agree, but I can’t help myself.)
We had our first parent/teacher conference at school today, so we got The Kaleb Report. Unfortunately, the bulk of the time was spent on The Morton Report – not Kaleb. The teacher is beside herself, and said “medication is hopefully coming soon,” (for Morton, not her) as he’s been diagnosed with ADHD and probably a host of other problems. I feel horrible for her and Morton’s mother. Kaleb is the brunt of most of his “acting-out” but no kid in the class is immune from it. The teacher said Kaleb doesn’t always give her The Morton Report so she asked that we urge him to report all incidents, as she’s trying to get enough “evidence” to support her idea of hiring someone for recess time JUST to follow Morton around and keep an eye on him. Kaleb loved that idea, as recess presents the greatest challenges and they won’t allow the students to stay inside – they must go out, no matter what weather or terror on the playground awaits them. So, hope is on the horizon.
The little time we did talk about Kaleb, his teacher was mostly just questioning us – like have we had him tested and did we know his thinking is so advanced and is it really possible he can read so fast? She saw him read an entire book (“James and the Giant Peach”) during the lunch break and she couldn’t believe it (I do think he reads about 600-700 words a minute – maybe more.) She knows he’s bored in math as he’s doing algebra just for fun at home, and at school they are doing simple carryover addition and borrowing subtraction problems, but I think it’s good for him to do those routine things. He doesn’t really get bored with anything in school because it’s all in Norwegian and he just thinks it’s all fun as he does the math problems in his head. The teacher said she really hopes he gets better at Norwegian soon so all the barriers can come down and he’s able to mix with the children more, but he mostly stays by himself at recess or hangs out with a few American girls. We asked for the names of some boys in his class that might be a good fit for him to have play dates with and she’s going to send us phone numbers so we can work on his male bonding skills a bit more. But overall, we were delighted to hear that she LOVES having him in class and thinks he’s a very good student – respectful, not disruptive, does his work and obeys the rules (once they are explained). She said he’s had a problem a few times when he understood certain rules to be one way and then the kids did something another way and he got very upset and cried. Once she explained things to him he was OK, but he does have a strong need for things to be FAIR and right. She thinks it’s good for the class to have him there also as they are trying to teach “tolerance.” So, we were well pleased with the report we got. I took Kaleb out for pizza afterwards for a special treat as the local pizza joint had an all-you-can eat night for $11 ($15 for me). Can’t beat that.
Kory had a very frustrating day trying to get the snow tires on our van in below zero temperatures (Celsius). It never got above freezing again today. He broke several tools and finally gave up. I guess we pay for it to be done now as the clock is ticking and they must be on by tomorrow or we can’t drive the van! (They are very serious about their laws here.) Tonight Kory went to help his cousin Odd put in a new kitchen floor and that went much better than his day.
As for me, I make little inroads in this new language and get so excited when I can remember certain vocabulary words, and even more excited if I can put them together in some kind of sentence, but then when presented with the next concept in our textbook and how complex it all seems, I just want to bury my head in something and forget the whole deal. But I was a little bit encouraged tonight when Kaleb and I stopped by to visit Tante Kari and Tante Ruth and I was able to converse with them in Norwegian and they understood me perfectly! I must have talked for an hour and was completed exhausted afterwards but I told some good stories and even got the correct responses, so I know I told them right. Tante Kari was thrilled, as her and I have never really been able to talk one-on-one before because she doesn’t understand English, so I felt like it was a major breakthrough. Hallelujah! Imagine what the future would hold if I could just have an hour together with Kory (even speaking English) and he understood me perfectly.
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