Sunday, October 10, 2004
This is just the type of thing that I would have blogged, back when I was blogging all the time, so I'm going to blog it, and then I'm going to really try to keep blogging regularly all the time, even though it's gotten away from me severely in the last month.
Benny came in the door to the office with his hands behind his back and said the following: "Guess what I have? Guess what Benny has!? It's... a... *dramatic sound effect as his hand whips around in front* BOOGER. Look, here Mom. *hands it to me, thanks* It's not sticky, it's a dry one. Benny found it. Benny got it. *I put it in the garbage* Oh, what are you doing? No, Mom. Benny wants you to have it! Put it in you! Go on!
Uhhhhhh. I think I was supposed to take that lovely booger that he offered in such a friendly way and insert it in my own nose.
Now let's see what else is going on in Benny's life.
We had a severe conflict over his behavior in violin class. In his first and second lesson of this semester he was just acting like a little buckethead and not paying attention, laughing, fooling around, etc. So after his second lesson I took his ice cream bubble and taped it to the very top of the fridge and for ONE ENTIRE WEEK he went without ice cream. Very astonishing. Very hard to deal with especially at our playdate at pipes where we always end with ice cream -- there was none. All week we talked about how he could earn back his ice cream at his lesson by showing respect to his teacher -- respect means you look at someone's face when they talk, you do what they ask you to do or stop doing what they ask you to stop doing, and you answer "Yes Ma'am" or "No Ma'am" when you are asked a question. So he's been working on that. His next lesson he earned his ice cream back and that has been a very effective tool in keeping him on track. He's doing some very good practicing now and learning the finer points of the songs in book 1 up through Allegro. He had a play-in with Ms. Stevens at which he performed reasonably well, given that these things happen from 6-7 pm.
In karate, he's learning his first form. It's called "Chee Gone One" or something like that. We don't really practice karate at home since he has enough to practice with violin and school and whatever else, but we have practiced the moves to the form a little bit, so Mr. Odom can see some progress in Benny and be encouraged in a small way. He's behaving REASONABLY well in class, given that he's still the littlest one. He goes for about 40 minutes with reasonable behavior and then his attention kind of dissipates. He absolutely loves Ms. Jonelle who is Mr. Odom's longsuffering wife -- she arrives at 6 and spends the second half hour of the class just working on Benny. He's learning some self-defense moves and he's learning his stances and whatnot -- he very much enjoys himself and he appears to be not irritating Mr. Odom too acutely, for now any way.
Swimming class is going great -- he's learning the front crawl. Last class he swam the length of the pool without going on his back to rest. It's been GREAT having him in a group because he loves racing the other kids and it's very motivational. Ms. Raelynn is excellent and he's having a blast at his lessons.
Preschool is fine. I really love Ms. Meredith's art projects, and Benny always seems like he's having a good time. He's not very communicative about what they say and do but sometimes something pops up that he learned in preschool, and that's always interesting. We started a homeschooling co-op with Gabe, Zoe, and Michael and their moms. Each mom teaches for 30 minutes and we have snack and recess and whatnot. We meet at church. It's been very interesting, and we're still working out the kinks in the organization and execution of it.
With hope to blog more regularly again...
Benny came in the door to the office with his hands behind his back and said the following: "Guess what I have? Guess what Benny has!? It's... a... *dramatic sound effect as his hand whips around in front* BOOGER. Look, here Mom. *hands it to me, thanks* It's not sticky, it's a dry one. Benny found it. Benny got it. *I put it in the garbage* Oh, what are you doing? No, Mom. Benny wants you to have it! Put it in you! Go on!
Uhhhhhh. I think I was supposed to take that lovely booger that he offered in such a friendly way and insert it in my own nose.
Now let's see what else is going on in Benny's life.
We had a severe conflict over his behavior in violin class. In his first and second lesson of this semester he was just acting like a little buckethead and not paying attention, laughing, fooling around, etc. So after his second lesson I took his ice cream bubble and taped it to the very top of the fridge and for ONE ENTIRE WEEK he went without ice cream. Very astonishing. Very hard to deal with especially at our playdate at pipes where we always end with ice cream -- there was none. All week we talked about how he could earn back his ice cream at his lesson by showing respect to his teacher -- respect means you look at someone's face when they talk, you do what they ask you to do or stop doing what they ask you to stop doing, and you answer "Yes Ma'am" or "No Ma'am" when you are asked a question. So he's been working on that. His next lesson he earned his ice cream back and that has been a very effective tool in keeping him on track. He's doing some very good practicing now and learning the finer points of the songs in book 1 up through Allegro. He had a play-in with Ms. Stevens at which he performed reasonably well, given that these things happen from 6-7 pm.
In karate, he's learning his first form. It's called "Chee Gone One" or something like that. We don't really practice karate at home since he has enough to practice with violin and school and whatever else, but we have practiced the moves to the form a little bit, so Mr. Odom can see some progress in Benny and be encouraged in a small way. He's behaving REASONABLY well in class, given that he's still the littlest one. He goes for about 40 minutes with reasonable behavior and then his attention kind of dissipates. He absolutely loves Ms. Jonelle who is Mr. Odom's longsuffering wife -- she arrives at 6 and spends the second half hour of the class just working on Benny. He's learning some self-defense moves and he's learning his stances and whatnot -- he very much enjoys himself and he appears to be not irritating Mr. Odom too acutely, for now any way.
Swimming class is going great -- he's learning the front crawl. Last class he swam the length of the pool without going on his back to rest. It's been GREAT having him in a group because he loves racing the other kids and it's very motivational. Ms. Raelynn is excellent and he's having a blast at his lessons.
Preschool is fine. I really love Ms. Meredith's art projects, and Benny always seems like he's having a good time. He's not very communicative about what they say and do but sometimes something pops up that he learned in preschool, and that's always interesting. We started a homeschooling co-op with Gabe, Zoe, and Michael and their moms. Each mom teaches for 30 minutes and we have snack and recess and whatnot. We meet at church. It's been very interesting, and we're still working out the kinks in the organization and execution of it.
With hope to blog more regularly again...
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