Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Daily Life

Now that we're through the holidays, it's pretty much back to normal life around here.

I turned 51 on Monday. Rick bought me this for my corner of the family room.  (The room is supposedly my office but I don't need the whole room and right now there's a ping pong table in it that leaves me about a 6 ft by 4 ft area). Rick got me two FSU shirts (but they didn't fit and have to be exchanged) and NCIS LA #3.

My mom sent me this.

Jessica got me a CD of the top Christian songs.

From my brother. (He sent money and Jessica picked it)
My sister sent money, Adam gave me money and Ty gave me chocolate.
We bought pomegranates at the grocery store. Tyler looked  up how to eat them on the Internet.


I made potato soup in the crockpot. The recipe has loads of bacon, cheese, heavy cream etc. We're going to make some changes to the recipe before next time. It's good but it's very rich and uses a lot of ingredients. We only needed about half this much too. This is a 7 qt crock pot. 

I had a meeting at Jasmine's school to go over her testing, so Tyler and I had lunch with her--Sarku's and Chick Fil A.

Jasmine tested much higher this time. The last battery of tests had her IQ pretty low, and I requested a retest. This time is was 24 points higher. Overall she scored at 12 yr 3 mos in mental ability. (She turns 12 on Feb 18). Her math reasoning was quite low though. But reading was at the top of the charts. I think she scored higher on the test than what she can actually do in the classroom, but it doesn't really matter.

Jasmine worked very hard all last week on a book report that she understood was to be given orally today. So she practiced it until it was within time limits and pretty fluent. She got to class today and #1 she was the only one who'd done hers. #2 She was told it was to be written not oral, but no form had previously been sent home. No problem because she wrote it out anyway. AND #3 she was told she couldn't do her report on The Hunger Games Book 1 because it had been made into a movie and books that had been made into a movie were ineligible. That is NO WHERE on the forms she brought home. So her teacher told her to do it over.

That teacher left early from the meeting, and I was surprised when another person in the meeting said that Jasmine was having trouble in that class because Jasmine needs to "feel the love" and no one feels the love with that teacher. The teacher said that the other teacher was not a good match for Jasmine. Normally the teachers don't make comments like that about the other teachers, but I'm glad she did because it explains a lot. Jasmine has felt all year like that teacher does not like her all. That's sad, but Jasmine is going to have to realize that not all teachers are going to be warm and fuzzy toward her. So I guess we will be redoing the book report. She was originally going to write it on the second book in the Hunger Games series but it's a more complicated plot, and she was having trouble summarizing it. One thing the other teacher told me at the end of the meeting is that Jasmine's "extended time" clause applies not just to testing, but to other work so I can request extended time for the project.

Jasmine has  been putting together a major history fair project the past three weeks with lots of help from Jessica. I'm glad Jessica knows how to do a power point presentation. It's looking impressive but so much still to do in documented primary and secondary sources and preparing the oral presentation to go with it.

We've had plenty of assorted appointments for the kids the past three weeks too. It's been a little crazy--orthodontist, dentist, counseling, medications etc. They are scheduling an EEG for Jasmine too.

So basically it's just been our normal crazy life here lately. 

10 comments:

One Crowded House said...

I agree- it was nice for that other teacher to fill you in on the not so kind teacher.

And I feel the same way- that kids will have to learn how to deal with the not so great teachers just like the great ones.

It looks like you had a great birthday.

Are you still liking your blender? What kind was it again? I need to buy a new one (parts of my old one melted or burned out- I'm assuming kids used it for something).

Kathy Cassel said...

It's an Oster 7 cup. It is not as high powered as I'd like. I have to put the stuff for the smoothies in little at a time and blend it.

One Crowded House said...

thanks! We don't use ours that often- mostly for milk shakes- but it would be good to have one if we ever did want to start drinking smoothies....
It would probably be powerful enough for milkshakes

Rose Anne said...

the kids love pomagrants, you can use them in a smoothie also!
I can split on open and the kids will each eat half of the seeds each, lots of extra fiber!

Kathy Cassel said...

Tanya-It might have trouble with the ice cream. We had to scrape it and stir it a lot in the blender. I was kind of disappointed by that. Next time I'm going for a monster food processor : )

Kathy Cassel said...

RA-first time we've had them. Every once in a while when we're at the grocery store we'll pick up a more unusual fruit. I was going for mangos and Ty wanted to try the pomegranates. The kids seem to enjoy them.

Mrs. Clayton said...

One day I spent 4-6 hours making pomegranate syrup. I made 3 half pints. My family of 12 could use it all at one breakfast. Thankfully they realized how hard I worked and made it last for 3 weeks. :) I'm a teacher and I sometimes make mistakes by forgetting the IEP goals. But, the teacher really should excuse her from the assignment because of not handing out a matrix or a description of the assignment. By the way, I love reading your blog about your beautiful family. We have 10 kids and I identify with the ups and downs of family life.

Karen said...

Wow, Kathy, back to your running around so quickly after break! Happy late Birthday. You got some cool stuff.

Glad Jasmine's test scores were higher. I admire you and your family.

Kathy Cassel said...

The sad part of the whole thing is that Jasmine is in intensive reading and language arts due to the FCAT testing. So the teacher knows this class--only 13 students which is great for 6th grade--need extra help with understanding what is required and in making sure they are on the right track.

Right now my biggest concern is the history fair project. I think that's nation wide so some other reading this may be dealing with it.

Kathy Cassel said...

Thank you Karen. Your new grandson is adorable!