We had our case conference meeting for Daniel yesterday and it was very interesting. I am very happy that we made the decision to have him tested, because we knew that he needed help catching up. And it wasn't scary. It was encouraging. Honestly. Because now we have a picture of how he best learns at this point. And we have a piece of paper that says he will have access to the things that will help him.
Bah for labels. In my opinion I would rather have my kid being pulled out part of the day for special education by professionals than have him stumble along because I don't want him "labeled." I have utmost peace with our decision.
One interesting highlight of the meeting was when the question was posed to me, "So, what kind of medication are you giving Daniel for his behavior?" "Nothing." "Nothing?!" Later I spoke with the teacher and she said that everyone was sure that Daniel must "be on" something because his behavior has improved so much. I am certainly not against medications, but the best thing we have done, medication-wise, was taking him off of everything. We have him on tons of nutritional supplements and don't add sugar to anything that he eats, but that is all.
And I get uncomfortable when people say, "You have done such a great job with him." I have two replies to that. Number one: Daniel is good. He has always had goodness in him, he just needed room to be good. Number two: We are not doing anything that anyone couldn't do. We take care of our kids. We give them help on their homework. We enforce rules and allow consequences. We encourage free thought and want to raise children who can work out solutions. This is parenting.
________________________
Today was magical for Daniel at school. And I was really happy that he was as "calm" as he was by the end of the day. He has been talking non-stop about the fun things that he got to do.
Daniel left his school around 12:15, after making sure that he had handed out all his little gifts to his teachers and aids. Then we headed to Claire's class. I tell you what, I love, love, LOVE that Daniel gets the opportunity to spend his time this way. The first grade classes at Claire's school did a little room trading for some fun stations and while I was helping Claire's teacher, Daniel was going around with the other kids doing the activities. It was so fun to hang back and watch how he just fit right in and participated. Again, school has been such a blessing to our family. I have often beaten myself up that I am not a homeschool mama. I mean, what kind of hippie am I if I allow my children to take standardized tests? Be that as it may, there is something to be said for school. There are things I don't like (politics, tests, pressures, conformity) but those are all easily outweighed by the wonderful educators that love my children and are passionate about them and compassionate to them. We are very, very blessed.
As a mama my favorite part of today, regarding Daniel, was when we got home and he went through his bag of goodies that got sent home with him. He gave his siblings first choice of candy, offered them coloring pages out of his new coloring books and on and on. Always followed by his little Ukie voice saying, "Merry Christmas!"
No comments:
Post a Comment