Just A Quickie...

I love the new Blogger app for Android, but the down side is it's easy to forget what I have started blogging about, say in a waiting room, and actually come back and finish it. Another problem arises when I'm ready to post and I don't have a signal because then I have to actually remember to post the entry later. This is an obvious operator error. So thank you for bearing with me :)

Also you will notice that I no longer use my children's actual names in my entries and I have gone back and edited older posts as well. A fellow blogger (and mom) suggested this to protect my children considering that blogs are public, and it seemed kind fun to give them "code names" so I figured why not?

So that's what's been going on in my world...We now return to your regularly scheduled blog :p

Munchkin Mania - Putting the Pieces Together

*Originally written on 11/3/11*

Things are coming together in munchkinland and am I ever glad for it! I was beginning to think I was losing my touch. I had adolescents trying to get kicked out of AP classes and assert themselves in defense of their rights as individuals (yes it was really that deep) all the while ADD was running rampant two hallways over and everyday after 3pm there was pandemonium at my house.

Progress reports came home and for the first time in a long time I didn't need to look heavenward except to say "thank you". Bookworm is making a wicked comeback in his advanced language arts class and is actually looking forward to getting another book for his next book report. He's chomping at the bit to go to the big library in the city now that he has a card. I think that may come in handy when motivation bottoms out again...and it probably will. Maybe not, one can hope...but I'm a realist.

Ace is bringing up his language arts grades after an academic standoff earned him his first ever grade below "A". Adjustments were made...I guess you could say there was a peace conference and a treaty was signed in which both parties were cooperative and flexible. He has since been back on the acadenmic fast track where he usually hangs out. Now art class is a different blog, entirely!

Peach as usual shone like a star which makes me proud because she is super busy and while that could harm her grades she is able to maintain balance.

Little Bear recently resumed his medicine for ADD which really helps all the other methods of "treatment " work a whole lot better. I wouldn't have believed it if you told me it had such an impact on him, but going over a month without it was taking its toll in and out of the classroom. He was sad and frustrated.  He had a sad face nearly everyday on his school behavior chart. His grades were pitiful, work came home half done or poorly done.  From the outside looking in it seemed as though he couldn't spell or do math or anything, one would think he had a learning disability. His teacher actually asked me what had changed and I had to tell her he doesn't have his medicine right now. At home with his siblings? Forget it, they were all plotting his demise!

It's been two weeks since he resumed treatment and Little Bear is doing fantastic. Happy faces everyday...EVERYDAY! His classwork from last week seemed to belong to another child! A's! All his work...math, spelling, vocabulary all of it earned an A! Yesterday afternoon he sat coloring all evening because he's discovered he's good at it. He drew and colored 3 pictures and various other items. Tonight he's playing with his brothers and sisters, happily involved in a make believe game, clamoring and laughing through the house. My husband is ready to lose his mind, but the "noise" is music to my ears :)

Munchkin Mania - Bright Minds

*Originally written about a month ago and finally finished this morning*

Sooo much to blog about, soooo little time. Where do I begin? Do I talk about bright children? My momma and me the momma? "In-cog-eat-o" and other stuff I stay up at night thinking up? Or do I blog about all the... WOW... that my husband's cochlear implant has brought into my world? Hmmm... Only an hour before the bus drops the balance of my kids off at the door shattering the euphoria of coffee and naptime. Sounds like we're gonna talk about bright kids that's gonna be my catch-all term, "bright kids" you like it? I like it...Let's go!

When I say bright kids  I'm talking about the kind of kids that keep a mom up at night thinking up things like in-cog-eat-o and so forth just to stay one step ahead of the game. I have shared many conversations via facebook status that would occur in only one place on Earth...MY HOUSE! This week has been busy and we've reached some milestones. My Moxie Girl is done with diapers! Very thrilling indeed, and a lot sooner than I expected, Moxie Girl is only two years, two months old! My husband thinks this indicates that she too is a bright kid. I guess when she dragged a box over and stood on it to have her height recorded last month she was just being cute...

Little Bear learned to ride a two-wheel bike which was a very big deal for him and for me as his Momma. He has such a tough time feeling like a big boy, like part of the "First Set" and he wants to be one of them. It's really not fair this caste system my children have developed, but one has to expect that bright kids will develop a caste system. Little Bear is the first of the "Second Set" also commonly referred to as "the babies". (Note: I do not actually have "sets" of children. My husband and I have six children born over a period of eleven years.) This actually seems to put him in the lowest order of the system by my observation. He is only 16 months younger than Peach who is the last of the First Set. So the members of the first set don't feel he needs the coddling and attention, patience and understanding that the other members of the second set are given. But at the same time he is deemed unworthy to be ranked with them in all their coolness due to the immaturity he exhibits as a younger child. Learning to ride a bike means there's one more area where the field is leveled and Little Bear can join in and play with the First Set as an equal. One day I'll have to blog in detail about the caste system...anyway, yeah big victory for Little Bear!

Peach turned eight and has had so many opportunities present themselves to her this past week. I'm nervous about her growing up and remain ever conscious of my job as Momma to keep her down to Earth and teach her the proper place for all the things in her life. She recently has come to appreciate that Bookworm is kind to her above all the others. She even took the time to thank him and I can see that they have a very healthy relationship.

Report cards came home and this is an area that fills a mother of bright kids with dread. Here's a news flash for y'all: bright kids does not equal beautiful report cards 90% of the time. Yes they are in the gifted program, no that doesn't mean school is a breeze. Bookworm orchestrated a semi-elaborate scheme to get out of the Advanced Language Arts class he's in simply because he dislikes writing! He thought if he scored low enough he would get bumped down to the regular class. Two problems with that, 1) Those kids are doing writing now too, they all are! 2) I'm his Mother. He even kept track of his average so that he didn't accidentally fail the class. This is what I contend with folks. Bright kids.

Ace is struggling for the first time with a teacher who's personality conflicts with his own. She doesn't find him absolutely remarkable and fantastic. This is devastating enough for Ace, but they are caught in a power struggle as well. She wants him to conform to doing things her way and he is not a conformist. Ace feels that he can deliver the assignment to her complete and awesome just like she wants if only she would let him get there his way. So it begins with my second child entering the 'tween years!