1 in a million

There is an old Nike Ad, that says this:

"A woman is often measured by the things she cannot control.  She is measured by the way her body curves or doesn't curve, by where she is flat or straight or round.  She is measured by 36-24-36 and inches and ages and numbers, by all the out-side things that don't ever add up to who she is on the inside.  And so if a woman is to be measured, let her be measured by the things she can control, by who she is and who she is trying to become."

It's one of my all-time favorite advertisements, I may have even posted it before.  I'm posting it again because it's National Autism Awareness month, which means people are posting, blogging, writing about autism.  New statistics released last week  show that the rates of autism have increased to 1:88 (as of the most "recent" 2008).  Also, a news article yesterday reported that more than half of kids with high-functioning autism report being bullied in school. 

I'm a person who likes data - but this data is depressing.  However, if I think about it a little, I realize that the worries I have about Allison growing up are really no more than those I have about Jacob.  At the end of the day, kids are kids.  And numbers can never paint a clear picture of what makes each kid such a great kid.  Everyone has a unique personality and a unique path in life.  I wouldn't call Allison 1:88 - more like 1 in a million.

Saturday

 

Begin the day with pancakes and sausage - it's Maple Syrup Saturday!  Yields are down with the crazy weather.  The pancakes were good!

 

Maple syrup tour.... longer than we expected.  The kids got to listen to the sap move.  Never underestimate the power of suggestion with children.

Carnivorous plants.... run!

 

 Maple syrup on ice cream - the perfect interlude between Maple Syrup Saturday and....

 The last soccer game of the season.  Jacob's team won, and he had a few good shots. 

Home to clean up a little to get ready for Rock Band with one of the cutest kids ever (other than our own, that is).  I missed the pic of Allison singing, which was also pretty darn cute.

The art of losing at War

I cheat at War.  There, I admitted it.  I cheat, and I feel no regrets about.  The faster I lose that game, the better off we all are.

There is an art to cheating at war. You can keep a low card at the bottom of the deck to whip out in the event of a war.  This is even better if it's a war on a high card set.  You can choose to shuffle (or not) whatever will cause you to lose cards the quickest.  Sometimes I will set a card on the top, just so that I can set up a King loss to Ace. 

The kids have not noticed yet the slight of hand.  They delight in winning the game.  Why is Mom so bad at War?  It's not a game of skill..... or is it?  I lost a game of War in 5 minutes the other day.  Five minutes! 

Blue and Gold

Last Sunday was also the Blue and Gold Ceremony for Boy Scouts, which may or may not signal the end of scouting for the year.  Actually, I have no idea what it was for.  I *think* the boy scouts moved up to the next level, but I'm really unsure if they "completed" their Tiger Cubs, "started" their Wolf Cubs, if they are still Tiger cubs now working on their Wolf stuff.  I do know this - they all got new neckerchiefs.

This is Jacob's den.  Shirts were required to be tucked in (except, I guess, if you're scout leader).  Pants with buttons, belts, tucking.... Jacob's Worst Pants Nightmares.  He did fine, though.  There was very little attrition as the scouts moved up (which surprised me), and the biggest group was the one going from Cub to Boy Scouts.  That was a weird part of the ceremony.  I guess I'm just not that into the pageantry of scouting.  I think the activities are nice, the outdoorsy, be-a-kind person stuff.  Anyway, here's the whole pack:

Daredevil??

Over the weekend, Jacob learned to ride his bike without training wheels.

He is very proud of himself.  He put off learning to ride without training wheels because he's a pretty cautious kid.  He didn't want to go very fast.  So I was kindof surprised to find him doing this less than 2 days later:

The ramp is compliments of Tyson and Jacob down the street - who (my) Jacob has been watching with envy doing stunts on their bikes.

Mom worrying about the effects of peer pressure..... starting now.

Parent Teacher Conference - The Sequel

Last night was Allison's parent teacher conference.  We had her IEP in February, and this is the first time in 4 years that the teacher has not suggested canceling the parent-teacher conference.  Spiffy. 

We learned that - first - Allison doesn't test well.  This is evidenced by the wild swings in her state and city mandated testing, which has been anywhere between 19th and 68th percentile over the last few years.  Not necessarily trending anywhere.  (we suspect it's largely dependent on her mood that day - or how interested she is in the problems..... we have no clue how to address this).  Her teacher feels that she's at or above average in math and above average in reading and comprehension.  She said she probably doesn't "push" as hard as she could academically, but "why mess with a good thing" behaviorally (as in, she's making good progress and by pushing, you run the risk of a rebellion, which would serve no one all that well).

Her handwriting is getting a little more legible, but fine motor continues to be a concern, and so is getting her thoughts down on paper in an organized fashion.  She does much better if she can answer things verbally. She had a 100% on her 100 question multiplication test and 94% on her 100 question division test, but only 70% on the word problem test over the same material.

She likes to go to the bathroom (every day) about 5 minutes into the math lesson.  LOL.  This is 8:50am, and nowhere near a necessary potty break.  Her teacher sent her to the bathroom 10 minutes before math one day, and she still asked to go right after math started.  Habits are hard to break.

Allison likes her teacher and I think her teacher likes her too.  It's probably the first teacher since kindergarten who kindof enjoys her quirkiness and (more-or-less) works with it.  Another good match.

Robot goes to school

First Grade Project: My Robot