Replies to 'School Issues'

Our oldest son went through driving school (at our expense) in March-April.  He got some basic experience there, plus the book training.  It is up to us (the parents) to teach him the rest.

Our 9 y/o's teacher has grouped the kids by ability for reading, and two other aids come in to teach the lower two groups.  Math is all together.  I don't know what is in store for 4th grade.  I would hope that the kids could be grouped at least for reading and math...it seems much more efficient.  Since there is no gifted program in our school district, there is no point in having the 9 y/o tested.  We will be working over the summer on the multiplication and division tables...memorization doesn't take logical thinking, therefore it is "boring".  We will have to come up with some little incentives for learning the tables.  It will be a challenge to keep it from being boring for him...necessary skill for more advanced math.

We do have a small school district...about 100 kids per grade level, so not a lot of spare teachers.  But I wouldn't trade the small town life...it's quiet and tame around here most of the time.  Very low crime rate, very low rate of drug problems in the school.  I guess the big-time drug dealers don't find it worthwhile to come to a small town like ours...good thing for us.  There was a big bust of a meth lab in town a couple of years ago, but not much action since then.  The police are ever-present and know everything that goes on...the police even knocked on the door in the middle of the night to tell us that we had left our garage door open.

When they get to high school, the kids are grouped by ability for their math classes.  They choose the language arts, social studies, and science classes that they want to take, as well as the arts.  There are specific requirements that must be met, but there is some flexibility.  The language arts classes for 9th and 10th grade are required, and they combine the language arts with social studies.  Since it takes reading and writing skills to do the social studies work, it makes sense to combine them.

We are still concerned about our oldest son's ability to get himself out of bed in the morning.  He has Narcolepsy (like me).  He sets his alarm for an hour before he is to get up, so he can take the Provigil and give it a chance to kick in.  This doesn't seem to make it any easier to get up in the morning.  After "going to bed" he stays up late...we have to check on him to make sure that the lights are out and the computer is off.  I hope he has a roommate for his summer job at the YMCA camp...maybe the roommate can dump some cold water on his head every morning...LOL.  He will be in a different city for the Culinary School...he really needs to get up in time to make it to his classes...he is paying a lot of money to be in the school.  We don't want to have to make "wake up" calls every morning...although my youngest son's teachr also has Narcolepsy, and she has two alarms and two friends who call her in the morning to get her out of bed. 

Our sleep specialist told us of a device called the Feel Bright Light Visor...it is a portable light box on a hat.  It is worn for 30 minutes in the morning to help wake a person up...I wonder if it would work while a person is still in bed and needing to get up...I guess it would depend on whether it works while the eyes are closed...it certainly would be an annoyance for somebody who sleeping.  Early morning light in the summer wakes me up at 5:00 every morning, whether I want to wake up or not.  It is supposed to straighten out the sleep-wake cycles.  The device costs about $200, and insurance doesn't cover it...insurance doesn't seem to cover any of the useful things outside of regular "medical equipment".  This light visor is also helpful for winter depression.  It might be worth the investment...if we could squeeze $200 out of the budget...maybe an East window with no curtains!!  Being up North...that would only work in the summer...winter brings very short days with lots of clouds...certainly not the early and bright wake-up light that we have in the summer. 

Well, almost time for kids to get home from school...the homework battles continue...Becky