My Corner of the World

As you can tell by my lack of writing this week, it was a busy week. I found it to be more challenging than I think I expected it to be. It wasn't bad, just challenging.

I have discovered that most of my day is spent keeping kids focused and on-task. I have about 4 kids with SEVERE ADHD, so most of my day is spent just keeping them focused. I will repeatedly say to two of them, FOCUS. One of the boys just frowns every time I say it. In fact, Thursday during my math lesson, one of the boys had his mechanical pencil taken apart, and after two attempts of getting him to put it back together and get back to work, I picked up the pencil and threw it away. I am expecting the parents to call and complain, but I have to admit, it was a good stress reliever for me at that moment in time. I have banned that child from having them in my classroom again. Like I said, I'm expecting a phone call but for the time being, it's saving me a bit of stress.

I have given a lot of thought to ADHD this week. I don't remember ADHD when I was a kid. We were told to "sit" and we did it. We didn't get up out of our seats at random times or have kids with "chews" to keep them from eating things or talk outloud at random times just to stay off-task. We had parents who would kick our butts if we were a problem for the teachers, so we weren't problem kids. ADHD didn't exist...now I have a caseload with several of them. It has certainly made me ponder a lot this week.

In other news, I baby-sat Chase on Wednesday after school. Kim had a meeting, so she asked me to watch Chase. I told her it would be fine. I didn't have to tutor that day, so I considered it a good excuse to spend some time with Chase. I told her I'd take him to the local arcade. I was in my room getting a few things done and Ally was sitting in my room and I could tell she was hurt that I was taking Chase and not her. Ally is one of the other teacher's kids who comes in my room before and after school to hang out. My room has sort of become the hang out over the years for all the teachers kids. Which is fun. I get to act like I have lots of kids when in reality they get to go home with their parents. :-) So, anyway, I looked at Ally and invited her to join us. She was excited. And, I figured it would be good because I had done a few things with Chase but not with Ally.

So we headed out to the arcade. I had also selfishly wanted to hit the Dairy Queen as a treat for myself since DQ is my favorite ice cream. So on our way to the mall where both DQ and the arcade are located, Chase kissed Ally on the cheek, and also made a reference to his Penis. I have to admit, I was surprised. And, had wondered if I had made a mistake inviting Ally along. Afterall, I didn't want Ally scarred by Chase's comments and kiss. Chase is harmless but I didn't want this sweet little girl scared or upset. Of course, she handled it VERY well. They're in the same grade, and in all honesty Ally is more mature than Chase, so she did REALLY well. I was so proud of her.

We did ice cream first, and Chase only attempted to run off once. Chase has the perfect name, as he runs a lot. And we got to the arcade and I gave them each five dollars. They got their tokens, and then handed them to me. I was surprised because every other time I have taken kids to the arcade, they just pocket the tokens, but it was a good thing because I always knew where they were because they would have to come back to me for more tokens. It was a good system and everyone seemed happy. I even got five dollars in tokens so I could play with the kids.

So, about halfway through it, Ally and I decided to play a game together and get a bunch of tickets. I find it amazing how you work hard for tickets to get prizes that would be cheaper if you just went out and bought them, but it provides good entertainment for kids, so I guess it's a good thing. So, Ally and I got really involved in our game. And, Chase would come and go for more tokens and tell me where he was, so we were okay. Then on our second game, he came over and hit one of OUR buttons on our game to end our game. I was PISSED. I'll be the first to admit it takes me quite a bit to get that mad, and I was mad. He had ruined the game for Ally and I told him not to do it again. Chase was clearly mad at me, but I was okay with it because that's how kids are at times when they know they did something wrong. He still had a token so I figured he was headed to play his game again and let us do our thing. So, I glanced back and he was in the kiddie area of the aracade walking around and Ally and I started a new game. We were into it, and Chase came up behind me and hit the button AGAIN. When I realized it was him I tried to stop his hand from hitting the button, but it was too late. I WAS PISSED. I turned to him, took his tickets away, told him he had lost his tokens that were left, and made him sit on the floor away from our game. He was mad too. And of course, living up to his name, he ran away several times, and I had to bring him back and make him sit. We played the game several times with Chase's tokens since it was his fault we had finished two games early because of him. Chase had never acted like this before with me, and I was getting more and more frustrated. I never yelled at him, I just made him stay with us. After we finished the game, we walked around and did other games like skee-ball. I made Chase stand by me the entire time. And, sometimes that required me chasing after him to get him back wtih us, but I did it.

Ally continued to be great. I must admit, Ally has matured over the Summer and it was a pleasure being around her. We played the games and had a good time. Granted, it would have been easier without having to chase down Chase from time to time, but it really was fun.

I dreadded Kim coming to pick up Chase. I had never had to give her a bad report like this before. I was thankful that I had 9 years of teaching experience of telling parents what their child had done wrong, but I had never had to tell a friend that their kid was a handful. In the end, my worrying about telling Kim was all for nothing. While Kim felt bad for the way her child had acted, she wasn't mad at me at all for how I handled it. She felt I had made good decisions on handling him which made me feel better. By the end of my time with Chase and Ally, I was selfishly glad I didn't have kids to go home to take care of that evening. I had had my fill of drama for one day. I also had a new respect for Kim. While Chase is a good kid, he can be a handful at times, and she has done a good job with him. The whole experience was really good.

I went to homegroup that night, and wound up playing with more kids. Zeb, Sausha, and Noah were there and we wound up playing Hide and Seek in the dark. I must admit, I can't remember the last time I did that, but it was really, really fun. The boys were sweet and didn't tag me a few times on purpose because they feel bad for me because of the limp, but I will also say I had my fair share of being "it" too. I had a wonderful time, and it was fun to be with a few kids without drama. After my afternoon experience, it was a really fun time with the kids.

I had a bit of a challenging experience this week with Fashiongal. I hate drama, but Fashiongal and I exchanged words Tuesday night. In the end, I think it was a good thing, and honestly it felt good to get some things off my chest so to speak. At the moment she isn't speaking to me, but that's okay. I hate drama...avoid drama at all costs, but in this case, time will be a good thing and I think it will wind up okay in the end. I even asked her to start doing dishes when she cooks now, and she didn't fight me on it. (she has never done dishes regularly, without prompting from her Mother in the time we've lived together and I was fed up with it) I came home yesterday and dishes had been done. Time will tell, but I think it was a good thing. And I noticed that my headache lifted after I shared my heart with her. I figure it will take some time to get through it, but it will be a good lesson for us all in the end.

Finally, I have found myself lost in books all week. I finally finished Obsessed by Ted Dekker, which was good. His books are pretty long so it takes me a while to read them. I also read "Nights in Rodanthe" by Nicholas Sparks. I figured the movie is coming out so I wanted to read the book first. It was REALLY good. I was up late last night finishing it, and am now looking forward to the movie. Of course, the movies are never as good as the book. And now I'm reading Schooled. I can't remember the author, but it's about a homeschooled kid who is now in public school. It's a book for kids, but looked intruiging to me because the majority of homeschoolers I get in my classroom are pretty clueless as to how things work out in the real world. After I finish it I have "RED" by Ted Dekker to read. It is the second book in a trilogy and I am eagerly anticipating that book too. Gosh, I went for a long time without some really good books to read, and now all I want to do is read! :-)

Well, I have rambled on here much longer than usual. I should sign off and begin my day. I love Saturdays. Of course, it's raining, so I foresee myself cuddled with a book!

Later!