productive sunday

Thing One: Recent Developments

Junior the Freaking Bearded Dragon passed on Friday; it was kind of expected and not. He'd been acting odd for weeks, but we couldn't tell from the books whether it was this weird reptile semi-hibernation they did or something else. So he's buried with teh bunnies; I am not buying another animal; at lesat, not for a while. I feel like having a pet cemetary in the backyard is not something I want to achieve.

*sighs* Child took it hard but seems okay now. School starts tomorrow, so he'll have the distraction. His class schedule is insane; they do equivalent six days of math (we did something similar when i was his age, but it was called math reinforcement for the sixth hour) and it looks suspiciously like prealgebra.

Thing Two: School

I've been pulling pretests from the local community college to retest myself in math; I'm okay through precal but not *complete*, and I don't have the ability to proof anymore. So it looks like either this spring or summer, I'm going to need to add precal to my schedule somehow, even if I have to audit it; I have to relearn how to write and check actual work, not just slide through it with half-assed answers.

I'm unfortunately teaching him all my shortcuts, which are fine for getting the answer but not so much in understanding what he's learning or prepping him for the stuff that shortcutting causes problems with. And frankly, he doesn't think like I do in some ways. I had entirely differnet problems with math, though both of us lack the attention necessary for sitting down and working a single problem for an hour. So I learned it by oddments; aka, I learned algebra before prealg and trig before geometry, then worked my way backward to the stuff that at the time made no sense to me. In other words, he needs the grounding I always lacked. And I can't think of another way to give it to him than to learn it all myself from the ground up. This should be fun.

The schedule changes daily; there's a pattern, but it does make things a lot less repetitive in general, which I think will benefit him a lot, since he gets bored with routine very easily. They also instituted a new homework thing I like a lot--all homework is taken from them at every class and kept in a folder in their home room. All kids have specific chorse during the day involved in collecting homework and announcments and other school-related wokr, and all of it is given to them before they leave school. When they come back to school, the folder is taken immediately and the homeworks sorted between the classes.

At first, it seemed a little odd, but I think I see the habit they're setting up for them to follow this routine, and as they advance, they'll slowly remove some of the failsafes one at a time. I approve immensely; it'll make my job a lot easier as a parent if I *know* what's supposed to be done. He can easily do all the work; his problem was remembering it at all. I met with his homeroom teacher, his English teacher (regarding his handwriting, which is execrable) and his new science teacher. She and Child are two of a kind; he wants to do something on cloning for the Science Fair; she was very excited. I really want to lie down now.

*sighs* God. Scientists.

I did not go looking for hot math teacher. I am strong. Yes. That is the word.

(Also, class in electronics once a week. Child and I are both gleeful. We have a broken DVD player and several keyboards to play with. I can hardly wait. Er. To watch him. But glee)

Science Fair is scaring me to death. Will probably post sadly on that later.

Thing Three: Potential

Still have to make appointment with pulmonologist. We got rid of all insect sprays in the house; so far, that's the only thing we know I was exposed to in both November and in March/April and now that insects are flying, we have--well. Venus fly traps. This is perhaps the creepiest thing I have ever seen in my life, but it seems to work; one right by the rabbit suddenly led to a colony vanishing into thin air.

Have you--have you *seen these things*? God. I have no idea what disturbs me more; all those tiny mouths, or the way I have yet to see one atually catch anything, but knowing the closed--er, leaves, mouths, *things*--mean they did catch something. It's--freaky. Very very freaky. But it seems to be effective. I'm assuming this will not end in Little Shop of Horrors.

Which leads me to this.

( other stuff for those interested )

Thing Six

I have done so much organizing this weekend. Child's room is almost perfect. Even my closet is in shock. And threw away my old shoes, his old stuff, boxed up unused toys, started moving his science stuff around. And trash. And stuff. And my books! Are now on shelves! Not organized yet, but I was excited to find The October Horse. Also have acquired The Everything Wine Book since one of my friends is a big wine drinker and apparently wants my blank expression every time she orders to stop being quite so--blank.