And onward

The 3-week old chicks have arrived. They are quite a bit bigger than I was expecting them to be, to tell the truth.
They have lost most of their “chick fuzz” and are mostly feathers. They still have the underlying fuzz around their necks and under their wings. You can even see a big of the combs starting to form on their heads now. We have a couple of heat lamps in the brooding pen, but I don’t think it will be too long before we are able to put them out in the coop.

All are very skittish, and I now understand where the term “You are such a chicken” comes from. If you make any type of sudden move around their pen, they will all go running the other way. They can be quite comical at times, actually.

S was very excited about the arrival of the birds. He sat outside and watched them for the better part of an hour. After supper I went out to watch them with him, and was quite surprised to hear his analogy on the “pecking order” of the chicks.

“Look at those ones there, Mom. See how the two of them are alone in the corner over there? Those two are the geeks. They are like me and J. They have a good time just themselves, just pecking away in the corner and having fun together. Now watch what happens. She how she is going to head over to the main group and try to fit in? Yeah – watch that big one; I call her ‘Bertha the Bully’. Watch what she does. See?! She just pecked her and then jumped on her! They are so mean to the geeks, but the geeks would let them come in to the corner and peck with them. They wouldn’t mind at all.”

In his mind, S has divided the chicks into three separate and distinct groups – the ‘populars’, the ‘regulars’, and the ‘geeks’. I honestly don’t think he can tell any two chickens apart, but he swears he knows which one is Bertha. “She’s the fastest one; the biggest one. She knows she’s bigger than all the others.”

The first thing he did this morning – even before getting dressed – was to go out to the garage and check on the chicks. I’m sure he is going to do all that he can to try and make these chickens his friends. Not sure that he will be successful in that venture, but you never know. (And yes, he is very clear about the fate of these birds and realizes he won't get to keep any as 'pets')

I will confess though – it absolutely broke my heart to hear him talking the way he did. I remember being in Grade 8 and how hard it was to not be one of the popular ones. The chosen ones. Everyone wanted to be like “them” but it was impossible to get in, no matter how hard you tried, no matter what you did. When I mentioned S’s conversation this morning, my assistant commented that it sounded like S had accepted the divisions. I said that I felt he was more resigned to it rather than accepting of it. She’d never thought of it that way.

The A-man stayed home from school today. He told me that he was sick, but I am pretty sure he was just over tired. He’s been working pretty hard the past three days trying to get caught up on his English assignments that he didn’t get done. He will be getting a failing grade on his mid-term because he had so many assignments that simply were not handed in. When I spoke with the teacher, he assured me that he would mark the assignments and apply them to the A-man’s final grade. He told me that he realizes the A-man is more than able to complete the work and this has been proven by the assignments and tests that he has completed in class. I was glad to hear that, but I think I am going to have to address the organizational portion of the A-man’s IEP.
At this point, I'm starting to thing that it's simply not clear enough for the teachers. They just don’t get that he lacks the ability to start something if he isn’t given absolutely clear and set directions to do so. This teacher provided them with one sheet with a number of dates in which assignments would be due. Yeah - that doesn't work for him.

(sigh) Just when I feel like things are on the upswing, we always have a few bumps in the road! Not sure if I will be able to have it addessed this year, but I will be SURE to make an appointment to meet with ALL of his teacher's next year to address these issues. Will also be making an appointment with the Special Ed teacher to ensure the IEP is even more clear than it currently is.