Passing Time

Lately I've noticed that days - and weeks - have been flying by at an incredible speed.
Now, in reality, I know that the days are 24 hours long - and that doesn't change - but sometimes as I'm writing the date for something, I actually have to stop and check if that's right, because, well, "It just CAN'T be nearing the end of April already, can it?"
I'm not sure what has caused this increased time thing, but I sure wish it would stop! The crows feet wish it, too.

I had a meeting at the school last week regarding S and his transition into high school. To tell the truth, it was a bit of a time waster. I knew we had to do the IPRC review. It's more or less a formality that is mandated by the Board. S has Aspergers - that isn't going to change, nor is his need for an IEP going to change. But, we have this meeting, say "Yup, it's status quo" and then move onward.
I was really ticked when I realized that the Spec Ed teacher from the high school wasn't going to be at the meeting. That was the whole intention, I had thought. Instead, I get to hear all about how S hasn't been doing his homework, how S did "this" about a month ago... and onward.

Regarding the homework issue, I explained to the teachers that I could only enforce the homework completion that I knew about. If it's not written in his agenda, I don't know about it. Period. The Principal pointed out that this problem would be worse once he moves schools because the involvement is even less.
High school does, however, have a program called "Student Success." Held every day at lunch time, the teacher's advise the Student Success (SS) teacher of homework/assignments assigned for student x, y and z, and then the SS teacher will actually follow up with the student to ensure he has completed their work.
What an amazing concept - it's like a homework room! Gee - years ago I suggested having something like this at our school and was told it wouldn't work because of a, b and c. Guess the truth of the matter was that none of the teachers were willing to give some of their lunch time to ensure it worked. As parents we could only do so much and according to Board rules a teacher has to be involved in any "school programs."

Be that as it may, it would appear that S will have an opportunity to become involved in this SS program and may actually be able to complete a large portion of his work at school, with a teacher there to assist, and then the entire homework issue won't be a bone of contention at home. Love that idea, especially after the Math tirade I lived through last night.

The A-man will be bringing home his mid-terms on Friday. Sounds like the majority of his marks are going to be good with the exception of English. See, he's got great marks in the assignments that he's actually completed, but the ones that he hasn't done have pulled his marks way down. Why, you ask, hasn't he turned in all of his assignments?
Well, the teacher gave a sheet to the students at the beginning of the year with various dates/deadlines on it, and the A-man didn't make notations of said due dates.
It all comes down to the whole "lack of organizational skills" again. The teacher does seem to recognize that the A-man is a good student and has told A-man to work on getting everything done as soon as he can and it will be accepted.

On Sunday night we were going through all of the work, and I was making notes on the laptop to assist the A-man, and he was making notations in his palm pilot to help with future reminders. He started getting really stressed out about all that he had to do. Fortunately we didn't get into a full-blown rage outburst, for which I was very grateful given the sheer size of the boy now. (That was terrible enough when he was 8, couldn't imagine it when he's 6'2" and weighing in at 185.)
I was able to calm him down by pointing out that the notations I'd made, and the ones he had made were going to assist him in getting it all done and to just do one thing at a time. Looking at it "all" at once wasn't going to work. "Just think of one task at a time, and slowly you will get it done," I explained.

I'm hoping this scare will be enough to get him on the right track for getting better organized. Guess this is something else I will have to monitor (without appearing to monitor, that is.)
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We get our chicks tomorrow. Little brooding area has been prepared - heat lamp is ready. Will pick up the chick meal when I get them, I guess. Then two weeks after that we get the pheasants. Should be interesting...