Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Home Again

Home from our time at the coast. Still have schoolwork to finish, books to read, movie to watch papers to write yikes!!!!
Thought I'd share a few pics and then crack the whip  HA! we'll do homework tomorrow.

Grace & Kayla at the lighthouse


The girls checking out the aquarium



Loved the jellies  we could just sit and watch them for hours


Sunday, January 15, 2012

Wow thats a ton of work!!


Last spring one of the long term substitute teachers at Grace's school, very generously offered our family a vacation at the ocean using her time-share facility. When she called to reserve the handicap accessible room she was shocked to discover that the earliest available time was this January. So we are ready for a vacation. It's been 7 years since we've been able to have one.
Grace's BFF gets to join us as the room has 2 bedrooms. The girls are on independent study for 2 weeks and they sure have a ton of work to do! Their plan was to do as much as they could ahead of time, but they didn't get their assignments until Friday afternoon.
Kayla (BFF) came over today and they've been fast at the homework. I think they finished history except for movie notes on a movie we don't have yet. Kayla has a math class and is getting that out of the way. in English they have several stories to read, some grammar work to do and a paper to write!
Have no idea what chemistry has in store for them as the teacher posts his assignments online, but his site is down until Tuesday. Guess they'll be doing chem as they listen to the waves, could be worse.
Now for all my work, it takes a great deal of planning to take someone with special equipment on vacation. You have to have every tube, wire canister  and connector with you, along with backups in case something breaks, you also have to take chargers for the equipment. Thankfully, Grace is a great planner and always makes our lists for trips. She's very thorough, and almost never forgets anything. Plus there's all the regular changes of clothes for us all, school books, computers, ipads, phones, chargers etc. So glad we don't have medication to worry about.
I'm not sure how we'll fit all this in our van!!! But it's a nice problem to figure out. Updates when we return. 

Friday, January 6, 2012

How Does She Keep Up?

UGGGHHh.........almost time to return for the second have of this school year. It is hard to return after a long break. The good thing is that finals and benchmarks are finished. Grades should be out anytime ( OK maybe the grades part isn't always the good thing).
Heard an interesting comment from Grace's English teacher before the break. If the students had 90% in the class they could use a finals pass to skip the final. When he was passing out the review packet for the final test, Grace asked if it was going to be graded, did they have to take one if they were using their finals pass. When he asked who in the class wasn't taking the final it was only Grace.
He was amazed that someone that misses so many days of school is able to keep up and get a good grade. Said he'd never met anyone that could do it. Usually grades and attendance go together.
I've been thinking about his comments and granted English is Grace's best subject, I think her ability to keep up with her classes relies on several factors.
First, she has to be on top of her assignments, as soon as she comes back to school after an absence, she finds out what she has missed and prioritizes what she has to start on first.
Second, she has teachers that don't mind a student popping in after school or after class to ask a quick question. I think most teachers are there for their students and want to see them succeed.
Lastly, I think this is just "normal" for Grace. She's had a trach since 4th grade, she's missed a great deal of school since having back surgery in 7th grade. She had been on independent study a few times in middle school, but this isn't unusual for her. She is bright, and hard on herself. There have been a couple of classes she had to drop because of absences, but on the whole she's done fairly well. Having a medical condition that takes you out of the  'norm' doesn't have to mean you can't find your own norm and be successful. I guess I should remind her how proud of her I am.

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

What I did

Thought I'd show what I did with all those inchies from 2011. I was given a gift in a random candle box that seemed too nice to toss. I painted it my favorite color and just glued the the inchies on. I plan on using it to keep 2012 inchies in as I complete them. I have decided to try another year, but will post on my craft blog ..... www.tipistinkerings@blogspot.com