Come On People...Are you really that busy?

Mr 5 is progressing nicely with his speech pathologist; who I would highly recommend to any one looking for a SP for a child. He is struggling with reading though and cannot co related between the letter sound and the combination of sounds to make a word. He relies heavily on the secondary prompt, which at this stage is a picture, but if the picture is ambiguous, like a person laughing he will say the person is funny. He is not looking at the word enough to establish that it could not be "funny" as it starts with "l". He is a rote learner, he can tell me all the 12 Golden Words.
BUT only if they are in the order that appear on the grid, mix them up and he struggles, he has got his Golden Certificate and is now working in his Red one, many children in the class have already achieved Blue and Green as well as Red. These "magic words' are the words children see most often and rather than have to "sound them out" each time, they become part of what is know as sight vocabulary, that being they recognise the words on sight in any context. Words such as "a, is, the, there, was, I , am, be, were, not, no, of, on, this" . Mr 5 tends not to have the ability to absorb the words out of context...But he'll be a wiz at times tables and such I think.

His pencil grip an issue and I contacted his EIP OT to see if she could recommend anyone: we cannot access SCHC services anymore as he is in school now according to the lady at the desk; which was apparently not entirely true as the pediatric OT put me in touch with the Paed OT who works with local schools ( betcha didn't know we had that service here, I didn't) and I can ask the school to use part of Mr 5s funding to pay for the OT visits which are better facilitated in the class environment anyway given it is a pencil grip issue. I am OK with this as his aide does not appear to work on Tuesdays anyway. I am waiting for the OT and the Principal to get back to me...* Yawn* It's been a week now................

Meanwhile I have sourced a private physio for him as the area concerned crosses both physio and OT areas so either is OK and I JUST KNOW the school will not pay an external OT for this...what he needs, he needs now and what's private health insurance for anyway.

On the matter of private health insurance, this week I will have reached my limit for Mr 5's speech therapy and it's only August...So we have kicked in his Enhanced Primary Care Program ( EPC) Which means that Medicare pay $45 each for FIVE visits to his ST. Which should carry us through to mid November so by my calulations ,I will only pay out of pocket full session fees for three session this year...Not too shabby. I am going to write to my PHI provider to see if I can get an increase on limits for Mr 5's ST given it will be a long term thing. I had contacted a well known SP in NSW who chairs many committees and deals a lot with dyspraxia who advised me that PHIs can increase limits on some ancillaries if you are willing to lose something else ( ie: increase ST limit by $250 and forgo $500 limit on osteopathy) You write to them and supply a diagnosis from the provider stating the condition is ongoing and long term. This is a very one to one, case by case, scenario but hey, rules were meant to be broken and I'm the one who will always try.

First Eucharist, Birthdays and Brothers

I have been very busy as Miss 9 made her First Eucharist yesterday, for those of us older than 25 that's First Communion, for the non Catholics, its when children first eat the wafer stuff at Church. So I was busy organising her party ( but it's not about the party ...Tell THAT to a 9 year old) and her present from 2IC and me ( but its not about the presents, tell THAT to a 9 year old) and amidst it all, attend my friends hastily organised 40th birthday dinner and a Candle party she was having. Phew!!!

My friend, AJ and I have been pals for it seems forever. She was bridesmaid at my wedding, her hubby was our best man. They both went to school with 2IC which is how I met them but AJ and I have stuck firm in our friendship. We share the same age for 24 hours and yesterday she turned 40!!! Our birthdays are one day apart and our wedding anniversaries are one day apart. AJ is as solid as they come and has had a lot of stuff to get over, a lot of which she gets over by herself...Often I do not find out about something major happening until its past..That's what she is like, non alarmist and non fuss. Anyway she was having a candle party (Partylites) which was REALLY GOOD if you are into candles and such but really expensive if you are into candles and such LMAO. Anyway, W, another pal of AJs decided that as AJ's hubby wasn't organising anything for AJ that we'd go out for dinner after the candle party, but as AJs mum wanted to come and her older sister and her niece and nephew and Miss 9 was with me and S ( AJ's daughter) we had to go cheap rather than "swanky, once in a lifetime, you are turning 40". We ended up at Pascoe Vale RSL..............Nice meal, great service, what can I say..AJ was happy after the two,three, four, five, no, it was four or was it seven Barcadi and Raspberries..W and I plied her with all night. Oh, and AJ if you are reading this... The big one was a DOUBLE!!!And Adam, AJs nephew; topped it of with his masterful fireworks display using two tennis balls and the compound from a packet of sparklers..Don't ask; the boys from the bush and sings kareoke!!!

We decided to have family only over after the Mass and as it was the later Sunday night mass, we hoped the family would all eat and run far, far away. It worked, all and sundry gone by 8.30pm...wonderful!!!My cousin, Simone; who is also Godmother to all three kids; came by at about 2.00 which was fine as she was coming from Bendigo and we hardly see each other much anyway. But when my Dad and his partner arrived at 4.00 I was a tad peeved, Mass was not until 5.30!!!! And I was still cleaning up, and we had to get three kids ready and 2IC was working in the yard in the veggie garden...Now I had to make coffee and chat pleasantly all whilst trying to do this other stuff. SHIT
Any way we got the Church and 2IC's family meet us there, ( they are non Catholic so are really lost in Church) There were only 6 children from school celebrating their first Eucharist last night and two others from outside schools ( non Catholic schools) and strangely enough the pew behind us( as all seating was allocated) was empty but had a place name attatched...Had to ponder that one, piked it? Illness? Forgot about it? Changed their mind? I am still wondering about it. Mr 3 and Mr6 were reasonably well behaved, Mr 6 let out groans of "Oh Man!!" whenever the priest started to speak again, and "oh, No!" when the singers started again...NOT GOOD!! And all this from the front pew with his school principal standing nearby and his religious education co ordinator as one of the singers!!! Gotta, hand it to him, he's not afraid to speak him mind, in volumes.

All the while, before Mass commenced; Miss 9 was turning about to check if "Unca T" had arrived, my errant, non compliant younger sibling. I had to invite him, he is family and he is also Miss 9's godfather ( god help her) I half expected him to turn up fashionably late as he did at her baptism ( however that time he arrived with his then new partner who wore a white leather mini, white CFM boots and a leather bustier...Simply stunning) But he did not arrive to my knowledge,( but not my surprise) much to Miss 9's dismay. When we got home, his car was at our house and he told me he was to the back of the church and left as soon as Mass ended...BULLSHIT. I have been his sister for all of his life and I know him, he did not attend Mass, no biggee, but don't lie to my kids about being there ok?