Moving right along....

Mr 7 had his follow up appointment with his paediatrician and he has grown 3 cms and put on 1kg ..so much for the growth stunting side affect Ritalin is supposed to induce. We discussed his speech pathologists re testing for research purposes and his paediatrician was all for a paper being written on the effects of ADHD meds on children with auditory/expressive/ receptive delays...especially since Mr 7 had all the required interventions and tests prior to commencing formal education and his improvements in the areas can be attributed to the medication and not external factors. Try and convince someone who is being paid nicely and works their own hours to co author such a paper....snowballs chance in hell. Anyhow, his aide ( read guardian angel) and I spoke tongue in cheek about her coming with us to his next speech appointment, as it turns out, this is a very common occurrence as R, the speechie; has little to no time for school visits because of her increased and high demand workload. She even has a waiting list that he feels personally responsible for. So next appointment, Mr 7's guardian angel comes along too.

Mr 5 attended a session at school yesterday, for just over an hour he drew and did I don't know what in a classroom with 5 other newbies and the rest of this years preps whilst the parents were given a run down on the "You Can Do It" program and other things programs the school.. Here I was hoping to by pass that and sit in the yard and read...but no chance.

Now there is a study that shows that children diagnosed with ADHD catch up academically to their peers in about Yr 5...roll on then, He's turning into a whiz now with his nmemoinc skills what would he be like when he can retrieve and use all that stuff....bit like Supamum, socially inept and able to spout useless facts in a single sentence.

The school start money given to Victorian students commencing in Prep or Yr 7 by the State Government looks to be a fiasco in 2008. Instead of mailing out cheques from the Education Dept. they have opted for vouchers issued by the schools and able to be cashed after January 14,2008 at the POST OFFICE. Nice to let the schools know that DET have cited the initial contact if a problem arises to be the school..talk about passing the buck. And apparently the PO staff knew nothing of this....they do NOW!! And there is the little issue of DET "paying" schools and initial fee of $35 and a pro rata fee of $2 per voucher processed to cover the administration costs. Apparently this $$$ is not being passed on to the individual Catholic schools by the Catholic Education Office...nice little earner there for the CEO whilst our schools suffer.

Childrens lives and adult angst

Oh, to be a child again, with little concern but the perception of too much homework, not enough play time and having to get up early for swimming. As I often tell my three...Don't wish to grow up too quick or try and be older than you are; you are only a child for a little while but being grown up lasts a LOOOONG time.

The eldest two have commenced Milo cricket and whilst it is good, Mr 7 always groans about attending yet has a brilliant time throwing himself bodily on the ball. Miss 10 with all her softball skill, shows up some of the boys her age, but batting with the bat to the ground is just so WRONG! Now if only some of the parents would stop treating it as a Friday evening piss up...bringing eskies and beer, it's set a better example for the kids.

The year is nearing an end and Mr 7's speech pathologist has retested some cognitive receptive stuff from the CELF 4 ( Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals, 4th edition) as a research into whether the Ritalin has increased his concentration spans, at a glance this was obviously a contributory factor as his progress looked remarkably different from a few month ago. We are under ongoing review by his pediatrician as the side effects can be varied and static so I am happy for regular follow ups.

My baby, turned 5 last month, he's a big boy now and goes to school next year. He is so independent and fun filled I actually enjoy having him at home, whereas with Mr 7; I relished the quiet time of his kinder time. A remote control truck was the order of the day for this birthday and although we did not get the requested talking version of Cars: Lightening Mc Queen or the Tonka truck with a plane, he has a wonderful time zooming the truck about the yard with Mr 7's remote control truck in pursuit. His grandpa's and uncle and aunts monetary contribution allowed him to go to the local toy shop and get his truck with a boat ( better than a plane) and of all things, a collection of plastic horses. He was allowed to pick what he wanted for a birthday dinner and he choose pizza, so we lobbed at a La Porchetta restaurant on the way back from some shopping...after checking the menu, no, he does not want dinner here. The conversation went something like this:

"But you wanted pizza and this is where they have pizza"
"No, I don't want pizza now" By now we have ordered drinks for three thirsty children
" Well, what do you want?" It's his birthday and he can push the envelope a bit
" Not pizza"
"Well, what do you want?" Envelope is tilting slightly to the red side now

" I dunno"

We eventually ordered pizza and pasta, and moved on to the ice cream place up the road for dessert. My little boy is growing up, no longer a baby in the physical sense but always my baby in the ideal sense.

Miss 10 is developing a wicked sense of humour and irony, she often creates nonsensical songs and ditties which her brothers copy with glee. She has been asked on a "date" by classmate and declined, too shy and shocked to accept. Apparently a 'date" in senior primary school consists of hanging about together...nothing new there; Miss 10 has about three male friends she hangs about with at school that I know of. She attended a senior leadership course a few weeks ago and now has aspirations of being a school captain. She becomes a senior buddy again next year to a prep child and the principal has realised that the youngest sister of Miss 10's own senior buddy ( who is now 18) will be starting in Prep, and Miss 10 hopes that history can repeat and she can be buddied with that child. It would be providence in a way.

I don't want to be the over zealous parent but really do not want Miss 10 o have the same teacher as this year for Yr 6. This teacher is all groovy and cool with the kids, often cranky and strict, gooey eyed for the male parents and tries the false empathy with the mums...it's a crock of shit. She is lazy and limited in her abilities to teach outside the curriculum, no library time has been allocated for this class all year and I wonder how the children who do not have Internet access at home, reference books at home or public library access got heir assignments done this year. "Not a teachers bootlace" is an expression that comes to mind. I also want Mr 7 to have a particular teacher next year and plan to make that request soon; I have asked this teacher if they are OK if I request Mr 7 to be placed with them and they are OK with it. A quandary now emerges, do I take the bull by the horns and also ask for Mr 5 to have the irrepressible, Mrs R, for his prep teacher? Taking my request to a "pick the teacher " style of parenting I really do not like to prescribe to. Methinks, I will ask for Mr 7 to be placed with the preferred teacher and leave the rest to chance.. I can always ask for a swap of Miss 10 once class assignments are made. WHO knows, she might get one of the new, whizz -bang, here to impress teachers who were interviewed last week.

No longer quarantined

Well, it appears most in the not so supa house are healthy again. Mr 7 who had a bad ear infection has recovered, Mr 4 had a croup like throat infection, then I got my usual throat infection, Miss 10 got a cold which affected her asthma and 2IC got pneumonia. All in all, some one( or two) was home sick every day for over TWO WEEKS!!! It also appears that Mr 7's grommets have come out and as they were present less than 12 months ago, the fact that he has an ear infection after being without infections for 5 years, may be indicative that they need to be replaced. All in all, he is doing well on Ritalin and astounded his teacher and aide a few weeks back with suddenly grasping the concept of 10's and units and creating his own maths equations with bundles of ten matches and singular ones. Result of Ritalin or placebo effect on us???

We've had a birthday, totally forgettable and unmemorable. The boys have a birthday party next week end as my pal, A; has bitten the bullet with her usually great and wondrous kids parties ( her two kids birthdays are only days apart so they have a share party)and under doctors orders is taking it easy with her sons birthday being at Mickey D's...hardly think the kids will mind, A. And the weekend after is her daughters Cafe Craft party, great idea and is being hosted by her craft orientated friend and her sister is doing the catering...smart move sending out menu options with the invite, so you only buy and supply the food you need. And I have my inaugural girls week end away coming up, we have a house for gratis, courtesy of one of the girls parents and whilst we are forgoing the massages and facials and pedicures and all that goes with it...we will be sans spouses and kids which in itself will be restful!


I have been coaching the softball teams for the Summer Round Robin at the kids school. Some very good players to be had and even more gutsy, "give it your all" players on both teams. Bit hard to take them from tee ball to soft ball in 5 weeks but they are in with a chance as they have an excellent understanding of the rules...only hope the rules apply unlike a certain teacher from a certain local school during tee ball who made up the rules as she went along. No matter anyway, the batting order is designed for some big hitters and small shockers; we have several pint sized dynamos at bat and some even faster pitchers, throw in a left handed batter who hits a home run every time and pitchers and catchers who have been taught to signal instead of call a "sneak" and you have two teams who will give the others a run for their money even with the sledging and "make it up as you go along rulings". Only this time, no more standing for it, if the rule is valid and not adhered, I will say so...one team lost due to runs being continued after an overthrow back to the catcher last time..no more Mrs Nice Now.

Funding and Ritalin

Well, it seems not even the CEO know what they are doing when it comes to funding. Several weeks ago the VP at Mr 7's school told me Mr 7 was up for funding renewal in October this year and new reports would be needed. Having just completed and handed over a CELF report in February I asked if that report would suffice if an addendum was included. No,.. new reports were needed apparently...GREAT, the last one took up 5 therapy sessions so there went Term 3 speech out the window unless we took on extra sessions and alternated between one therapy session and one testing for the whole term. Mr 7's S/P could not understand it and we tried to find out what reports they needed as the last test was valid for two years after the test date. And lo and behold, the CEO now concurs that Mr 7 has ongoing funding until 2010. Not that I can complain but it would've been nice if the criteria is somewhere accessible for all, when I asked the VP about this; he admitted it was not anywhere or on any guideline format. Mr 7 is doing great guns and is now in reading recovery also. His last visit to his pediatrician came as a bit of a shock as she states we are doing all we can fro him with therapies, speech, classroom assistance and such, he's been in formal education for over 18 month now but his concentration levels have not increased ( if fact his aide was away for several weeks and noted on her return that his concentration seems to have lessened) His pediatrician suggested a well know drug to help increase his concentration levels and for the first time ever mentioned ADHD as a possible diagnosis. Interesting. I have read all the associated hype and concern about this drug and we have agreed to a one month trial and if he shows any of the many side effects, he's off it because it is not worth his well being for an extra 10 minutes of concentration. This was a hard decision to make and will be made even harder if he continues to show change as he has being doing; because then we will be looking at long term use of it. Devil and the deep ,blue sea time.