General Chat

Linda .....................


it's very spotty over here ...........

............ some school districts good, some health authority regions very good

even the neighbourhood in a town in which you live can be better or worse than the neighbourng one


Luckily, J seems to live in a "good" neighbourhood"


Our provincial public (ie, state) school teachers have been on strike since late May ................. a strike that began a a lock-out by the government

The biggest stumbling block is "class size and composition" ..... the government will not budge from its position on these. That's even though the way they went about it has been ruled wrong by 2 courts, and there is yet another appeal by the government due in court next month.

We've been hearing horror stories from teachers.

All children have to be integrated, and aides provided by the school district OR health authority (depends on the type of hep needed)

one teacher talked about having a class of 32 last school year .................. 27 boys, 5 girls, and 14 special needs children. There was no room in the class room for the aides.

............... and of course "special needs" covers the whole gamut.from a child who needs a little intervention to the one confined to a wheelchair or even wheelie bed and unable to move or speak.

She does get a one hour physio session every week at home, plus a one hour play session with the home teacher who deals with children who can't go to school, she also is assigned to a speech therapist, but she hasn't seen her much.

I know Aimee has a support worker who enables her to go to mainstream school, but the provision for things like that over here is very poor

Linda .....................


it sounds very well-planned :-)



and, of course, you are close enough to get there to help if needed.


It is great that the nursery are able to take Esme ........ I think it would be much more difficult over here.

It is good that your grandson has been referred Sylvia, early intervention is so important.

Sorry I had to cut my last thread short before I had finished it.

Eve only went to nursery for three days a week. by working on Sunday her father freed Monday to look after her. He also looked after her for half of Friday. As he runs his own company from home he was able to make up that time during the evenings. My daughter is allowed to work from home one day a week, but by only taking half an hour for lunch on the other days, she only needs to work for four hours on Friday, so she was able to look after Eve for the other half of the day. It all worked well, barring emergencies when Eve was too ill to go to nursery, then I would jump on a train

The same system is what Esme will fit into. Once next week is over, Eve will be at school full time and Esme will be doing three full days at nursery. I think they will be able to cope with the feeding and hopefully she will be happy. We didn't have much time there this morning as she had to leave for a hospital appointment. Unfortunately she has another one tomorrow as well, so we have to leave at eleven thirty. Next week is clear though, so I hope she will be settled by then.

With Esme it is one round of appointments after another which means my daughter is having to take half a days holiday to cover each of them. At the moment her group boss is being fantastically understanding about everything, but he is leaving so I hope whoever they appoint will be as good.

Esme doesn't get any special help in nursery, I think the ratio in the baby room is one carer to three babies

I don't think that I have ever mentioned that our grandson has been assessed for inclusion in an Early Childhood Development programme ............... he is apparently a prime candidate for the programme, now he has to be further assessed to determine exactly what help is needed.


He is very bright and empathetic, but his mobility, dexterity and interactions are behind in development, plus his speech is not up to par.

He also throws great hissy fits, has to be prepared with time count-downs for changes in routine, play stopping, bath time, etc


He didn't crawl until he was about 18 months old, and didn't walk until he was over 2 .................. he knew how to spell his name before walking.


One of our nieces is a speech therapist with the Early Childhood Development in the province where she lives ................. and, of course, she was "home" when we went for her mother's spreading of the ashes at the end of June.

She watched our grandson for the 4 days .......... and told J that she should indeed go ahead with getting an assessment done.

He will start full day kindergarten in September next year.

He's now in a Child Care Centre, which is much more structured than the daycare he was in, with lots of crafts, learning play etc. He loves it, and is doing well ............... and apparently other kids want to be friends with him, which had not been happening before.

One suggestion made has been that he fits into a category known as the "spirited child"

They see a pediatrician on Friday, and she (??he) will assess what further treatment, if any, is needed over and above the ECD programmes.

Linda ..........


that makes it very hard on your daughter and s-i-l

I guess they are hoping that you will Esme used to being left alone for the whole time before your time ends.

Sue ....................

I wondered if it was one of those GH threads! :-D

It is the little achievements that are so important, Linda <3

Sylvia - for me it was one of GH's threads. He just goes on and on :-S

Oh Sue, Aimee reading her book brought tears to my eyes as well. I suppose having Esme makes it all the more real to me.

I was looking at the other children in the nursery yesterday to see if I could spot one of the same age as Esme, but the one I thought might be turned out only to be Ten months,although she was walking and Esme can't even sit up. She will get there in her own good time, I notice she is getting stronger every time I see her.

There will be no carer Sylvia, she is only going to nursery for three days a week, the same as Eve did. The nursery is very expensive and they get no help towards the fees. Her father works from home,so he works On Sunday,so he can look after Esme on Monday. On Friday, he looks after her for half the day and my daughter looks after her for the afternoon

Hi Sue, and everyone



Sue ........... you must be very proud of Joel and Aimee, in particular.


Tec ............... it will be nice for you to see your sister and OH by themselves.

I think we all get to prefer smaller groups of visitors as we get older


Linda ................ it was good that Esme accepted nursery as long as she could see you. I hope she will gradually learn not to watch, so you can slip out and get ehr used to being there on her own.


What happens after your turn at caring is over? Will Esme be in nursery for all day, or will your daughter have to get a carer in to look after both of them after school and nursery?




I wonder which was the Alice in Wonderland thread that Tec and Linda found???




OH had to go to the dentist this morning .............. he had a molar tooth crowned when he was having all that massively expensive dental work done about 3 years ago. He went to our dentist the other week complaining of a bit of discomfort ................ the root had cracked and there was some infection showing

so it has had to come out ...............

He has 3 months to decide whether to leave the space, or whether to have an implant put in


The dentist had also more closely examined the X-ray done 2 weeks ago ................. and there another 2 crowned molars that need treatment, but not removal.


He has always had "bad" teeth, in the sense that he has always needed lots of work done about every 2-3 years.

Fortunately, his dental plan covers about 60-70% of the cost




another sunny afternoon, although the morning was very cloudy



it does feel like Fall out there though, with the cooler nights and mornings




take care everyone




s
xx

Goodnight Tec - sweet dreams <3

The man was from Denbigh, about 45 miles from me. His poor parents were interviewed on Welsh tv this evening.

Well I had best get to bed now.

Enjoy your day Sue, whatever it finds you doing :-)

Goodnight,
Tec :-)

Shark attacks are becoming more common for some reason. I can't imagine a more terrifying way to die. As you say...poor man. I didn't realise he was a Welshman.

and so you should be :-D

It is so good to see grand children doing well, and importantly turning into nice people too :-)

I see that a man who comes from not far from me was killed by a shark today in Byron Bay - poor man :-0

She is a star :-D Joel is also doing well going by his book work. His teacher told me that he is a very 'nice' boy who is always helpful. I saw this when one of the grandparents knocked over a container of pencils - Joel immediately jumped to the rescue. Yes....I'm a proud Grandma :-D

Quite good news about the car then :-)

Glad that you had a good time at school.
You must be very proud of Aimee and her achievements.

She may be a little behind her classmates, but how much harder she must have tried to have done as well as she is doing. Aimee must never be under estimated in what she will achieve. Cwtches to her
<3

Yes OH heard yesterday afternoon. Amazingly as dramatic as it all sounded it is a relatively minor repair. Still pricey but worth getting done. The mechanic said he will service the car while he's working on it so OH is happy.

I had a lovely morning at the twins' school. We were treated to a concert with much singing and dancing. After that we had a lovely lunch provided by the mothers - the children joined us for lunch. Before all that I visited the children in the classrooms. Aimee read me her book which almost brought me to tears. She read it with very little help - she is such a clever little girl. Of course the other children in her class are reading much better but Aimee is achieving more than we ever hoped for.

I don't know about Alice in Wonderland - more like the Mad Hatters Tea Party :-D

Any news about OHs car?

I wonder if it's the same thread I gave up reading - I thought I was Alice in Wonderland :-D

Hello Sue, :-)

Linda may still be here, I was a long time answering her as I strayed onto a weird thread and thought I was in the Twilight Zone, so became absorbed