Kai's Update

Since school has started it has been very busy our house.  I thought it would be easier to do the updates on the kids individually, instead of a chronological update on everyone, so that I could remember everything going on in each of their lives.

First up, KAI!  With school back in session Kai has a lot going on.  He attends Gifted Reading and Math classes at school.  Each class is one hour each day, so that means he is out of his classroom two full hours each day.  The gifted kids also have more of a homework load.  He is doing a great vocabulary building program in reading called Wordly Wise and is learning words (and having spelling tests on!) such as segregate, conspicuous, eloquent, arrogant, and squalor.  It's been fun to see him learn these words and learn how to use them in their various forms.  (For example, one word was abundant, but he had to learn how to use it as abundance and abundant.)

After school, Kai has scouts weekly with our local ward, piano weekly with his amazingly sweet piano teacher, and weekly swim lessons.  While we try to keep swim lessons to Saturday morning, in September that did not always work and so he had many weeks with after school activities 3 days a week.  Adding in the extra homework was overwhelming to him and he was struggling to get it done.  Early in September he had an opthamalogist visit (as a follow up to his optometrist visit earlier in the year) and we thankfully got a new prescription for glasses.  I had not decided what to do about his prescription, until he got so upset at school that he snapped his glasses in half.  The poor kid was under a lot of stress.  And the start of the year is very hard for him, as he struggles with changes to his schedule and so the first two months of school are normally just overwhelming for him to begin with.  Add in the fact that he is such a perfectionist, and well, we had the perfect storm.  I got several calls and emails from his teachers (he has two--his classroom teacher and his gifted teacher) expressing their concern over his anxiety levels and asking for help.  Early in October I attended a meeting with both teachers and the school counselor to talk strategies.  His classroom teacher is AMAZING.  He could not have been assigned a better teacher this year in terms of understanding who he is and being willing to think creatively to help him.  Our conversation was very productive and by the time we got to Parent-Teacher Conference night in mid-October I heard reports that he was a very different kid and was doing so well.  Both teachers are thrilled that the "old" happy Kai is back.  And he is.  He is happy, more settled, and we have managed to get his weekly schedule under control. (Oh, and he is back to completing his classwork and homework in manageable time frames without fights or tantrums.  Seriously, it's so much better!)

Mid-September all 3 kids had a joint dentist appointment and all were cavity free.  To celebrate we stopped to pick up some popcorn from a gourmet popcorn store and brought it home for movie night.

Scenes like these make my heart happy.  Our street is full of older families and no one for my kids to play with.  Over the last two years we have gotten to know the one other family on our street with kids our age and they love to play together.  It's a "yours, mine, and ours" family so sometimes not everyone is there, but when they are there is a 9 year-old girl (who is very sweet with my little ones), two 7 year-old (almost 8!) boys, a 3 year old girl, and a 2 year-old girl.  When the weather is nice and they are all out, they love to ride their bikes in our cul-de-sac and around the grass in the middle of our street.  Kai is finally a proficient enough bike rider to actually enjoy these games.

Bree was taking pictures and Kai did this for her.  Just proof that our happy Kai is back and more settled into his year and routine!

One day after school in mid-October it was nice outside and so instead of going home we stopped at the park to play.  These three were chasing me, "the tickle monster", and I made them stop for a picture because I did not want to forget how much fun we were having, just us.