Revenge of the MArble Maze

We love our friends Faith and Tom and their Daughter Clara - who according to Drew will some day be our daughter in law. (fine by me)

Before Drew's birthday I was talking to Faith (rather venting) about an incident at Toys R Us that involved a toy that Drew wanted for his birthday. It was a rather expensive 500 piece marble maze contraption. Online at Toys R Us it was 49.99 and according to my research 49.99 at Babies R Us Brick and Mortor Stores. Silly me I thought it would be 49.99 at Toys R Us. It was 79.99. They refused to price match in any way. I knew they hadn't sold any since Drew first showed me the toy several months ago - the dust that had accumulated on the top was evidence enough but also that one of them was a taped box that was there. My reasoning was if BRU and online had it for 49.99 then TRU would do the same just to move the stupid toy. WRONG!!!!! They refused to even discuss it.

So I called Faith to complain. She took note and guess what showed up on our door Thursday night. A giant box and in the box was this marble maze. Drew was beside himself. I wish I had a video camera because I would be 100,000 dollars richer. He immediately proposed to Clara over the phone - please note she accepted.

Fast forward to last night. Scott started to put this thing together. I had seen the reviews on teh website and was warned it would take several hours (up to 6) to get this thing togheter. After many "Good Lords, Damns, What in the worlds"and a few words I can't put here it is now together at 930 on Saturday Morning. Drew actually tried to wake Scott up at 630 this morning to finish it. In the assembly we also found out this thing made noise. GREAT (sarcastic)

So my husband now has me on a search for the most annoying multi piece toy I can find fit for a little girls birthday - I have till November. I have looked at Legos but Clara is such a girly girl they aren't for her.

So my wonderful (few) readers - any suggestions for a multi piece, noisy toy that will take Clara's engineer father HOURS to put together?

better alternaitive

after more research we have finally figured it out. There is a charter called South Sutter. It has the most hands off approach to HS. I have to meet with an educational specialist once a month. but other than that I am free to teach how and what I want. PLUS we get a 1800.00 a year stipend to spend on what we sit fit for his education. cirriculum, lessons, camps, supplies, field trips etc. It is our choice. Definetly the way to go. It has the best reviews of all the charters in the area. So it is the way we are going.

Learned a lot today

I spent the majority of the day researching our home school options for Drew. I found a great Yahoo group that cleared up lots of misconceptions that I had about the California Virtual School. We won't be under this districts umbrella which for us is a huge bonus. It is free and we only have to report to a teacher once a quarter. There is a place on line where I will record daily attendance. They organize field trips. If we choose to take a vacation we bring Drew's books with us and he does his assignments there. And plays catch up when he gets home if needed.

We work at Drew's pace. If we can ever get an IEP the Virtual School has to follow it as well. We can opt out of standarized testing is we want. If he doesn't quite finish a subject during the year we can finish over the summer or pick up where we left off in the fall.

I have already had several moms contact me about Drew and the problems with the district. I will have a support group locally as well as thru the state.

I feel more comfortable having a teacher to help me if I need it so I don't fee so alone esp during the first year. If later we choose to go it alone then great but I think CAVA will be what we do this year.

I still wonder about the charter school but I don't like the fact we have to meet every 2 weeks to be monitored. That is a HUGE drawback. I will call them tomorrow to see if that is truly the case. The pros with the charter are there is a stipend for activites for Drew, and the language arts and math are the same that he uses now.

So that is where it stands.

Changes are a coming

After the latest problems with the school district we have made a decision. We are going to home school Andrew. The district has violated any trust I had with them. I will always be wondering what they might be up to next. And IF we were to ever get an IEP we would have to fight for everything and I worry that the districts disdain for me will have repercussions for Andrew. His teacher told me she has been told no child will get an IEP before 3rd grade. Forget the fact that early intervention in most developmental and learning disablites are better served in the early years they just won't do it.

We have filed a complaint with the California Board of Education on the violations. But who knows what that will get us.

We have several ways to home school. We could do virtual school, which would be free but that still puts us under the districts umbrella and we have to follow their rules, regulations, testing and calendar. I guess I am becoming a rebel in my old age. The schools don't believe in Life Lessons so we can't go on field trips etc.

I think the option we are seriously looking at is a program K12. It is what the district uses BUT we pay for the program and can make our own rules as to hours, days, field trips etc. We just have to file an afidavit with the state in October and then we are on our own. We are going to start easing into it in July and go full steam ahead in Mid August. when we get back from Kansas we will be getting together with a couple differnet home school groups to find one we jive with. Drew has several friends from church who are home schooled and so he seems to understand the concept.

My biggest concern is keeping him socialized as much as possible. He thrives on it. So it means outings wiht homeschool groups, karate, swimming etc. But I am very excited about the idea. I feel a certain freedom with his schooling that I haven't before.

Here we go.

School district tried to pull a fast one.

I am so livid. In the mail yesterday I got an envelope from the school district. In the envelope were 4 pieces of paper. On top was a pink sticky note attached to a consent for release of medical information. All it said was sign and return. They want ALL records from Drew's neurologist. Medical tests, medical records, history, meds psych notes, Mental health records ALL of it.

Under that was a letter the school sent to the doc with out my knowledge requesting his records. Under that was a letter of refusal from the doctor saying that I hadn't signed a release for them to have the records. That was all that was in the envelope.The director of special ed asked me for all the records about 6 weeks ago and I in writing told them to put in writing what they wanted and I would obtain it for them. The neurologist has the entire history of Drew (BM issues etc) that is no ones business.

So they tried to circumvent me to get the records. Our advocate is out of town. I am trying to reach him now. The school has a letter from the doc stating Drew's DX of PDD. So why would they need his entire medical history and records? Do they really need them if they have a letter stating what the DX is.

They are already out of compliacne with federal guidelines because I requested and IEE on MArch 31 and they had 15 days to comply and they haven't.

knit one purl 2

Thought I would post a few pics of things i have made lately.
My first completed sweater
Two views of Holding Hands Feeding Ducks

The above is a Debbie Bliss Bag
And this one right above is a wrap that is 95% done.

I have a couple others done but no pics yet.

cool slipper

to me slippers have always been functional. I lived in Kansas. Slippers had to be warm in the winter to trudge thru snow to get the paper. In the summer who wanted to go out and look for the paper when it was 110 at 8 AM?

My friends at ALL THUMBS have a great answer. Check out their latest give away. click here These are fun slippers, stylish slippers the kind you should wear in California.

Borders needs to learn customer service

I went to Borders today. I was looking for a couple magazine as well as couple birthday presents for Drew and what ever else caught my fancy. Hadn't ready a good book in a while and was on the prowl.

The magazine section was horribly stocked. Blank places everywhere. I noticed a girl who was stocking the magazine section and she had 9 boxes on a pallet. I asked if those boxes contained the mags i was looking for. She offered to open the boxes and look at the packing slips to check. They weren't in those but she told me that there were 6 boxes in the back and she would run and check the packing slips.

While waiting for her I had found a couple books, another magazine, and a couple books for Drew. the young lady came back and looked very apologetic. SHe said her manager told her she could not go thru the packing slips. She was not allowed to help me. There were other customers who needed help. I was welcome to come back in a few days and look on the shelves for my self but she could not help me. WTF!?!?!?! I was holding 50.00 worth of books and was going to buy about40.00 in mags if they had them.

I called the store when I got home and talked to the store manager and he basically said Sorry but what do you want me to do. He didn't seem to care that I had laid down other merchandise and because of one of his employees he lost a sale - if not a customer.

What is wrong with customer service these days? With all the competion out there for my business I would think stores would bend over to do the right thing and make situations right. I have called coroporate and left a voice mail for the assistant of someone and maybe I will hear from someone but who knows.

The