It was a bumpy start today. I wanted to take the kids to my Dad's to see his chickens and maybe discuss farms, but he left town. Then I thought I'd find another farm locally, also a bust. I called the place where Isaac is doing his science camp for the planetarium schedule, but the timing didn't work out. Then I decided we'd pack up the kids and dog and hit the park.
Out the door we marched with the dog on a leash just as it started to rain! So, we took her for a quick, but brisk walk. We put her inside with a treat and fresh water. She watched broken heartily from the front window as I pulled away with the kids.
Plan E (I think we were up to) was to hit one of our old favorite places from when we lived on the other side of town, the children's museum. That one panned out.
As you can see we farmed, played vegetable instruments (Riley's favorite thing all day), swam in the ball pit, played a laser harp, mini golfed and put out fires among other things. It was a fun two hours. It's much improved since we were members and we'll either join again or not go back until the end of summer with admission being what it is.
We grabbed drive-thru lunch on the way back home. I was starving and desperate for some caffeine. The kids devoured there nuggets/burger and apples when we got home. The puppy greeted me so enthusiastically she spilled my whole Coke. I wanted to cry. Then Riley went down for nap and Isaac did some reading.
I took advantage of the quiet to work on my other job, more on that later. After that Isaac and I worked on his "Orange Workbook". It's called Worksheets for Teaching Social Thinking and Related Skills. We've been working on pages from this book before school ended. It seems to help Isaac to have his behavior/social issues broken down in an academic way. Also, it removes them from the context of him having just gotten in trouble. Ironically, today's page were about focus and guess what he could not do?
He behaved so badly that I had to send him to Riley's time out chair. It was the most appropriate place for such immature behavior. Once he clammed down I released him (just like I do with Riley). The worksheets and discussion about them lasted less than 15min. Then we moved on to his Summer Bridge Activities Workbook. It's got 3 sections for the 3 months of summer and a group of activities for each day. Yesterday we did 4 days worth in about 25min. Excited by the possibility of catching up to mid-June I assigned him 4 more after a stretch/run around with the dog break.
Little did I know the first section started with trial and error math. He is so used to things being easy academically he refuses to try. He just gives up. I offered help several times and even did one for him. It dragged on waaaay to long. Plus, even when he was through it his momentum was just broken. It was hours and hours before he was done. He took breaks, stared out the window and generally tried to drag his feet enough that I'd change my mind.
I reminded that my schedule afforded him hours of free time, but his choices were eating that all up. When Riley woke up I took her outside with an umbrella so she wouldn't bother Isaac. After a while I let her sit across the table from him and sort the bag of marker caps my teacher friend gave me into her cups. I played Disney music for her to dance to and explained the no cartoons during business hours rule once more.
Somehow we all made it to dinner. Riley's eating and happily enjoying Tangled again. Mike's cooking for the rest of us and Isaac is "sorting" Legos. Next Thursday I'll have the trip locked down much earlier. As a matter of fact I'll have my week planned out better in general.
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