Caz
So last week was our 2nd week of home schooling, and Frodo is still happier than the proverbial pig in poo lol.  He's been working very hard at it, but he's clearly still getting used to the situation.  Friday morning when I told Sam his uniform was on my bed, he asked what about MY uniform... before going "OH, yeah right!" hehehe  Sam doesnt' seem too bothered that Frodo isn't going to school with him now... although in my eyes he's a little sad walking up the path to his classroom all alone.   He is already telling me how next year he wants to walk Merry to HIS classroom and pick him up to meet me at the gate in the afternoon.  So clearly he misses even that little walk in with his brother. 

Frodo was a bit under the weather most of last week, and I had full intentions of just letting him veg till he felt better.  But he was having none of it... as I got Sam ready for school he asked 'MUM, when you take Sam to school can you log me onto T4L before you go?' (the school is 200m away, and while normally we'd walk.. if I have to pop over to the shop or something we will drive) I dropped Sam off, hit woolies for milk & bread and was back 30mins later (relax his teenage brother was here :P  and Frodo rang me twice in that time anyway lol). 

That day he spent ages learning about the Olmecs (and I think moved on to the Phoenicians), doing multiplication, learning about the layers of the earth, and doing a whole unit worth of the language arts lol.  So much for a sick day!   The rest of the week was much the same, except Thursday, when we had to drop off the hubbies van at the shop and then go into the CBD.  Frodo riding into the city is a stretch any time, but after having spent a couple of nights with queasy tummy we got the teen to supervise him.  When we returned (with a posh iced chocolate for the teen as payment ;) Frodo had QUITE the temperature!  Our doctors are awesome and had a spot for him in 10minutes if we could get there.. SOLD I replied :)    It turns out the boy has quite a case of tonsillitis *sigh*   And seeing his history with NOT getting better on his own, the doc opted to offer us antibiotics straight away. 

A few days of gatorade and E-mycin he's perked right up thankfully!  Just in time for the homeschool group park day tomorrow morning at a very cool park about 5minutes away from us.   He's very much looking forward to the morning and meeting (or re-meeting) some other home schooled kids.    This is going to be a pretty light week for him, we've got park day tomorrow  and then Thursday is a christmas ceramics workshop which should be excellent fun! 

For Sam, it's the last 2 weeks of school (which he loves, so I can see him being a pain in the backside during holidays lol).  I'm a bit miffed as I didn't realize today was the deadline for buying the pass for the term4 disco... hubby rang the school and asked if she could write us in for a hand deal and we'd come fill out a form and pay in the morning.  Her answer was NO it is already closed... this was 5minutes past 3pm, so it's not like they had ordered the bloody food since the end of school?!?  So, because he lost the form (I think his waterbottle leaked in his bag and he tossed it out) and I didn't realize the deadline, he gets to miss out on something he was excited about.  And the cranky cow at the school desk doesn't really care.  /rant  Ok, Sam isn't heartbroken or anything... he will dress up at home, we'll bbq sausages & have ice cream after and play dance music at home for him :)   I'm just annoyed.

Then in the last week of school there is an awards day... and his teacher emailed to say he will be getting an award (that he doesn't know about!) and asking if we'd like to come.  So of course, I'll pop down for that.. he will be so surprised and excited :)   

In other news... I've gotten really BAD about remembering to take pics to put up with my posts (which sorta happens when one doesn't post for months I guess? lol)  so my project for the week is to have at least a couple of photos to add to my weekly wrap!  Remind me in comments if I do not  :P
Caz
A day or so ago I notice that my blogger background was deceased.  It was a freebie from delightfuldots, and I had JUST put it up for summer (Not sure if y'all noticed, I like to change my template for the seasons hehe)  and I guess the way she has you install them links to HER  photo sharing site (whereever they are stored) and doesn't have you download the file to your computer.  Big problem because her traffic is clearly enormous due to the links and it has exceeded bandwith :(  So I had a blanky blog.

So I finally took a few minutes to go searching for a new one.  I found THIS beauty and had to have it!  Alas there was a problem with the site and it would not download!  A scroll down the comments underneath showed it has been a problem for a while.  SO, I managed to find it at another site and downloaded it!  It required a fair bit of tweaking to fix all the widgets that were in all SORTS Of bizarre places, and the date was UNDEFINED... but once I sorted that out I was giddy lol.

Anyone who knows me, knows that I live for a nice posh coffee.. and if I am sitting at this laptop blogging, there is probably a cuppa riding shotgun on my left LOL.  I have (almost) never met a coffee I didn't like, so this blog template is SO me that it's just not funny!

So, does anyone know if it stuffs up subscriptions/follows if you change the name of the blog ONLY in the header?  I've been tossing around the idea of a new name for a little while now... not really settled on anything yet, but just not feeling this one anymore if you know what I mean?   The new theme kinda begs for something caffienated, don't you think???
Caz
Is going along rather swimmingly, if I do say so myself :)  We did not get to go to the bowling/art gallery outings today unfortunately.  Strider was supposed to be off work today to stay with Merry & be here for the rental inspection.. but his boss decided they'd just start late instead.  I'm not complaining about the money of course ;) but we were looking forward to it.  Instead we picked up a nice bakery snack and popped into the bookstore and picked up some fun reading material.  And I do believe we're going to go to the office supply store & pick up a few bits like a binder for his subject notebooks, and a zippered pencil case that has binder holes in it (IF I can find one) so Frodo can always find a pencil etc if he has his binder handy. 

Frodo is using Time4Learning to fill the last 4 weeks of the 'school year' .. I figure it'd be a pain to start our actual planned curriculum and then stop for summer break!  We may go somewhat through breaks during the year, but after the year this poor boy has had, he deserves a nice long break!  So far, he seems to be enjoying the program.  He happily logs on and does at least one activity of each section ... today he did an antonyms lesson + quiz, some multiplication review, an activity about the layers of the earth (and wrote notes in his science notebook & did a diagram & pasted it in) and did the quiz on that too.  We did the section of social studies on the Olmecs and wrote some of the important bits in his notebook yesterday, and today we grabbed out the Usborne IL Encyclopedia  and read a little more about them and cruised a few links.

I am liking the T4L for the fact that he is enthusiastic about ANYthiNG on the computer, the activities are relatively brief (a god/dess send with his attention span), and we can then add to it with other resources!  I may end up having to add Samwise to the account because I can see Frodo wanting to continue over summer with it since it's only an hour or so worth of 'work'... and Sam will get quite jealous! 

And I have just been told I have the most beautiful gift coming from a lovely friend!  I adore the artwork in Barefoot Books, but they are not available widely in Australia (you find a *few* here and there on Aussie book sites, and the odd one in Borders.. is Borders still Borders here?? lol).  I soooooo wish the company would get on opening an Aussie distributorship, I would sign on to sell them in a split second!  (if just for the discount LOL)  So to my wonderful friend, thank you!  It will be a lovely holiday gift for the boys..and *sheepish* me lol, because I love a gorgeous book :)  
Caz
Bite me blogger for eating my post!
Caz
This is what we did today!
This is Frodo mailing off his registration packet to the Home Ed. Unit!  He was very excited to put that in the post box, that's for sure!

Then we followed up with a celebratory iced chocolate and doughnut :) 

There was a bit of multiplication practice thrown in this morning, but overall it was a day of destressing & relaxing.  The boy needed it and so did I.  Tomorrow I'll have a bit more for him to do as I've signed him up for Time4Learning so that I don't have to start our chosen programs only to pause for holidays after 4 weeks!  I think he'll enjoy it as he's all about the computer.  I'll be adding some writing and such in there, and he's going to write a letter to his new Pen Pal  over the next few days as well. 

I'm SO looking forward to some positive social time for him ... this week we're going bowling & to the art gallery workshop with a great home ed group!  And I've signed him up for a Christmas ceramics workshop in a couple of weeks too :)  Looking forward to it, AND to having a full year of fun next year!

Ps.  I did email the principal last night letting her know he wasn't returning with a brief, non accusatory (mostly) blurb about the fact that after nearly a full year it is clear to me that he just is NOT intended for the school environment etc... and as of yet I have had no reply.  I guess that shouldn't surprise me, she hasn't been overly kind /caring to him while he was THERE, so why would she care when he is gone?


Caz
My son is NOT the type of kid that would walk up to a girl with a visibly broken & bandaged toe and then stomp & twist his foot on hers.  Yet, that is what the school expects me to believe.  He brought home a BRO, which is a form the children have to fill out when they did something wrong.  In it they must detail what the incident was, and what they should do instead next time.  On it he stated he wasn't paying attention when he walked up to the student to ask her for something, and that he didn't intend to step on her foot.  He did write that some of the other kids say he did stomp but that he did not.  A teacher, or the principal, actually wrote that it happened the way everyone else said.    I'm fed up, and I've emailed & called the principal but no reply yet.

Not that it matters... the school has labeled Frodo as a 'problem' despite him having diagnosed special needs.  And as my DH says, the minute we tried medication for him, the school gave up on him.  The communication book that was started to help him & us with feedback on how he did each day has not been seen for the entirety of this term (5 weeks).  No matter what the problem is, it is ALWAYS Frodo's fault and there are ALWAYS other students willing to attest to the fact that he did X, Y or Z.    Coincidentally, these are all the same kids that exclude, ostracize and bully him both inside & outside of school hours... but the principal doesn't, or won't, see this.    I guess the problem doesn't exist if you put blinders on and look the other way?

As I said, I've called (left a msg) as well as emailed the principal and have gotten no response.  I also wrote a long reply to the stupid letter that I was required to sign :)  and I have emailed his teacher asking if HE was there and could he please enlighten me about the situation since the principal isn't bothering to do so.  I am almost done with his learning program, so I guess that is priority #1, since I can't see him remaining there even the last 5 weeks if he is not even going to be listened to. 

In the remotest possibility that it IS true that he did what he is accused of, I would sort of have to blame the school for allowing the other kids to continue to mistreat him for the entire year... who WOULDN'T be angry and act out at that point?  They have known of the situation all year, yet really not done enough.  Can't wait to get this kid home again, so he can start to heal from the year of misery he has been through :(   I feel guilty for not seeing exactly how much it was affecting him sooner (I did know he was struggling, and pushed for help and got some but I had no idea he was so angry inside)