Liar, Liar. Pants on Fire.

I once said that if lightning was to strike the school, I would not help in any way. I would not be in the bucket brigade, I would not clear away debris. I would not buy goodies from fundraising bake sales. I would not donate funds. I would not help with the rebuild. I certainly would not help celebrate its re-opening.

Late last night Gavin's teacher finally emailed me. She said that she would not be at school Friday but that Irene could get the homework packet from the substitute. This morning I get an email from the principal saying that Gavin's teacher will not have homework packets ready. She will be coming in during the weekend to get them ready. Not that it should matter because the homework packets always go home on Mondays. What?! For one thing, the homework packets include multiple subjects of homework, including the reading log which starts on Friday! There is also math pages and spelling pages that require at least 5 different online spelling activities be completed.

Why is there a need to lie? If you're not going to have them done then don't tell me to send my daughter to the sub to get it. And don't try to pass me off to the principal as not knowing what I'm talking about. Every week these packets have come home on Friday and are due the next Friday. What is this bullshit accomplishing????

Liar, liar. Your lying liar pants are on fire.

And They blew My House Away

Well. I feel like the school did an end run around me. Ten minutes to the end of school and I get a call. Gavin had an issue on the playground. He refused to talk about what happened, but he hit someone in reaction to whatever happened. The school's response is that I keep him home tomorrow. Well, at least they're happy.

Of course, Gavin is happy, too. He is being rewarded with another day off school. He doesn't have to do the work, doesn't have to make an effort. Gee, this seems like such a great idea. Plus, the school did not send home his homework packet or his reading book which puts us three days behind on homework.

I am doing all I can do. Gavin is seeing someone about his anxiety. I've told all the various people at the school about it. However, I get no input from the school. Just calls. And suspensions. Worse, they don't tell him that they're doing it. Gavin had no idea that he wouldn't be going to school tomorrow. He was speaking about how his day was going to go. According to the principal, she had made this suspension arrangement with Gavin. Yeah, he didn't remember it a bit.

I'm feeling jaded. I greatly dislike this school. I greatly dislike this school system. I feel like we have reached an impasse.

I'll Huff and I'll Puff!

Wednesday started off fairly decently...until it was time to get dressed for school. Then Gavin dug his heels in and that was that. There was no getting dressed, I hate school, my tummy hurts, stomp-stomp. Monday and Tuesday had been good days for him. He did well, was in a good mood, but Wednesday was just not happening.

I kept Gavin home. Unhappily. However, I just couldn't justify manhandling him into clothes and shoes, and then just dropping him at the curb at school. His bad day would start before he even walked through the door. We did managed to do spelling work and read, so at least a little bit of learning happened. Today he was much more willing to go to school since the second grade was going on a field trip at an apple orchard. I'm hopeful that the day continues to go well.

Tomorrow his teacher will not be at school. Gavin does not always do well with substitutes since they don't do things exactly like the teacher. However, his teacher has angered me a bit by asking me, twice, if I wanted to keep him home tomorrow. I adamantly do not want to keep him home. These absences do count against him. Pretty soon the school system will be sending me a letter about the number of absences the student is allowed to have...blah blah blah. The only I way I will keep him home at the behest of the school is if they clear his absences, otherwise this child is going. And let's not forget that he is there to actually learn things. It's not just a playdate.

And so we go on...a lot of hot air to be had by all.

Birthday with Godzilla

 Gavin's birthday was on Friday. This year he wanted Godzilla cake for his party and Godzilla cookies to take to school.

The Godzilla cake topper, and cookie cutter, I found on etsy. Grandma Pat made the cake. It turned out better than what I would have been able to do. And her frosting was terrific. She also made the cookies. She, and her sister, spent four hours making 30 cookies. The cookie dough did not want to come out of the tail and arm sections of the cutter. I was amazed that they stuck to it. As pictured above, we got the leftover (some arm-less, some tail-less) cookies while the picture perfect ones went to school.

And school. Ugh. Gavin is at school at the moment. I am still looking into homeschooling. I don't really want to homeschool. I feel like I don't have the wherewithal to do it well. Still, I can't keep sending my child to a place that is making him physically ill. The search is ongoing.

Sometimes I feel like there is no right answer.

FRUSTRATION!!!!

Anyone in Michigan that homeschools? I am in need of help, tips, pointers, etc. Today is pretty much the limit of shit I can take from this school. They are actively making my child sick and blaming him. It is one step forward and twelve steps back. I cannot keep sending my child to a place that is making him so miserable.

Done. So flippin' done.

And so it goes...

Where to start? This week is a busy one. Yesterday, Gavin had an appointment that required our going into GR. Today I have Irene's parent/teacher conference. Tomorrow I have Gavin's speech evaluation meeting. Thursday is Gavin's well-child check up (also in GR) and Friday is Gavin's birthday. 

I am still having issues with the school. Friday was a mess of incompetence. I emailed the teacher about what actually happened and got multiple emails of such condescension that I finally stopped reading them. I did save them though. 

Yesterday, Gavin was diagnosed with a form of anxiety disorder. His stressor is school. School stresses my child out to the point of making him sick. Granted, there are two particular things at school that really stress him. Still, I am heartbroken that I have to send my child to the thing that upsets him so greatly. I don't know how, or even if, the school will work with this information. I think I would consider homeschooling at this point just to save him the ridiculous amounts of anxiety he suffers. Unfortunately, I don't know the first thing about homeschooling.

Hopefully, Gavin should have 20 counseling appointments. These will be every other week. They'll deal with working through the stress and come up with ideas to help manage it. The gentleman working with Gavin was very kind. I am tentatively hopeful in regards to the counseling.

In other health related news, my brother has been diagnosed with a fairly rare syndrome. He went from a spinal tap on Monday, to official diagnosis on Friday, to treatment starting Saturday. I am frustrated that, even though we live in the same state, I am not close enough to be any kind of real help. Even something as simple as making some food and taking it over is not doable. Instead I have been sending restaurant gift cards (trying to find places that deliver or do take-out) and texting as much as I can. And knitting him things, but you can read about that on my knitting blog.

It is funny how many forms there are of love and devotion. With Gavin, I want to be a giant bear that eats whatever dares to upset him, then take him home, roll him around, and teach him how to fish. I want him to still be hopeful in this world, but help him to get by. With my brother, I want to cry for and with him, then make a blanket fort, and give cuddles. He knows how the world works. I can't make any of it go away, but I can spread some cushions around to ease the discomfort.

And there it is.

Woe is Me!

"You are your child's best advocate" is such a cop-out. Really, it is an infuriating phrase. I can only advocate so much for my child. If I do not know what is available, or what each institute is supposed to do/be responsible for,  and that information is not forthcoming/readily available HOW CAN I ADVOCATE???

We are into our third year at this school. And for the third year in a row they are completely unhelpful. I am beyond frustrated with them. Unfortunately, I am the one that moved the kids to this school when Henry was being physically bullied on the playground of the other school. If the other school had actually done something about the abuse we would have stayed there. I had to jump through paperwork hoops to get all three moved to another school. The school I wanted to move them to could only get two of them enrolled, so we had to go with the school we're currently at.  And it has been three years of complete shit.

With Henry now in middle school, I really want to move Irene and Gavin. Currently, Irene has an all A report card and has many friends. I hate to take her out of that. I'm seriously considering moving Gavin next year when Irene goes to the middle school.

I am tired and fed up with the lack of any support. I feel like they don't want to address any issues because that messes up their 'affluent and awesome' persona.

Ugh. I'd knit to release my frustrations, but last night, in a bid to relax, I managed to mess up the sock I'm knitting. Okay, Okay. Rant over.