Another IEP

Amelia’s school has decided there will be a new IEP on  October 29th.  This is good, but I’m never.  My last IEP was a failure (for Zoe), and I don’t know if I can bring the advocate in time.  I’m an ass; I should have called her sooner.

The fact is, I’m having doubts now about our decision to put her in this school.  I have to think, what do I want for Amelia?  I think I can answer these questions.  I want her to have the basics of reading down by years’ end.  I want her to be able to regularly do homework.  I want her to be able to count, understanding the 1-to-1 ration and have a better grip on numbers.

If the school doesn’t have the resources for this, maybe this was a mistake. Maybe instructional learning at the regular school was the best thing.  Is she getting anything from daily hikes, weekly trips to the pond?  I’m not sure.  How can I learn this when she won’t talk to me?

I did a DUMBASS thing too. I missed putting her name & info in the class directory.  I’m pretty upset by this because it means she won’t be on lists, like for birthdays and such, and she can’t invite anyone either. I only had a small window and I set a popup reminder but I put it off and blew it.

I wish I didn’t have this lack of security about it all.  I still have other things to teach her (responsibility, potty training, faith), but I feel like I’m drowning, especially since I’m terrible at teaching the academics.  There is WAY too much going on right now and Zoe is taking up a lot of my resources as well.

As far as academics, look, I did this thing last week on our first math assignment.  I had to go over number bonds, which are tough for a kid who can’t really count. I was really creative on this though.  I put out 6 pretzels and cut out numbers for each (she gets a numberline just fine). Then I moved one number to the next row and on the back, wrote a corresponding number.  So item#6 became item#1 in the next row.  By the end, she sort of got it.  Great, Gina, that’s wonderful! you’re thinking.

Only it took EVERYTHING I had.  So by 5:45pm, I WAS DONE.  Yet this is the intense training she needs to get academics, which means I should do this daily.  How can I possibly do that?

If you have ideas, resources, tips, or anything, I’d appreciate.  Personally, I’m in need of a vacation, and I don’t mean I need to go some place warm. I mean I need some place kid-free.  Maybe husband-free too.  I’m completely burnt out, and Zoe getting up every night ain’t helped.