I have visited all 4 schools
Winston - del Mar
Excelsior - La Mesa
Sierra - Lake Murry
NewBridge - poway
I took Calvin back to see the first three of those schools. At this point Winston is out of the running . It is a purely academic school for kids who struggle in public school and need more academic support. They don't have any interest in dealing with kids who need emotional support.
NewBridge only goes through 8th grade so it would be a challenge to send Calvin there for only a year and a half. If NewBridge seems a good fit, I want to push for having Calvin enter as a 6th grader so he has a longer time there. Academically he is closer to 6th grade anyway. The district would not want to have calvin repeat a year because it means paying for an extra year of school. However, paying for another middle school year may prevent them from having to pay for an additional 4 years after high school in a transition program.
Sierra and Excelsior would both be a good fit for him. They are pretty similar with Sierra having a more formal discipline program with points earned each hour, which equate to tickets that are used in the schools store. Excelsior is a little less organized in their behavioral approach giving tickets on occasion that go into a drawing once a week. Basically Calvin would have to be self motivated.
After I had a first look at each of the schools, the next step was to take Calvin to look at them (very briefly) I took Calvin to see sierra, Exc, and Winston. He did not like Winston at all. The lady giving us the tour was pretty cold and it was obvious in her mannerisms and conversation she was not excited to have us there. I'm sure Calvin felt that.
At Excelsior, the administrator looked at Calvin and talked directly to him, asking what he likes about school, what he thinks a good school would be, and telling him about the program. He soaked it in. At one point, the admin left the room and Calvin turned to me and said, "mom, I think this would be a great school". Pretty astounding coming from a child who did not even want to change schools.
At Sierra, the day before the holiday break, we showed up during lunch so some of the admins were out, including the main person who does admissions. Someone else gave us a tour, and though friendly, was in somewhat of a hurry to get back to her regular job. Plus the kids were at PE so Calvin didn't see them in class.
After the three visits I was impressed at how affected Calvin was by the personality of the admin at excelsior. It just goes to show how kindness and enthusiasm can make a big difference.
Next week I'll take Calvin to see NewBridge. I am also waiting for the director to read Calvin's paperwork and see if he thinks Calvin would be a good fit.
The next step is to have Calvin do a 2-5 day visit at each school we are considering. I will for sure set something up at Excelsior; we already have a visit at Sierra scheduled for the second week of Jan.
It is going to be a busy month. Lots of car time. I just started reading Grapes of Wrath on audio. Hopefully it is as great as I heard it will be so that it keeps me company in the car as we drive.
Tuesday, December 29, 2015
Monday, December 28, 2015
practical joker
sometimes calvin does things that make my blood boil.
Examples:
Calvin gets home from school before me a couple of days a week. If that's the case, I all him and remind him to take his booster pills. He was getting really annoyed with me calling to tell him to take his pills. So, he changed the number in my cell phone for "home" so that it was our old home phone number instead of our current #. One afternoon I was out taking the girls to dance and kept trying to call cavlin to remind him to take his pills. A very angry lady answered and said "DO NOT CALL THIS NUMBER!" I was so confused about why there was an angry lady at my house. Wondering what happened to Calvin. Then I slowed down my thinking and realized Calvin played a trick on me.
Calvin also loves to mess with the passwords on our accounts. He changed my amazon password, Netflix password, email password. It is infuriating to try to log in on my phone and find the password was changed. For the amazon account he changed the password so he could log on and check on recent order history (and see what was ordered for Christmas). Stinker.
He also set his alarm on his tablet or phone to go off at 1 or 2 in the morning so when I have his device in my room charging overnight it will go off in the night and wake me up.
Also, in recent months, Calvin figured out how to charge purchases to my cell phone number. I do not even know how to do this.
I could be proud of his determination and intelligence if he would find a way to put it to good use and not use it to torture me.
He has currently lost the privelidge of using electronic devices.
Examples:
Calvin gets home from school before me a couple of days a week. If that's the case, I all him and remind him to take his booster pills. He was getting really annoyed with me calling to tell him to take his pills. So, he changed the number in my cell phone for "home" so that it was our old home phone number instead of our current #. One afternoon I was out taking the girls to dance and kept trying to call cavlin to remind him to take his pills. A very angry lady answered and said "DO NOT CALL THIS NUMBER!" I was so confused about why there was an angry lady at my house. Wondering what happened to Calvin. Then I slowed down my thinking and realized Calvin played a trick on me.
Calvin also loves to mess with the passwords on our accounts. He changed my amazon password, Netflix password, email password. It is infuriating to try to log in on my phone and find the password was changed. For the amazon account he changed the password so he could log on and check on recent order history (and see what was ordered for Christmas). Stinker.
He also set his alarm on his tablet or phone to go off at 1 or 2 in the morning so when I have his device in my room charging overnight it will go off in the night and wake me up.
Also, in recent months, Calvin figured out how to charge purchases to my cell phone number. I do not even know how to do this.
I could be proud of his determination and intelligence if he would find a way to put it to good use and not use it to torture me.
He has currently lost the privelidge of using electronic devices.
Sunday, December 6, 2015
Excelsior
In many ways Excelsior was so similar to Winston that I can hardly tell the differences.
They have PE every day. Most of the year the PE is centered around whatever intramural program they are doing. In the fall it's flag football, then basketball.
There is an IPAD for every kid to use in the classrooms.
The kids can take breaks when they need to. They can go to the OT room or take a few minutes listening to music, etc.
They have academic classes and
They seem to be pretty flexible with individualized academic instruction.
7-8 grade is together.
Seems a little more relaxed in structure compared to Winston.
They have the option in high school to do a transition program if kids need more time to graduate or need to take a few classes to teach skills which aren't academic.
They have PE every day. Most of the year the PE is centered around whatever intramural program they are doing. In the fall it's flag football, then basketball.
There is an IPAD for every kid to use in the classrooms.
The kids can take breaks when they need to. They can go to the OT room or take a few minutes listening to music, etc.
They have academic classes and
They seem to be pretty flexible with individualized academic instruction.
7-8 grade is together.
Seems a little more relaxed in structure compared to Winston.
They have the option in high school to do a transition program if kids need more time to graduate or need to take a few classes to teach skills which aren't academic.
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