Sunday, September 2, 2012

Positively Trying

I've been feeling like I'm taking one step forward and two steps back when it comes to various life issues lately. It's nothing major. It's little stuff and it's annoying.

For example, while we were gone an e-mail came out from school about after school clubs. X-man sees the Mathman on Wednesdays in September and if he likes it, he'll continue. On Thursdays he sees his behavioral therapist to work on his anxiety issues. He knew they had clubs last year but didn't want to really be a part of any of them. But he asked about them this year (mostly he wanted to know if there would be an at-school Lego club, because he found out they have them in California). When the e-mail came out, it announced that clubs were available for children in first through fifth grade.

They had some copy troubles at school, so the parent organizer said we could request a permission slip via e-mail, if they didn't come home in folders on Friday. Since we were gone, I just went ahead and asked for an electronic version for the American Sign Language Class. The permission slip came via e-mail -- and it turned out that there was an error and the club was the only one NOT available to first graders. Now I have a sad panda on my hands, because he wanted to learn to communicate better with the kids at his school. I told him I'd get a book at the library and we'd learn a bit of sign language together. And I totally understand the teacher's concern that first grader's aren't great spellers yet, so it makes it hard to teach children the alphabet to sign and then how to spell words. So I'm not frustrated.

It's just that we seem to come up with this kind of thing a lot, where I do some research on something, get the information, tell X-man what I think the right information is and then when it turns out there's been some kind of typo or mistake on the other end, and then I have to do a lot of work rebuilding his confidence and convincing him that the world is not against him because something didn't work out that he was excited about. And I get that it's annoying, when say, a camp counselor calls your mother and tells her what group you'll be in the next morning and with what counselor, but then you show up and the information is totally wrong, because there were two X-men at the camp and they read the wrong line when they called.

It's just the way life is. People make mistakes. But to a six-year-old with an anxiety issue, it's a mess. Sometimes I wonder if this is why I'm so particular about certain things. Did I used to get this bent out of shape when I was a kid and that's why I have plan A through M for everything? Just so that I could get used to the disappointment and them make lemonade 13 different ways to keep a positive outlook so that I don't become an Eeyore?

Speaking of positive planning, I have two more exciting things happening this week to the house. We're getting new basement carpeting and new carpeting in the upstairs guest room. The two new Kentucky Coffee Trees that I ordered come to get planted on Tuesday.






2 comments:

~rachel~ said...

I'm annoyed by that kind of thing and I'm not 6! We are not putting Rowan in cub scouts this year because I can't stand the disorganization. It's awful! Although probably better to take him out now before they try to brainwash him ;)

Have you ever seen Signing Time? Videos that teach young kids ASL. Rowan watched it when he was really young and lived it and we saw it on PBS recently and both boys were into it. It's a little young for Xman but Rowan still liked it so thought I'd mention it.

SunnyD said...

I know Tolono has a sign language series on DVD that I was going to look in to. I remember when they first started fundraising for DVDs after CPL cut them off and it was on the list. I wonder if they're the Signing Time series. I'll have to check it out when I take the book drop tomorrow! Thank you for the suggestion!