Vinegar is GREAT!

Is it me, or is that glass on the left much dirtier/cloudy? Look toward the top of the glass. I was at home depot last week asking where I could find the dishwasher cleaner (to get rid of hard water deposits) when the appliance man took me aside and whispered that I didn't want to buy those expensive tablets. All I needed to do was put 1/3 of a cup of vinegar into the bottom of the dishwasher before starting it up and that would take care of my hard water problem. As I thought about it, and about the small bottle of vinegar in my cupboard, I thought I would be needing a lot of bottles of vinegar if I wanted to keep my dishes/glasses/flatware clean, as the water in this area is VERY HARD.

So I went to Costco (the local warehouse store) and found this HUGE bottle of vinegar for $2.99. I tried it in the dishwasher and things are coming out SO clean. "Squeaky clean" to quote my grandmother, who told me to use vinegar for cleaning oh-so-many years ago. Funny how we come full circle and it takes so long to really understand the Wisdom of Our Fathers (Mothers).


And while I was taking the pictures I saw this pic in the camera from the trip. I didn't use my camera at all in Chicago. I exclusively used the camcorder and got lots of video, which I need to burn to DVD. In this picture, DS had offered to hold Baby A while I used the restroom. They were so cute when I got back that my seat-mate offered to take a picture of all of us.

I got their attention

I turned in the letter requesting the Independent Educational Evaluation for my son yesterday, and by the end of the day the school was calling me, which is good. School is almost out and we need to get the ball rolling now. Here is the body of the letter:

I am revoking my signature to the Eligibility Statement for Specific Leaning Disability in which the box was checked "This pupil does not exhibit a learning disability as defined by CR3030J" on 5-1-2008.
I am requesting an Independent Educational Evaluation for my son, ****, because I disagree with the results of the district's evaluation.
Please respond to this letter within 5 days because the evaluator will need access to observe ****'s in-class behavior, in the same manner ****'s in-class behavior was observed during the district's assessment.
If you have a list of local evaluators, please send that to me.

The part that angered me the most about my meeting on May 1st was that they lied to me about the paper that they wanted me to sign. At the end of the 2-hour meeting, they took out a paper and asked me to sign it. When I got a doubtful expression on my face, the school psychologist assured me that I was not agreeing to anything. This paper only stated that I attended the meeting. I signed without looking at the fine print. DUMB! And guess what? The paper actually said that I agreed that my son does not have a learning disability!#*&! I am in my MID FORTIES people! I should know better than that!!!!!! The good news is that I learned at the seminar last week that I had a right to revoke my signature. In fact, I needed to revoke my signature so that I could request the IEE. And I had to wait until they were done with their assessment so that I would have something to disagree with, because you can't have an IEE unless you disagree with the district's evaluation. I also learned at the seminar that I don't have to explain exactly what part of the evaluation that I disagree with. So I didn't specify. I mean, I don't know what my son's true diagnosis *is*, so I don't want to narrow the field before he has been diagnosed by expressing my opinions like that. I also learned that I have the right to have the independent evaluator brought into my son's class to observe him, since that was a portion of the prior assessment. Good!

The school's special ed director called me yesterday and gave me the phone number of the district's special ed director. I don't know if this means that they agree to give me the IEE yet or not. They have the right to refuse, which will force a hearing. I think if we do go to a hearing, however, I will win, because I can show how *they* minimized 20% of *their own* exam findings. They had no explanation why he did poorly on these certain areas, other than he must not have been "paying attention" when he did those portions of the test. {eyeroll} Come on, folks. You can do better than that. {eyeroll}

So I cc'd everybody that was at the meeting, the school principal, the teacher, the school psychologist, the special ed director and the vice principal. AND I had the front desk lady at the school sign and date my copy of the letter to prove that they received it yesterday. There is a timeline that they have to comply with when they receive written requests like these and I wanted them to know that I know what the rules are. Implying that I will report them if they are out of compliance. I am not afraid of them. I am not intimidated. I have my focus set on what is in the best interest of my son. Most of them are focused on what is in the best interest of the school district, and I understand that. Good thing there are laws in place to protect children with special needs. We really need them.

Back in Action

The trip was AWESOME! I had such a great time with my Aunt and Uncle. Uncle was home from the rehab hospital, though in a wheelchair. That was good. I got to spend a lot of time with him. He has had so many strokes over the past 15 years that he has trouble communicating. He speaks like we talk if we have a toothbrush in our mouths. Most words he can't pronounce. He gestures a lot. He still has a great sense of humor, though. Amazing after all he's been through. He had his first stroke at the age of 50. All of the men on my maternal grandmother's side of the family seem to have problems early. Heart attack or stroke by age 45 or 50. I warned my 2 brothers to eat right, exercise and take baby aspirin starting now. We are all in our mid 40s. My Aunt is a most selfless lady. She has stuck with my uncle where many spouses would have bailed. She has always been a great influence on me, like a second mother. And I got to see my cousin, her husband and their 3 kids, all of which are almost the exact ages of my youngest 3 kids. It will be great when I can go back there with all the little ones. They can do laps on tricycles with the others. As far as activities, we rode the train in from the northwestern suburbs to downtown Chicago, ate a nice lunch, went on the Wendella Cruise around the Chicago River and Lake Michigan for a 90-minute tour of the city. Then walked around and saw more sights before taking the train back. My 9-y-o LOVED the double-decker Metra train. And the next day we had a barbecue with my cousin and her family. Then we flew back here. All yesterday was spent reorganizing the house and putting away the last of the boxes from last week. Today I'm going to Home Depot to get ties for the tops of the bookcases for earthquake proofing. Also some doorstops, dishwasher cleaner and other sundries.

Below is a video I took last week and tried to post Thursday but the computer seemed to freeze up. Baby A is consistently rolling over when placed on his tummy, which severely curtails tummy time. ;-)

In other news, last Thursday I spent ALL DAY at a seminar given by TASK in Anaheim. This is an organization that helps people whose children have special needs to navigate through the testing and meetings with the school district. I found out that I am entitled to get a second opinion since I disagree with the outcome of the testing performed by the school district. I am now requesting an IEE, which is an Independent Educational Evaluation. I think there is more going on with my boy than simple attention problems. I mean, if someone is blind, they are not going to "pay attention" to the chalkboard, right? Or if they are deaf, they are not going to "pay attention" when the teacher gives verbal directions for handouts in class. My son is in no way hyper, which they admitted. But he has extensive avoidance strategies to get out of schoolwork that he finds overwhelming. I want to tighten his diagnosis so that he can get the help he needs as the years go on. Because if he has the problem I think he has, he will have more and more problems as he is expected to do more and more independent work. The blanket diagnosis of ADD is not good enough. Especially considering he had a right-sided skull fracture as a 4-month-old baby (I tripped and fell down steps with him in my arms, the worst day of my life) and his learning problems follow the pattern of nonverbal learning disorder, which is a form of right brain dysfunction. Sigh. More to come on this.