The Progeny
Gnashing and Crashing and Gnashing Again
Testing for Nolan and Trevor finished this morning. They both said it was mostly "easy."
I can veritably sniff the approach of doom.
Taking my usual organized approach, I ordered a 4th and 6th grade Iowa Test of Basic Skills "Scoring Higher!" book for each. It includes two practice sections for each subject, followed by a test on that subject. Then at the back, there is a complete practice test over the whole kit an caboodle.
It's fairly thorough in filling in test circles and this year I was encouraged that they had an easier time of it. My spot checking found above average results, for the most part.
Well OK...spelling was near disastrous, but I figure that will improve with further reading and/or an introduction to the miracle of spell check.
And like last year, after I'd carefully scheduled their time, the school called and wanted to move up the test date. We hurried on through, finishing 90% of the prep and the entire practice test.
The crowning frustration was discovering I'd prepped them for the wrong test. Just this year, the local school switched from the Iowa Test of Basic Skills to something called The Iowa Assessment Test.
I think this is where I crawl into a quiet hole somewhere, crash, and pretend I don't care.
Speaking of ill-fated shenanigans, despite warnings to the contrary, Trevor and Nolan resumed jumping from the triple bunks onto mattresses on the floor. There must have been some hefty bounces as Nolan rebounded last night and hit the wooden floor hard and had the wind knocked out of him. This scared him quite badly. But he also said his back hurt and he could hardly move. That scared me. I gave him some ibuprofen and parked him on the floor mattress.
He managed to stay out of trouble for the remaining 20 minutes 'til bedtime.
Thankfully he was fairly normal by morning. This was good for several reasons, one of them being I avoided that awkward phone call, "I'm sorry Nolan can't come in for his last day of testing...he jumped off the bunk beds and broke his back...I'll get back to you in a couple of years."
And now, you probably thought my title reference to teeth gnashing was merely a melodramatic reference to going insane...
No, it's much more concrete. When I went to the dentist last, with fear and trembling for the possibility of approximately 10 cavities on the side of my sore mouth, I was told that I'm grinding my teeth at night. It's doing something to my jaw. Something which apparently does not involve the cool occurrence of tuning in nostalgic radio stations via old fillings. It actually does some damage. But the insurance will not pay for the suggested appliance so while waiting for the possibility of funds to become available at a latter date, I plan to experiment with a combination of paper clips and chewing gum.
It sounds easy enough.
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I can veritably sniff the approach of doom.
Taking my usual organized approach, I ordered a 4th and 6th grade Iowa Test of Basic Skills "Scoring Higher!" book for each. It includes two practice sections for each subject, followed by a test on that subject. Then at the back, there is a complete practice test over the whole kit an caboodle.
It's fairly thorough
Well OK...spelling was near disastrous, but I figure that will improve with further reading and/or an introduction to the miracle of spell check.
And like last year, after I'd carefully scheduled their time, the school called and wanted to move up the test date. We hurried on through, finishing 90% of the prep and the entire practice test.
The crowning frustration was discovering I'd prepped them for the wrong test. Just this year, the local school switched from the Iowa Test of Basic Skills to something called The Iowa Assessment Test.
I think this is where I crawl into a quiet hole somewhere, crash, and pretend I don't care.
Speaking of ill-fated shenanigans, despite warnings to the contrary, Trevor and Nolan resumed jumping from the triple bunks onto mattresses on the floor. There must have been some hefty bounces as Nolan rebounded last night and hit the wooden floor hard and had the wind knocked out of him. This scared him quite badly. But he also said his back hurt and he could hardly move. That scared me. I gave him some ibuprofen and parked him on the floor mattress.
He managed to stay out of trouble for the remaining 20 minutes 'til bedtime.
Thankfully he was fairly normal by morning. This was good for several reasons, one of them being I avoided that awkward phone call, "I'm sorry Nolan can't come in for his last day of testing...he jumped off the bunk beds and broke his back...I'll get back to you in a couple of years."
And now, you probably thought my title reference to teeth gnashing was merely a melodramatic reference to going insane...
No, it's much more concrete. When I went to the dentist last, with fear and trembling for the possibility of approximately 10 cavities on the side of my sore mouth, I was told that I'm grinding my teeth at night. It's doing something to my jaw. Something which apparently does not involve the cool occurrence of tuning in nostalgic radio stations via old fillings. It actually does some damage. But the insurance will not pay for the suggested appliance so while waiting for the possibility of funds to become available at a latter date, I plan to experiment with a combination of paper clips and chewing gum.
It sounds easy enough.
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posted by Ma Hoyt | 8:07 PM
2 Comments:
You might try one of those "night bite" things you can get at the drug store for about $30. You warm it in hot water, then bite down on it to make it fit your teeth. Then just wear it while sleeping. I used one for a while when I was having severe mouth pain.
Or, alternatively, you might send your kids to public school. ;-)
The drug store thing might be an option...
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