Children @ MindSay

Driving in to work today I was on time for once. Huge shocker there, I know. At any rate, with many minutes to spare, I was in no hurry at all. So, as I turned the last corner onto the residential street that eventually turns into Hamline, I saw a school bus. It was slowing down with its yellow warning lights on.

 

I immediately slowed down and stopped. I have NO problem waiting for a school bus. Even when I am late this doesn't bother me. I rode the bus for years and have a great respect for the service they provide. So the red lights come on, the stop sign pops out and there I wait.

 

This little boy, about 8 or 9 by his size, gets off the bus in a backpack larger than himself. He jumps to the ground, hops up on the curb and crosses the sidewalk. Evidently, he gets dropped right in front of his house. He unlatches the gate of the fence, goes inside, turns around and relatches the gate before turning and heading up the walk to the front porch. He climbed the three steps to the front porch, walked up to the front door, opened the screen door, and used both hands to open the front door of the house. He then went inside and shut the door behind him.

 

Am I a stalker? No, of course not. Then, you have to wonder, how I know all of this...

 

Well, turns out, I was made to watch. The bus kept the stop sign out and the red lights on until the boy was INSIDE THE HOUSE! I mean, come on. I love children as much as the next guy and want for them to be kept safe and sound, but this seemed a little excessive. Once the kid is on the sidewalk and out of the street seems safe enough, but surely once he is inside the fenced in yard is enough for even the most hardlined parent?????

 

I kid you not, I was made to wait several minutes until this kid (who was in no particular hurry, btw) was inside of his home before I could continue down his street. Even if I wanted to run this kid over he was pretty much out of my reach once he crossed the fenceline, so what the hell were we waiting for?

 

Thank goodness I had those few minutes to spare. As it was, after parking and heading across campus I walked in the door as the bell tolled four times. Right on time.

 

Nothing excessive about me.

It's only 4:30, and I am ready to collapse.

 

Here's some of the stuff that was on my plate today:

 

-- One of my ESPs (Educational Support Professional, aka a para or an aide at other schools), Kathleen, was taking a personal day today. That's totally fine.  Yesterday, my ESP Stacey's daughter got sick at her school and Stace had to leave at like 1:30 to take care of her, so I thought she might be absent today.  I gave this info to a fellow teacher, Susan, who runs another 'program' in the building.  She told me one of her ESPs was going to be out. 

Each day, a fax comes to the main office from the sub caller saying who is absent.

Imagine my nausea when Susan came to my room and said, "they're both out, and there are no subs".  I almost had a heart attack.  THANKFULLY, she meant Kathleen and her ESP, NOT Kathleen and Stacey.

-- However, Kathleen works with a kid who needs CONSTANT supervision (T), so there was no option of 'okay, he'll be on his own today'.  'Shit' I say to myself, 'I'm already understaffed when all of them are HERE, being down another one will kill me!''. 

It did NOT kill me, btw.  We did an experiment where Sandy left X alone all day, and she went around as Kathleen, and I'd be her at his lunch period so she could eat.  OYYY.  It also F'ed up Paula and Dot's lunches.  I can't wait to have enough staff.  It will never happen, though.

-- M had TWO bathroom accidents today.  The day before we were going to throw a blow-out party for her for being dry for an entire month.  I thought we should have it anyway, because we were at ALMOST a month (this was after the 1st, just-pee accident :-/), but Paula alerted me that earlier M threatened her with, "If you don't _____ I'll pee my pants".

-- Speaking of M, her foster-mom just stopped in here (it's 4:40) to see if I was in.  We talked a week ago about how she never intended to adopt her and that their time together would be ending soon but M doesn't know HOW soon it really could be.  Well, mom just told me they've found a prospective family in West Springfield, and she's actually going to be having an overnight with them...TOMORROW.  As in, if this goes well, and this is for real, she could be leaving NEXT WEEK.  I'm devestated at the thought of it.

PS, she's going to tell her about it tonight, so that means tomorrow might be HELL, and also, the behaviors like bathroom issues and defiance are probably going to spike.  w00t.

-- I got to have another interaction with ZF today.  He is not my student, but probably will be soon.  The child is out-of-control, makes-other-behavior-kids-look-like-angels outta control.  He has an ESP who has NO IDEA what to do with him.  Twice this week, I've had to escort him into the break room because he's been kicking and scratching her. Not that he hasn't been doing it to me when I am the one getting him into the room because she doesn't.  He left some good marks today. 

-- This one made me laugh.  I guess you'd have to know the student to laugh along with me, but there is a boy in Susan's program, H, who is quite a handful.  He is very violent and hands-on as well - he's also really sweet, but if you spend time with him, you see a lot more aggression than the sweet side.  Anyway, while watching T at recess today, I turned around and saw H on all 4s behind another kid, squeezing him.  I told him to let go, and surprisingly, he did without incident.  I have heard one of his ESPs, Ashley tell him, "no contact" as in, hands off, so as he and the boys ran away, I yelled, "Boys, no contact".  I didn't single HIM out, I made it the whole group.

Either way, H stops, cocks his hip out and goes, "You know what I want? (beat) To kick you".  I was TEMPTED to say, 'thank you for not' but I clamped my mouth shut.  HOWEVER, H not hurting someone is big news.  Of course, he broke a kids glasses today, but ... he didn't kick me when he wanted to :).

-- Oh yeah; Stacey came in this morning and told me she's applying for a transfer back to her old school because she hates working in the program.  Not her student, not me or my staff, but the program itself.  I knew she was unhappy from the get-go, but ... seriously?  You're going to fucking do that to us after you made a huge fucking deal about us NOT splitting the days up so you'd always be with that student?

I can't tell if I'm hoping she gets it or not. 

Apparently, I'm madder about that than I thought I was. 

A Garden Problem

There are a bevy of ways that parents of children with asthma can do in the service of flu season and the modern infuse with year, says the American Lung Association.

"Best hygiene is the best and foremost boundary of defense against any fount of siberian or flu. This includes everyday handwashing and covering your unhappy when coughing or sneezing," Dr. Norman H. Edelman, the association's chief medical policeman, said in an syndicate hearsay release buy Revatio online us pharmacy. The lung link also strongly recommends that all children, particularly those with asthma, be bruited about a flu shot. But solitary one-third of children with asthma after a seasonal flu vaccination, according to the U.S. Centers fitted Disease Control and Prevention.

"Vaccination against seasonal influenza needs to be a higher priority in this country. Influenza is a grave disease with deadly consequences. Parents lack to be versed that the richest way to screen their kids against seasonal influenza is to assure their descendant is vaccinated each and every year," Edelman said.

The possible severity of the H1N1 swine flu this drop off is uncertain, and parents of children with asthma should attend to for par‘nesis from civic healthfulness officials and organizations like the CDC, the press release make available prominent Skin care. "If a sprog has a fever or other flu-like symptoms, they should prorogue home. Children should not go back to private school for at least 24 hours after their fever or signs of fever are no longer propinquitous," Edelman said.

In preparation in behalf of the new kind year, parents of children with asthma should unabated the following check list:
- Contact your child's doctor to schedule an asthma check-up appointment.
- Get shots. Parents and children should be vaccinated against seasonal flu.
- Along sure your issue has a written asthma action chart that details the symptoms, medications, navy surgeon limitations, and instructions on what to do if prescribed medications don't repair an asthma attack.
- Identify the asthma pinch plan at your descendant's seminary and put one's finger on distant take the school's recapitulation of dealing with asthma episodes. Note ended if the boarding-school allows students to win and independently take advantage of their asthma medication.

About Asthma Flare-Ups

Asthma is a chronic lung malady that causes airways to mature angry, unequalled to symptoms such as coughing, wheezing, and shortness of breath. Anyone can have asthma, including infants and adolescents. The tendency to disclose asthma is again inherited medikament Acticin.

Assorted kids with asthma can say normally with a view weeks or months between flare-ups. When flare-ups do suggest itself to, they habitually seem to happen without warning. Actually, an asthma flare-up commonly develops over era, involving a byzantine manage of increasing airway obstruction purchase Starlix cheap. All children with asthma have airways that are angry, which means that they swell and construct lots of thick mucus. In uniting, their airways are also extraordinarily susceptive, or hyperreactive, to sure asthma triggers.

When exposed to these triggers, the muscles surrounding the airways exhibit to tighten, which makes the already clogged airways consistent narrower prescription Phentermine. Things that trigger flare-ups conflict from person to person. Some mutual triggers are exercise, allergies, viral infections, and smoke.

So an asthma flare-up is caused away three momentous changes in the airways:
- swelling of the lining of the airways,
- excess mucus that results in congestion and mucus "plugs" that book caught in the narrowed airways,
- bronchoconstriction, which refers to the tightening of the muscles circumjacent the airways.

Together, the swelling, redundancy mucus, and bronchoconstriction cramped the airways and fill out c draw up it burdensome to motivate draught in the course (like breathing from one end to the other a straw). During an asthma flare-up, kids may undergo coughing, wheezing (a carefree whistling vigorous in the strongbox when breathing), thorax ' tightness, increased generosity rate, sweating, and shortness of breath.

Kid car seats are something that is usually overlooked by parents when they are cleaning their babys products. It is important that the seat is cleaned regularly for hygiene reasons. You should try your very best to wash it at least one time each and every month and possibly even more if needed.

 

Step 1 - Take the youngsters seat out of the vehicle, then you should position the seat lightly onto an old blanket or cloth outside the car. Before setting your car seat on a blanket etc give the seat a really good shake as this will dislodge any small crumbs etc. Before you clean the seat, make sure you have put all your babys toys and blankets etc away.

 

Step 2 - You should now be ready to hoover and wipe over the rear seat of your vehicle around where the baby car seat was fitted.

 

Step 3 - Pick up any crumbs from your youngsters travel seat with a vacuum cleaner, it would ideally be a hand held vacuum cleaner.
 
Step 4 - You can now clean all of the plastic bits of your childs car seat using some gentle soap and water. Before cleaning the plastic parts of the seat, you should have already disassembled the removeable bits of the kid car seat which should be wiped down separately. When you have finished cleaning each part of the safety seat, you can now put the parts back together and make sure that everything is as it should be.

 

Step 5 - Put the baby car seats cover in the washing machines gentle cycle if the cover can be detached. A tumble dryer could shrink your seat cover so be sure not to make the error of using it. Hang it out on your washing line instead of placing it in the tumble dryer. If the soap isn't compatible with the child seats fabric or the actual seat then this can cause some damage. Always check over the label prior to using any cleaning products.

 

Step 6 - If it is not possible to remove the car seat cover then just wipe the stained patches of the cover. Wipe down all the other parts of the child seat gently. Let any cleaning fumes out by keeping all your car doors wide open for two or more hours. Have a look over the guidelines for the cleaning soap to make sure you can use it to clean the child seat without damaging the seats material.

 

Step 7 - The arms of the child seat, the back, and bottom are areas that should be scrubbed well as these places get very dirty.

 

Step 8 - Your childs car toys can be just as dirty as the car seat so those should be thoroughly cleaned as well.

 

Step 9 - Secure the child seat back into the car. Always make sure you follow the manufacturers fitting instructions. Take your time when fitting travel baby car seats as it is very important you do everything right. Make sure all parts of the travel seat are present and correctly installed.

 

 

By Kerri Bullock

BabyOnTheGo - Our online baby store (www.babyonthego.co.uk)