Shawl update

Until you've lived in my skin (and my son's) for two years of behaviour
reports and daily calls from preschool teachers about same don't presume to
tell me that medication isn't in order or that I'm doping my boy for my own
convenience.

Until you come to the realization that your 4yo can't write his name because
he hasn't learned the alphabet because he is unable to pay attention to
ANYTHING longer than 20 seconds don't presume to tell me that medication
isn't in order or that I'm doping my boy for my own convenience.

Until you have the signal horror of listening to your 5yo child explain to
you exactly why he hates school, his peers, his teachers, and above all
himself (and it all boils down to Mom, I can't keep a single thought in my
head for more than 30 seconds and I can't function like this!), don't
presume to tell me that medication isn't in order or that I'm doping my boy
for my own convenience.

One might presume, if one were the presumptuous type, that you've not had
the pleasure of parenting or teaching a kid with ADD/ADHD and that you've
not done any research on the disorder and don't know exactly what sorts of
educational and social issues a kid has to deal with when his ADD/ADHD is
not effectively treated.

But I'm not the presumptuous type.


Jane" wrote in message
news:eE5Ya.78735$uu5.8450@sccrnsc04...

"SlinkyToy" wrote in message
news:1wUXa.152057 Michelle
Who is off to
1. pay kindergarten tuition
2. pick up the Adderall (gods preserve me, I'm medicating my child
because
I
can't find a therapist I trust and he's starting kindergarten next week
at
a
school in which he'll be doing in K what I did in 1st)


NO! NO! NO!

Please don't do this without even giving him a chance to see if he can
learn
without it.

Aw.
Darn it.

Too often, people medicate their kids for themselves, not for the kids.
Get
some earplugs and keep looking for the therapist.

Jane

I can almost feel it, Slinky. Thanks for sharing.
Katherine

"SlinkyToy" wrote in message
...
Here's a scan. The yarn was spun from Shetland wool, from a sheep known
as
"musket", which means the wool is a shade of off-white with dark brown or
black fibers. In this scan the color variations in the yarn are quite
obvious - I'm looking at the work and I don't see the splotches that come
through on the scan, I see a uniform background (cream) with the brown
fibers all over it.

http://www.fysh.org/~slinky/pix/shawl.jpg

Basic pattern for the triangle

CO3

First row: k1, yo, k1, yo, k1
2nd row: (k1, yo) across, end k1
3rd and all odd rows: knit
4th and all even rows: k1, yo, knit to increase line, yo, k1, yo, knit
across, end (yo, k1)

The pattern I'm using (from XRX Knitters Shawls and Scarves) includes some
fancy lace edging, for which I'll probably need to spin more yarn. I've
got the 2002 clip from this particular fleece in my stash, so I certainly
won't run short of yarn!

For those of you who want technical details on the fleece and spinning:

Shetland musket ewe, 4 years old
Staple: 5-7", slight primitive coat, zero VM, no yolking, no breaks, no
weak
tips
Scoured lockwise
Flicked and spun worsted off the butt with no predrafting.

The size of this yarn varies, it is some of my earliest handspun. When I
do
come down to spinning more yarn for the project I'll be hard put to
duplicate this particular yarn. I'm quite good at producing consistent
yarn
of a given size - which this is not. Some (short) lengths are nearly
DK-weight, some (longer) stretches are finer than cobweb (and 2-ply!), and
MOST of the yarn is consistently about 2-ply jumper weight or a bit finer.
The spinning will be a challenge, that's for sure!

"Noreen's Knit*che" wrote in message
...
In article ,
says...
Ok, the yarn almost won, but I think I've found the ideal pattern for
it.
Basic triangular batwing shawl, garter stitch, four increase points
every
other row. So far I'm up to about bazillion/2 stitches and haven't
screwed
it up yet.

Methinks the yarn is happy now.



I'm doing a happy dance for you, and pray the jealous yarn goddesses
leave you alone!
IF you have time (lol, who does?) scan a corner of it and send it to me
off-list.
Hugs,
Noreen

--
Noreen's Knit*che
(Knitting, Crocheting, Tatting & BobbinLace are my NICHE in life...)
NATA #447
(my family tree is FULL of 'nuts')

"SlinkyToy" wrote ...

"Katherine Burgess" wrote
"SlinkyToy" wrote .
Who is off to
1. pay kindergarten tuition

Pay tuition???? For kindergarten????

Private school. The public schools here suck, average kindergarten class
is
30 kids

OK, that is understandable. And of course, the government does not have the
money to reduce class sizes. TO hell with the next generation, right? (Can
you tell I am a teacher?)



2. pick up the Adderall (gods preserve me, I'm medicating my child
because
I
can't find a therapist I trust and he's starting kindergarten next
week
at
a
school in which he'll be doing in K what I did in 1st)

What is Adderall??? Why does he need it?

Time-release form or Ritalin, which is an ADD medication.


Aww, poor little guy! It must have been heart-breaking for you to make this
decision. I hope that it works well for him. I have seen some tremendous
success stories with Ritalin, and will pray that your son is one of them. No
doubt sending him to a private school will ensure that he gets the attention
he needs.



3. go buy more potty parts for the potty her husband disassembled and
lost
innards from

Potty? What kind of potty?

As in, "pot to **** in". We had a clog last week, and the DH has taken
over
a week about dismounting the pot, snaking the drain, and replacing the
pot.
Fortunately we have two bathrooms.

LOL When we were having our upstairs bathroom re-done, we had the toilet
sitting in the middle of the kitchen for about a month. Not pretty! g



4. let someone else cook dinner

Now THAT sounds perfectly sensible to me!

We ended up at a Mexican place. I'm still paying for it. See #3 above

Splutter!
Have a good day. Hope the bathroom is fixed soon.
Katherine

"Katherine Burgess" wrote in message
...
1. pay kindergarten tuition

Pay tuition???? For kindergarten????

Private school. The public schools here suck, average kindergarten
class
is
30 kids

OK, that is understandable. And of course, the government does not have
the
money to reduce class sizes. TO hell with the next generation, right? (Can
you tell I am a teacher?)


The Austin Independent School District has had problems for years. Part of
it stems from the sheer volume of children of illegals who enter the system
at age 6 not knowing a word of English. Bilingual educators (NOT teachers
with a language minor who can sub in Spanish class) are apparently hard to
come by. Several years ago an audit by the State Comptroller of AISD
discovered that the books were cooked. Drop-out rates were figured with
voodoo math. Pass rates on a stupid-ass test called "TASS" (which stands
for something that boils down to, Can Johnny count to 5 and recite the
Pledge?) were so badly cooked that nobody could figure out what the actual
pass/fail rate was. And not surprisingly, teachers are told to "teach the
test", and as the test is so freaking simple our public schools are turning
out undereducated morons who bitch about the transfer of tech jobs to
immigrants and/or other countries.

Warning to other citizens of the USA: Uncle Shrub has publicly stated that
he thinks a standardized achievement test as a requirement for promotion to
high school, and for graduation from high school, is "an outstanding idea".
It doesn't work in his "home state" however, so how does he expect it to
work when implemented at a national level?

And then along came the demise of "equal opportunity" for college
admissions. Lacking any better idea, the governing board of public colleges
and universities in Texas (yes, one board of regents for the entire public
university system) decided that all high school graduates who ranked in the
top 10% of their class at the end of junior year would be granted automatic
admission to a public college or university in Texas. So then all the
school districts started cooking their books; one school district that is a
'burb of Austin actually managed to rank about 80% of its 2000 graduating
class in the "top 10%".

Then there's the State Legislature's solution for school funding, House Bill
41, which is commonly known as the Robin Hood Act. School districts with a
property tax base that exeeds some number of dollars determined apparently
by reading tea leaves are relieved of "excessive" funds, which are
redistributed to school districts with a lesser property tax base. The
result is that ALL schools in Texas are now substandard and getting worse.
Public schools actually advertise in the papers of nearby towns for transfer
students - thanks to Robin Hood one may attend any school in any school
district, if there is room after all the in-district kids are assigned to
classes. The money follows the students now, apparently, to the tune of
$5500 each.

To say that I am DISGUSTED with the current state of affairs in my local
school district is an understatement. I don't complain about the portion of
my property tax that is tagged for AISD, but I for damned sure will bitch
about the poor quality of education I'm paying for. I really think that a
return to the payment system of education is the way to go - in the 1700s,
1800s, and even early 1900s up until sometime between WW1 and WW2 if a
family wanted their kids to be educated they had two choices: do it at home
(which required that mom herself have an education) or pay tuition and send
the kids to the nearest one-room schoolhouse. My grandparents were educated
in such a fashion and my goodness, they learned their lessons - the switch
saw to that (no, I'm not advocating THAT); my grandfather, a man who owned
three full-service filling stations in rural Illinois, was considered
educated at the age of 16 - he knew bookkeeping, grammar, four languages and
advanced maths. My grandmother had the same skillset plus all the
housewifely skills that a girl her age was required to have. Show me five
recent college graduates who can say they got as much out of their college
educations.

And yes, the private school should be of benefit WRT the ADD - kindergarten
classes are 15 kids, first grade classes are 18, and second grade is 20.
The graduating class last year was a whopping 71 young men and women.

/soapbox

No vacuum here. I've spent the past six months trying to find a therapist
who didn't instantly reach for the prescription pad. I spent the five years
before that reading every bit of information I could lay hands on, visiting
with homeschool parents, and generally swotting up everything I could that
would help me help my child.

Do you need me to tell you that you're a stronger woman than me? Perhaps
you are, perhaps I am a weakling.

Feel better? I sure don't -- I don't need my nose rubbed in the fact that
there ARE options, and that they ARE NOT WORKING for us.

Be self-righteous somewhere else. I wasn't looking for sympathy, and I
certainly don't need your perceived superiority.

"Jane" wrote in message
et...
I raised a hyperactive kid, and we got through it without meds. He's a
computer programmer today. My grandson is hyperactive.
Raising a hyperactive kid is exhausting. But try to imagine learning
through speed.

I have ADD.

Don't presume that you're living in a vacuum. There is help out there.


"SlinkyToy" wrote in message
...
Until you've lived in my skin (and my son's) for two years of behaviour
reports and daily calls from preschool teachers about same don't presume
to
tell me that medication isn't in order or that I'm doping my boy for my
own
convenience.

Until you come to the realization that your 4yo can't write his name
because
he hasn't learned the alphabet because he is unable to pay attention to
ANYTHING longer than 20 seconds don't presume to tell me that medication
isn't in order or that I'm doping my boy for my own convenience.

Until you have the signal horror of listening to your 5yo child explain
to
you exactly why he hates school, his peers, his teachers, and above all
himself (and it all boils down to Mom, I can't keep a single thought in
my
head for more than 30 seconds and I can't function like this!), don't
presume to tell me that medication isn't in order or that I'm doping my
boy
for my own convenience.

One might presume, if one were the presumptuous type, that you've not
had
the pleasure of parenting or teaching a kid with ADD/ADHD and that
you've
not done any research on the disorder and don't know exactly what sorts
of
educational and social issues a kid has to deal with when his ADD/ADHD
is
not effectively treated.

But I'm not the presumptuous type.


Jane" wrote in message
news:eE5Ya.78735$uu5.8450@sccrnsc04...

"SlinkyToy" wrote in message
news:1wUXa.152057 Michelle
Who is off to
1. pay kindergarten tuition
2. pick up the Adderall (gods preserve me, I'm medicating my child
because
I
can't find a therapist I trust and he's starting kindergarten next
week
at
a
school in which he'll be doing in K what I did in 1st)


NO! NO! NO!

Please don't do this without even giving him a chance to see if he can
learn
without it.

Aw.
Darn it.

Too often, people medicate their kids for themselves, not for the
kids.
Get
some earplugs and keep looking for the therapist.

Jane

In article ,
says...
No vacuum here. I've spent the past six months trying to find a therapist
who didn't instantly reach for the prescription pad. I spent the five years
before that reading every bit of information I could lay hands on, visiting
with homeschool parents, and generally swotting up everything I could that
would help me help my child.

Do you need me to tell you that you're a stronger woman than me? Perhaps
you are, perhaps I am a weakling.

Feel better? I sure don't -- I don't need my nose rubbed in the fact that
there ARE options, and that they ARE NOT WORKING for us.

Be self-righteous somewhere else. I wasn't looking for sympathy, and I
certainly don't need your perceived superiority.

Please don't feel bad because your child need medication. Meds ARE an option...and a
necessary one for many children. Yes..not all need them and yes sometimes tey are over-
prescribed but, as someone who has worked with ADD/ADHD kids both in and out of a
hospital setting I can tell you thta after observing kids across the spectrum of options
that for some kids meds are the nly thing that allows them to have a normal life.

So please pat yourself on the back. You are doing the best thing for your child no matter
what anyone says.

EJ

Slinky,
You are certainly not the first person I have heard complaining about
education and what Bush is doing to it. But you know, I think that it would
make more sense to insist on improvements in the public school system. As
long as people are willing to pay the fees to send their children to private
schools, improvements won't happen.
Good luck to you and your son.
Hugs,
Katherine
"

| On Wed, 06 Aug 2003 13:27:32 GMT, "SlinkyToy" wrote:

As in, "pot to **** in". We had a clog last week, and the DH has taken over
a week about dismounting the pot, snaking the drain, and replacing the pot.
Fortunately we have two bathrooms.

Boy, is that last sentence a masterpiece of understatement!


Helen "Halla" Fleischer,
Fantasy & Fiber Artist in Fairland, MD USA
http://home.covad.net/~drgandalf/halla/

You know what? You don't speak for anyone but yourself. I find it amazing
that you presume to judge me based on the few details I've posted to a
USENET list.

In the first case, the child is nearly six, not four as you seem to believe.
In the second case I have NEVER said he's a failure, even to myself, but
you certainly have decided that I've done just that.

Would you like to hear about the three consecutive months he was sent home
from a four-hour-per-day preschool because he couldn't go more than 5
minutes without clobbering another child because he was unable to follow the
very simple game because his attention span is shorter than that of most
infants?

Would you like to hear about the four hour nights we have? That's as much
as he sleeps - ever. Even when he was an infant in arms he wouldn't sleep
more than about 5 hours at a stretch. The last time I had a full night's
sleep was the night before my induced delivery, and I remember it fondly.

Or maybe you'd like to hear about the death fears (his fear that I will die)
or the death wishes (his wish for his own death)?

Or we can discuss the fact that he has in fact learned his alphabet and can
now write his name - backwards with one hand and frontwards but nearly
illegibly with the other - at the same time. Or the fact that he can draw
two absolutely different scenes - simultaneously; one scene with his right
hand, one with his left. Or the fact that he remembers the words to any
song he's ever heard on the radio (which would be absolutely maddening to
me!) and won't allow me to read the same book to him twice because he
"remembers it exactly"?

Possibly you'd like to tell me what, aside from therapy that isn't working
and patience of which I am in short supply, you might do? Perhaps you can
refer me to a therapist who will wave a magic wand and make it all better?

Apparently your son's ADD (and your own) are mild. My son's is not. I've
known since he was about 18 months old that at some point he would need
medication. At this point putting him on meds and sending him to school is
the best choice for him, despite your belief otherwise -- a belief based on
a few USENET posts, I might add, and not a believe based on over 5 years
with the child watching every non-medical intervention fail.

Oops, I used the f-word, didn't I. Who failed? Certainly not my son, and
probably not myself. Blame the medical profession for failing to help a
child who obviously needs it.

And on that note, dear, I'd recommend that you crawl back into whatever hole
you crawled out of. Your debut on this list failed to endear you to quite a
few folks here, and I suspect your future posts will be met with at best a
polite "That's nice" and at worst a "What the hell are YOU doing back
here??"

Please be assured that if you used a "nospam" filter I'd have chewed you
privately, you didn't leave me the option.

"Jane" wrote in message
news:c5fYa.82486$uu5.8493@sccrnsc04...

"SlinkyToy" wrote in message
m...
No vacuum here. I've spent the past six months trying to find a
therapist
who didn't instantly reach for the prescription pad. I spent the five
years
before that reading every bit of information I could lay hands on,
visiting
with homeschool parents, and generally swotting up everything I could
that
would help me help my child.

Do you need me to tell you that you're a stronger woman than me?
Perhaps
you are, perhaps I am a weakling.

Feel better? I sure don't -- I don't need my nose rubbed in the fact
that
there ARE options, and that they ARE NOT WORKING for us.

Be self-righteous somewhere else. I wasn't looking for sympathy, and I
certainly don't need your perceived superiority.


I could care less if you're offended. I speak for a FOUR YEAR OLD who's
apparently being told he's behind because he isn't writing his alphabet
yet.
People didn't used to even send their kids to school until six or seven.
He
may not be going to learn an alphabet in a linear fashion initially. Find
out how he learns. If he's too disabled to manage a day without being on
speed, why would anyone want to send him to a kindergarten that, according
to your earlier posti, is accelerated? Something is wrong with this
picture.

I suggest you try a couple weeks on speed before you subject a four year
old
to it.

I do not feel superior, but I am right and you are wrong. He has NOT
failed
in school at age four.

Good luck, little guy.

repetetive (sp) work -- Thomas learned to knit about six months ago.
His "scarf for granpa" is now about 6 feet long. During the week it goes
with him to preschool where he knits during group and other "quiet
community" periods, and the knitting comes home in the evenings. At bedtime
he knits while I read the story. Then the Knitting Fairy fixes mistakes as
he lacks the patience to let me teach him how to correct them himself. I
intend to see to it that ALL the kids in his K class learn to knit if they
want to (I've taught several of his pre-K mates already) so that knitting
will be a group-type activity instead of the potentially isolating activity
it might otherwise be.

The school is being REALLY REALLY slow getting out class assignments.
They've got a new computer system (M$QL, horrors!) and are telling me they
had some last-minute drops and adds that have affected the m/f balance [ed:
what did we ever do without computers? how on earth did universities and
high schools and even large elementaries make class assignments? BY HAND!!
And in a timely fashion!!]. Which leads me up to the fact that I have not
yet had an opportunity to confab with his teacher. The elementary office
knows what's going on WRT the ADD and the meds but I doubt anyone has
bothered to give any of the info to the K teachers.

if you don't bitch it won't get fixed. I agree wholeheartedly that a
fix is needed for AISD. They're getting better after the cooked books
scandal, but finding teachers is still an issue, and the Robin Hood thing
makes it even worse. AISD WAS at one time a decent school district with
room for improvement and only a few really crummy schools. I suppose it is
true that all items in acommon container will attempt to reach the lowest
level -- that's surely happening in Texas education *sigh*


"Helen "Halla" Fleischer" wrote in message
...
| On Wed, 06 Aug 2003 15:28:53 GMT, "SlinkyToy"
wrote:

The Austin Independent School District has had problems for years.
[snip]
Ack, what a horror story! I've often read Molly Ivins in the Washington
Post and felt thankful that I live in Maryland and not Texas. You've just
reinforced that feeling tenfold! Granted MD has its problems at times, but
mostly the schools are decent, at least in our county.

BTW, my friend's sons did really well on Ritalin. Hope yours will too!
I also heard recently (perhaps even here) that having something
repetitive
to do with the hands, especially knitting and crochet, helps some kids
focus their attention better. Can't see many classroom teachers allowing
it, but imagine if they did! I know I did very well in high school English
the year we had a teacher who allowed us to knit in class. Her only
restriction was no noisy aluminum needles. The scritch-scritch set her
teeth on edge and I don't blame her!


Helen "Halla" Fleischer,
Fantasy & Fiber Artist in Fairland, MD USA
http://home.covad.net/~drgandalf/halla/