Clinic again, and tutor

Yesterday was a big Poop Collecting Day. The kids are proud poopers, and couldn't wait 'til they "had to go." I still have to collect one more sample from Aleksa, but other than that, I'm proud to say, all 12 vials of necessary "kakhait" has been rounded up. They couldn't wait to get to go to the clinic to drop it off. I made a big production of pantomime to show them that we would give the dr. the vials, and tht they would NOT poke them again (Adam was pretty freaked at first mention of going back to the dr.) I let him know that they would look at his arm (where the tb skin test was given), and that they would maybe want to "take a picture" of his chest, etc. (He did wind up with a bump on his arm). The dr. is going to review the immunization records we had given him earlier this week and then get back to us on Tuesday for what he things our protocol should be. My gut is they are going to give him the meds and the x-ray "just to make sure." That's what the other families I've talked to said happened with their kids. It has just amazed me how well the kids do in public. They stay right with me/us, and when we need to go, they go, etc. They are curious about everything, but boy have I seen some "home-grown" kids who have taken the cake in the naughty category. I'm sure proud of their progress in such little time, and how "normal" they truly are. We have been soooo blessed.

The first week of John back to work has been busy, but definitely not impossible. I've been dead tired at bedtime, but a feel-good-all-over kind of tired. Adam I think is having the most difficult transition to John working all day and has had some bed-wetting this week. Liana asks every morning not WHERE John is, but if he got anything to eat before he left. She sees me cook her breakfast, but Papa is gone before she sees him in the morning. She's such a sweetie. (Now to get her to stop sticking out her tongue in public!) ;O)

I've played phone and email tag this week with people to get an ESL tutor for the kids. I found a wonderful possibility through my cousin who is on the La Crosse county school board. This potential tutor has taught ESL for many years, and also has taught Russian, and elementary school. Sounds like a perfect match. She is newly retired, so this might be just what we are needing. Mary (my cousin), mentioned rattling our school district's cage a little to get them to help foot the bill for it. I hope that will work out as John is now on a rotating lay-off schedule (great!), and it is going to be pretty tight around here. We know lots of "regular" English teachers who we would have asked, but "English" and "English as a Second Language" are two entirely different ballparks, especially when we're dealing with a 9-yr-old.

Otherwise, I have been looking into curriculum to use at home, and also been talking to our school district. It looks like our school district is very obliging to homeschool families, and we can pick and choose what we want or don't want from the district. The district is willing to give us materials and resources to use at home, and I am welcome to come in for any of the kids' tutoring at the school. (They don't send out teachers to peoples' homes.) The lady I talked to said that their goal is to "get them into a classroom as soon as possible." Well, I'm sure that is THEIR goal, but ours is to "Get them used to a family as soon as possible while learning English as soon as possible." We will talk again to the ESL teacher on Tuesday to discuss things some more. I really hope the lady my cousin knows works out.