Sunday, July 29, 2007

My Little Mad Scientist in the Making

My oldest's kindergarten teacher first suggested he had ADD. He's been on several different meds at several different times. He's had classroom modifications to help him focus and learn - some of these have helped and some have made things worse.

But it must have worked somehow. In the 5 year old class at Head Start, they took each child aside and showed them a picture of an aquarium with about 20 different types of sea animals. Then a helper asked the child to describe the picture and wrote down everything the student said on the back of one of the pictures. My son was the only one in the class that knew the word "aquarium" and correctly identified each of the animals!

Ok, ok, so he did call the "electric eel" a "shock fish". :)

*****

This post was inspired by the "Sunday Scribblings" blog topic "Phenomenon". Find other great entries here!

Sunday, July 22, 2007

Sunday Scribblings: Wicked

*** Note: This is the first post of my new blog. The blog title is a combination of "back porch" and "observations", because my back porch is my space to just be ... and you never know WHAT will go through my mind when that happens. :P ***

"Wicked is like a box of chocolates ... you never know WHAT you're going to get!" There are different types of wicked, like wicked-good, wicked-shiver and wicked-evil.

Wicked-good expresses appreciation, as in "your car's paint job is wicked"! Similar to what "bad" was a few years back, say if you got all decked out to go to a club and are looking fine and your friends tell you "You look BAD!"

Wicked-shiver can either be like the movies "Underworld", "Exorcist", or that last millisecond before the rollercoaster goes down for the first time. Wicked-shiver can also take on a sexual tone, especially if it's wrapped up in a push-up bra, fishnets and stiletto heels.

And then there is wicked-evil. Here are some of my nominees for that "Hall of Shame": pedophiles, rapists, torture ... anything that gets you somewhere between that squirrely feeling and a desire to turn vigilante. For instance, a former coworker is just plain wicked-evil. She started on the ladies' side of the cottage in my home, where I work. She could not get along with people ... telling those who had been there a lot longer than her, or her superiors how to do their jobs. So she got transferred to the men's side of the cottage. She started following people around trying to get pictures of them with her cell phone committing some perceived wrong, so she could turn them in to the administration. She got other worker's cell phones and copied personal numbers out of them, so she could talk to spouses and accuse her co-workers of having affairs at work. She tried to follow several of the cottage staff home. So she was transferred to another home - all female residents, high-functioning and prone to "maladaptive behaviors". She was sent, not by choice. When she found out about the transfer and stormed out of the cottage, she turned as she went out the door and said, "I'll get every one of you." Since then, she has accused staff of abuse/neglect (all proven false - but after the accusation, the damage is really done), supervisory staff of turning a blind eye and not reporting accusations she claims she made months earlier. The gentlemen friend of one of my co-workers (who is an outstanding staff for the most violent residents) quit because he is scared this wicked-evil person's accusations will get back to his wife and ruin his marriage. There is no telling what this woman will do - she is wicked-EVIL ... but I would H-A-T-E to be in her shoes when the Karma Kart comes rolling around, KWIM?