No Zoo because of Swine Flu

Don't worry. Non of us has swine flu, nor do we know anybody that has it. But our school system is taking steps to prevent a swine flu outbreak because there have been confirmed cases of swine flu in the Fort Worth school district.

Garrett was supposed to take a field trip with his preschool classmates to the Fort Worth Zoo tomorrow, and I was going to chaperon. We found out today that this and all field trips in the school district are cancelled until further notice. I am very disappointed about this because I was looking forward to taking pictures of all the kiddos looking at the animals at the zoo with their looks of wonder and amazement. Since Garrett can't really tell me much about what he does at school, this would have been a good time to see how he interacts with them. I suspect Ava is his favorite because that's who he talks about the most. Our conversations go like this:

Me: "Did you play with your friends at school today?"
Garrett nods his head.
Me: "Who did you play with?"
Garrett: "Ava."
Me: "Who else?"
Garrett: "Lana."
Me: "Who else?"
Garrett: "Adam." (Adam hasn't gone to his school since before Christmas.)

As you can see, Garrett is less than forthcoming (by not forthcoming I mean "not able") when it comes to telling me about what he does at school, so I was looking forward to seeing him in action. I have gone to his classroom a few times, but my presence there is more disrupting than helpful, so I don't go often.

Although I am disappointed about not going to the zoo tomorrow, I agree with the school district's decision. As I said above, Fort Worth school district has one confirmed case and 3 or 4 suspected cases, so they shut down the entire school district until May 8 at the earliest. The dividing line between our school district and Fort Worth school district is less than 5 miles away, so that's pretty close to home. There have also been several confirmed cases in Dallas and a few other surrounding cities. I would rather everyone stay home for a week or so than have Dallas/Fort Worth look like Mexico City does now, a ghost town. Even though we haven't seen a lot of cases yet, the swine flu has brought one of the largest cities in the world to its knees, and that's nothing to sneeze at (pun intended). People here are concerned about a major flu outbreak. There is a large Mexican/American population and a lot of travel back and forth to Mexico, so chances are good that we will see more cases.

I went to several drug stores today to get surgical masks for me and Garrett. He has a doctor's appointment tomorrow with the neurologist. Even though the neurologist won't be treating sick patients, per se, his office is in the professional building with a catwalk to Children's Hospital. That sounds like a high risk place to me, so I thought I'd get some surgical masks. But, of course, they were sold out everywhere. A worker at Walgreen's told me that even painter's masks at Home Depot or Lowe's were sold out. I'll call the Dr.'s office tomorrow and see if they recommend we come or not. I've already lined up child care for Erin and would really like to get this appointment over with. Garrett only goes once a year to make sure he is progressing in his development and not falling farther behind.

Our plans for this weekend are to stay home and avoid contact with other people until the swine flu scare is over. It may seem like fear mongering to some people, but what would you say if we didn't take precautions and it turned out to be a major pandemic with thousands dying. It's not worth the risk.

Wordless Wednesday - The artist intently studies his subject

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Discipline at the Duke's

Discipline has been a struggle lately with Erin. At 6 years old, for whatever reason, she has decided that she doesn't want to mind anymore. She thinks she can do anything she wants and nobody can stop her. Until just recently, her main punishment for misbehaving was being sent to her room, and that worked well enough. But not anymore. I had to come up with a new plan, what I call "Erin's Behavior Management Plan" or EBMP. I can't take credit for inventing this system. It's a combination of Supernanny techniques and things I learned as a substitute teacher.

Here's how it works. I took a poster board and divided Erin's behaviors into 3 categories: Required, Points, and Demerits. Required are things she has to do in order to get her reward. Points are good behaviors. Demerits are bad behaviors. The poster board looks like this:

I got some play jewels at the store and assigned the "star" for Required tasks, the "circle" for Points and the "square" for Demerits. Every time she completes a required task, she gets a star put into a glass jar. A circle goes in for each good act (Point), and a square goes in for each demerit. Twice a day we count up her stars, circles and squares. If she gets all three stars, and five NET circles (net = circles minus squares), she gets her reward: TV time, computer time or Leapster time. If she doesn't get five net circles or all three stars, she doesn't get to do those things.

We've been using this technique for about two days now and it seems to be working. There is less yelling on my part and less arguing on Erin's part. Erin is at least trying to monitor her behavior, i.e. not yelling as much or disobeying as much. I think this system has done a couple things. First, it has taken the personal confrontation out of discipline. Instead of her acting up and my getting after her, which became a "me vs. you" mentality, my reaction has become a very simple "You're getting a square for that" response and we move on. Secondly, since I give her circles for all her good behavior, I am focusing much more on the good things she does and encouraging her to do more good things, like saying "You'll get a circle if you help me with this task." She is much more cooperative and is very motivated to earn circles. I'm not saying that this method has instantaneously turned my little darling into the perfect angel, but I think it has helped. And I expect I will have to tweak it from time to time so that she doesn't learn how to "game the system" or just do the minimum to get by.

Do you have any discipline techniques that work well for your family?

Roller Girl

Erin got a pair of roller skates for her birthday (thank you, Darla!!), something she'd been asking for. Roller skating looks a lot easier than it is. I remember learning to roller skate at the local roller rink when I was about her age. My learning process consisted of hanging on to the hand rail and pulling myself along the perimeter of the rink. If I lost my balance, I would just hang on to the hand rail. Erin is learning on our back patio, which has no hand rails, so Mommy and Daddy are her substitute hand rails. Her she is right after she got her skates on.

And Daddy helping her take her first tentative steps.....

Now Erin tries it on her own.....

But takes her first of many spills.....

Before she finally got the hang of it.

Honestly, she didn't get the hang of it. She still doesn't have the hang of it. I just like happy endings. And this picture makes it look like she's really skating.

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Party at the Park, Erin's 6th birthday party

I decided to save a little money this year and have Erin's 6th birthday party at a local park instead of renting a bounce house room or Chuck E. Cheese. I rented the pavilion, then went to Party City and spent a small fortune on paper plates, table covers, etc. So much for saving lots of money. Invitations went out and we were all very excited, until the weather forecast predicted rain on party day. The rain came right on schedule on Friday and lingered all day. Since the rain was supposed to continue into Saturday, I ran to WalMart and got a bunch of games we could play under the pavilion: Pin the Tale on the Donkey, bubbles, sidewalk chalk, etc. But the weathermen were wrong (no! really!!) and it didn't rain on Saturday. Granted, it was cloudy and muggy during most of the party, and there was a little mud in the park, but overall the party went off as planned. The kids played at the park, blew bubbles on the basketball court.They painted sun catchers.

Notice the pinata in the background, hanging from the tree. We had pinata issues.

They ate pizza.

The cake was "Littlest Pet Shop." They were out of Hannah Montana, which was the theme of her party.

And Erin blew out 6 candles. I can't believe she's 6! Time really flies.The pinata was a bit of a fiasco. There is a plastic loop that comes out of the top of the pinata. You string the pinata up through that loop, which I did. Erin was the first to hit the pinata, and after two whacks, the whole pinata, intact, falls to the ground. The plastic loop could not support the weight of the pinata, so I just tore the pinata open with my hands and scattered the candy all over the ground. The kids still had fun grabbing the candy.

Then Jared, Gary's nephew was nice enough to climb the tree to cut the rope down.

After a lot of fun, food, cake and candy, it was time to go home. Erin decided to open her presents at home so that she would have more time to play with her friends. I thought that was a great idea!!

By the end of the party, the sky had cleared and the sun was shinning brightly. It turned out to be a really fun party. Happy 6th birthday, Erin!!

Easter Wrap-up Post

Things have been pretty hectic around here this week. Erin's birthday party is tomorrow (Sat.), and I am getting everything prepared for that. It will be at a pavilion at a park near here and it's supposed to rain, so I am getting some games that we can play under the pavilion and trying to plan for the worst. I just wanted to post about our Easter Sunday. The Easter Bunny came bright and early and left some candy and gifts.

Later that morning, we went to Smithfield United Methodist. They always have a beautiful, moving and LOUD Easter Service. The choir was accompanied by the Hand Bell Choir, a four piece brass band, timpani drums and the organ. It was a joyful celebration of Jesus' Resurrection. I always get a lump in my throat when the congregation sings "Christ the Lord is Risen Today" accompanied by all those instruments. Our celebration could probably be heard for miles.