Monday, March 21, 2011

Mikey / Socialization

It varies with Mikey. But Saturday, he came in, walked out to the kitchen where Grandpa and I were, and said, "Hello, Grandmother. Hello, Grandfather" before he started wandering off.

And he was responsive to questions - once we got his attention :-). 

"Mikey. MIKEY." (Eyes finally on me.) "We are having chicken for dinner. We are baking potatoes. Do you want a sweet potato, or a regular potato?"

"Sweet potato!"

"OK."

Hey, it's a step forward!!

He also was cooperative when he came back from doing chores with Grandpa and David and I were still using the computer to complete math. He asked for the computer and I said, "10 minutes."

(David protested, "10 MORE minutes??" I said, "Probably not but I want to set expectations for Mikey.")

So he went away and came back when we told him it was OK, without any protest. I love the good days.

David / Math /Responsibility

Normally, I send an assignment for the week to David over the weekend. It includes sets of items for him to review online and/or worksheets. This past Sunday (after we'd had the boys for a more-or-less normal Saturday), we were going out of town - and I totally forgot to send anything.

Got an email this morning:

i did two of the three review items at the front of the review section.

one of them (interior/exterior angles) i couldn't do.

(What he was referring to was ALEKS' automatic putting out review items based on recent work.)

I was totally jazzed that he took the initiative to do some work absent an assignment! Especially in light of some recent, totally irresponsible and typical teenage behavior ...

And, YES, I acknowledged and praised the behavior!!