The joy of tests

I had no idea there were so many standardized tests for grade school kids until I did a little recon.
Bubba is in the throes of standardized testing this week. So what to kids do to prepare?

In my day, (eons) we did all our homework and showed up at school with a number 2 pencil. The scoring sheets were sent off, then returned on a little printed slip for our parents. Nothing significant was really done with the information.

For Bubba, it's been a completely different story. We were prepped for the tests by the teacher at the last parent-teacher conference. Notes came home telling us to make sure Bubba goes to bed early and no texting or game-playing while in bed.

If that parenting tidbit wasn't enough, we were also given a menu of what "good" breakfast food is, and how Bubba needed to make sure he eats breakfast every day of testing.

Finally, Dahey and I were asked to write "motivation letters" to get Bubba excited about sitting through hours of testing. Dahey, of course, found goofy photos on the internet, including certain cats like this one and even some sarcastic cats.

I'm glad the two of them have a similar sense of humor.

More test excitement to come...

My plan

Is to stay here under ground watching TV with Bubba and WildDog while we wait for all the crazy, tornadic weather to head on over and out. Dahey is stuck at work where it's been raining like cats and dogs all afternoon.

I can't wait until winter and snow show up again...this storm crap is OLD!!

I'm so glad I'm not at the Hotel. Evacuating patients is worse than having a herd of 10 year old kvetching about not having a fully charged Nintendo DS (or other gaming device.)

Back to the pacing dog...

Nuggets for April 22

Since I'm a SCI rehab nurse, I always find some of the techniques the therapists use to be pretty interesting. Many people think the PTs and OTs are using "space age" stuff with all the different equipment and materials that are available now. My favorite techniques are the ones that are incredibly simple.

At 66, he learned to sing so he could learn to talk (from www.nytimes.com)

Pet therapy is a component of many rehabilitation facilities. At Saintarama, the dogs came out on Wednesday nights, so it was always interesting to see how patients would react when they saw 4-6 dogs, big and small on the unit.

While it's not about pet therapy per se, I enjoyed this article about the Pope and cats from this past week. It just goes to prove that pets can make a difference in people's lives, even for the big guy at the Vatican.

Cat lovers appreciate soul mate in Vatican (also from www.nytimes.com)

TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury) is in the news a lot lately, particularly since many members of the military are returning home with this type of injury. For the VA, it is a major research topic.
Here are a couple of links, one linked to a VA research article, and one lay article, from a family's perspective.

Feature Article: Special Journal Issue on Traumatic Brain Injury (info from www.research.va.gov)

The TBI Recovery Network is a 501(c)(3) non-profit in Carlisle, OH, started by the parents of Ashleigh, a TBI patient, and contains information they discovered on the road to her recovery.