adam's erratum

I have my first counseling session with my first client this week. I’m still a little anxious, but I feel a lot better about the whole idea than I did when I started the program last fall. Maybe I have learned a few things!

I’ve been assigned to play the piano (solo!) sacrament meeting. I don’t know what they were thinking. They really need someone who plays the piano themselves to make these assignments… Sure I can play some hymns or maybe even The Simpson’s theme song, but I don’t think that’s what they had in mind.

I managed to go snowboarding twice this year! Both times for free—the first time it was free for Toyota drivers, and last night there was a “bring two cans of food for a lift ticket” deal. I even got a free lesson from a friend who used to be an instructor. He has one of those fancy jackets with his name on it… and a sweet ride too, The Citation!. Minus the ski pole that holds the hatchback door open, and the near-complete lack of acceleration, it is a fine-tuned machine!

For work yesterday I went with my 8-year-old client to a cat zoo. They have a bunch of different types of cats, most importantly the one bred for its magical powers—the Liger! We also got to pet this baby tiger for about 2.2 seconds (along with 40 other people). “Don’t touch his head, people. He’ll bite you.” Ahhh, but he looked so cute.

For family stuff, my parents are visiting tonight and tomorrow, and bringing the bookcase my dad made for us with his sweet woodworking skills. LG is standing up now—holding onto stuff—sometimes with one hand. With that new development, we’d like the stereo knobs to remain in place, so we’re putting it on the bookshelf. He’s also running out of new kitchen appliances to play with—at the moment it’s the potato masher.

N is substituting once or twice a week, and though she doesn’t absolutely love the middle school days (who would?), she enjoys getting out of the house to do something different. She has also been able to come to my Attachment class twice. It’s my favorite class, and I really feel like we’re getting our moneys worth when she comes. We’re learning a ton about parenting and attachment, a lot of it from The Circle of Security.

We’re wasting our time and money trying to cram more science and math down elementary school childrens’ throats. They need first learn how to have a relationship with their teachers & and how to learn from them before they can do anything else…why isn’t there more (any?) socio-emotional learning in schools? Sure a lot of kids are fine in this area, but special-ed really needs less focus on addition and more on relationships.

Tuesday, February 26