Summertime & Summer Camps

Friday, May 15, 2009

Summertime & Summer Camps

This is the summer that she will be going to summer camps! Which ones?? There are so many to choose from!

Mariah is old enough now to go away to sleep away camps and independent enough to be with her girlfriends! So this is the summer that Mariah will be going to her first weekend sleepover Girl Scout Camp! It will only be for a Friday night, Saturday night and home by noon on Sunday...she is going to be with all girls her age, no adults allowed in the tent/cabin area during the sleepover. I have made arrangements that a 'buddy' Girl Scout will be keeping an extra set of eyes on her at all times, not sure if this scout will be able to earn a badge for helping, but she should!

Mariah is very excited about going away to her Girl Scout Camp sleepover...she used to call them: FLUFF-OVER'S...when she younger and wasn't able to say the 'sl' at the beginning of words, she can do that now. She will also be attending a CAMP FIRE evening through the Girl Scouts. I can attend that with her if I want to...not sure if will or not...she needs more opportunities to 'be on her own and independent' of me...and I need more opportunities to let her spread her wings and be independent! *this is harder for the me to do!

In July she will be attending a 2 week DANCE CAMP that will be from 8AM - 6PM Monday - Friday. This will be at her Dance Explosion dance school. This again will be her first time going to CAMP! She has been attending dance classes since she was just a tiny little munchkin at 5 years old, so there are so many staff and students that have watched her grow up and blossom into a such a nice little dancer! She has her DANCE EXPLOSION RECITAL coming up on May 30th, 2009. The recital will be on the 'big stage' as Mariah likes to call it...she so loves to be on the big stage and perform! Anything that has to do with being in front of an audience or a microphone, or costumes, make-up and applause! She is destined to be in front of people for sure! She knows how to 'work the crowd' and loves the lime light! I have visions of her one day being a NATIONAL SPEAKER or performing in front of large groups! She holds her own when given the opportunity to shine! She is a crowd pleaser!

This will be her first year not attending the ESY Program (stands for Extended School Year) this is the Special Ed Summer Program for students that are receiving special ed services and supports at school. Therapies that are provided during the school year can be carried over during the ESY program, many times 'teams' want to only allow the most minimal of therapy services during ESY, but if I attend others IEP's...this is one area I will speak up passionately about. No where in any State rules does it say it has to be HALF of what the student was receiving during the school year! Oops...my Special Ed Advocate Soap Box is showing...lol. She has enjoyed riding the bus to her ESY program for the past 4 years, in fact many times the main reason I would sign her up for the ESY Program was just to allow her the time to RIDE A SCHOOL BUS 2 times in one day, since she never had an opportunity to ride a bus to school. She would be so happy just to be able to ride the bus for a few weeks in the summer. Now that she is riding the bus everyday to and from school...its no big deal to us over the summer that she get 'the bus ride'. The ESY Program is a GREAT program for many of our Children, I have visited and observed her ESY classes over the years and have to say I think that more of our Children need and should be attending. Some parents decline, some IEP "teams" deny and others parents have to fight all the way to a Due Process to have their Child included in this wonderful program!! I don't understand why some IEP 'teams' make such a fuss over the little bit of summer help that it provides to those that ABSOLUTELY need it! Dang some of those IEP teams that make such a fuss and upset the parents over this wonderful summer program! This year for Mariah's ESY services, I requested that she continue to use the Online ODYSSEY COMPUTER Program that Mariah uses everyday in school. So she will be able to continue keep up with her Odyssey program and keep her academic skills up. I love this program! Ask your Child's teacher if their school uses the Odyssey program! It is also called Time4Learning www.time4learning.com if your school is not using Odyssey and you want to gain access to this same program yourself. So MUCH is available for our VISUAL LEARNERS today! It's time for Mariah to have her own LAPTOP for her learning!!! She gets on my computer at anytime and goes to any program she wants to do...she is very computer literate and has progressed so much academically because of her computer programs. I am so proud of all she is able to accomplish with her different computer programs! She owns a Wii and LOVES it! So much technology today that our Children benefit from!So THIS YEAR...for summer break, Mariah will be HOME SCHOOLED with several COMPUTER PROGRAMS! She has been doing a wonderful READING PROGRAM called Headsprout www.headsprout.com since she was in the 1st grade...she has learned to read with this program! It provides the best documentation on progress that is worth its weight in gold! Please if your child is a visual learner and needs help with learning how to read..this IS THE READING PROGRAM! Only costs $200 and can be paid for in 4 payments over a 4 month period. There are 80 episodes and any episode can be redone and the entire program does not have a time limit on when you have to 'finish it'...this is the amazing part of the program...you could start it all over again when you get to the 80th episode to reinforce skills learned!Brain Pop Jr. and Brain Pop www.brainpopjr.com is the other online learning program Mariah has been using for some time now. This is only $79 per year. Time does run out on this one. But so worth it, since Mariah is a visual learner she loves hanging out in this program learning all sorts of subjects, concepts in math and science and all sorts of subjects! This is such a great resource for students and teachers too!Summer camps and home school summer school and a few Hotel visits with big pools...Mariah will be busy busy busy this summer for sure! Looking forward to a wonderful summer with Mariah!