Success!

I think everyone I talk to, or tweet to, knows that Sam has had a more difficult academic year than ever before. And he hates to read. Hates it. Although he has always read well above grade level, his comprehension is very inconsistent, and I really think if a story is not interesting to him he can't, or won't, pay attention to it. His first ORA ( Ohio Reading Assessment) taken in the fall was very disappointing and well below what we all know he is capable of. So we came up with a plan in hopes of improving his test scores. After all, if a student can't do well on a reading test they will most likely struggle on all other tests as well.

Since January I have been working with Sam on reading comprehension using old published ORAs. Twice a week we sit down together and work through those tests, and he is rewarded if he is cooperative and tries hard. After all, this is in addition to his usual hour of homework each night. He has also been discussing test taking strategies with the counselor at school to work through his test anxiety. He and another boy in his class eat lunch with the counselor occasionally and discuss test taking strategies.

I've had mixed feelings about how well all of this intervention is working. Sometimes he seems to do so well, and other times I get discouraged by how hard of a time he is having understanding a story. The spring ORA is next week, and I just keep telling myself there's nothing more I can do. We just have to hope that all of this work will pay off.

Today he came home with the practice test he took in class on Monday. And boy was he excited. He couldn't wait to show me. And we have certainly made a big deal out of it. I feel confident that he really has a chance to improve his reading test score, and I also am proud of all of the extra work he has put in. It was hard on both of us, but no one said this parenting thing was easy.

LEGOLAND

On the last day of our vacation we traveled about an hour south of Orlando to visit LEGOLAND.  We weren't sure what to expect from this park - other than the fact that there would be lots of stuff made out of LEGOs.  The park was divided into areas based on LEGO themed sets, and we just started at the front of the park and made our way through all of the areas.  All four of us rode on Coastersaurus, a wooden kid roller coaster, and the kids enjoyed "Driving School," where they drove LEGO cars and had to follow traffic rules.  The three of us rode "Flying School," which was a coaster that hung from rails and was fairly rough - Ben sat that one out.  And then after lunch we split up - Maria and Ben wanted to ride "Project X," which looked a little too big for Sam, so he and I went to "Boating School," where he would be able to drive his own boat.  We waited for an hour, and then when we got in the boat Sam discovered how much harder it is to drive a boat then a car.  But we made it through the maze better than most, and soon met back up with Ben and Maria.  By this time it was mid-afternoon, we were all hot and tired, and had seen everything that we wanted to see.  So we headed to the shops - where both kids had panned on spending mos of their vacation money - and then left the park.  We drove four hours and got to our hotel in southern Georgia by 8:30.

The highlight of LEGOLAND was the mini-city they had set up, where everything was made of LEGOs.  They had tons of national landmarks from many major cities, including San Francisco, New York City and Washington D.C.  It's truly amazing that just about anything can be built out of LEGOs. Ben took lots of pictures.  We were all amazed, but it was fun to watch Sam when we first got into the park - he just went from LEGO statue to LEGO statue, with an innocent enthusiasm that he will soon grow out of.

Universal Studios, Day 2

Today started out just like yesterday. We were at the park by 7:00 and walked right on to Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey. We had breakfast at The Three Broomsticks and then hit the Spiderman ride again. Both if these rides are super popular, and we all loved them both. But the boys liked Spiderman more (the 3-D was the deciding factor) and Maria and I liked Harry Potter better.

We hit some other rides too - Poseidon's Fury, woody woodpecker, ET, and two more times through Men in Black before having lunch at Mel's Diner. Then we ran into some trouble. The kids wanted Ben to go through ET (he sat it out the first time because he thought it might make him sick, but it turned out to be pretty mild). But ET was broken, so Sam and I went to do the Simpsons ride again, and that was broken too. Defeated, hot, and tired, we headed back to the hotel.

Ben went to the pool, but the kids stayed in the room with me. Sam even fell asleep. Around 5:00 we headed back to the park to visit everyone's favorite rides again. The wait for Harry Potter was 75 minutes, and Maria wanted to do it again, so she and I waited in line while the boys headed over to Marvel island to do the Spiderman ride again. They even got to see Spiderman himself! Maria and I only waited an hour, and we really enjoyed a slower pace through the castle - we saw several things we missed the first few times.

Once we all met up again, we headed to the other park, where we finally got to ride ET, Sam and I did The Simpsons, and the three of us rode Men in Black. We finally headed back to the hotel around 9:30.

This trip to Universal was a huge hit. Ben and I enjoyed ourselves too, even though so many rides are motion simulators that don't go well with Ben's motion sickness. So I was the parent who rode all the rides with the kids, which was the opposite the way these trips usually go for us, but I had a blast riding all the rides with the kids.

Universal Studios, Day 1

I'm updating from my phone, so this will be short.

We arrived yesterday, spent two hours waiting to get into our room, and then spent the evening at the pool. We are at the Hard Rock Hotel on Universal's site, mostly because we are so close to the park here. One perk of staying here is getting to get into the park an hour early, during which they open their two most popular rides, Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, and the Spiderman ride. This seemed like a great idea, until I learned yesterday that the park opens at 8, so an hour early is 7, and that meant we'd need to leave the hotel at 6:45. But Harry Potter is the main reason we came here, so we did it.

And it was so worth it. We walked right on the ride, through Hogwarts castle, and the ride was just amazing. Then we went to Olivander's wand shop, where we watched a short show and the kids each picked out wands. We rode a smaller coaster, Flight of the Hippogriff, which was a family favorite. We rode it twice and also had lunch at the Three Broomsticks, complete with Butterbeer (which the kids did not like but at least tried it).

By this time Ben was a little queasy from the rides, and tired after our early morning. He and Sam went back to the hotel for a nap and swim, and Maria wanted to stay at the parks so we did. We visited Seuss Landing and rode the Men in Black ride while the boys were gone. By this time Harry Potter area was so packed with people you couldn't even walk through it. The rest of the park was still crowded, but not that bad. The weather was hot (90 degrees) but there was a breeze all day.

At dinner time Ben and Sam joined us again, and we rode a few more rides, did some shopping, and came back to the hotel around 8:00. We are all exhausted.

The saving grace of the day has been our Express Passes, that come free since we stayed on site, but basically get you on every ride with a much shorter wait. Except the main attraction for Harry Potter. For that one you have to plan on waiting at least two hours, unless you get there at 7:00. So we are doing that again tomorrow morning. The ride is just that good. Today was the first time I've ever arrived at an amusement park before the sun is up, and I'm doing it again tomorrow.

Spring Break, Part I

Today we are in the middle of the first leg of our spring break trip.  We have been in Jekyll Island, Georgia for about 24 hours now, and so far it's been great.  It's my third time here, the first being on our honeymoon, and Ben has been here numerous times.  The trip down was pretty uneventful, although there were times on the drive when it really seemed to drag.  We left home soon after getting home from school on Friday, and made it to Hillsville, Virgina, where we checked into a Hampton Inn around 10:30 p.m.  The trip was fine, but the last two hours felt really long, even though Ben did most of the driving.  I drove for about an hour while he caught a little nap.  The advantage of the kids never sleeping in the car is that they were more than happy to go straight to bed when we got in our room and fell asleep almost immediately.

We headed out around 8:30 on Saturday morning and got here around 4:30 in the afternoon.  We drove through some very hard rains during the last three hours of the drive, and I was worried the weather would be crappy when we got here.  (Despite Ben checking the radar on his phone while I was driving and assuring us the rain would be cleared out by the time we got here).  And he was right - it was only sprinkling when we got here.  By the time we got to our room and unloaded, the rain had stopped and we went to the pool - after spending almost all of our last 24 waking hours in a car, we were ready to do something.  So we went down to the pool and swam for a bit - it was a little cool but not unbearable.  Then we walked down to the beach and the kids played in the waves for a few minutes before we headed to dinner.

We went to a local restaurant for dinner, and were pretty much the youngest people there.  But the food was great, and when we got back Ben took the kids to the pool again.  I stayed in the room - I was tired and it was a little too cool for me at the pool.  And the bugs were awful yesterday - we had to buy bug spray and I really hate bug spray.

This morning Ben and I took a sunrise run on the beach - I went 5 miles, he went 10, so we were only together for the first half mile or so.  We've spent the rest of the day at the pool and the beach.  Tomorrow (Monday - our last full day here) we are going to do a bike ride around the island and show the kids some of the more historical parts here.

We are adjusting to all living in the same room - our Hampton room here is pretty large, with a small sitting area, which helps.  It has been an adjustment all sharing a bathroom and I find myself wondering how my family of four all survived with one bathroom the entire time I was growing up.  But everyone has been getting along and there have been no fights yet.  Another weird vacation fact - at both the Hampton Inns we've stayed at, we're in Room 410.  Easy for the kids to remember, though.

So one more day at Jekyll Isalnd and then Tuesday morning we are headed to Orlando and UNiversla Studios.  There won't be anything relaxing about that part of the trip!