Hi Parents,
Well, tonight worked out all right, but it certainly did not begin that way. Cynthia, who runs the group with me suddenly wasn't feeling well and could not come in. Since tonight was the scheduled parent meeting (our first in the office), I tried to get a last minute backup, but couldn't find anyone on such short notice. So, as you know, we postponed the parent meeting until next time (11/16) when the meeting will be at 5pm.
Meanwhile, since your kids were supposed to have a meal tonight while we met, we tried Rosti, which is just down the street. Being with 7 of your kids made me feel as though I was on "extra alert," although they were extremely safe in crossing and walking.
At the restaurant (which by the way had great kid's meals) they practiced manners while ordering and eating, not starting to eat food that might be too hot, and balancing eating and conversations. I allowed them to have sodas, and even though I reminded them that they would be switching to water for re-fills, a couple of them finished their sodas right away. What was nice was that it was their peers who reminded them about the "water rule" rather than me.
Back in the office, three of the kids had LUNCH Points and two of them wanted to play Wii. One clever Alumni member asked that, since Cynthia wasn't here tonight, perhaps he could watch them (ND). I let him konw that it wasn't necessary, but thanked him. All of the kids earned raffle tickets for their behaviors. AE worked on not "blotting" his pizza to remove the oil from the cheese excessively and being directed where to put his napkin when done. We also reviewed rules on passing food, i.e., you pass the basket of bread, not the bread itself to others; ND was overreacting a little to others, nothing extreme, but he worked on speaking to them in a more calm tone of voice. AH worked on general manners, which were pretty decent to begin with and conversations, plus listening to directions the first time. MM worked on effective conversation, continuing to show nice increases in how loud and clear her voice was. CS worked a little on manners and conversations with others, JW worked on manners, figuring out what to do with his napkin, and paying attention, and finally GU practiced learning to "twirl" his spaghetti, effective conversation, and picking the right time to speak to others.
We watched a brief Pink Panther (old style) cartoon from You Tube with a twist. At each scene change, when something was about to happen, I stopped it and asked them to predict what would occur, offering a Hero ticket for correct guesses. They were surprisingly enthusiastic about this.
Parents picked up all of their kids within five minutes of the pick up time. Thank you so much!
See you in two weeks and we will plan to have our parent meeting in the office at that time.
Bruce
