dmmetler

Ariana has danced on her Disney show at times, including a DWTS based episode. She’s just plain a good actress (I’m surprised that she’s 10,though-her character on the show is about 6!). I think Mackenzie actually has a disadvantage because everyone expects her to dance well-and she looks like an adult compared to the 9-10 yr olds. And I don’t know that Acro Jazz really helps in doing a foxtrot. I’d like to see Alana stick around a few weeks to see how much she improves, and I think she’s enjoying herself. I’m glad the little Palin got to go home-he obviously wasn’t. Y

I’ve tried to make a snake cake. I’m kind of surprised no one used a bundt pan or a springform pan with an insert. A coiled cobra or a snake that isn’t periscoping is pretty easy, and if you did that for the base, and worked on the head while the cake was baking, you could at least get a decent looking snake on the plate, even if not exactly like the original. Oh, and rolled fondant or fruit roll ups make a decent cobra hood :)

I think it should have ended with the originals graduating.

I was glad that they had Jesus heading to the local community college. Too often tV shows either send everyone to some ultra elite college or to whatever local school lets them keep the cast together. Given Jesus’s academic struggles even before the TBI, it makes sense that he would likely need the additional support that a community college offers (and that he might be looking more at vocational programs rather than a traditional degree path). AJ should have been there.

I wish someone had pointed out to Marianna that her non-traditional background is going to give her “hooks” in the application process (provided she writes a decent essay and has the test scores and grades) and Emma is going to have a much harder time standing out. Poppy may have needed to be jammer, but Emma needs the internship or some other major accomplishment more than Marianna does.

I’m sure it was producer driven just like Starbound competitions on dance moms, but they did a nice job. i really, really hope they spliced in the Moms calling out at their girls, standing up, etc. Unless competition dance is different from other fine arts competitions, that kind of behavior isn’t appropriate.

But a homeschool team does not compete in the same athletic division with public schools. Usually they compete against small private schools or other homeschool teams.

Starbound is the competition that most of the Dance Moms episodes take place at, especially the last few seasons. Bringing Bring it On into competition dance seems set up for a crossover.

Sigh. Anyone smell a producer driven crossover?

And Faith is also the one with the most diverse training coming in. Not surprised that she came out on top. Oh, and the “we”-yes, mom, you do the driving, support and cheerleading. But ultimately, it’s your child’s activity and her success or failure. Not yours.

It’s not JJ not being ready. It’s that those of us with experience with the IEP/transition process know that there would have been multiple points before this time where the team would have sat down to evaluate JJ’s progress, and it wouldn’t be a surprise. If JJ were lacking credits coming into a mainstream school, that would have been know when he came in. If he had to miss for medical reasons, there would have been Home or hospital instruction provided, and if it wasn’t enough, that would have been known then. He would have had adaptive PE, not regular gym, and that would have taken his medical absences into account. Failing a child on an IEP without a lot of prior records leads to a great deal of questions as to whether the IEP is being followed at all. It wouldn’t have been a blindside. That’s the lazy writing that smacks of “oh, yeah..we really don’t want JJ to go to college yet”. On Kenneth, right now the school district is paying Kenneth’s salary as part of JJ’s IEP. After he graduates, that will stop. It is possible,maybe even likely that Vocafional rehab or SSDI or Medicaid Waiver will cover some aide time while JJ is in college, but that is by no means certain (and I would LOVE them to show that part. ) taking another year and letting JJ navigate the college application and transition process is awesome. But I wish they had set it up better.

My guess is that it’s less not knowing how to write college and more wanting to keep the number of settings low. It won’t particularly surprise me to have Ray start dual enrollment when JJ starts college. Which, by delaying JJ’s start by a year becomes more reasonable.

Actually, JJ dealing with Voc Rehab could be comedy gold. Especially since Maya has no standing with them whatsoever.

I think they handled the homeschooling stuff well, and JJ needing an extra year makes sense, except that this shouldn’t be coming up in Spring of his senior year, it should have come up in his IEP and transition planning meetings. I love that Maya was being largely successful-and that JJ was the one who decided that he needed to go back. And I loved Jimmy saying his piece for once. Dylan and Ray were shoehorned in to keep them from being entirely absent.

I just got the complete series on DVD, and am quite enjoying it. I’m impressed at how much the boundaries are pushed for a 1960’s show :) And how good Jeannie was at shutting down unwanted attention.

The thing is, it’s on both sides. My parents didn’t catch the reduction in services until it started causing trouble in the classroom grade-wise because the IEP support had no one to provide it. The same applies here. A school putting JJ in 1/2 of a stretch Algebra 1 class and School B missing that JJ actually has not completed Algebra 1, and that not being noticed until school F is looking at credits for graduation would also be something Maya and Jimmy should have caught. Since JJ was in a special needs school at one point, it would be very possible that some classes weren’t offered at all at. High school level, and it was missed when he transferred to a mainstream setting. Maya would have been the most likely person to catch that-but the fact that classes weren’t offered at a level leading to actual proficiency would be on the school. Another option would be for JJ to struggle with required tests due to a weak background due to moving frequently or low standards at his prior schools, and that now that the school isn’t giving him an automatic bye due to being disabled, it’s coming out that he’s not as well prepared as everyone thought, he has to play catch-up. Again, it happens. And again, it partially falls on the parent. I think they could either handle this very well, or very poorly. I have hope that they’ll handle it well. I’m very nervous about the homeschooling part of it-TV tends to handle homeschooling badly, and honestly, pulling a kid out midway through senior year (and pulling out siblings who are successful in a fit of pique) rarely ends well.

On the “JJ not on track to graduate”, I thought “real ways schools dropped the ball” might be instructive”. i got dropped from Speech/Language on moving to middle school despite still clearly qualifying. The rationale given was “teens don’t want to seem different”. Without having the therapist to work with, several parts of my IEP (like prior notice of oral assignments so I could work with the speech therapist on them) didn’t happen. That happened for a year until I asked about it myself-and then it took another year to get me back into therapy. (And my speech intelligibility rose dramatically in high school because I had a therapist who worked on that instead of specific articulation, so that time was not wasted).

I’m a little nervous about this one. I know a lot of families where homeschooling ends up being the only viable option for their kids with special needs, and TV shows tend to play on the stereotypes heavily, not the reality.

The other thing is that in the South, a decent number of high schools have majorette style dance teams, usually as adjuncts to the Marching band (although like with color guard, there are also separate competitions) and school teams have their own separate competition outlets. But I can’t think of a single school that does Dance Moms style competition dance (YAGP, for a performing arts magnet, maybe...)

I took the “Men can be nurses” as a reference to Strax...totally forgot that Rory was also a nurse!

I loved JJ and BB-8 bonding over being unable to go up the stairs :) I wonder if Dylan still has the snake?

The "can I have a family?" Brought back memories. Back in the early internet days (pre WWW) I was on a listserv for parents of kids with CP and the single question parents asked me most was "you're married? To someone able bodied? How does that work?"Having said that, I married someone who had grown up with a sibling with CP. That makes a difference. I'm at the mild/moderate end, though, and the demands on a spouse are less "physical caregiver" and more "need to be understanding". On careers, JJ may end up being in the situation where he can't afford to work. I know two people who are similar in functioning to JJ who are minimally paid volunteers for non-profits (often working and paid for only a handful of hours/week, but volunteering far more), because the jobs in their fields (both work with computers, one as a website designer, the other as a DBMS specialist) simply cannot cover the costs for someone like Kenneth. They have to keep their federal and state support.

Also, coaches tend to send kids to their alma mater. I'm guessing there are a lot of high school dance team/private team coaches who were ladybirds. Even if Todd doesn't favor the students of his past favorites, they know what he's looking for and can recommend the school to girls who would be a good fit.

I know the answer is "for plot", but why not just show up at some Catholic or Orthodox Church on Sunday, and dunk the spear in the wine? Theologically, it becomes the blood of Christ during the mass for churches that believe in transubstantiation. It is far more likely that Sir Gawaine, who is in legend as the most Catholic of the knights, would have been buried with a flask of blessed Communion wine than the literal blood of someone who had not been corporate for 5-600 years! The cup and spear lasting, yeah, maybe, but not the blood.

I'd love to see Laurie Anne preparing the girls for and sending them out to actual commercial auditions, instrad of another season of competitions. And given the results in the past, I assume Laurie Anne's dances lost not due to not understanding competition dance, but that the narrative called for a loss.