The Placebo Effect Day 1

I know what you are thinking "What on earth is she talking about" so here we go. As many of you know MacKenzie is a very intelligent child and that was proven when she was accepted into the SIGNET program at school. What many of you don't know is that MacKenzie has a bit of a dark side. Some of you may have noticed that I did not post anything about her first report card. Well that is because we were a bit unsure of what to make of it. MacKenzie got a C on her report card in the first semester. I know I know a C is not a bad grade but in this situation it really is. First off it was in Writing as in Language Arts as in MacKenzie's area of focus that got her into the SIGNET program. Writing is one of MacKenzie's strongest and favorite subjects. When we got the report card Rob looked at it and was shocked as was I. We had just been to a parent teacher conference the week before and the teacher said that she was getting all A's and B's. We were a bit taken aback by the C, if it had been in Math (a subject she had been struggling with) we would have been ok with it and made a plan of attack to help her bring it up. But instead it was in writing. So Rob called her teacher to see what had happened. The teacher was even a little shocked. She said she would look into it and get back to us. See the report cards are all computer generated. The teacher puts in all the grades and the computer does all the work. She thought that maybe she had flipped a number or imputed something wrong. So a few days later I got a call saying that no the grade was right. The problem (and this is part of MacKenzie's dark side) is that MacKenzie is just not completing or even turning her work in. Being the fantastic teacher that she is Mrs. W gave MacKenzie some extra credit points for an story that MacKenzie wrote at home (I will post that later). That extra credit brought her grade up to a B and put her back on the Honor Roll. While we appreciate what Mrs. W did we told MacKenzie that this didn't change anything to us. This was about her not completing her work and turning it in. So we started to work on things with her to get her to start focusing more on doing her work and turning things in on time. Mrs. W also changed a few things in the classroom that would benefit both MacKenzie and other students. We as a team have been talking and working to help MacKenzie work up to her potential.

So this is where my little experiment comes in. We are still having problems with getting MacKenzie to focus. Mrs. W even suggested that maybe we take MacKenzie to the dr to rule out anything medical. While we thought about that our minds were changed when Rob took her to Family Night for SIGNET. Rob talked with MacKenzie's teacher there to see if she was having the same problems with her. And to our surprise Mrs. B said no, that MacKenzie is very focused, organized, quiet, and turns everything in as needed. So now we know that this is a MacKenzie problem. This is a problem with her only doing what she thinks is necessary and doing it on her terms. So how do you fix this problem??? We have tried talking, incentives, punishments, any thing we could think of and then it hit me. While in the grocery store looking at homeopathic remedies for Cam's cold a few weeks ago I stumbled across a "Homework and School work Focus helper" and I started thinking. To truly find out if it is a medical or MacKenzie problem we need to rule one out. But how do you rule out a MacKenzie problem. So I came up with it. I would make up my very own "Focus enhancing homeopathic cure" and give it to her before school everyday. If there is a big improvement in her performance at school then we know that she is in total control of the situation. So I talked to Rob and he said why not. And to make sure that I wasn't doing anything that would hurt her in the long run I also sought out the advice of Cam's therapist during his last appointment. So this morning while she was brushing her teeth and hair I whipped up my miracle cure. A couple drops of almond extract, a splash of Cran-Cherry juice and a 1/4 cup of water. I mixed it all up and put it in an empty vanilla extract bottle (minus the label). Then I headed into her bathroom to tell MacKenzie what I had "found". After taking a 1/4 teaspoon I explained to her that it was our secret and that she shouldn't tell anyone till we knew if it worked. I don't want her teacher to know that way she can unbiasedly tell me if there has been any improvements. So now we wait........ I will call her teacher on the last day of school before winter break to see how she is doing. So we shall see if my little experiment works or not. I will keep you posted.