Taking the Scenic Route

The weekend was good. On Saturday we pulled out the gifts for the kids from the luggage: Some Haba Fantasy Blocks for Zane and a selection of Haba Play Food for Zora, and chocolate for both. They both were happy, but probably happier to see us than the toys.

We also discovered a picture Zane drew at some point while we were gone. It is from an old kid’s Carraba’s menu.  He drew a maze with a cartoon under it.

The notable thing on this is that he wrote “my ball” (in the blue crayon) and made some variations to the drawings to make his own cartoon. He smiled a big smile when we found it and commented on it.

Sunday evening my folks came up so we could take them out for a thank you dinner at Carabbas and give them some chocolate and mom’s traditional coffee mug. (a tradition started when I was young…I always pick mom up a coffee mug as a souvenier whenever I go someplace).

They brought up the chalkboard they had bought from an auction at the church. It was from one of the Sunday School classrooms and probably older than all of us, but most importantly, real slate. It was mongo heavy. Dad and Zach worked for an hour or two trying to get it hung downstairs in the room I plan to use as a classroom for Zane. (will allow school stuff to be in it’s own area, just off the playroom). We still have a ways to go with the room (plan on getting a bunch of cheapo bookcases to line one wall for supplies and books, and a table). We have chairs already, also from the same church auction and ones I probably sat on throughout my own childhood.

On Monday we went to the school supply store to get some good chalk and a felt eraser for the board, and Monday evening, Zach was showing Zane the chalkboard and Zane talked him into drawing Mario stuff on the board. He kept bringing him different games and wanted Zach to draw them on the board, and would then go through and explain who each character was to Zach. It was a neat interaction.

Always getting in the middle of the action….

One thing I noticed right away is that the chalk sounded “right” on the board to me.  It didn’t set my teeth on edge like a lot of chalkboards do.  I had to laugh a bit at my on sensory issue that I forgot existed.

This one they did together when Zane’s partner was out sick. They used bubble wrap as a paintbrush. Zane did the green part, Zora did the blue & yellow part.

Our biggest problem with this one was trying to keep Zora from eating it. The neat thing about this one is that he specifically requested “googly eyes” for it. lol.

The picture frame he made the last day

A snake Zane made from our Habitat book. (self initiated)

A study in opposites

I think she is trying to tell me to buy some new puzzles.

And, in a sweet ending for the evening, Zane requests a camp out

Good night sweet prince.

I haven’t been posting much (and have a backlog of emails to answer at this point) because I am spending every moment not dealing directly with kid with my nose buried in books, websites, and academic papers, both on autism and parenting in general.  The ST program I want to get Zane (based around the papers I was reading, and then the website it lead me to) costs more than I can afford, but it really looks good.  I am going to dig my nose through a copy of it at the university tomorrow or next Wednesday (one of the other clinical educators just ordered the program and one of her students is using it) and see if I can start with the main program (Visualizing and Verbalizing), or if he needs to go through the book written for autistic students to get them ready for the program (Talkies).  The description sounds like you are starting from a non-verbal/low verbal point (with labeling…something Zane has done since he was little, it just never formed into functional language like it does for most kids), but I don’t know if the main program starts at too high of a level for him.  I hope I can just jump into it because it is horribly expensive even if you don’t get the whole “kit” meant for teachers.   I’ll write more about the program later, as well as the parenting book I am trying to get through. 

We are still working on getting used to this sleeping schedule.   It is getting better, but dang, I am tired!  We are such natural night owls and this is taking some getting used to.  I need to go to bed, but I expect to have some photos tomorrow, so I thought I would post the stray photos taken over the last week here.

Climbing all over daddy after work.

Making a “snake” from an egg carton from his Animal Habitats book.  (self initiated…I was playing with Zora and he brings me three eggs from the carton, not knowing what to do with them.)

My daredevil hanging from the top of the tornado slide at the church.  (on a cool note, Zane finally figured out the motor planning to climb the rope net that leads up to the slide this week without help.  He has been bravely working at it for a few weeks and was rightfully very proud of himself.   Zora followed him up on her own too, but she is without fear, so although it was a bit scary to see her little body scaling the thing, I better get used to it.)

A sight I never thought I would see…Zach in a hardhat.  He was touring the new warehouse they are building for the company he is working for.

I inadvertently created a new obsession in Zane.  Yesterday we were doing a study of “Maps” and I was a bit of a loss as to how to enrich it because he already knows what maps are (the lesson was “What is a Map?”) and knows how to use a basic map (like in games, or at the zoo).  It occurred to me that he might not understand directions, so I added that on to the lesson.  I explained that north is up on a map, drew a compass on the board, then realized I should apply it more concretely, so we headed outside and I drew a directional compass on the patio in chalk.  I tried to direct him to “face north, face south” and he seemed a little confused.  I then went out to the fence and wrote the direction on each fence and stood in the middle and showed him the directions again.   You could see the lightbulb flip on in his eyes.  To help him get it into his brain a little more, I modified the “listening game” we often do (a Simon Says type game that helps him develop his receptive abilities) to include directions.  For instance:  “run to the south fence, jump 3 times”, “jump to the east fence, then to the north fence”, ect.  The only problem was he didn’t want to stop playing it.  He kept begging me to keep playing “Map game” all day.  Later in the day I added “NE, NW,…” to each of the corners, and he seemed to get that right away.

Today, going to ST, I remembered that our truck has a directional indicator on it.  We had gone over the map to go to ST yesterday (he also wanted to know where Dillons, Target, Walmart and church were), and I think the road map clicked in his brain today.  During the drive I heard a blow by blow every time I changed directions, finishing with “go to the east” when he exited the car door to go into the front door of the building (which was, of course, to the east of where we were standing). 

Maybe I shouldn’t have taught him directions.  lol.

A small sampling of “trying to get Zane’s picture”

That will work.

We now have a “Student ID” for him for all of those things that say “show your student ID for a discount” things.  (I legally registered the homeschool this week.  I don’t have to until he turns 7, but since he will do that this school year, I figured I could go ahead and do it now.) 

Now I just have to get pictures of us that don’t horrify me (the school supply store and bookstore will give you a discount if you are a homeschool parent, as long as you have a teacher/faculty id card), laminate the suckers, and we are set for the year.

I modeled it off of the cards you can get at:  http://www.homeschoolbuyersco-op.org/index.php?option=com_quickbase&Itemid=268

Zach and the thesis

Thesis is DONE.  He might have more revisions, although he has already completed the first round of revisions wanted by his thesis advisor.  (he wanted him to change something that would make it more usable for him (the advisor) in his project, which makes it more publishable).  Right now, it looks like he might not be able to defend it before the Spring graduation deadline.  It works for everybody on the committee except the head of the department.  We are now aiming for before graduation so that he can be technically done with all of his degree requirements before he walks, even if the degree won’t be conferred until the Summer semester.  At this point it is out of our hands.  If the defense date gets pushed beyond graduation, it won’t likely happen until the end of summer because his thesis advisor is leaving the area for the summer, so we really hope that won’t happen.

Zach and employment

No real news.  He has an “interview” for the same job he has had the last few years, for another 1 year contract.  woohoo.  No summer teaching jobs are available right now.  No summer jobs available anywhere that we have found yet.

No word from the job he wants in the south.  It is a federal job and it can take a long time to process everything, but we are still hopeful of getting it.  He is going to talk to the temp agencies tomorrow again to see if they have anything.  He is also expanding his job search to KC and OK City besides Wichita, but we hope that we don’t have to move unless it is the job down south.  Mostly, I hope we can just hear something good soon.

Church stuff

It is going well.  This week Zane went with his class to the big group (they have a group story time in a theatre/auditorium area with grades K-5 before breaking up into individual classrooms).  He sat better than most of his classmates (they put him in the 1st grade class instead of the kindergartners…the plan is to keep him in the 1st grade classroom next fall also, so he will be with his own age then but be used to the classroom already.  The Kinder kids have a slightly different schedule than everybody else, so getting him used to this when it will be changing soon seemed like a better idea).  He was participating in the activities in an appropriate way, and his “buddy/para” is a nurse and seems to really ”get” him.  I am very happy with how it is going.

There was a funny moment with Zora this week.  I dropped her off at the desk this week, and they took her to the classroom.  Because Zane and I are starting our day in the office instead of the classroom, right after I dropped her off and filled out the forms at the desk, we walked past Zora’s classroom.  (normally people can’t walk back there for security reasons).  As I walked down the hall, a teacher poked her head out of the classroom to say that “I don’t know her…are you sure she has been going here for several weeks already?”.  I turned to the person and asked if they were talking about Zora…they were…I looked up and realized they put her in the 1yo classroom.  I pointed out that she is 2, almost 2.5, not one, and the situation was resolved.  Later, when I passed by again, I took a close look into the two year old classroom and noted that she really was a lot smaller than her classmates.  lol. I am still not used to being the parent of a petite person. 

I still haven’t had the opportunity to talk to the pastor about the disgusting sermon he gave last week.  I was planning on talking to him a little after church, but when I took Zane out to the playground in between services, I failed to notice that the rain had settled on the bottom of the dirty slides, and Zane slide right through it.  His entire back of his pants were muddy and gross, and I didn’t have an extra set of clothes, so we just went home.  I think I will call this week and see if he has a time he can meet during the week.

Zane and his reading tests

He took the Woodcock and the RAN/RAS (and maybe something else too…I will have to wait until I get the written report to see if I missed it).  He did fairly well.

For word identification he is at 96% for his age, and considered to be working at the level of a kid in grade 2, 1st month.  For decoding/silly words/word attack he is at 91% for his age, working at 3rd grade, 0 month level.  For Passage comprehension he is at 64% for his age, and at 1st grade, 0 months.  His receptive language 1 word recognition is at 21% in his age level, and he is working at the age of a 5yo,2mo level (a bit more than a year behind).   With the Rapid naming (how fast you can “read” a line of letters, numbers, colors, symbols in various combinations he was average and above average for his age.  He is working in the range of 1st grade, 2nd month to 2nd grade, 7th month for those tests.

So, as expected, his reading level is high for a kindergartner, but his direct language skills are behind.  (but receptive language not as behind as I thought they might be…a year behind is really not terrible given that is expressive language is quite a bit farther behind…he probably isn’t much more than a 3yo for a lot of his expressive language, if I judge where he is compared to Zora.  She is actually ahead in nonverbal language I would guess, and just on his heels for a lot of the verbal.  I suspect she will overtake his expressive language within a short span here).  The biggest thing we have to really keep an eye on is his comprehension, but we knew that. 

One of the things I do that I need to continue, and probably expand, is pull out vocabulary words in the things he is learning and make a visual reference card for the vocabulary word.  (I take words and find pictures that match it and have him glue them to an index card with the word on it to help him learn the word better).   Google is my friend in this project…I love the ability to google images. 

It sounds like it is probably time to start trying to find chapter books for him.  They said the “captain underpants” books are probably too high a level at this point, but maybe the “boxcar children” books might be ok. (I remember loving those as a kid…it will be interesting to see if I like them as an adult) ”Junie B Jones” was also mentioned.  I wonder if the first Little House books would interest him…I know the first ones are at a much lower reading level than they are later in the series.  If anybody has other suggestions, I would welcome them.  I haven’t really had time to look through books at the higher reading levels yet.

A few pictures

 Watching Daddy outside

During Speech Therapy..A Little Sailor Boy, pulling his boat behind him

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My view of him at ST (unless I am watching from behind a 2-way mirror)

Putting Yarn on a Yak (guess what letter they are working with.)

Discovering the joys of music in the headphones.

edit:  California, has the stupidest state judge in the Nation

They have now passed a law that you can’t homeschool your child unless you have a teaching degree.  What morons.

http://cbs13.com/local/home.school.ruling.2.670708.html

edited to add:  After a friend pointed out my title, I changed it to reflect a more accurate view. 

Also, want to take a moment to comment on this myself.

First, I really resent the fact that the judge used homeschooling as an excuse to remove these kids, when it CLEARLY wasn’t the true issue, nor was it the first issue with this family.  It was because the prosecutors were either too incompetent to force the changes for real reasons, or they were harassing this family without justification.  The family has been in court multiple times, and this was such a reach it is unreal.  To make such a sweeping statement that goes contrary to previous law (and common sense) is just stupid.

Second, I am particularly upset about the implication that you can’t teach well unless you have the piece of paper.   At the university level, you don’t require any sort of official “teaching certification” to teach, you just need a degree and show competence in the subject matter you are teaching.  My dh is a great teacher and holds no degree in teaching.  In fact, I doubt most people who teach at the university have a degree in teaching, (unless, maybe, you are in the education department.)

I am an adult, a parent, and an advocate and perfectly capable of teaching my child.  I care about his education and am well read in educational theory, appropriate lesson plans, curricula, and speech and language issues and therapies, and occupational therapies, and am constantly striving to increase and improve my knowledge on how to help my son (and, eventually, daughter) be as successful as possible.  I might not have gotten grades on everything, but I am every bit as competent as many of the professionals I deal with, and very willing to admit when I am stumped by something and willing to seek out better answers from the experienced.  (something professionals often don’t have the luxury of)  And, as much as they care (and they do care a great deal), they are never going to have the level of passion I do about my own children. 

If they don’t think that public school educated adults are capable of teaching, then what the heck are they wasting their time doing?

I started out all gung ho on unschooling in the beginning. Loved the theory, have been somewhat interested in John Holt since college, was really looking forward to it. However, it didn’t seem to be working well. I got John Holt’s “to teach your own”, thinking that maybe I would figure out what I was doing wrong because Zane seemed to enjoy and do better with a more structured approach

When I got the book, after reading for a bit, I started looking to see if he said anything on homeschooling special needs. He did, and I turned to the pages listed, and low and behold, the example they gave was of traditional homeschooling. It talked of Dr. Greenspan, and described a family’s ideal homeschooling situation as one-on-one time in the morning to work on specific skills, and seeking out social situations for the afternoon.

So, when the grandfather of homeschooling/unschooling’s main example of “homeschooling a special need’s child’, is homeschooling in a structured environment (and the example was of an autistic child, like mine), I felt like I was right to question it for my child. Maybe the reason I wasn’t having success was because it wasn’t the right way for my son.

I think one of the key elements you need for a child to be able to learn by unschooling/totally child-led, is the ability to ask big questions. The ability to ask ANY questions would be the minimum requirement. My son doesn’t really ask questions in the traditional way. He does, sort of, but it is really difficult at times to determine what he is wanting unless there is an easy reference.

So, in the course of a unit study, he can ask a question and I can often figure out what he is actually wanting to know, but I would never be able to do that without that reference point. For that reason, it is a big deal to me that we do some sort of structured curriculum. If something really sparks his interest, I would joyfully let the curriculum take the back seat while we explore his new found passion, but I am glad to know that the curriculum is there when the passion wanes and gives us new opportunities to find new passions.

About the only place I feel like a little shit for shaping his learning is math. I let him keep going for a few pages, but then tell him we will finish our lesson, then at the end he can go back and do math if he wants to. (and he sometimes does, but he is often too worn out to do it right away.) I want him to keep his passion for math, so we do it right after the unit study to make sure he is really “awake” for the language stuff we do afterwards. Math is playtime for him. Language and communication issues are very challenging for him, but necessary, in my opinion. If he still has energy after we have completed the speech and language component, I offer to go back and do math. If he has energy, he loves to do it.

That said, I don’t think that my conclusion is universal.  I have a dear friend who successfully unschools her autistic son.  However, she had some differences in the environment that impact her success with that.  The main difference, is that her child is the 3rd of 6 children.  With that many siblings around, there is a built in exposure to many different interests and passions, and many more opportunities for his interests to be expressed than we have.  Many more opportunities for the questions to arise from the natural environment instead of the contrived environment of a curriculum.  Not only by the parents, but the siblings who have a very close connection to him. 

Zane, by contrast, is the oldest child, and his only sibling is too young to really provide that kind of exposure to new ideas and experiences.  Honestly, I was a little afraid to post this because I was afraid she would take offense to my conclusion, but I think that she will also recognize that our two boys, although VERY similar in learning style and intellect, are living in very different environments.  Although I am technically quiverful, I have only had two pregnancies make it to a live birth, so I don’t have that rich environment that she does.  I am, admittedly, a little envious of the environment she is able to provide to her child, but that is not the path God wants for me I guess.

I guess the most important thing for me is to not get so wrapped up in ANY educational philosophy that I stop paying attention to the child who is entrusted in my care.  Just as parenting, there are our ideals, and then there is what actually works in our day to day lives, and the two aren’t neccessarily going to be the same things because humans are not really able to be so easily categorized.  Day by day, step by step, doing the best we know how to do is the most we should expect from ourselves.

Yesterday was 60 degrees.  Today we had snow.  That’s Kansas for you

First, some shots of Zora

From yesterday.  She is finally getting how to go forward on a regular basis instead of backwards.

We thought it sounded too quiet downstairs.  (wrapped in a Yoga mat in the middle of the playroom floor)

Homeschool

Got started on more formal school.  These are taken at the end of the first day, after Dad came back  (he left with Zora to do some shopping so Zane and I could have quiet our first day to make it a bit easier).  Zach helped him work with his new threading blocks he got for Christmas.  It is the perfect toy for him because it combines visual perception, sequencing, fine motor, motor planning and has him accomplishing something instead of just the abstract “do this for the sake of doing it” that so many OT toys have.

Visual Schedule

A new visual schedule for him.  I tried something different this time.  I made a list with checkboxes in front (so we can transition him to a regular sort of “to do” list later on), and have the unchecked boxes on velcro on top of each item.  When he started the morning the “to do” boxes were all showing, and as he pulled off the piece a “I did it” with a check mark appeared.  Works really well and saves me the hassle of trying to figure out what order to put all the PECs cards and have to deal with trying to figure out what to do when one inevitably goes missing.  All of the pull off pieces are identical, so I just made a few extra to start with.  The “all done” container is just a disposable cup velcroed to the side of the bookcase next to the schedule.

Bulletin Board

The bulletin board with the day’s completed work.  We started the concept “Environment” in Moving Beyond the Page.  The first unit (of the 3 under the Environment concept) is “Habits and Homes”.  (then “Weather”, then “Community”)  I started today with doing some visual cards with some of the vocabulary words and concepts and will dig into the first real “lesson” tomorrow.  I really like the curriculum.  It really incorporates multiple learning styles.  For instance, part of the first lesson was a song, sung to a familiar tune, explaining the parts of a healthy environment, with simple actions.  Zora was still there while I was doing the song and tried to join in with the hand movements. 

Social Story

 I also introduced a new social story today.  I am hoping it helps to start getting him to respond when we call his name.

Tomorrow I am hoping to add some visuals prompts around the house to help him.  (like “I am in the bedroom” in the bedroom, or “I am next to the computer” near the computer.)

I decided to go with “next to” because, even though it is a little awkward in some situations, the meaning gets across, and it seems like it would be the most relevant when he is in a high stress situation, like he wandered into the next isle at the store and is suddenly lost…saying “I am in the store” isn’t nearly as useful as “I am next to the potatoes”.  Eventually we will work on expanding out the phrases, but getting *something* like that working his vocabulary will help a lot, and save the frustration of wondering if he actually hears us.  (and his frustration of “geez, I heard you, go away now” look that I sometimes get.  lol)