Taking the Scenic Route

Really?

10 minutes and lots of hair products later:  OK, here ya go…

10 minutes later:  I want normal hair again. 

edited to add: Eraserhead examples. But he has never seen the movie, so I have no idea where he got the concept from.

Zach doing a lesson with Zane.

Zane suddenly developed an interest in chess. YAY!    He took the cheaper chess set (the “No Stress Chess Game”) and set it up next to his computer, ran a computer chess game that we have had on there for a while, mirroring the moves on the chessboard next to him.  After doing that for several hours, he asked his Dad to play a game with him.  Then Zora heard “play a game” and wanted to also join, so we went into storage and dug out our nice chess set, from Zach’s mom.  Zach ended up playing with both of them at once, Zane an actual game, and Zora a pretend game.

I am SO excited to see him be interested in chess.  When he gets a little better it would be a great social outlet for him, besides the obvious brain building benefits.

My folks took our family to the fair this year.  As usual, it was a lot of fun.  The only unfun thing was dad having an injured eye.  He got a scratch on his cornea and it was ulcerating, causing him a lot of pain, and the drops he has to put in hourly were also painful.  It was in his “good” eye, which rendered him, effectively, blind.

They got ride-o-rama bracelets for the three kids the kids and Zach, so Zach could help, especially on the bigger rides Zane wanted to go on.

We have a photo of him looking forward and happy on this ride, but I was tickled by the picture of him smelling the ride before settling in.  One of those quirks inherited from both sides of the family.  (Even Zach’s dad, Zane’s grandpa, was known for smelling everything.  lol)

Before Zach & Zane split off to go on big rides, Zane rode a few of the kid ones with Zora.

One of the only rides that Zane has never really liked is the carousel.  When he does ride, he rides on the bench, but he prefers not to ride it.  I actually agree with him on this one.  I can ride the wildest roller coasters and other adrenaline rides, but the carousel gives me horrible vertigo and I hate it.  Zora and Zach both love the carousel.

Dad and I hung out with the kids and mom for a while, until the brightness and the dust was just more than he could take.  We found a spot just off the midway, in the shade and away from the people where we sat for most of the afternoon.  I realized later that the hours long conversation was the longest uninterrupted conversation I have had with my dad in decades.  We also laughed at the idea that he could never have guessed, when I was Zora’s age, that I would ever sit still for that long.

As darkness fell, we headed back to the cars, with one last stop:  the train.  Mom has taken this ride every year since she was a little girl, she always took us every year, and now my kids have gone every year.  However, I don’t remember being able to go in the “coal car” part of the train, so I am a little jealous.  We ended up going on the last loop of the night.  I think the kids behaved better than the “grown-ups” this time.

And, as we pass by a “photo board” thing, we decided to give it a shot.  I will leave out the nice photos because the bad ones were so much funnier.

Our family’s submission to “awkward family photos” website (a website of horrible family photos).  Zane was not really into the photo thing, as you can tell.

but we did get one last smile out of him before leaving.

First, one picture from Zane.  This cartoon is a reaction to his vocabulary work in Speech Therapy.  They learn a new science term and do a related experiment (among other things).

The word is “repel”

Now, the gallery:

First, the girl child.

Now, the boy child.

Zane doesn’t draw like he used to, but every once in a while he will spend time working on something.  Lately, he has been doing cityscapes.  He draws a curvy “road” line and places buildings and structures all along it, with mazes scattered among the curves.

Although “Friendship Group” is a social skills group, they had an additional Social Skill playgroup that he was able to participate in this year.  It took place about 15 minutes after one of the Friendship group times, but was a bit bigger.  We got to see some other kids we have made friends with over the years that weren’t in his current FG, and that was neat.

He got a kick out of Twister

The helpers are wearing their kid’s schedule around their necks to help with transitions (and probably to avoid the glut of kids checking their schedules on a wall someplace).  Zane isn’t as dependent on a schedule as he used to be, but in a group this big it really helps him cope.

This group is a lot more challenging for him and he would have never been able to participate in it in previous years, just because of the amount of people, the more chaotic (not bad chaos, just the natural “get a bunch of kids in the same room” chaos) environment, and the sheer amount of activity.  He was able to focus and complete instructions successfully.  He is getting closer to being able to handle a classroom situation, but at this point it would take a lot of anxiety meds on board if he had to do it routinely.  Doing it in a more controlled environment goes a long ways towards teaching him how to manage himself in this type of setting.  (the project he is working on is decorating t-shirts for the staff & helpers)

I am glad I get another semester to get a better picture of him with his student ST (well, mostly I am glad we get another semester with the ST in general).  Sadly, this was the closest to “looking at the camera” + “pleasant facial expression” in the group of pictures I took. 

As I have said before, this summer we added a literacy & reading comprehension component to Zane’s therapy schedule.  It is a new venture, so we are all learning as we go, but I am quite pleased with how it is working out.  Since it is far more motivating for him if he is interested in the subject matter, we are using science as the backbone to build comprehension and vocabulary.  He has been creating a picture based vocabulary dictionary through the semester, as he learns new words, that is being used as a reference guide to teach him how to look things up if he doesn’t remember off the top of his head (word recall is difficult for him, even if he understands the concept). That is tied in to a science experiment that demonstrates the concept, requires reading and interpreting directions, plus writing out a brief description of the experiment (question being asked, hypothesis, ect) based on the scientific method.  She includes a lot of visual supports, as you can see in this picture.

Zane HATES writing.  At home we have to do the majority of scribing for him because he struggles with trying to do the mechanical process/motor planning involved with writing, especially when trying to create meaningful content.  I had to seperate the components out to get anything done on the majority of schoolwork, and continue to include Handwriting as a stand alone component to keep hitting the motor skills.  We are now trying to begin the process of integrating the two of them together by encouraging him to write himself instead of dictating and having us scribe.  To motivate him, he gets a marble if he completes the small writing task himself, and no marble if he asks for help.  At the end of the session, he gets to take all of the marbles earned and drop them in a marble run.

Notice I refrained from any comments on the “Zane’s Marbles” jar.  What restraint I have.

And, the last minute or two of the hour is spent with the marble run.  (most of the pictures of this were blurry because he was excited and flapping like a madman.  lol)

This summer we added a literacy component to Zane’s ST schedule, focusing on Reading Comprehension.  Since he loves science and doing science experiments, that is the vehicle we are using to help develop comprehension and writing skills.

This session’s experiment was putting Mentos into various kinds of soda pop to see which had the strongest reaction.  By the end of the experiment, he was wet and sticky from pop hitting him.  He kept licking himself. 

(photos from a combination of my cranky cell phone (first one), and the video the Clinical Educator is taking in this photo)

Videos of the three songs the kids did with the children’s choir in church this morning.  Zora was belting the songs out at home, but got shy in front of the crowd.  I have a feeling that will go away soon though, given her personality.

Forgive the camera work…I was trying to watch it live while shooting the video with my camera, and that doesn’t always work well.

Meet Me on the Mountain

Obey My Voice

Come Walk With Us

Both of them are less than seasoned performers, to say the least, but I am so glad they are getting the experience. It drives me a little crazy that my two are the wiggliest ones up there though, but I should expect it given their genes.