Who's learning? Who's teaching?

TOS Review~KinderBach

2012-02-02T14:39:00.000-08:00

Recently as a TOS Crew member I was given the opportunity to try out an online piano/music class. KinderBach is typically for children ages 3-7 but I decided to try it with my music loving 12 year old who has some learning challenges. He already takes drum lessons so he was familiar with some of the basics. KinderBach teaches beginning piano lessons and even some basics such as
note reading, rhythm, singing, and composition.

Music can help stimulate the body and mind and provides many benefits to children with developmental disabilities. When my son was a baby/toddler he slept a lot and the one thing that was sure to get him active was when I played a variety of music for him. He would just start MOVING!

When I sat down with my son to try KinderBach out I initially thought he would think it was too silly/young. Surprisingly he was glued to the computer screen. A cool thing about that is, because of it's simplicity, he was able to do it completely on his own. (a lot of online programs require me to be at least sitting by him in case he needs help or needs to be redirected)

The online lessons start out at $7.99 for a one-year membership (you can buy a one-month membership as well), DVD with CD packages start at $40.45 plus shipping, CD packages are $23.95 plus shipping, and there are several low-priced (some even free!) games, crafts, and coloring books. KinderBach also has a classroom program that would be great for a preschool classroom!
I would definitely recommend this online program to introduce a preschool/kindergartner to the joys of music. I would also recommend it for a child older than that age that has developmental delays or challenges. Oh, and you can try it out for free for two weeks of online lessons by subscribing here.

If you do decide to place an order, use coupon code TOScrew2012 to receive 30% off of any order - homeschool, classroom, online or DVDs!

~Disclaimer: I received the chance to try out this product for free in exchange for my honest review. This is my own opinion and no other compensation was received.~
Click here if you would like to read other TOS reviews on this product!

~Great Thoughts~

2012-01-29T19:22:00.000-08:00

There are so many different variations and ways to homeschool. Some families homeschool using only religious curriculum while others prefer keeping religion out of their education and choose a more secular education approach. How does my family homeschool? We use a more ecclectic approach which is a mix of a little this and a little that. I love to run across something in a blog or in a book and use it for our school.

Recently I read the sweetest story that I picked to do a review for. The book is " Schoolroom in the Parlor" by Rebecca Caudill. The book was written in 1959 and tells of a much simpler time period of the early 1900's. You can go to Homeschool Literature if you would like to read the review. My favorite part of the book is something I'm going to try and implement in our home. The big sister that was teaching the younger children each morning would start the day with a "Great Thought". These were words of wisdom that great men had thought. Althy the older sister said "Whenever you learn a great thought, you can think it, too. A great thought is something nobody can take from you." Here are some examples from the book- "Don't give up the ship. A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches. A merry heart doeth good like medicine." She would tell the great thought to the children and they would memorize it then talk about it. After that the next oldest sister would write the quote in her tablet so the younger sisters could copy it into their tablets.

I LOVE that! So I'm going to find a few a week and do the same thing. I have all kinds of favorite quotes stirring through my mind. I'll try and and share some that I choose this week.

laughing on the inside

2012-01-26T21:20:00.000-08:00

Tonight we went to our local Chick Fil A. I have pretty much sworn off most other fast food places but I love Chick Fil A on occasion. Well we were getting up to leave and my husband had already gotten up to empty our tray. Z was following hubby and A~man was with me. There on the side of the table sat a ketchup container. I'm not talking about the little foil pouches of ketchup. I'm talking about the new pouches that hold three times MORE ketchup. Do you see where this is going? Do you? If not I will show you a picture-

There it sat. A~man looked down and after that everything was in slow motion and I could not do a thing to stop it. He karate chopped it. No exaggeration ketchup went all over our booth and six feet beyond. Honestly I do not think he meant to do it. He was pretending to karate chop it and his hand slipped. IT WAS ALL OVER THE PLACE. A few seconds before I noticed a homeschool mom with her two kids walk by. (I do not know them but recognize them from some event) I did not yell. I may have exclaimed but I did not yell. I'm sure if someone was studying my face they would have noticed I almost...almost busted out laughing. I knew the harm that would follow if I did that. It would happen over and over. I very firmly told him to go get napkins and clean it all up. After the initial shock wore off his face (he didn't really plan on doing it) he ran off to get napkins and promptly cleaned it up. I was mad, I was embarrassed and by gosh I was about to bust out in hysterics. I did not look around for reactions from others...I just remember hearing the other homeschool mom tell her sons "watch out for the ketchup!" and one boy said "what happened?"

Walking out to the car I guess Z told hubby that I was REALLY mad. In the car I had to turn away quickly after telling hubby what happened. Later he said that he thought I was laughing...or maybe crying.

I had a flashback. A similar thing happened to me at that age. I remember after a basketball game or some event we stopped at McDonald's and were eating outside in the front. My best friend at the time was wearing white jeans. Do you see where this is going. There was a packet of ketchup on the ground. I jumped on it. My friend was covered in ketchup. I will admit it was NOT funny yet I was joking around just like my son and my foot slipped....

Life is ALWAYS interesting in my little world.

Learning about Contractions

2012-01-21T15:52:00.000-08:00

The grammar type of contractions that is. I did a search for "learning about contractions" on youtube and most of it wasn't about grammar. Here is a cute video I did find!

When I was growing up contractions really confused me at first. There are so many more creative ways to learn facts about grammar than when I was a child. Sometimes a song, a video (think Schoolhouse Rock), or a contraction game can help children with learning differences or it can solidify the information for a typical learner. Here is a cute poem I found when I did a search for "learning contractions".

The Contraction Song

(to the tune of "London Bridge is Falling Down")

I'm the first word; don't change me!
Don't change me, don't change me.
I'm the first word; don't change me!
Oh, no, just let me be.

When you change the second word,
Second word, second word,
When you change the second word,
A shorter word you'll see.

Certain letters are taken out,
Taken out, taken out.
Certain letters are taken out.
One word will remain.

Apostrophe will fill that space,
Fill that space, fill that space.
Apostrophe will fill that space,
The rest will stay the same.

Can't and couldn't, isn't, too.
Isn't, too, isn't, too,
Won't and I've and let's, it's true,
Contractions every one.

I'm and she's and you're and he'd,
You're and he'd, you're and he'd,
Wouldn't, didn't, we'll and she'd,
Good! And now we're done.

There is so much information a student needs to learn that finding a way to keep it fun is very important!

Winter photos

2012-01-17T20:55:00.000-08:00

Every morning I wake up hoping....hoping for some cold weather. (call me crazy you know I am;) After the last two harsh winters filled with freezing snow this one has been more like spring. These photos were taken a couple weeks ago. Right now it is rainy and my bulbs are forcing their way through the ground in confusion. Some of the trees even have little buds!

Gotta love a 12 year old boy that still sometimes likes to hold his dad or mama's hand!

Yes! It was warm enough for short sleeves!

I only WISH this was my barn. I have a million pictures taken at this location over the last 20 years,mainly the last 12 years.

It's warmer than I would prefer for winter...but you cannot hear me complaining too loud!

Teaching kids to write

2012-01-15T14:23:00.000-08:00

Writing has always been one of my favorite things to do. Teaching it on the other hand sometimes leaves me frustrated. I sometimes feel that if I critique too much my daughter will lose the desire to pursue her creativity yet a page long story shouldn't be one giant sentence. :) Then on occasion I will worry about what the writing standards are for other children her age. ( I really try not to compare though) I have always bought her journals that she fills up however she wants, and with those unless she asks I do not offer advice. I have seen her go back to a journal a couple years later and read them and she has seen how far she has come in her writing. Next month I am hoping to get her into an online writing course to help her learn a little more about the technical side of writing. I think she will take it less personally if someone else is critiquing and advising her writing.

This last year Z~girl has started her own newspaper. (with her brother's help at times) I think she is going on her fourth publication and it includes weather, local news, and of course a comic page. With this she does ask me to do some proofreading and also how to spell the occasional word. We give this paper to a couple of our neighbors and mail it to the grandmas. Everyone enjoys her newspaper which is called the A to Z Gazette. The picture below is of a couple of the pages.

I think a field trip to the local newspaper will be planned for this spring!

Oh and if you are interested check out Homeschoolliterature.com as I interviewed my very first author. (Susan Marlow from Circle C Adventures) In the interview she gives some very helpful insight on teaching children to write.

the R word- Retarded

2012-01-12T21:51:00.000-08:00

Do you know one of the few ways to get this woman riled up, heart beating outside her chest, steam comin' out of her ears? (well besides using the Lords name in vain) Say the R word. I am a very calm, patient, tolerant person. I am a big fan of letting stuff roll off my back. (well outwardly...sometimes it builds up) It takes a LOT to tick me off. You get the point.

Tonight a sweet young lady dear to my heart said this word in a FB status. This isn't the first time. I've heard it before from people on my friends list. Normally I just ignore...while seething inside. I couldn't this time. As nicely as I could I reminded her that her cousin close in age to her is mentally retarded. She promptly removed her comment and apologized. Will this cause this person or others to stop using the word? Probably not. BUT maybe it will make them think before they speak. I know words that you hear often get stuck in your head and you repeat them. This R word I'm finding is a word that is popular. Most people (like the one on my list) do not mean it to be derrogitory against people that actually do have special needs. It's just the word to say to someone that may not be acting the way you would expect them to. (at least that is how I see it)

What do I say about this? My son IS mentally retarded. Of course due to this becoming such a crass word it is no longer a medical diagnosis but instead the meanest thing you could say to an individual. My sons diagnosis causes him to have to work many times harder physically and mentally to achieve a goal. I still in my mind can picture his sweet face looking up when he was working on lifting his head as an infant. Or his first steps when he was older than 3 years old. He has defied every obstacle that a doctors diagnosis has put on him. He has surpassed it by leaps and bounds. Still his progress is slow. It is often 3 steps forward 2 steps back but he keeps trying...he keeps achieving and most of the time with a brilliant smile on his face. I've got to be honest with you. My son A~man has MANY more friends than I do and more people like him than they do me. He truly does have a more endearing personality than I do by far. I should be jealous huh? No I'm just proud to have him as my son.

Think before you speak. Some of my favorite people I have ever met are "mentally retarded".

Learning to walk!

Learning to talk! (and paint:)

Let's face it...just being COOL!

Sharing with his life long best friend. YES that is the Z~girl! (he wasn't supposed to be giving her popcorn!)

Oh and last but certainly not least a NOW picture of this awesome child I call son.

My 12 year old hero!

2012-01-08T14:16:00.000-08:00

We started back to school this last Monday. I wish I could say it was a smooth energetic start but I'm not sure anything is energetic about January. It's also that time of year when I start to worry a bit if I have been teaching the kids enough...or if I have been teaching them what they need to know to become their own personal best. We do our testing in June and that is just 6 months off. *breathe* That's when I remember why I began homeschooling. It was almost 6 years ago in the middle of winter that we started this journey. Just recently my daughter has become more concerned about what grade she is in. I never know what to tell her as she and her brother's skills are scattered. For reading and literature the child is way ahead of what the average peer could have possibly been able to read because she has more free hours without being stuck behind a desk all day. She can get her work done at her pace and then oftentimes she will read and her interests are wonderfully diverse. But in math she is more comparable to 4th grade level. So being in a "grade" just doesn't fit us. I'm guessing she wants to know so she can tell someone if they ask. She would either be a very young 5th grader or an older 4th grader.

In the middle of the week I realized they need more fun...not just sitting down working. So after their regular work is done we have been playing more board games, taking a couple nice hikes as the weather last week was very spring like, and my husband started building some Lego robots with the kids which Z in particular is LOVING! (I'm hoping he will do a guest blog entry for me on the robots they are building) Online educational games are also a nice way to shake things up a bit. I love when I catch Z playing one on her own because she wants to instead of because she feels she has to.

Now if only we could get some snow to play in for "recess"! Here's a picture from a previous winter of our yard blanketed in snow.

Before the snow

2012-01-02T16:28:00.000-08:00

Traveling from North Carolina to South Dakota part I

2012-01-01T16:23:00.000-08:00

I've already written about our Lego adventure in November in an earlier post. What I haven't written about was our complete trip that started in western North Carolina with our final destination being the Black Hills of South Dakota which is my home state.

Here are three of the travelers ready to head out on a long trip! Of course I was behind the camera and I doubt any of you would care to see what I look like at 5 AM anyway.

We started out early that morning and it was rainy.

That Day we traveled through part of Tennessee, Kentucky, and the tip of Illinois before arriving in the state of Missouri.

Our plan was to make it to St. Louis MO by early afternoon and for the most part it was a smooth trip to MO. Before we left our neighbor gave us a small place mat map for the kids to play a licence plate game with (marking off the plates we found with a dry erase marker). We also brought along a really neat state magnetic puzzle that we had fun with.This was roadschooling at it's finest! On this trip Z~girl was able to learn all of the states locations on the maps along with their capitals. OK mom and dad were also able to refresh their state capital knowledge too. A~man also has learned many on our long road trip.

I have to say even though I am not a city lovin' girl St. Louis is a beautiful city. Besides the Lego Summit we were able to go up in the arch which involves getting in this wee little pod type contraption. I was this <---> close to chickening out but I was so glad I didn't.

The view from the top at night was phenomenal!!

While on our journey we were able to keep up with our online schooling as we brought our laptop. Now I can hear some of you through the blogsphere saying "mean mom!" but I assure you it was minimal and mixed in with a whole lot of educational field trips there was not a complaint uttered.

After going in the arch we went to the Museum of Westward Expansion which is under the arch. Next time we will plan for more time in the museum as we got there a half hour before it closed.

We left early the next morning to continue on our way and an hour out of St. Louis my husband discovered he had left his wedding ring and another ring in our hotel room. One worried phone call later we were reassured that they had found the rings and they then put them in the mail to return them safely to us. Thank goodness for honest people.

NEXT STOP.....KANSAS?? stay tuned.

Happy New Year!

2011-12-31T19:43:00.000-08:00

For your entertainment heehee here is a video that Z~girl and her dad made.

Prader-willi syndrome

2011-12-30T21:32:00.000-08:00

I saw this on my facebook tonight and I'm going to try and post a link - Prader-Willi Syndrome Awareness . Today I had a bad afternoon. Why? Well to start out with a haircut gone wayyyy to short. Then my son A~man threw a humdinger of a rage/tantrum. Let's see....bad haircut/VS the struggle of always being hungry,always wanting more (of whatever), always wanting to feel control when your little world is out of control. Add in a splash of autism and adhd. Sheesh....give me the crummy mama award for today seriously. Seeing this list that this other young man with PWS posted puts things completely in perspective.

Could you give up the things on this list?

Merry Christmas

2011-12-25T13:05:00.000-08:00

December has been a roller coaster ride that is for sure. I heard somewhere that the holiday season is one of the most stressful events for a person. While I definitely understand that I also think it's a bit sad that celebrating Jesus birth (for Christians) would cause such stress. Add in special needs and all that comes with learning disabilities and at least double the stress! We went to so many fun events this month, did lots of shopping and decorating but through it all I noticed that most of the pictures of A~man are similar to the one below which I could title "bah humbug"!.

I know it's overwhelming for me but add in all the issues that go along with Prader-willi syndrome and autism and it's more than a kid can handle! For holiday food we have kept it simple. I admit to getting jealous with the description of all the sweets people are baking. I LOVE to bake...but I only ended up baking one treat and it was for a cookie exchange. Our late lunch was YUM but we kept it to ham, dressing, cranberries, green bean casserole and sweet potato casserole! (that still sounds like a lot haha!)

Oh but last night Z~girl and I did make a birthday cake to celebrate Jesus' birthday.

All in all today really has been a fun day with only one short lived meltdown. (no it wasn't me;) The kids enjoyed their presents but I think their favorite was the beanbag chairs Santa brought. I had "thought" hubby and I were going to keep things simple with each others gifts but he ended up shamelessly spoiling me with a new lens for my camera and a handmade wool scarf made by one of our favorite farmers market friends. . I will get even. :)

The above picture was a "Play/Concert" that the kids have been secretively been planning all week. It involved four skits, violin/fiddle music by Z and guitar by A~man. We were able to record part of it. It was so much fun and our dog "Slick" played the part of a donkey. (I'm surprised they didn't bring the bunnies in and have them be sheep)

I hope everyone has had a Merry Christmas! Stay tuned next week as I have an exciting blog that is a sequel to my "Traveling through SD" entry from months ago. It will be about roadschooling at its finest!!

I confess...

2011-12-18T14:45:00.000-08:00

Since we started in the fall I have really been lax about reading aloud to A and Z. Now with Z this just means she reads independently but A~man will not. (at least not that I have observed although he does like to look at picture books and magazines alone) For him he is still learning to read bigger and more advanced words and it is always two steps forward one step back with him. He has to read with his online curriculum and he has to read independently to his dad and I but reading aloud to both children with words they might not know yet gives them the perfect opportunity to ask what new words mean. Besides reading together is such good family time!

So..after Christmas (right now we are trying to finish up some math before we take a week break) I'm going to start reading either Chitty Chitty Bang Bang by Ian Fleming (A~man's current favorite movie hahah) or the Borrowers by Mary Norton. I still haven't decided yet but I picked those as I know Z hasn't read either of them yet and I know they would both be interested in them. There is even a literature word list already made at spelling city that I will be including in their lessons.

Since we are talking about books make sure and check out Homeschoolliterature.com! The books on that site are about homeschoolers and there is something for any age. Plus I have a few reviews over there that I have done on some excellent books!

HAPPY READING!!

I See Cards-Fractazmic review

2011-12-16T08:46:00.000-08:00

The I See Cards have a variety of games available but we were given the opportunity through The Old Schoolhouse to try out and review the Fractazmic game. I was very excited to be able to participate in this review but soon realized my children are not quite to the level to actually play the game. My daughter is at a 4th grade level in math and my son who has special needs is at about a 2nd grade level in math.Their exposure to fractions has been limited so far but it will be a subject we jump fully into in the new year! The game appears to be a fun way to reinforce and practice skills that a child already knows.

This is some information from the Fractazmic website about their product!

When children play Fractazmic, they know they're having fun, and you know that they're learning! Fractazmic is a comprehensive interactive fun lesson in fractions that gives your child unlimited practice at their individual level.

Each brightly colored card displays fractions, along with eye catching graphics, to ensure reinforcement. Players will quickly identify the fractions on their cards and calculate their way to fun and learning! Fractazmic teaches fractions, numbers and measurement.

Ensure the mathematical success of your children with Fractazmic!

Fractazmic Decks Include:

60 Math Learning Cards

Each card clearly numbered

Each card clearly labeled with the fraction and reinforcing graphic.

What makes Fractazmic Decks Special:

Quickly learn to convert and add fractions.

Reinforces relationship between fractions and measurements.

Shows real world use of fractions.

I really love how bright and colorful the cards are with cute engaging pictures! Since my kids are not quite ready for this deck I plan on some of the other games they have available as my children love to use games to learn and reinforce what they already know. They have other cards games for math and language skills! I highly recommend this product and at a price of $6.95 it is very reasonable!

To read what other TOS Crew members thought of this product, click HERE.

Disclosure: I received this product for free in exchange for an honest review. All of the opinions are mine alone and I received no other compensation for my opinion.

PIG

2011-12-13T20:57:00.000-08:00

PIG

Thought it was a dog,
a fat dog with strange coarse hair,
everyone watches.

I used to LOVE blogging about our local extremely quaint downtown district and did it often as my husband worked many years downtown. Nowadays we are rarely there unless we are getting A~man's hair cut, going to the game store or visiting Narnia Studios. On the rare occasion of a date night we have a difficult time picking a place as there are so many great restaurants. My old blog has many entries about our walking adventures before picking up hubby at work. Well today we all headed downtown and hubby took A~man to the barber shop while my fellow elf Z and I bought a few presents. (Where? I will never say ;) On our way back to the barbershop I noticed this really big "dog" in front of us and Z whispered to me "is that a pig?" I honestly thought she was joking until it along with it's two owners turned to go on the crosswalk. I think my jaw dropped to the sidewalk. I've seen a LOT of things in this town but I have never seen someone take a pig for a walk downtown. I walked into the barbershop and asked "did you see THAT?" My husband said that everyone in the barbershop was pressed to the glass looking out the window at the sight. I only wish I would have either had a camera or thought to pull myself together and take a picture of it with my phone.

THAT was some pig!!

Here is a picture of our downtown to give you some idea.

gonna HAVE to get in better shape.

2011-12-12T21:06:00.000-08:00

Today was a challenging day as dear son had three meltdowns. They were about a 6 on the richter scale. The first one happened when we took a walk which was about 3 miles but all flat so not too bad. It's been a long time since we have walked as in good weather we try to walk 3-4 miles five times a week. The weather has not cooperated and we have taken turns being sick the last month. Despite this A~man had lots of energy on our walk. There is a place in the trail towards the end where he likes to take a path through the trees and run up a steep hill to beat us all. Pretty remarkable really that he is able to do this. NORMALLY though as he reaches the top of the hill first he is so tired he has to stop. Not today. He kept on going and the trail has a busy road that runs through it. He had his mp3 going, he was ignoring us too, and would not stop and we were both yelling. I felt a panic. Hubby rolled a rock down the path (not at him mind you ahahah!) but to get his attention to look at us. He turned around and kept on going! I will say in all the years of walking with him when I yell stop (and I KNOW he heard us!) I have never had him not stop. So what did one of us need to do? RUN. Which I ended up doing meanwhile thinking of how much pain I was gonna be in after. He wasn't real close to the road but close enough to have me concerned as he cannot cross the road alone. I was able to get to him with plenty of time but he was furious! (over me having to cross with him? because dad threw the rock?) I'm still not sure but after I got him across the road he started screaming at us. There is a park maintenance building we pass and he was loud enough everyone came out of the building to see what was going on. He was yelling at me and I was telling him why we were upset that he wouldn't stop.

Needless to say it made me even more aware that I need to lose weight. Not a lot. But even 20 pounds. The way it is now I'm pretty much always hurting somewhere. I know I would feel better and not think twice about taking off at a run. I need to be able to keep up with this boy!!

TeacherGeek HYDRAULIC ARM review

2011-12-11T20:44:00.000-08:00

I admit I jumped at the chance to try this out for the Old Schoolhouse Magazine review crew. I'm not sure if it was the geek part or what but it sounded very interesting. I was a little worried as it didn't come in the mail when I thought it would (before our trip) but fortunately our very nice neighbor took care of this special package until we got back home. That's when I looked at the box and thought "what was I thinking?" I'm a language arts/literature/music/art geek....not an engineering, math, science geek!

Here's a description from the TeacherGeek website-

We sell innovative products that teach students about engineering, math, science and technology while being just plain fun. Browse through our catalog and challenge your inner inventor, or check out some videos to see what our gizmos can do! We offer packaged activities as well as separate components—the possibilities are endless! Awesome teacher-created labs and guides are included for free with each of our activities.

Take STEM education to a whole new level. Teach students the best way possible—through hands-on learning and development with products that allow them to test their ideas and grow as creators!

This item is available at TeacherGeek for 16.18.

Fortunately for me I have a co teacher in the house that is much better at this type of stuff! So let me introduce my guest blogger Chris, aka hubby. Please welcome Chris!

It was with a little fear that I received the Teacher Geek Hydraulic Arm. I am not a technical engineering type of person and questioned my own ability to complete it. The Teacher Geek Hydraulic Arm comes with a 23 page application guide. Don't be overwhelmed by the number of pages. Each page is single sided with a few well thought out instructions and large pictures that are well described. There are a total of 39 steps from start to completion.Though my children assisted me and there are many steps that they could do in the assembly process the real fun was in the playtime that followed once the Teacher Geek Hydraulic Arm was built. My daughter age 10 was a little bored as we put the Hydraulic arm together, after it was complete she was excited to see it work and enjoyed playing for a long time with it, picking up various household objects.

I cut a piece too short during the build and fortunately there were extra parts. A few pieces were installed wrong but these mistakes were easily fixed. The mistakes that were made were due to my scanning a page and not reading the instructions correctly.Everything was included with the exception of a Phillips screwdriver and pair of pliers that were needed to tighten a part.

The Teacher Geek Hydraulic Arm is a great kit because it teaches skills during the build time and demonstrates hydraulics instead of just telling about hydraulics.

Pros: demonstrates hydraulic principle, extra parts included, and well written instructions

Cons: instructions require very close reading!

My husband admits that most of the issues he had with the item were user error and he and the kids were overall pleased with the item. We used plain water instead of colored as...uhh...we were afraid the tube might come apart but id didn't!

As a member of TOS Homeschool Crew, I was provided with this item mentioned above in exchange for an honest review. Check out the other reviews that the Homeschool Crew have on this same item!

Accidental Homeschooler?

2011-12-11T15:34:00.000-08:00

When we started homeschooling almost six years ago I did not know there was a term "Accidental Homeschooler" for our misadventures that year. Z was starting her second year of preschool at four years old and A~man was about to start the big K at six years old. Preschool had gone relatively smooth (for a child with special needs and I'm not talking about his bus issues...that's a whole different story ;) except for when he was four and doing so well that they tried to put him in a more inclusive classroom that did not have enough supervision. Once he was back with his "old" teacher (who was a fabulous teacher I might add) things evened back out. Kindergarten brought a new classroom with new children and teachers.

In his new K classroom I did not get very many updates despite asking and I assumed he was doing OK. Then came the 9 week IEP. We were blindsided. Not until 9 weeks were we informed things were not going well at all. We were told he would have to go to a new classroom for children with behavior issues. There was only about five kids in the classroom,one teacher and two aids. Looking back the problem with this classroom was they were trained to deal with more typically developing children that had behaviour problems. The were not trained (and in the end the teacher agreed) to deal with a child with behaviors that came from having MR/DD and having a syndrome like Prader-willi. He was there less than two months and they kept calling me to come get him as he was having a "bad day". This classroom also had a time out room (honestly it was a padded closet) but we signed papers to insure he would not be put in a room for timeout. The literal straw that broke the camels back is when they called and said that he had been put in the timeout cube (chair) for two hours. After looking at the variance report later it was closer to three hours A~man was forced to sit in a chair. I do not know about you but I could not sit in a chair for 3 hours even as an adult.

I was NOT happy at all. The next day I called them and asked if I could come and observe what was happening to set off these behaviors as at the time he was not doing the same antics at home. What was there response? Parents are not allowed in the classrooms during school hours even WITH an appointment. It takes a lot to make me mad. I am sure steam was coming out of my ears. I responded back for them to get him ready with all of his belongings as I was taking him home. At that moment I do not think HOMESCHOOLING was in my head but I sure wasn't putting him back in that classroom where the only thing he was learning was bad words. After talking with my husband we decided that for at least the rest of the school year (it was February 2006 ) I would teach him at home. I'm really not sure why I didn't think of it sooner as before kids that is what I did. (I taught preschool and then tutored a few children with autism) Most likely it was because back then he was still considered a foster child and we did not have a complete say in such things.

Has our special needs learning been a smooth ride? Anyone that has read my blog or is my friend knows the answer to that question. What would be the fun in that anyway? Our home school journey has been full of twists, turns, and mountains to conquer. Plus a few potholes that have made my head spin. I can look back over the years and see how much my son has benefited from schooling at home, how my daughter has been able to go at her own pace. (sometimes fast sometimes meandering at a slower pace) Sometimes like the title of my blog states I believe I have learned just as much if not more from our learning journey.

Spelling Bee time!!

2011-12-04T15:11:00.000-08:00

OK, so the home school spelling bee isn't until the spring but now is the time to make sure to be ready for it. Z participated in it a few years ago but sadly the one word she didn't know was the first word she was given. To this day she remembers that moment AND knows how to spell the word of course. (orange by the way ;) A few months ago I heard that one of our home school groups was going to have one this year and I put the bzzzzz in Z's ear about it. Not long ago she decided YES she did want to participate.

I also participated in the spelling bee when I was in grade school and one year I won for my school! (4th or 5th grade) I wish I could say that spelling came naturally for me but it did not. In some part of my memory I can see my mom drilling the the words to me out of a little blue book. It was a painful process I have to admit hahahha! Today, even though I do not spell perfectly I can thank my mom for the hours and hours(and hours;) she spent helping me with my spelling as for the most part I retained it.

For our spelling bee in the spring we were given a list of words to study. Another excellent way to prepare would be to check out popular word lists listed at Spelling City. The cool thing about Spelling City is that you can plug your own words into the site so that it helps the child learn the words through spelling games and virtual tests! I really like this as it will be something Z can do by herself without me breathing down her neck. So that is the route we will be going.

Now excuse me while I go run spell check as I would HATE to misspell a word in this particular blog entry.

Lego Smart Creativity Contest Results!

2011-11-29T20:24:00.000-08:00

I'm happy and thankful to announce that we won the Lego competition in the homeschool category! Well I say we...but it was truly the hubby and kids this time. I was the proud wifey/mama! It was really a wonderful experience. We were able to attend the Lego Education STEM Summit. Going in I was expecting maybe some negativity as far as homeschooling as all the other participants were either teachers from private schools or public schools. I couldn't have been more wrong! We so enjoyed meeting all of the other teachers that won the contest in their categories.

After a rather long drive ;) there, we arrived late afternoon and then went out to eat at a VERY nice restaurant with a representative from Lego, Debra Smith (who I cannot say enough good stuff about...she was wonderful!) and all of the other teachers that won in their category. I'm proud to say my kids were so well behaved (phew...but how could I expect any less? ;) and our family really enjoyed talking with the other teachers. The grand prize winner Dottie was a sweetheart!

The kids even met an astronaut!! Here they are with Leland D. Melvin. His personal story is quite amazing I must add. He is in charge of the NASA education project. (they are linked up with Lego) Z has always been interested in outerspace and space travel so I feel so blessed that we had this opportunity.

Oh and I cannot forget that we were able to meet Stephan Turnipseed, president of LEGO Education North America. In fact I was sitting next to him at lunch! I really got a lot out of the Summit presentations and was once again really surprised how pro homeschool the presentations were. It was very interesting hearing how Lego is used as a tool to teach science and technology and get kids in schools involved in wanting to learn.

I'm so thankful to God for giving us this opportunity! We will be giving part of our winnings to our 4H Lego/Robotics club.

visual spatial learning

2011-11-26T18:39:00.000-08:00

Visual spatial learners are those individuals that "think in pictures". This really fits with my son and quite honestly that is how I learn the best also. If I am on the phone with someone trying to give me directions somewhere it is completely useless. Regardless if they give me excellent directions I always have to google a map and look at it before it makes sense to me. For my son if he reads words on a page that are not accompanied by a photo or illustration he does not retain it as much. One of his favorite books is an early reader that is about some basic facts on George Washington. Each page has a basic picture on the other side that relates to what the other page says. Using the pictures in conjunction with the pictures he is able to remember basic facts about one of America's founding fathers. Reading comprehension happens best if he can see a picture of what he is reading about.

Another great way to teach this type of learner is by using manipulatives such as my favorite- LEGO! Stay tuned in the next couple of weeks for ideas on using Lego to learn.

Lapbooking

2011-11-20T10:05:00.000-08:00

I admit lapbooking is something we have not done a lot of. We are traveling right now (more on that later...I'm finding it challenging to get on the computer to blog) and I was thinking how nice it would have been to have some lapbooks along to entertain on the long hours in the car.

WHAT IS a Lapbook ?

A lapbook is a very inexpensive way to bring together a topic into a collection of mini-books, flaps, using a file folder. It provides a space and pockets for drawings, graphics, stories, graphs, timelines, diagrams, and written work. With the subject you choose you can include writing, reading, art....The possibilities are limitless. It can be used for preschoolers all the way up to kids in older grades. The possibilities are limitless.

Here is a picture of a science lapbook that I found online.

That is one of the many neat things about lapbooks. You can make it on any subject. That fits right in with our ecclectic learning style. We sometimes do workboxes and this would be a really fun project to put in a workbox to add variety. You can buy already to put together lapbooks to print out and put in a file folder or if you are the creative type it is easy to pull one together yourself to go with your childs special interests.

We are planning a similiar road trip for next summer and I have big plans for a state and state facts lapbook! Do any of my readers have ideas for lapbooks to make or care to share lapbooks they have made?

Teaching your child to read

2011-11-10T15:52:00.000-08:00

I must say that reading is one of my favorite things to do with writing coming in a close second. To instil that same love of books to my children has been a huge goal for me over the years. I started teaching both of my children to read around the same time. A~man was almost 7 and Z~girl was 5. I used the book "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 easy lessons". I was a bit nervous at first because it was a slow start the first couple of weeks with both children. After a month though Z took off with no looking back. At the end of that first year Z was reading two years ahead of her grade level. Ever since she has been a voracious reader. I used to love the reactions of the librarians when she would check out over a dozen chapter books and bring them back less than two weeks later. She doesn't consume quite so many books at 10 but she still brings a book wherever she goes.

It has not been an easy voyage with A's reading yet still he LOVES books and loves a good story. Teaching him to read has involved so many different approaches. His online phonics program has been invaluable to him learning how to put sounds together and also learning how to comprehend what he has read. For him it has helped that he can hear it read, read it himself, and then answer the questions the computer asks. Learning sight words was also invaluable as memorizing is fairly easy for him. Plus we try to have him read to us every day. Sometimes I will make a chart of blocks and he can color in a block for each 15 minutes he has read to us. Scattered throughout the chart I will put motivators such as-a trip to the game store, renting a movie of his choice, a trip to the dollar store, and the very occasionally trip to go out to eat with just one of us. (he loves the alone time even more than the food I believe) Another thing I have done with the kids is for them to make a menu (or me) and to play restaurant. I know this might not work with some children with PWS but it's never caused a problem with A~man. Or we have played store by me keeping old cereal boxes/drained soda and water bottles/pizza boxes and I have made them a list and they had to go "shopping" for what was on the list. This was also a great way to include math by them paying the cashier for the items. They LOVED this.

I'm not sure if reading will ever be easy for A~man but I hope both he and his sister keep their love of books.

BLEH BLEH BLEH!!

2011-11-07T20:00:00.000-08:00

I need a do over for this week. Have you heard of a do over? (I'm not sure where the kids and I got that term) On a REALLY cranky morning we have been known to go back into our rooms for awhile...have some quite time and come back out and start completely over from scratch with a happier demeanor.

The start of my weekend was ROUGH. Female issues and kidney stones. Way too much info for my blog but it is suffice to say physically I am drained. I feel depressed mentally due to feeling so physically drained. I haven't been too cranky today just really really down. I admit it. Even if my name is JOY sometimes I really get down. My poor compassionate and empathetic daughter kept asking all day long "what's wrong?" "did I do something?" on and on. Finally what did she do? She went to the store and came back surprising me with chocolate that she bought with her own money.

Oh but in my stupor? I forgot a homeschool event. I know I know...life goes on but looking back I wish I would have told A~man...yes he bugs me with daily event planning but if he would have known I wouldn't have forgotten.

Here's to a much better tomorrow!!!

Hebrews 11:1

2011-11-01T16:58:00.000-07:00

YOU TOO can blog!!

2011-11-01T16:25:00.000-07:00

SERIOUSLY! I have been blogging since Jan 2005. I started out blogging somewhere else and ended up jumping over to Blogger a few years ago. My only regret was that I couldn't bring my old entries over here to blogger. I have been trying for ages to get my husband to start blogging as he is an excellent writer but he mainly likes writing fiction. (which might be interesting for a blog theme?) I have tried to talk friends into blogging about their life experiences but most just do not think that they are creative enough to do it or that they do not have enough time. I'm perhaps an atypical female as I do not like at ALL to chat on the phone. (much to my family in particulars displeasure) This most likely happened after having children. HAHAH. If anyone knows my son at all (well sometimes my daughter too) talking on the phone when my children are around is like skiing up a hill. I like chatting in person OR sort of like the diaries of the past I like writing it all in my blog.

Not long after I started using blogger someone told me about a wonderful Blog Writing Course. I already knew the basics but I cannot tell you how helpful this course was for learning how to get people to follow your blog, (thanks people!) learning some about HTML, making your blog purty and easy to read. (and so much more!) So it was very beneficial to me even as a somewhat seasoned blogger. Of course I'm still always learning...that's why I love to go visit so many blogs. My favorite thing about blogging is looking back over the years at what I have written. I'm NOT good at scrap booking...but as I understand it you can put your blog into book form if you want. I'm hoping to do this one day.

Now get out there people...and WRITE!!

Math anxiety

2011-10-30T15:37:00.000-07:00

Yes. Even as an adult math can make me break out in a cold smelly sweat. Math anxiety would cause me to almost have to repeat 5th grade. Ironically my husband also almost had to repeat a grade because of math. I ended up going to summer school that summer plus my mom trying her best to get it all to sink in. I sometimes see this with my children. It will seem like they know a concept and the next day *poof* they will have to relearn it. That is how it was with testing for me. I would study and know it and then completely blank out when it was time for a test. In our home school environment we do not do testing though except for the yearly testing required by the state. So far the kids do not know the anxiety that comes from "TESTS".

For now we are still just learning the basics of math: addition/subtraction/fractions/multiplication/division....but in a couple of years I will have to teach**gulp** algebra. Now I did take algebra in high school and college but that was, ahem, a VERY long time ago. I'm thinking that soon I will have to to do some refresher work in math. Most likely I will have to take an online algebra program to get me up to speed to teach more advanced mathematics.

So Excited!

2011-10-24T20:17:00.000-07:00

I have been such a blog hog this week! Anyway,even before kids my hubby has been writing,writing,and writing. (we love writing Over Yonder haha) When the kids were babies we paid to have a book that he wrote and had a very special artist friend of ours do the art for published. It's an early reader book about a boy with an imagination that takes him above and beyond! We didn't market it much back then but recently decided to try again. Especially since he has so much more wonderful material he wants...and needs to publish. So it is now on Kindle at Amazon It will be available in hardcopy in the next week or so. BUT I do plan on doing a give away as I have some of the copies from the first publishing...in exchange for a review. More on that next week!

Super special needs video!

2011-10-24T10:03:00.000-07:00

We have chosen to home educate but this video is awesome and can be applied to socializing at church,community, and in our homeschool groups. I really like this I am Norm program!

Art and Music

2011-10-23T15:24:00.000-07:00

I must admit that these two subjects are some of our favorite things. We do a lot of art at home and Z~girl has taken art classes a few times over the years with other homeschool children.(art plus socializing-can't get much funner than that!)There is also much to learn about art and music online. We especially love using the skills we have learned and entering exhibits in the state fair. We do shoe box floats,A~man decorates a boot in the special needs category, and we make paintings using acrylic and watercolor. Most years the kids and sometimes myself do some pictures in pencil and colored pencil. It's a fun thing that the kids and I look forward to every year. Oh also yearly the kids and I participate in a sidewalk chalk art contest!

The above drawing Z made was two years ago.

This fabulously colorful one was done by A~man 2 years ago.

This last year we learned through picture books about famous artists and we also love playing this Go Fish game. This year Z and I decided to pick our favorite artist/picture and do it with chalk.

I did Van Gogh's Night Visions.

Z did Senecio by Paul Klee

Both A and Z just this year started music lessons. Z loves playing her violin/fiddle...ultimately she wants to play fiddle but the Suzuki Method she has been taught is fabulous. A~man just started playing the drums and is doing very well with it.

I think the "arts" are a very important part of education. It stimulates your brain like nothing else can. Whether through playing an instrument, creating art, or learning the basics through Art and Music games.
The creative possibilites are limitless!

Lego and Robotics Education

2011-10-21T16:29:00.000-07:00

Awhile back I mentioned that we entered this Lego Education Contest. All the entries have been submitted(and there are a lot of excellent ones by homeschoolers and regular school) so we are waiting...

Hubby and the kids continue to have fun learning with Lego and making lots of fun videos. Just this week we had Lego and Robotics club which is a 4H group we belong to. It is run by a an awesome homeschool mom that also has a very informative blog on all things homeschool. She featured us in her blog and I just wanted to share it with all of you. Please take a peek. Lego and Robotics Academy

I love fall...

2011-10-20T21:52:00.000-07:00

WAIT I already said that didn't I? Oh well I guess I will just have to post some more pretty pictures.

Happy Fall Y'all!!!

Homeschool Crew Review: Always Icecream

2011-10-19T06:27:00.000-07:00

http://www.alwaysicecream.com/
Geared to girls ages 7-12
$4.99 per month or $29.99 per year
Life-time membership $99.99

Zoe and I had the opportunity to try out the site Always Icecream the last couple of months to review for The Old Schoolhouse. I admit when I checked out the site before my daughter did I was skeptical. She is going through a very ungirly like stage and I assumed her reaction to so much pink (she does not like pink) and girlish stuff would cause a revolt. Also she is not overly fond of playing on the computer unlike her brother who loves it. My first impression of the site? I thought it was adorabley cute. I was pleasantly suprised that she did really enjoy the site.

Always Icecream is a safe internet site that is just for girls and it is geared toward elementary and middle school girls. Some of the subjects in the learning portion of Always Icecream are- language arts,foreign languages, basic math, advanced math, history, science, geography, music, art, computer skills, and also some religious education. Here are some of the various activities my daughter participated in-

Your Daughter's Recent Learning Progress

During the last 90 days, Zoe made progress in the following learning games:
•Typing for Beginners from level 1 to 9
•Bible Quiz from level 1 to 2
•Melting $coops
•Math Quiz - Adding from level 1 to 7, earning a Bronze Medal
•Countries in Europe from level 1 to 5
•Synonyms from level 1 to 10, earning a Bronze Medal
•States of the USA from level 1 to 10, earning a Bronze Medal
•Math Quiz - Multiplying from level 1 to 7, earning a Bronze Medal
•Dog Breeds Quiz from level 3 to 6, earning a Silver Medal
•Vocabulary Practice German - English from level 1 to 2
•Word Confusion from level 1 to 2
•Vocabulary Practice English - Spanish from level 1 to 2

Girls are able to earn achievement medals, virtual pets and icecream scoops (virtual currency) when they complete the learning activities and videos. With the Scoops earned they are able to participate in the fun games. My daughter especially liked making her "MiniMe"complete with red hair of course! :)

Your child is also able to get pets in "Pet World". Some of the fun games include pretending to run a daycare, be a waitress, or be a cook! Your daughter is also able to connect with other girls through this site although we chose not to use this feature.

I wouldn't use Always Icecream as a complete curriculum but with the wide variety of learning activities and fun games it would make a wonderful supplement to a home school program or even for an after school activity for girls in regular school. I like that it is very user friendly and that my daughter needs very little assistance while doing it and the fact that it is a safe site makes that even more appealing. I also like there is an area to learn Bible facts. The site also has a money back guarantee if you find the site to not be a good fit for your family.

I encourage you to check out what my other crewmates from the TOS have to say about Always Icecream!

Prader-willi syndrome- siblings

2011-10-16T21:29:00.000-07:00

I do not talk about weight issues regarding ds normally(eating issues maybe) but tonight A~man got on the scale not because I asked him to but he was in our bathroom and hopped on as he thinks it's fun. Ha Ha. I had to hold back my reaction. He asked "is it good?". I didn't know what to say. So I said little. He has gained a LOT this month. A LOT! He looks good and if he was a typically developing child that was almost 12 it probably would be expected to gain before a possible growth spurt. I have blogged about him sneaking food and hiding it but he has not in the last few years ever had such a weight gain in a month. It internally freaks me out a bit. I'm guessing it's because we haven't been doing our daily 4 mile walk (hanging head) and when we had company I became a bit lax with portions.

On the flip side is our daughter Z. She is petite and most people think she is much younger due to her size than her 10 years. That is the norm for her though and although I am "the jolly green giant" (I say with a smile;) she is going to be petite like her great grandma and some of her cousins. I'm always telling her to "listen to her stomach" and if she is full not to eat and if she is hungry to find a healthy snack. She eats healthy but she doesn't eat a lot..and neither did I at that age.

YET...I want her to know there are times in between meals if she is hungry she can go get herself a snack. (she always asks...I honestly wish she would just get it) My sensitive sweet girl though realizes the unfairness in it all as A~man cannot go get a snack whenever he wants as his stomach will always tell him he's hungry. I'm babbling...but I wish there was a solution....

Online homeschool curriculum choices

2011-10-15T14:48:00.000-07:00

Choosing what curriculum to use is never easy. There are so many choices to be found! We use an eclectic variety in our home school. In the morning we do "sit down" work at the table which normally consists of math, grammar,and writing. Sometimes I do this one on one (depending on A~man's attention level at the time) other times I get one started with their work and then help out the other. Due to A~man's delays his sister passed him up years ago so for math and reading they are working on completely different levels. Which is the awesome thing about homeschooling- the fact you can individualize the school work to each student. My hats off to those of you with more than two children. I cannot imagine doing this with more than two children. I stay super busy with two. Other things we are able to do together like art, grammar, and science.

In the afternoon one of the programs we use is Time4Learning for our computer time. It's also great on the days when we are running around for field trips, doctors appointments, or on days when mama ;) needs a little break. The neat thing about Time4Learning is that they offer one month free in exchange for a curriculum review . That way a person can check it out and decide if it is a good fit for their family as a curriculum or as a supplement to their existing curriculum.

Another thing we are going to try out after Christmas is an online writing course. (for Z~girl and maybe even A~man) Up until now with Z we have worked on handwriting with copy work, writing letters to family, and creative writing in a journal. I'm thinking though that she is ready for a more formal writing course as she loves to write. It just needs some polishing up.

I love fall!

2011-10-09T20:58:00.000-07:00

Reasons for homeschooling

2011-10-09T12:33:00.000-07:00

There are many different variables on how and why someone chooses to home school. Some families choose based on their religious beliefs and choose Christian curriculum and others choose a more secular homeschooling route. These are just a couple possible reasons. Depending on each state's requirements parents are able to make the choices that are best suited to their family. Our reasons for homeschooling were that the public school was not meeting the educational needs of our child with special needs. They quite honestly did not know what to do with him and were not open to us trying to work with them to make it work. The attempts they made in the the first of his kindergarten year were very hard on all of us mentally.

Fortunately homeschooling was a good fit for us. I will be the first to admit some days here can be difficult. We are able to get through those days with love, patience (most days;) On the days that our patience has met it's limit we are able to forgive for the occasional harsh word. (grumpiness...me! ;) Fortunately the good days far outweigh the challenging ones! Although not all of our curriculum is Christian based (but it doesn't contradict our beliefs) we depend on our faith in God to help us all, even hubby and I, to try and achieve our individual bests.

I admit...I am nervous

2011-10-01T21:05:00.000-07:00

About my family visiting. The house will get as clean and neat as I can get it but the one thing I cannot control is my son's reaction to a disruption to our routine. Even if it will be a fun and happy one. Change is change. We will have my mom in our room as it has a master bath and hopefully all meds/vitamins she has can be kept in there. My brother will have A~man's room. I cannot think of any other way to do it as my brother had major back surgery this year and I do not want him to have to go up and down stairs. Plus I think A~ will be tickled that his uncle gets to stay in his room. But that means A~man, hubby and I will sleep in the homeschool room. (aka storage room as we do our work upstairs) Monday we will tackle the basement and make it as comfortable for A as possible (its' really dark :( )

Oh and I have this fear...that I just need to put right in God's hands. I do not want them to see one of A's HUGE behaviors. I guess the biggest they have seen was at the viewing of my nephews funeral. (probably also the biggest emotional outburst anyone has seen out of me) But it was appropriate...sad...but he completely lost it. That was over sadness/confusion though. Not many people have seen his outbursts over ANGER, anxiety,CONTROL, where things are not going the way they he thinks they should be and all of his self control is gone. This happens very rarily but it really is scarey. I cannot imagine what someone that has not experienced would think,feel, or how they would react. Our neighbor lady has seen it (while watching him while we had a date) and probably some of our neighbors may have seen/heard it...but I do not think any friends have seen the EXTREME scarey side. Gosh I do not want my mom to see it. (or my brother but I tend to think he will be more ok with it)

Prayers would be appreciated!

Hig Pig

2011-10-01T19:57:00.000-07:00

I recently heard about this game and did a search to see what it was all about. Both of my kids love to find ways to entertain themselves while in the car or while simply waiting. Sneaking in a bit of learning is an added bonus!

Hig Pig is a rhyming game where you think up a pair of words and both words must rhyme. It the word has more than one syllable the second word has the same amount of syllables and rhymes with the first word. You would start out with a single (hig-pigs) or double syllable (higged-piggeds) to start out with and then with skill (and a whole lot of imagination!) add more syllables.(higgedy-piggedies or higgedy-hig-piggedy-pigs!)

After you have come up with the rhyming pair you make up a sentence or phrase that is a clue to what the rhyming pair is. Here are a couple examples of a hig-pig-
How do you get syrup out of a tree? with a sap tap
a wolf's song- a moon tune

Here are some higged-piggeds-
Who is someone that takes care of your dog while you are on a trip- a critter sitter
What type of dog lives in a palace? A regal beagle.

Then there is the more complicated higgedy-piggedies-
Who lives in the White House? the resident president

This would be such a good way to expand a child (er or MY) vocabulary. You could make great use of multiple meaning words or use it as a way to practice the meanings of your childs weekly spelling words. Are any of my readers brave enought to try making one up?? PLEASE?

Busy,busy,busy!

2011-09-25T15:38:00.000-07:00

Could someone please hand me an energy drink AND a cup of coffee? In 10 days my mama and one of my brothers are coming to spend a week with us! I'm so excited as we NEVER get company regularly. I am a challenged housekeeper so I'm trying to get the house looking spiffy. My mom will be staying in our room as that way she can have her own bathroom and hopefully she will remember to keep all her money and important stuff out of harms way. With both of my kids being older sometimes people forget that stuff has to be out of A~mans reach. Heck sometimes I forget! My brother (who had back surgery a couple months ago) is staying in A~man's room so he doesn't have to bother with stairs. Needless to say his room needs scrubbed top to bottom...it is long over due. Honestly his room looks the neatest (shhh he's much neater than Z and I) but everything needs a good scrubbing. This will be tricky as I will have to do it when he is not around as it causes him GREAT anxiety to have his room cleaned. (but he is so happily surprised when I have deep cleaned it) So I will have to do it Tuesday evening while everyone is at soccer practice. Any prayers or words of encouragement would be appreciated. Hubby, A~man, and I will be staying in the basement. While the rest of our house looks relatively neat (yet needs scrubbed down almost as bad as A~man's room;) the downstairs...is a nightmare. hahahaha! No,no nothing like the show I've seen a couple time "Hoarders" but it's going to take a lot of work. Such a nice excuse though to get the house back in order!

OH add all of that into our normal weekly activities and that's where I will need the energy drink. This week we have scouts, soccer practice, soccer game, an apple orchard field trip...I'm forgetting something. Oh yeah I have put off planning the Girl Scout camping trip I volunteered to do....hoping mid October after family leaves will not be too late to go camping.

I haven't even MENTIONED homeschooling. This week I have a light week of sit down work mixed in with our computer curriculum . While my family is here I'm not even going to plan sit down work. Our house is fairly roomy BUT with people wandering around I am going to keep things basic. I think we will keep doing our language arts and do some fun learning games. Of course the kids read everyday but besides the computer I will let the school books have a rest for the week they are here. Our priorities will be spending time with our visiting family!

Stealing

2011-09-22T21:29:00.000-07:00

I curse (haha) the day I discovered the tab STATS. I must stay away. I have more looks than ever...but hardly any replies. Hopefully something I say helps, blesses, or makes someone laugh. Even you Goth people watching me....snicker.

It's been awhile since I posted about a Prader-willi syndrome issue and what do you know an issue popped up tonight. A~man is doing well with his drum lessons. I cannot say enough about the young man teaching him. So patient. On Thursday nights hubby takes A and Z to church and A~ gets lessons as the church band practices. Seriously my son loves music almost as much as his desire for food. (not joking) Meanwhile I get almost 3 hours of complete SILENCE. This is a novelty. I do some work online and clean house. I love this chunk of time.

On the way home hubby stopped at the store for a few things including flavored waters (the yummy calorie free ones with no sweeteners just natural flavoring) for the kids. On the way to the cash register hubby turns around to see A~ trying to stash gum into his pocket. This isn't the first time, won't be the last, but it rarely happens at a store. I'm grateful as shopping with A~ has always been pleasant...no more tantrums than the average child which I believe is not the norm for PWS. A year ago he pocketed a small toy at the toy store. We didn't discover it until we were home but we called the toy store (small/local) and told them NOT to be nice when we came to return it. It seemed so hard on the owner as they all LOVE A~ they have known him since he was wee. We buy a lot of our home school educational games there. We love this store. I was grateful though that in this case the lady was stern with him.

Stealing is just a part of PWS as hard as it is to write. Fortunately we do not have an issue with it often as hubby and I have both grown eyes in the back of our head. As far as a punishment he did not get the flavored water. When he got home and hubby told me I prayed with him before bed. I prayed for him and he prayed for God to forgive him (which God graciously does and He understands A~'s limitations) and to help him do his best. That is what we all should pray for right? For God to help us do our best.

~~~ for any lurkers (excluding any of my local/online friends although I would LOVE a comment from you too;) I would love to see a new person make a comment. Just to say "hey!" (as we say here in the south)

Oh and a picture for your viewing pleasure of the weather we have been having.

The power of the brick....Lego brick that is!!

2011-09-19T19:22:00.000-07:00

The hubby and kids have been busy! They are entering a Lego Creativity Contest. I wish I could take credit for this activity...but I can't hahahha. I'm so proud of them. They have had a lot of fun with it.

Tricky words

2011-09-18T17:37:00.000-07:00

Teaching a child that is on the autism spectrum is definitely challenging. Sometime when learning about sound alike words and how to spell them it can really throw a child for a loop. Take flour/flower or blew/blue for example. The words sound exactly the same but they have completely different meanings. Homophones (that link will go to some fun online games to practice homophones!) can be tricky to read also. When my son was first starting to read I taught him a lot of sight words. Some of his cards would have the word on one side and a picture of the object on the other. This would also be a good way to teach about sound alike words.

Flower

Flour

I plan on making some cards like this on heavy paper to use for both of my children. For A~man I will use it for reading and for Z~girl who is at a different level I will use it to teach spelling. On the other side of the card I will have the correct spelling. For the words like the next two I would incorporate sentences as they could be a bit abstract.

She blew the dandelion.

A pretty blue butterfly.

I see a game just waiting to be created with this! I will post about it after I brainstorm a bit.

Big IQKids

2011-09-15T16:31:00.000-07:00

This last month we were given the opportunity to try out the website BigIQkids.com and review it for The Old Schoolhouse Magazine . The program has both free and premium programs as described from their website-

The primary differences between the BigIQkids FREE and PREMIUM programs are the ability of the PREMIUM program to monitor the progress of the student and advance that student only when mastery of the subject matter has been achieved. Additionally, PREMIUM members have their progress tracked, saved, problem areas identified and these findings are reported via email to parents and/or teachers. The PREMIUM program offers students customized buddies, full game page access and the ability to save game coins and gaming high scores. These functions help double the fun while mastering core academic subject matter. The PREMIUM program has very LIMITED advertisement an no ads are displayed during lesson interaction.

The cost on the premium programs run from $39.99-$49.99 per year for each child using the program. Each lesson takes between 10-15 minutes to complete but does not progress to the next level unless the child has achieved mastery in each individual section. I really like that part about the program.

In the spelling section you can add your own spelling words if you already have a spelling curriculum to reinforce the learning of the words. Or if you would rather there are premade lists for each grade level. I used the premade lists based on what level my two kids are at in that area. After introducing the spelling words there are games to play and a spelling bee.

For Math you can set it up to the level that they are doing on their current curriculum or just like spelling you can set it to your childs grade level. The math was drills which both of my children need practice with. It was a little frustrating for my son at first until I found a way to reduce the amount of problems he had to do each time. (at first it was too much for him to do)

For U.S. States it teaches the location, capital, spelling, abbreviations and general facts about each state. You can personalize this to add additional state facts to be included in the testing. You will receive emails telling about the progress your child is making in each subject. The website also makes reports available on the site to see your childs progress. For each activity completed a child earns a game token to use in the game section. They are also able to make a personalized Big IQ Buddy similiar to the one below-

My favorite part about the the program was Spelling. When it introduces the word to the child it also gives other information like the definition, synonym,antonym and the word used in a sentence. To practice the word it uses a game similiar to hangman,word searches, and word jumbles. So not only is the child learning how to spell the word but they are learning about vocabulary. Both of my children really liked the idea of earning a game token for each activity. Their favorite game was the crazy taxi game. In the weeks we have been using it I have really noticed an improvement in their spelling.

We liked the geography part ok but I was disappointed that the names of two cities from my home state were mispronounced. I'm not sure if that was due to the robotic voices or what. Also the woman's voice in the game area made both children crazy. The intonation made her sound as if she was either being sarcastic or talking to toddlers. Both kids would race to start a game so they didn't have to hear the voice. We also had issues in one of the spelling games because you have to go to full screen in order to see the complete list of words. It took us a long time to figure out how to see the upper words in the word search.

I highly encourage anyone insterested in Big IQ Kids to go to the TOS Homeschool Crews blog and check out others opinions on this learning program.

FYI ~ We received two memberships to Big IQ Kids as a TOS Homeschool Review Crew member to help us do this review. As greatful as I am to receive this opportunity it did not influence my opinion of this program...and that's the truth. :)

Retarded

2011-09-14T13:40:00.000-07:00

I do not know of a word I hate more than this word. Well....saying the Lords name of course I hate more. I cringe when we are out and I hear it. (oh and I do not mean when it is used to explain a diagnosis but that term has changed to intellectually challenged I believe) I cringe when I read it on Facebook...or anywhere. I saw this video posted on FB and it is so powerful. Such a wonderful young lady this is.

Thinking of traveling across South Dakota? (Part I)

2011-09-11T15:45:00.000-07:00

Awhile back a friend of mine that homeschools mentioned that she would like to visit SD this summer so I thought as a former South Dakotan (is that a word?) I would do a post on some of my favorite places. I'm also hoping to make a South Dakota lapbook this next year for a potential vacation next summer. Traveling across the country is a wonderful addition to homeschool curriculum and online US learning games in learning more about the geography and history of our great country. Most of the places I have been to are the Black Hills, Badlands and surrounding areas. OK I'm also a bit homesick as I have not been able to go to SD in a few years.

Let's start in eastern SD. The largest city in SD is Sioux Falls. I admit I have only been there a couple of times that I can remember but it is known for it's hospitality and is located on the prairie of the Great Plains at the junction of Interstate 90 and Insterstate 29. I do remember as a teen going there shopping as it has a large mall. (the things we remember from our childhood hahah)

The next notable place I would like to mention as we travel down Interstate 90 is Mitchell. In this small town is located the Corn Palace. This was originally created in 1892 as a place for early settlers to display what they had grown. It was a way to prove the fertility of South Dakota soil. Every year the outside is stripped down so new murals can be put up yearly. They use the inside for community events and sporting events.

Next traveling a bit north/west is the state capital which is Pierre. Now I am going to tell you the correct way to pronounce it. I have not run into many people from outside this state that can correctly pronounce it. It is pronounced PEER. Most believe it is pronounced like its french spelling but it is not. (can you tell this is a pet peeve of mine? hahah) Pierre and Fort Pierre are the two oldest settlements in SD. You can actually stand in the very site where Lewis and Clark met the Teton Sioux. I remember going to the state capital building in 8th grade and being amazed.

Continuing west keeping your eyes open as you may see one of these jumping across the prairie.

OK I admit after living there for 20 years I never saw a jackalope. I'm embarassed to admit it took many years until I realized they were not real. (or are they?)

The next place I would like to show you heading west is the Badlands.

I grew up about a half hour from the Badlands. I have fond memories of riding horses in this area. Also I remember going in our pasture halfway between the Badlands and the Black Hills and finding arrow heads. I look back at that in amazement! If you go from one side of the state to the other it is amazing the changes in terrain. I do not think ranger programs were available when I was a child but hopefully soon I can take my children on a guided tour of this beautiful terrain. By now if you are traveling in the summer you might be getting thirsty.

HAVE YOU DUG WALL DRUG? Have you ever seen a sign or bumper sticker advertising Wall Drug? Yes that is very cheesey but I admit as an adult now if I see a bumper sticker (and I have even in NC) that I just have to smile. Every summer my parents would take me and some of my nieces and nephews off to explore Wall Drug. It advertised FREE ICE WATER. But in reality as a child I went there for the delicious donuts and the backyard full of crazy animal and people figures.I also got some pretty nifty souvineirs whenever we went there.

Stayed tuned for part 2 of traveling across South Dakota!

a dream come true?

2011-09-04T20:54:00.000-07:00

For the last few years we have been praying that we could find someone capable/willing to teach A~man either guitar or drums. (he has both) Anyone I have approached just wasn't receptive. A~man LOVES music and has since he was a baby. I can't tell you how many guitars the boy has had over the years. He now has two that he takes very good care of. Also with some help from the grandparents we bought him a drum set last Christmas.

Today in church a young man who is the drummer at church asked to talk to my husband. To say A~man has been obsessed with this young man "C" and his drumming is an understatement. At one point he was so obsessed with C that I tried my best to keep him away from him as it can get to be too much. Anyway "C" wants to give A~man drum lessons after church service on Sundays and also on Thursdays when the band practices. Oh and get this...for FREE. He said that he will be leaving the church band in a year as he is going on tour or starting his own band. (which I believe as a few band members that just left are in Germany right now touring...they are GOOD!) He has hopes of A~man playing with the church band one day. I do not want to put limits on God but I'm not sure about that part. I believe he COULD play well...he is very musical. The obsessive talking and ADHD make me wonder if he could do it. I REALLY hope that A~man is able to be quiet and listen and observe...he learns so much from watching. He actually sounds pretty good on his drums without lessons. We will see.

Here is a picture that was taken at Christmas when he got his drumset.

Record keeping your homeschool journey

2011-09-03T11:05:00.000-07:00

We are going into our sixth year homeschooling. Up until now the only record keeping we have been doing is the required homeschool testing results we put each year in a binder. Also any psychological testing and behavior goals we have received from our sons developmental pediatrician and psychologist. In NC homeschool portfolios are not a requirement but now that the kids are middle school age I am thinking that tracking their monthly/yearly progress might be a good idea. In the next few months I am going to be putting one together and would love any ideas from homeschool experts out there.

OK I'm gonna post a picture

2011-09-02T21:35:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted a picture in awhile. This is what I used to sell on ebay and to online friends. (this isn't what our new friend creates but it would look wonderful WITH it)

Note my lovely redhead model who NOW will only wear a skirt/dress when bribed. Now her attire consists of graphic t-shirts and cut offs. I'm not complaining. It could be much worse.

in a blog funk

2011-09-02T21:24:00.000-07:00

I have so much to possibly blog about but have been at a standstill. I do not know where to start and what to say. It seems like we have had to deal with a lot of social special needs issues the last month and it has made me wordless. (I'm not normally wordless when I type;) Not sure where to start with all that or what to write. I also have a lot of new things I want to try this year but that will have to wait until tomorrow. (stay tuned I may need advice from expert homeschoolers)

So I will just blog about some fun exciting NEW news! Well it's not exactly new but it has been something in the back of our mind for a couple of months. We learned from a friend of a friend of a friend at church that someone was looking for a seamstress. I will share more specific information later (after asking permission) but this very talented woman sells on etsy and also has her own website. She does have another person sewing for her but they cannot keep up with the orders. That is where hubby and I enter the room. The products are simple (I'm teaching hubby how to sew and he is liking it! bwahaha) yet so wonderful. (do I have you in suspense yet?)She also seems very interested in something I used to sew and sell on ebay when the kids were little. The only issue is I am not a speedy seamstress...I need to change that!

Phew. Hopefully I am over my funk now.

Plan of action!

2011-08-24T06:25:00.000-07:00

We have already started "school" a month ago. We are doing Time4Learning.com and also through the Old Schoolhouse Magazine we are getting the opportunity to try out and reviewBigIqkids.com. So far so good with both of these sites. A~man in particular does really well with computer learning as it really seems to hold his interest as he is a visual learner.

In September I hope to add in the rest-

Science- Christian Kids Explore Earth and Space by Bright Ideas Press. I actually got this for last year but we ended up doing science a bit more interest led.

History- Mystery of History Volume I Creation to the Resurrection. I started this one last year too but we ended up doing our own thing with library books and history videos last year. Also we will be going through the book/videos from America The Story of Us. I think will have the hubby do this actually with them. ;) He is the history buff and honestly taught me all of the US history I know as the school I went to failed to teach me ANY history. (I'm sadly serious about this) So history is something I have been learning along with the kids!

Grammar- We are using Easy Grammar/Daily Grams by Easy Grammar Systems.

Literature- My favorite! :) First off we are going to read "Where the Red Fern Grows" together and do a unit study on it. Z has already seen the movie but we all know the books better than the moive remakes.

Spelling- I have never really used a spelling curriculum *gasp* I do find sample spelling lists by grade and include them in our writing assignments or in playing spelling games online. I am AMAZED how well Z spells without teaching her "formally" spelling. Ok now I'm bragging, sorry. ;)

Mathematics Masterning Mathematics. We have been using this for a few years and I hoped to try something different (NOT in the budget though) but with using the two online places and mixing it with some MM I think it will work out great.

Reading- For the A~man Time4Learning and I'm hoping to get him back to reading to us twice a day. His reading progresses very slow...but it still progresses.

Writing- We do this informally. Z once a month is making a newspaper that she brings to the neighbors and sends to the grandparents. I cannot tell you how fun this is for her! There is weather, current local events and of course a comics page. Her brother is an contributing writer that often also supplies an art page. Both kids write lots of letters and thank you cards throughout the year. Every couple of months we will do a copy book to work on pennmanship and also on occasion we work on our A Reason For Handwriting books.

Art Another one of my favorites that we do not use a set curriculum. I do want to do more of this, by myself and with the kids. We do have an awesome couple sets of Go Fish for Art cards that I highly recommend.

Then add in Girl Scouts, Geography Club, violin and a fun new 4H club we joined that teaches robotics through legos. It should be a busy fun year!

Rough day

2011-08-23T20:09:00.000-07:00

Not even gonna blog about it. Tomorrow is a new day. I plan on getting up early and doing an entry on our plan of action for the next school year. Now for your viewing pleasure I will post a pretty picture to brighten up my blog.

Dreams

2011-08-12T21:13:00.000-07:00

Everyone has dreams and aspirations. With a child with extra needs I think it can be even more. Over the last couple of years he is obsessed with who can drive and who cannot drive. I have friends on my FB that either have Prader-willi syndrome or have kids with PWS. It is his current obsession to ask whoever he knows how old they are and if they can drive. He asks this of his friends in the community (that work in stores and have special needs)if THEY can drive. Heck he asks any teenager if they drive or have their "permit". One of his favorites (and mine too) is a young man who bags groceries that has Down Syndrome. This young man is A~mans hero....he wants to be just like him. But no he is not able to drive a car either. I think in the next year or so it will sink in that most likely A~man will NOT be able to drive a vehicle. There have been times this makes me sad. Then I look back at what the predictions(by doctors)of his prognosis and see how far he has surpassed EVERY thing all of the doctors said. Super A~man is a little miracle. (ok he is not little anymore and I'm dealing with that hahahaah)

Another thing he is obsessed with tractors, lawn mowers and weed whackers. This last year he has really progressed with his art work and I need to post some of his abstract tractor pictures. They are REALLY good! Anyway recently we purchased a reel lawn mower. The non motor kind you push around. Our yard is a bit big for such a machine but between hubby, Z AND A~man...the yard is looking good. A~has talked for years about wanting to mow the yard and he is learning to do just that! Hubby made a video that I'm going to try and attach to this post. Z and I were inside working on her school work when they did this video but when I saw it I could just see how proud of himself A was!!! I hope he will grow to realize the many things he CAN do! A VS the lawnmower

The good....and the not so good

2011-07-29T21:11:00.000-07:00

Life is such a wonderful mix of good and not so good isn't it? If life went along exactly as you wanted it you wouldn't be able to appreciate the truly wonderful moments. That is what I am finding anyway.

The last two afternoons we have had playdates. (is there a better term for this when your kids get older? the whole term is kinda odd) I got brave. I BROUGHT A~man despite the fact hubby could have watched him at home. When my son is around things do not go normal. That's a fact. I'm not complaining that is just how it is. Yesterday it was friends with a boy/girl similiar age but the boy didn't come. (was he afraid?hahah) We went to a park with a stream and the three played in the water. Besides some flatulance and crude humour on A~mans part it went ok. Not great. OK. I really enjoyed talking with the mom. I just hope she doesn't think flatulance is a normal thing in our home. ;)

Today was at another friends house with boy/girl kids similiar age. They recently lost their sweet dog and although I had told Z~girl I hadn't told A~man. He gets things stuck in his head. I told him that their dog had gotten sick and that he was NOT to talk about it with them. I let him talk to me about it...he was really sad for them and went in his room to look for stuff he could give them to make them feel better. I told him no that what he could do is not talk about their sweet pet...as it would have been him talking about it for 2 hours. OK I also bribed him a bit with game store tokens but honestly it just gave him something tangeable to focus on rather than the sadness. He did well. Did he behave like a typical child? no. But he isn't a typical child and he did the best he could.

Later on all four of us were in the car and out of nowhere he said "mama, thank you for praying to God that you would have a son." (both children know it took a long time for us to become mama and daddy) there was a pause and he said "thank you for letting me live in your house." *sob* and then he said something like "I thank God that he lives in my heart". This child has a way of just leaving me speechless sometimes. (sometimes for good reasons sometimes for bad;) I think part of it came from earlier he started asking about his bio grandfather he met ( a long time ago but he was nice and made a good impression)...then about his first mom (also nice just not capable of caring for him)...and her twin. Then about his first father. (I use that term VERY loosely he was not a father in any sense of the true meaning) It was a challenging conversation and it just seems like at 11 he is processing things around in his head. It would be challenging for a typically developing child too. We have always told him about his first family.

Well we get home and it is a pleasant evening and A~man is about to turn in early as he was tired. I smelled something. There is no mistaking Thin Mint Girl Scout cookies. So I ask him to bring them to me. He gets the wrapper sleeve. Then I ask him if he has any other food in his room. He must have been feeling really honest as he brought me a protein bar wrapper, more cookie wrappers, and 3 or 4 energy drink cans. My son drinking an energy drink is nothing short of comical if you knew the energy he has. It seems months will go by with him not hoarding food and we let our guard down and this happens. Was I mad at him? no. There was a time (short lived) I would have yelled about it, cried about it, practically banged my head on the wall about it. I can't do that. Right now I'm also at the point of not putting a huge weight of guilt on me and hubbies shoulders. Right now it is a "learn from your mistakes" sort of thing. With Prader-willi syndrome you just can't let your guard get down.

So that is it the good...and the not so good. All equal a very wonderful learning experience.

Oh my goodness I'm 41

2011-07-20T20:55:00.000-07:00

OK I've been 41 for 10 days. Today is my hubbies birthday. We went to some beautiful waterfalls in the afternoon and I took a bazzilion pictures. I also had made sure to take pictures of my husband with the kids and made him take pictures of me alone and with the kids. Recently I had to make a family page to go in our homeschool year book and realized "whoa...I did not have hardly ANY pictures of myself!" I'm always the one behind the camera and my subjects are normally the kids, the dog or nature. I want our children to have pictures of us with them. I'm not overly fond of having pictures taken of myself. No I do not think I am homely BUT I find myself picking apart a few things I do not like about myself physically. That is not a good mindset to have. God loves me and I am his creation. I also do not want my daughter to pick up on those vibes. Unfortunately she already does know C and I are trying to lose weight (we are at a standstill :( and she has asked me if SHE is fat. Not good. She is petite in every sense. So I am going to post a few pictures of me...at 41. Oh and I'm not going to make a negative comment like I so want to. I will say a positive instead. I just got 8 inches or so cut off my hair and I LOVE MY HAIR! Love it!

I love this one with my sweeties!

I do have to giggle. I had hubby taking my picture and a few were "interesting" NOT ones y'all want to see. I thought he was taking a picture of my face. Well it wasn't. I busted out laughing when I saw them, not at myself...but that even after all these years he would get frisky like that.

Please excuse my blog as it is under construction!

oh what a night...

2011-07-05T20:41:00.000-07:00

We have been taking this health product for the last few months with really good results. (I won't tell ya the product as I am NOT trying to sell it to you, hahaha) Anyway my husband IS trying to sell it and goes to several meetings a month...with motivational speakers. HE is an excellent talker and salesman...me? no. Tonight was supposed to be more of a family event so after much talking he convinced me to go. It was at someone's house that I only knew of their name. Their house should could have been on that show "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous". My jaw was on the floor. On their property they had a little "log house cabin" and a whole theatre building which is where the kids were going to watch a movie. lol. If you have read my blog enough you will know I cannot let A~man out of my sight especially in someone else's home. Bad things would happen, hahaha. I knew one lady at the party fairly well as she was my sons PT FOREVER. She met him in the hospital before he even came to live with us. She is an awesome lady. Well evidently unknown to hubby and I (the meetings he went to before were at a certain restaurant) most of the women were dressed as if it were a cocktail party with DRESSES. Me? I was wearing jean capris and glad that I changed into a fairly nice tshirt before we came. I was also glad on this rare day I actually did something with my hair other than pulling it back in a pony tail. I was SOOOOO out of place and wanted to disappear into the seat cushions. AT one point I had to glance and make sure my legs were even shaved.

HONESTLY I would NEVER want to live like that. The people were nice so I am not putting them down. The house was beautiful but so beyond over the top. These are not people I would choose to hang out with and I am sure they would not want to hang out with plain ole me. ;) (OK I am not so plain but in spirit I like things simple) It made me think even more fondly of all of the friends I have that appreciate the simple things like me. I would not trade any of them for what I saw tonight.

Before the meeting the PT friend of ours talked Z into going to watch a movie with her daughter in the theatre building. Five minutes later she was back saying she wanted to stay with us. (while she read her book about the Wright Brothers ahhaha, I have created a book worm) The meeting lasted two HOURS. I felt so bad for the kids. It was an ok speaker but money is not a big motivator for me. I do not have any desire to be rich monetarily. I want to be able to be comfortable and would love one day to be able to help others.

I did get tickled when my hubby's friend afterwards went on and on about how good both A and Z were. They were sooooo good! I do not think I could have been that patient as a child. Tomorrow we are having a special day for them to the game store and to get icecream. I love my family! :)

Like the wind

2011-07-04T20:17:00.000-07:00

Today for the 4th we went to a church picnic. It was soooo nice. Since coming to NC for one reason or the other we went to BIG churches. I'm shy and tend to get completely lost in big groups. Sometimes I wonder if that was what I was trying to do. This is a small church. I feel God led us to this church and it has caused me to show more of myself as you cannot blend in to the wall at a small church. There are many other reasons I love our new church (we started last fall) but that is not what this blog entry is about.

After the picnic Z and hubby went into the grocery store to get a small pack of fireworks. A~man was COMPLETELY over stimulated to the limit (which happens on holidays) and we stayed in the car. The question he asked me was amazing. This child that was not supposed to walk,talk, or live. He said HOW is Jesus inside of me? How did he get in there. He wanted to know PHYSICALLY how he got in there. This is coming from a very concrete thinker. He wants to know PHYSICALLY how He got in there. He knows the story of Jesus very well and can tell you...infact he obsesses over the whole Easter story. (which is a whole nuther entry) How does someone explain this to an 11 year old that in some cases is more like a 7 year old? I tried to explain it like wind. You can feel it on your face...see it blowing the trees, blowing the clouds, but you cannot SEE wind. But still you know it's there. That's kindof how I feel about God. You can feel his comfort, his guidance, and see his work in your life but you can't actually see a physical THING. He persisted so I'm not sure he got it but hopefully one day he will. Tonight he wrote a note to Jesus.

I wasn't sure what to tell him about that as he put it under his pillow. (reminder to self soon we will have the talk about the tooth fairy, Santa, etc....wish we NEVER would have done all that) Despite his wondering this child has such great faith. If he says he is going to pray for someone HE PRAYS FOR THEM without any prompting. He shows Gods love to EVERYONE around him. He KNOWS God...he just wants more specifics.

When he was a wee little boy...maybe 4-5 and he was starting to put words together he SAW angels on occasion. It was an amazing description especially since at that time he did not know what they were. He brought his daddy to tears one night with his description. (and no he doesn't just "SEE" things)

How do you explain to a child what God IS?? (beyond what you read to them)

HERE I AM!!

2011-06-10T21:32:00.000-07:00

Yes I am here. I have been hesitant to blog as our life has been scrambled a bit and y'all do NOT want to read the complete drama, trust me. BUT. The kids are fine and healthy and A~man's behavior is stable for the most part. Hubby and I are closer than ever. YET we have been facing the possibility of losing our home...our vehicle called it quits a month after it was paid for and for us is too expensive to fix. (we are a one vehicle family) If it wasn't for the fact hubby has a kind friend that owns a car lot we would be on foot....(we have been before but that was before and we were much younger...and rode our bikes everywhere) but as of today the vehicle we have been driving is ours. (with payments of course) Still waiting on the house issues. Looking back I wish we would have chosen a much smaller home for our first house. You can't go back though can you? The cause of all of this turmoil (well NOT the car...WE are rough on vehicles) the service provider for my childs special needs. UNFREEKINGBELIEVABLE. But I cannot go into the details except for the fact we are now officially with a company that is on the ball and cares. This company is appalled at what the other place has done to us. I went to a half day training today to deal with sn's behaviors (I have had the training before kids when I was "working" ;) and I am so impressed with the staff. They CARE. Shouldn't a mental health support organization be like that??!!

The icky bitter icing on the cake is my husband lost his job this week. This is the second time he has worked for this "place". He quit the first time...similiar crap, he was fired this time due to a load of bullshite...excuse my language. I have NO respect for the owner of this place. NONE. I like the manager and other sales associates but will never step foot in that store again.

Did I write all of this for any reader to say "oh you poor thing" ? No. So don't give me that as I do not want it or expect it. I believe as a Christian things happen for a reason. I am not thinking "sour grapes". I am angry (it takes a LOT to make me angry) but we went through similiar stuff when A~man was a foster child ensuring he had services for his disabilites and things got ugly then. Because of that and a dear friend of ours the local DSS system concerning SN's foster children has changed. It wasn't pretty and we made no friends with DSS. (ok we did have a few;)I'm hoping soon there will be a similiar statewide occurance.

I have momentarily felt like throwing my hands up into the air to God "what are you doing to us?" It has been an avalanche.Yet I feel God with me every step of the way. He IS there. There is a reason for all of this and I have placed it all in his hands.

Looking back 10+ years before becoming a parent our obstacle was infertility. After the fact I can see we would not have our SUPERFANTASTIC A~man without Gods perfect plan. We wouldn't have the SPECTACULAR Z~girl without A~man coming first. (as he could not come into a house with children because he was extremely medically fragile as an infant) God has some plan in this 9 month turmoil we have experienced and I believe we will see the light about it soon.

A mostly unneccessary (I do not think that is a word hahaha) disclaimer- if you know me IRL..family...friends. Do not share what I have written on this particular subject with anyone. I have only told one local friend...a couple not local friends...and do not want my mother in particular to worry unneccessarily. God IS in control even when our current situations seem uncontrollable.

life's lessons sometimes..arent pleasant

2011-05-13T20:36:00.000-07:00

We have several holly trees around our house. They are BIG, TALL trees that need trimmed. Right beside our front door is a haven for bird nests. In the past it has been Mourning Dove's nests. (my favorite bird) We learned over the years that Mourning Doves are a very trusting friendly bird (in our experience) and when the babies had flown from the nest they would come right up to you within a couple feet. I guess they were used to us watching them from a distance. The last Mourning Dove family we had though the baby bird died and after a few days (with Z insisting) we buried the baby. We think it was the same bird pair as after the baby died there the Dove pair did not return to that spot.

We were pleasantly surprised this spring to discover a pair of Robines nesting in that same tree. Over the last few weeks we have watched her make the nest, sit on it, and the three baby Robine's grow. Today Z ran in though yelling "there is a snake in the tree". We observe the birds throughout the day from our front steps and we also have a view from a window right into the nest. When she said that I figured there was a snake on the ground. No, there was a snake IN THE NEST. (a really big black snake about 4 foot) She was in tears and I was in tears. At first I told her to run and get a big stick as I could see a wee baby bird head sticking out from the coiled snake. By the time she got back though I knew that wasn't the right thing. For one thing the snake wasn't "bad" he was getting dinner...the whole cycle of the food chain came to my mind and we talked about it. I sure hope it is also getting some of the pesky Voles we have in our yard too! Also...with A~mans impulse control issues I could not let him see me messing with a snake. He would then think it was OK to mess with a snake. It was all a part of nature but still it made me sick to my stomache and so sad that the kids SAW it happening.

During all this the mama and daddy Robine kept flying in that tree. It was pitiful. For hours that mama kept bringing food to that nest. Such an innate thing I told Z for a mama and daddy (even if it was "just" a bird) to take care of its family.

Redhead of the Day

2011-05-02T21:58:00.000-07:00

This post has been long overdue. I have had a writers block trying to come up with a blog fitting of this. It's a given I think that parents of special needs children have a tough job. Parents in general have a tough job. What about the siblings of these special needs children? We were blessed with A~man when he was 4.5 months old and 17 months later we were doubly blessed with a little bundle that we were not supposed to be able to conceive. This post is about Z~girl and how totally special she is as a daughter, sister, and friend. Her spunk delights and often times tests my patience (I joke that she could argue with a wall) but I would not want her to be any other way than what God made her to be. She was given that spunk for a reason and I adore it. There is a reason for her spark and it will cause her to excell in all that she tries.

As a family we love going out in the communtity to restaurants, walking downtown, or even the grocery store. Ever since they were babes I would take them to walk (in a stroller)in our charming downtown as that is where my husband worked and is back working once more. It is a truth that because of A~mans outgoingness (not a word) that he steals the show. But Z's spectacular strawberry blonde wavy hair (she gets mad if I say that she says it IS RED :) causes HER to get attention. I'm bragging but even on the days (and there are many hahah) she refuses to brush that wild mane...it remains GORGEOUS.

A couple years ago we were at one of our favorite breakfast places and met the most charming white haired woman. It was one of those times when you just know you were meant to meet a new friend. We were lucky enough to run into her several times over a length of time and the kids would always keep an eye out to see if Karen was there. One of the times A~man was in a funk. I do not remember what the issue was but most likely he had gotten in trouble at home and was clammed up and unusually quiet. This gave Z~girl her moment to shine. She had a delightful conversation with this sweet woman and they have/had a lot in common. A love for books, words, and writing. Not long ago we ran into Karen (I have her permission to say her name) and she said that she wrote a poem about Z and that there would be a library reading of her poem and others from a book that was published by a group of lovely creative souls.

Last week we went to that reading and it was delightful! I hope to share a few in my blog in the next few weeks but for now I will share the one by Karen Heggen about my Z~girl-

Redhead of the Day

How long ago did it start,
this tendency to look each day
for the favorite redhead?

One recent restaurant redhead
was a girl of seven, a girl
with an abundance of fizzy
shoulder-length light-red hair, a girl
whose talkative ten-year-old brother
usually got most of the attention.

On the day that turned the tables
he was in a blue funk at breakfast,
sat pouting, while she and I started
talking across the aisle about her accomplishments.
For me, the details slipped away as days
went by, but for the child, the joy remained.

Weeks later, while I was driving home,
miles away from where she and I
had met, I heard a car honk, looked
toward the left lane, and there she was
with her parents her whole face beaming
at me, arms waving, red hair bouncing,
that enthusiasm repeated at several
red lights along the next mile or more.

My whole body began to smile, my
heart grew full all the way home.
No grandma I may be, but my daily
dose of redheads brings joy to me.

by Karen Heggen

The book this was published in is called A Long and Winding Road. It is the Ninth Anthology of The Seasoned Poets of the Blue Ridge. I hope to share some more out of it soon. The poems are full of many laughs, tears, and memories as the years go by. I love them! Oh and when we were in the store last week a different poet recognized Z from the reading. She was on cloud nine my precious redhead.

I't my blog I can cry if I want to.

2011-05-02T21:11:00.000-07:00

It's been a rough PWS night. Despite my monitoring the hubby found in A~man's room tonight...RED JELLO MIX. Uhhhh I do not even EAT JELLO. (since finding out what it is made out of)He also found a bunch of other wrappers for cereal bars. Do I need to add my son in the past has psychotic type reactions when he has eaten something with RED40? I'm praying for the best tomorrow though despite this consumption. For someone to look at A~man he is the perfect height/weight...his endocrinologist said this earlier this month. So for him weight is not a problem. Eating something that could harm him (red40 etc) is. For anyone reading this would you fear your child eating harmless (yet yucko imho) jello? no. I remember as a child probably doing the same. (yuck) I remember when I was probably 5 eating a tub of frozen whipped topping one early Saturday morning while watching early cartoons. The result? I vomited. My son cannot vomit. There is a chance with Prader-willi syndrome of their stomach rupturing if they consume too much. A very slim young adult with PWS had this happen in GA in the last few years.

Add to it our service provider for the last 6 months has made our life a living...heck. I can't go into the specifics with that but the very place that is supposed to look out for the needs of the consumer is only interested in one thing. Money.

Ok that is my sob story. The next one tonight will be a much brighter one. :)

Have you ever wondered about the Blue-footed Booby?

2011-04-29T21:17:00.000-07:00

I remember seeing pictures of this unique creature but never knew its name. It's hard to look at a picture of one of these and not giggle. I truly believe God has a wonderful sense of humor.

I received an opportunity to do a review on an e-book from The Old Schoolhouse from The Curiosity Files about these unusual birds. The first thing I did was show Z-girl the pictures in the e-book of the birds. The pictures are excellent! Her favorite color is blue so I believe she was smitten. We have done several e-books and this one would be a wonderful one to do this summer during a break and would be a good preventative for the "MOM...I'M BORED". Or in my son's case "mom, I'm boring..heehee" It encompasses every subject imaginable: science,math, Bible,geography,writing,spelling and vocabulary! I know with my daughter a lot of it could even be done independently.

What I especially like about this e-book is that it is easy to use with a variety of ages or in our case developmental levels. There are activities to challenge from the youngest child to maybe an older child listening in about what his younger siblings are learning about. I highly recommend this e-book during a "break" to keep your child interested in always learning about new things. For 6.95 I think it is a bargain for this much potential activity and learning!

AC-CENT-TCHU-ATE THE POSITIVE

2011-04-22T21:24:00.000-07:00

AC-CENT-TCHU-ATE THE POSITIVE (Mister In-Between)
Bing Crosby ( written by Harold Arlen and the lyrics by Johnny Mercer)

You've got to accentuate the positive
Eliminate the negative
Latch on to the affirmative
Don't mess with Mister In-Between

You've got to spread joy up to the maximum
Bring gloom down to the minimum
Have faith or pandemonium
Liable to walk upon the scene

(To illustrate his last remark
Jonah in the whale, Noah in the ark
What did they do
Just when everything looked so dark)

Man, they said we better
Accentuate the positive
Eliminate the negative
Latch on to the affirmative
Don't mess with Mister In-Between
No, do not mess with Mister In-Between
Do you hear me, hmm?

(Oh, listen to me children and-a you will hear
About the elininatin' of the negative
And the accent on the positive)
And gather 'round me children if you're willin'
And sit tight while I start reviewin'
The attitude of doin' right

(You've gotta accentuate the positive
Eliminate the negative
Latch on to the affirmative
Don't mess with Mister In-Between)

You've got to spread joy (up to the maximum)
Bring gloom (down) down to the minimum
Otherwise (otherwise) pandemonium
Liable to walk upon the scene

To illustrate (well illustrate) my last remark (you got the floor)
Jonah in the whale, Noah in the ark
What did they say (what did they say)
Say when everything looked so dark

Man, they said we better
Accentuate the positive
Eliminate the negative
Latch on to the affirmative
Don't mess with Mister In-Between
No! Don't mess with Mister In-Between

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

This song started going through my mind tonight. A joy ;) of having older parents I have a wide range of songs that enter my thoughts. This is something I feel I really need to keep in mind.

Today I had a really negative experience when someone learned we homeschooled. We have been homeschooling 5 or so years and how many negative comments have I gotten? Maybe a half dozen. How many positive comments? I couldn't begin to count. Also talking with my hubby tonight I realized how positive my day REALLY was. The unpleasant occurance at the grocery store was less than 5 minutes. What did we do besides that in the community? A~man went to the barber shop to have his hair cut. He has been going to the same place since...well forever. (with a few haircuts done by hubby and I inbetween) They LOVE A when we go in there. It is like a scene from the TV show Cheers. He probably asked the barber 1,000 questions and the barber answered every single one of them and in all honesty A~man was probably the most entertaining customer he had for the day. Then we walked down to the coffee shop...another positive....after that we went to one of our favorite shops to talk to our friend B who loves the kids. Why did I let a negative 5 minutes take over my thoughts for the day when I encountered so many positive people today? Heck everyday I encounter so many more positive people EVERY day. With my friends and with casual aquaintences and even strangers.

My prayer tonight is to focus on the positive....instead of letting a few rotten minutes ruin my day. (it didn't ruin my day but hopefully you get my point)

I'm losing...

2011-04-15T17:50:00.000-07:00

WEIGHT that is! It has been an extremely slow process that started back in December. I want to be a better example for my son with PWS and for my daughter. Also I think my back/hips would hurt a lot less if I weighed less. Anyone that knew me before kids would laugh as I was a bean pole. My nickname in school was stick. :( Since Decemberish (NOT a word) I have lost about 14 pounds. Woohooooo! I am down one pant size and that makes me very happy. I would like to lose at least 20 more.

We have had a beautiful spring filled with lots of outdoor time! Here's a picture I took while were walking at one of my favorite local places.

Unconditional Love

2011-04-08T21:06:00.000-07:00

I have known what unconditional love is for a long time. Technically. I feel this way toward my parents, inlaws, and of course my husband and children. But ultimately the person that taught me about unconditional love was my son. To this day I remember on my third Mothers Day (it took a LONG time for me to get to celebrate this) I went up to my childrens room to discover A~man had "finger painted" EVERYWHERE...I mean everywhere. Oh and I'm not talking your typical art supplies. I'm sure my jaw dropped to the floor. He was 2 1/2 I believe and this continued until he was probably 7. I have not told many people about that. I have cleaned up a lot of crap literally. ;) It has frustrated me, exhausted me, made me scream on very rare occasion but still I love him to bits and pieces.

Tonight reminded me of that. It has been a LONG day for the hubby and I. For me it was a good day but we spent most of the day outside playing and doing school as we had someone in the house helping finish taking the wallpaper off the kitchen. The kids, hubby and I took off all of it in the diningroom and half of the kitchen. It has taken a long long time! Finally I begged hubby that I wanted it finished and we found some very reasonable homeschool people that finished it. (well we still have to paint but that will be easy)

OK I am off track. At 6:30 we went to Z~girls soccer practice. Originally I was going to stay home and hubby was going to take both kids so I could have a break. On second thought I thought I could manage sitting to watch. ;) Halfway through A~man declares "I need to go to the bathroom." The portapotty was probably 200 feet away. I begged hubby "PLEASE go with him". He was also tired and refused. Finally I just told A~man to go by himself. (we could see it until he went in obviously) Three minutes go by. "uhh hun could you please go check?" "no I'm tired" 5 minutes" You know he's in there picking up the urinal deoderant tablet and he will probably lick it" I bet he just HAS to touch the blue water down below" What if he falls headfirst in there?" (we have the strangest conversations as special needs parents) BUT the falling into the urinal comment had me RUNNING to the portapotty like a fool demanding he open the door. He looks at me. I KNOW he has done something. I finally see he has thrown some rolls of tissue in the toilet. I tell him "YOU ARE IN BIG TROUBLE MISTER!" Yes it was minor compared to the other scenarios and less repulsive but I was tired..and at the end of my rope. In the car I kept turning around looking at him and he hung his head. (I sound so mean huh?) We get home and he showers and brushes his teeth. Then comes the nightly question "how many Slick (our dog) hugs do I get?" Can I have 3?" NO "2?" NO "1?" NO!! and then the words a mom cannot resist "can I have a mama hug?" OF COURSE YOU CAN!! Who could say no to a childs request for a hug? I so love my A~man and all that he and Z~girl are teaching me.

Spring has us climbing trees!!!

2011-03-26T17:52:00.000-07:00

Ok it has Z climbing trees and me revisiting my memories of childhood. She is such a monkey...always has been...and very coordinated. (me not so much) She was in ballet in preschool...started to try gymnastics (she would EXCELL she has the perfect build for it) but not interested. She is more like her mama and likes to stay in tune with nature. I remember as a child her age climbing up these giant pine trees in my grandma E's front yard (some type of evergreen anyway) WAY up....scarey up....as no one was watching me.

So we had some very warm days here in NC earlier this week and after doing some "school work" (there has to be a better name for it ;) the kids spent several days out in our yard...with me supervising out the window and going outside. I saw Z scaling the tree and HAD to get pictures. For what it is worth this is the first time in forever she picked out a skirt to wear. (she had cut off shorts under btw ; ) She loved wearing the skirt and wants me to make her some for this summer woohoo! I thought she was done with me sewing for her and skirts are so easy.

Up

Look mama!

She has been HIGHER believe it or not... I just did not get it in a picture.

A fairy drifting down....

Landing!

giggling

2011-03-16T21:06:00.000-07:00

Most likely I do not need to but before this sordid tale I need to say a bit about our family. (disclaimer) We are a pretty conservative Christian family, we do not watch tv (we do watch movies), we are picky about what movies we allow the kids to watch especially A~man, we do not have any questionable magazines around....etc. All that to say our kids are pretty sheltered. ;) On to my tale~

Today we began a spring scavenger hunt. I have a list of things we are checking off that have to do with spring. We were not able to check off everything as it is still pretty early in the season. When we were finishing up our hike for the day Z runs to me and exclaims "A~man says he has naked woman pictures in his POCKET!!" It took me a moment but I realized what he had. When we go to the store...get a newspaper...get our junkmail he likes to pick fliers out and collect them in his room. In the mail last week I had gotten a coupon/advertisement for Victorias Secrets. It had these coupon cards (sortof like a grocery store coupon card) from Victoria Secrets with ladies in the underwear/bra on it. I remember seeing them but didn't realize he was carrying them around in his pocket. OK I admit...at the time I did not think it was funny...but telling my hubby the story tonight....I couldn't help but laugh. I didn't make a huge deal about it at the time but I did make him give them to me...and I threw them in a trash can. I could just picture at our next homeschool activity (TOMORROW) when he is out of earshot whipping them out to show the boys...or telling them he had "naked women cards" in his pocket. Oh I KNOW that would have happened...... :)

my dark cloud is gone!!

2011-03-13T22:05:00.000-07:00

Thank you God!

Here I am!!

2011-03-10T21:53:00.000-08:00

It's been awhile since I've blogged! I've just been in a bit of a funk all around. I do not like to do a post and complain, complain, complain. It's just one of those times when you realize your attitude is out of whack all around...where you would just like to crawl under a rock for awhile till something positive happens. Of course when I look at the big picture...life is good...I just hate experiencing the potholes of life all at once. Most likely it's time for ME to make something positive happen. :)

I have started back drawing...so that is a plus...I need to start back sewing too as those things tend to make me smile. (well as long as the sewing machine is cooperating) I have so many things to finish sewing though that it weighs me down.

Not sure if this happens with other homeschool families but now is the time when I start thinking...."hmmmm you know what? I have not done nearly enough______. " fill in blank with a subject or two. Or worrying about the fact a child is behind in one subject. With ds he naturally is but it is so darn discouraging when I think he's GOT something...and a month later it's gone. Or worrying that dd (who doesn't have sn's) is behind a year in a subject or two (well if I would have put her in her "grade" as one of the youngest in her class). Then I catch myself looking at their many positives. Despite the fact my son fails to think before he speaks (I say with a giggle...most times) the child can talk to ANYONE. When he is done talking to them they are visibly touched by HIM...and the way he is. (I CERTAINLY do not have that affect on many people as I am quiet.) Well...there are a rare few that are just irritated by him but they are rare and far between. And my dear daughter. I've thought about trying to compile a list of every book this child has read. (in my spare time har har) She honestly reads between 2 (not often) to 4 or 5 hours a day. This has been going on for 4 years and she is 9. SERIOUSLY. I'm not talking piddly books...she has read every age appropriate classic (and many for older kids), every Boxcar children book, Nancy Drew, you name it...she has READ it and sometimes more than once. That is HER thing. Math will come....grammer, history....they will come. (and her reading is most likely helping that as she loves books about more than fiction) She has come a LONG way socially this year....I LOVE it!!!

Oh and more than likely...I have PMS (that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!) I do not keep track so I do not exactly know. But in my little social world (if you can call that) I am getting flashbacks to 7th grade being the last one picked in PE...and then being pelted in dodge ball. Ok that last part makes me giggle a bit...despite the fact it really happened. (in 7th grade that is...it didn't really happen now ;)

Ok this post has whining, worrying, bragging, and self-pity in it. If you have read this....you deserve a gold star! :)

Tea Party Tuesday!!!

2011-02-08T19:35:00.000-08:00

This is something I'm going to try do every Tuesday....Tea with my little lady and a little tea talk here in my blog. I have so neglected my poor blog. But in doing so it means I am more busy in the here and now so that is a good thing right? Now this is not my original idea...I borrowed it from this sweet blogger. Check out her blog as she is a wealth of knowledge and on top of it sweet. (wait I already called her sweet hahah)

Throughout today Z and I planned a tea party for before bedtime. I wish it could have been sooner but with homeschooling, errands and it being the hubby's day off we stayed super busy. Together we made cookies...she picked out some of our cups to use and then she surprised me by putting on a dress and apron tonight! (she rarily will wear a dress anymore) She looked like Alice in Wonderland!

These are two cups Z and I made this summer at a paint your own pottery store.

On the inside are frogs! I love frogs and like the Fully Rely On God phrase!

We made chocolate chip cookies YUM!! We shared with the boys but they were NOT invited to tea!

We really try with each child to do something one on one with them often. Sometimes A~man can be quite the show stealer and Z just glows when she gets undivided attention from us! Speaking of the not so little man of the house...he was very jealous and ended his night on a very bad note..unfortunately. Being the sibling of someone with special needs can be just as stressful as being the parents of...maybe sometimes more so. Hopefully though she will remember tonight that her mama wanted to spend girl time just with her!

Whoa I did a double take after this one...it looks like a redhead version of ME when I was a child.

I'm going to a tea party!!

2011-02-01T12:50:00.000-08:00

Check out one of my favorite bloggers and join us! Donna's tea party

Gray Hair Number 37...

2011-01-14T21:15:00.000-08:00

This morning I swear I only had 3 dozen but I believe I added a new one. Preface- wouldn't it be wonderful if we could just wrap our children up in bubble wrap? Or put them in a bubble? JOKING of course but geesh...

Both children have been loving the snow we have. Here in NC we got close to a foot. So in the afternoon after "school" and their chores are done I push em out the door ;) to play in the snow. This snow wasn't the greatest for sledding but they have tried every part of our yard. Yesterday the ideal spot was our driveway as my husband had taken the SUV to work and the driveway was clear. Fast forward to this afternoon. When they are outside I keep an eye out for them out the window and if I do not see them I pop my head out the door every 5 minutes. Well....I decided it was time for me to utilize the bathroom...I sit down (tmi) and Z rushes in the front door yelling "mama mama come quick it's A!!!" NEVER A GOOD STATEMENT! I rush out to find he slid down our driveway that isn't that steep UNDER OUR SUV. Well right before one of our renters was stopping by to drop off rent...he was right there when it happened so when I went out he was pulling Aubrey out from under the suv. **right then and their I got the bad mommy of the day award!!** EEEK! Well he was fine...not hurt at all...but he couldn't get up by himself.

I will admit we ALL had a chuckle afer the fact and this will go in the "file" next to the story "The Blackberry Bush That Ate A-man"

MMMM CHOCOLATE!

2011-01-06T21:21:00.000-08:00

Sometimes I think with the crazy stories I have that people will think I do not watch my children....trust me I do haahha.

Today was such a day. This afternoon I told the kids we were going to go walk up to the big tree that is across the street. You would have thought I told them we were going to disneyland! I think cabin fever has set in...we have spent a lot of time at home since Christmas...kindof a slow time for homeschool field trips with everyone visiting with family...enjoying Christmas. I've been liking staying at home and have let the hubby just drive to work. (normally we drive him to work...so we can do our thing ) ANYWAY. A~man was trying to get ready...but kept trying to go sockless...(it's COLD!) Finally exasperated he exclaimed - STOP HARASKING ME! (harassing + asking= harasking) Oh I was literally ROTFL! I love moments like that...during a difficult moment...where something happens that breaks the tension and we are all laughing!

Oh ...but the chocolate. I love chocolate have I ever mentioned that? but we do our best to eat it without A~man seeing...and keep it up. SOMEHOW...somehow though........ it was bedtime and Z was in A's room and came out exclaiming that wet brown stuff was coming out from around his bed. Now a few of you may know some brown issues I have dealt with over the years....but not so much the last few years...but THAT was the first thing I thought of. That was the first thing the hubby thought of. After careful examination...I smelled chocolate. The only thing at that point I could think of was Z's ovaltine...she only drinks milk with ovaltine in it and I figured he grabbed it out of the kitchen. But no...I found the ovaltine safe in the cupboard. It took awhile but A~man brought me a container of Hershey's unsweetened (bleh) cocoa...he had gotten a glass of water (I SAW him do it) brought it to his room and put the cocoa in it...then the cup fell over behind his huge captains style heavier than mt rushmore bed. The liquid was all around. Through it all I kept my cool...I only said (calmly) A~ I am NOT HAPPY. I brought him towels to clean it up and left before I could explode. For whatever reason he picked every single thing off his floor???? and a bit ago I noticed SOMEHOW he had taken his full size mattress off his bed and was sleeping on it on the floor??!! Taking this mattress off is no small feat...his bed has a bit of an edge...I would have hurt myself doing it..but he was fine...and did it quietly. I still can't figure out why he did all thaty..maybe guilt? I'm going to have to move that honkin' bed frame somehow and steam clean all the chocolate water up.

It's all good though....I see God smiling down on me saying "I knew she could handle it."

learning by example

2010-12-30T21:30:00.000-08:00

I've said it before...but instead just upped the supervision..it REALLY is time to start locking up the fridge...locking up the pantry. We have locked up meds at home for a long time...but I have been putting off putting the ole padlock on the refridgerator. How bizzare would it be to have company (not that we have that much) over for dinner and have all the food compartments locked up? Bizzare yet it is a reality with PWS I am not like facing. In all of this I have turned my pointing finger around at ME. Growing up...and really until Z was 2 I was skinny...skinny like friends asking...neighbors wondering (while growing up) if I had anorexia. I didn't. I could not keep an ounce on and I didn't like eating. Now? well I LIKE eating good food. ;) I do not eat a lot but ....and obviously since after breastfeeding my metabolism did a switch. In the last 7 years I have gained 65ish pounds....40 of that I did not NEED to gain.

As much as my son sneaks food is he overweight? no. He is in the 75% for height and weight. Me? I need to be a better example. Up until the uber cold weather the kids and I (sometimes the hubby) walked 3-5 miles a day. I think it was good for the kids but it did nothing to help me loose weight. Now? very little excercise..I'm not even getting on the scale.

Not sure of the answers yet. (although I am going to start tracking food at sparkpeople) I need to be a better example in what I eat. How do I expect my son to keep an appropriate weight when I am not??

Christmas picture

2010-12-23T14:53:00.000-08:00

I just had to post this picture. I glanced over and saw this and said...HOLD THAT POSE. That's kindof how life is every once in awhile I try to pause a moment...hopefully to hold it in my memory forever.

A~man by the way doesn't have a mean look on his face (it looks that way though!) It's just an intense look as he is reinacting church HAHAHHAHAH! Gotta love it. I wish I could record the song he is singing. Then there is Z~girl who likes to cuddle with Slick. They love each other so much...puppy love.

What's in the big box? any guesses? its for my hubby...he says it's the biggest present he has ever had under the tree.

The "P" word

2010-12-15T21:13:00.000-08:00

PUBERTY that is. Rough enough on the average human being....add in Prader-willi and autism.

I feel like my recent posts have been all negative. WAIT they have been. I need to say I love my life, love my children, love my hubby...wouldn't change it. BUT every few months it seems we get thrown a few new challenges. The newest. PUBERTY.

I knew it was coming...I knew for the past two years to be on the look out. This week I saw the emotional results of it...that is the only thing I can think of. Looking back....his voice IS changing...my mom on the other coast has noticed. He has become aggressive. :( He has had bouts of it that were short lived...most always I was able to direct him to his bedroom so he could yell/ bang the walls all he wanted...but this was maybe a handful of times a year. I experienced the occasional kicking of my seat driving...or swatting me.

This is a difficult time of year for someone with PWS with all the sweets...special events...all around change in schedule at least in our house. I'm making excuses I think....we had our homeschool Christmas party this week....the kids DID have fun but even before getting there I knew A~man needed more monitoring than usual. At one point I put him in time out (for climbing all over the furniture...uhhh who's kid IS this? he doesn't do THAT???) and he hit me. (?????) We leave the party early as I know he is about to self combust...he does....in the CAR. Kicking the back of the seat and screaming on the way home. LOVELY. The reason? I told him he couldn't bring his "goodies" (school supplies) into his room until I found a container to put them in. I somehow get him in the house....wondering if DSS would be knocking at my door. (he's screaming while I have a hold of his coat keeping him upright on our icy sidewalk) Once inside he attacks me. Thankfully I am not a small punny woman....the hits/slaps do not hurt but trying to get him to his bedroom so he can't hurt Z-girl or me resulted in me wonking up my back/arms/shoulders. I called the hubby...I texted one of my best friends (far far away) hubby called dev ped and got a prescription for a med he prescibed months ago....but we didn't need it and I lost it. We all survived the day. My biggest pain is seeing the pain in my 9 year old daughters face during the whole thing despite me telling her to go in the other room. (she didn't want ME to get hurt)

The next day we were thankfully at home but the same thing happened. Over what?? something small...something normally we could have talked through...he was cleaning his room and wanted to give/throw something away he made in preschool. I tried to explain that I wanted to keep it for me. Then it all happened again. Thankfully hubby was able to leave work to pick up the prescription. ( even if I had transportation I couldn't have got him in the car)

I PROMISE to anyone reading this...my next post will be a positive one. This is my favorite time of year...I love celebrating Jesus' birthday...I love snow and the cold, I love decorating for the season. :) We have been doing lots of fun stuff...but a blog is a nice place to unload your burdens. (well in addition to God and I am definitely doing that :)

Oh and a special thanks to my blog and IRL friends K and D!!! love ya gals!!!

This isn't one of those posts....

2010-12-03T20:36:00.000-08:00

You know the type. The kind that will give you warm fuzzies and think I am wonderwoman. I AM EXHAUSTED. This week has been rough on me. Honestly besides field trips, daily life skills, pet care, art, reading (ok now I AM making myself feel a bit better ;) we have done no formal homeschooling. I feel like I am in survival mode. Hubby has had to work several late nights and since we share a car that means the kids have stayed up way past their bedtime and it has threw A~man completely out of kilter. The result is a very anxious, jumpy, impatient mama. Sometimes I wish people that knew us could walk a day in my shoes. Now my days are filled with a whole lot of joy (well not so much this week) but even on the best day I feel like a wet sponged drained of any moisture. YIKES even this week I texted my hubby saying I didn't know if I could continue homeschooling. I feel like I get NO breaks, none, nada. On top of that I feel like I am not doing enough "school" or cleaning, or finishing projects I start. I am going to be 100% honest and say the last 3 days have been complete autopilot.

This results in my son's challenges becoming even more pronounced. The autism is in full force this week! He did this years and years ago but he is echoing/ copying every sound he hears. From the sound of his sister walking across the the floor in her boots to my raspy asthma cough. When we are in a store he mimics sounds/phrases from strangers which comes out sounding very disrespectful and mocking. That is just the tip of the iceberg....I do not want to explain the rest. Here's to praying that next week will begin with a more relaxed mama, thus a more relaxed functional son...and a lessed stressed out beautiful redhead.

Leigh if you read this....I am trying my best to kick this elephant off my chest...I hope you are too!!

Yeah me...that controlling freaky mom...

2010-12-01T21:21:00.000-08:00

We went on a wonderful home school field trip today to see an awesome (seen on TV I believe) Gingerbread house competition at an extravagant old hotel. This is the third year we have been. It's fun but stressful. I did hear typical kids in our group say "I'm hungry looking at these" multiply that by 10 times with my son with Prader-willi syndrome. He did well for HIM though. :)

Afterwards with friends we went to a yummy local pizza place. I ordered a piece for me,(the pieces are HUGE), a piece for A~man...and an order of hummus and pita for Z~girl. (her choice) What did they bring to ds? 2 huge pieces of pizza....excuse me but I'm sure I had a WTF? look on my face. Somehow they thought he had ordered two pieces with one topping...I cannot begin to explain how big two pieces at this place is except to say NORMALLY the kids split one piece and have plenty. A~man was very excited at the two pieces...and then very upset when I said NO WAY. I dealt...he dealt... it worked out for a pleasant experience...yet somehow due to me not being assertive enough I had to pay for food I did not order. I'm sure I come across as the most uptight woman about what A~man eats.....of course my friends are probably used to it and tolerate me (I hope;) that it is what it is.

While I'm venting...I very well may win grumpy mom of the week. EEEEK. I've finding myself saying no no no, stop talking, hush, go play way more than I should be intitled too. That's not me...Could the real mama joy please stand up???

we could have used an autism card today....

2010-11-24T21:32:00.000-08:00

Before the hubby turned into bed...and I came upstairs to blog I said this to my husband "we sure could have used an autism card http://specialchildren.about.com/b/2005/10/20/pocket-size-autism-cards-speak-volumes.htm today. His response...which made me giggle...the kindof of relief giggle after a stressful day "we could have used an airplane full of autism cards dropped on us today!"

Autism is not our sons primary diagnosis but it is the one that seems to affect most of his challenges. Even more so than the food issues with PWS. I'm not sure what happened today. It was a red40 day but I know he didn't have any. It was one thing after another in a downward spiral. Once it started down if felt like there was no way to reverse direction. He felt this too. In the afternoon after Thanksgiving shopping he was going to get a haircut. WELL his barber closed early due to the holiday. THAT'S when things got real ugly. He semi recovered until we went in a store and bought a couple advent calendars (the ones with chocolate) and found some Jumping Beans also. My dd and I have been looking for some and A~man found some at the check out...asking the clerk what they were. I got some for US....he thought I was getting them for Him--------> this resulted in a block later him going ballistic saying he wanted to kill me at the top of his lungs and running from me. He was wearing a hoody and when I saw he was going to bolt (into the street) I grabbed his hood thus causing him to scream I was choking him. On and on and on it went. I'm not sure if people saw...I was just trying to keep him safe. He refused to hold my hand and walk finally his little angel sister offered her hand and off we went.

Later a repeat as we went to another grocery store to get an item I could not find and some redbox movies. We go into this store a lot...he knows everyones name. I'm not sure what triggered it this time but it was related to the movies we were getting. Hubby had him this time....and had to drag him out of the store while I finished shopping. He was screaming he wanted to kill "enter each employees name" :( . I"m not sure anyone heard but I do not know how they couldn't.

Too much shopping? was it the hot cocoa in the morning? who knows the cause....but a card sure woulda come in handy!

Oh what a day....

2010-11-22T21:28:00.000-08:00

Ever have one of those days that you can't really say a thing good about? I sympathize with Alexander in the book "Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day" Heck I could write a book about it today. I rarily have those days....maybe a few times a year but truly today was awful. I knew it was THAT time of year. A time to be thankful alnd I have so much to be thankful for but 3 years ago I went to see all of my wonderful family in WA only to find one had driven off a cliff the night before. I have never cried so much in my life ( I don't cry) over what happened that night and I am just the "auntie". My heart hurts so bad for my brother, sister in law and 2 niecess....along with the others like myself that loved Ryan.

I saw it on my niece's (Ryan's sis) FB yesterday. I remember the day so well. Somehow I had gotten our flight there on T'giving day...why?? who knows??? I remember coming to the airport with ALL of my family waiting. This was unusual. And then my brother hugging me and whispering what had happened. It was God awful....no way to say otherwise. :(

Maybe that was the reason for our bad day. I was feeling it and the kids...my daughter in particular was picking up on it. I am the most patient woman on the block. (hehehehe) Today? I was not. I was so impatient. I have felt so much pain.

But at the end of the day? I have my children. ALL of my children. For that I am thankful for. Tomorrow I will be a better mommy.

I did it!

2010-11-11T17:35:00.001-08:00

I'm not overjoyed with this template but I got rid of the pesky watermark.

There are positive things with Prader-willi syndrome!!

2010-11-08T21:20:00.000-08:00

Just a preface...it's been a long time since I've blogged. Lots of changes...lots of stress...and consequently the way my body deals with stress is lots of neck/back/ and headaches. Nothing I can really blog about as I do not want it OUT THERE in blogland but we are plugging along...our family is GOOD. God is just redirecting us where he wants us to go. God is good! :)

There have been many tv shows dealing with PWS...and one that aired just last week. I haven't seen any as we do not watch tv/cable but a friend is going to send me a dvd of it. From what I have read of PWS mom comments on shows such as this they show EXTREME cases...I guess that brings awareness but I wish they would air positive things too. (Maybe they do?? ) I hate to see new parents of pws children get that shock. There are positives. I hope people reading my blog...or people that know my son see that. My son is so much more than the EATING OBSESSION part. He is is a riot...not always appropriate but he makes people laugh. Kindof in a Jim Carrey sortof way (think MASK). He genuinely cares about people. If I know a friend/relative is sick sometimes I avoid telling him as he will obsess over it...worry about them. Here is an example even though it was a stranger.

With some exceptions I have given up on my son NOT talking to everyone we come in contact with ( to have DEEP conversations with). I let him...if things become bordering on rude I intervene. ;) Last week we went to Walmart..we rarily go to Walmart but he knows most of the cashiers. Let me describe the customer in front of us- 60ish,well to do, her cart looked like she was preparing for a dinner party of some sort. She was very snooty IMHO to the cashier who was the same age...you could tell she thought she was better than this lady that worked at Walmart. She leaves...enter my sons conversation. This lady he remembered had cats...he asked her about them. Then he noticed the back of her neck was bandaged. He asked her what happened. She went into graphic (too much ahahhaha) detail about some sort of growth she had (I'm sparing you the graphic details) that had to be removed...and she said she was in a lot of pain. What was my sons reaction? He said "I WILL PRAY FOR YOU" . Now these are not just words for my son...if he says he will pray for someone he deeply means it. As a friend recently told me..he has a heart of pure gold.

With that I must say goodnight. Oh but just incase a dear local friend/blogger is reading this...we are praying for you with your surgery. I didn't tell A~man the specifics but he is too! I'm making you a sprize too for your birthday!! Z is helping! Hugs to you K!!!

Let me introduce my friend Heather....

2010-10-06T08:23:00.000-07:00

We went to high school....ahem...a long time ago together in SD. I best remember her laughing and smiling! I found her on facebook and have enjoyed so much getting to know her again. She is a wise Godly woman and obviously an awesome mother and wife. Here is her blog. I hope you get as much out of her blog as I do.

As for me I have been absent in blogging world. I have been busy busy....a lot of change going around...some good some not...but I am learning to put issues that I do not know what to do with in Gods hands.

I have been doing a little art and a little sewing...I hope to share with you this week.

Meet Buster Slick!

2010-08-28T21:05:00.000-07:00

AKA as SUPER DOG! honestly this dog is beyond a dog. He is so patient. The kids dress him up (gently) and he loves the kids so much. He has put up with a lot of nonsense at times from the boy so we really watch A~man closely. His only vice is he bolts out the door at any opportunity only to return hours later smelling like he has been frolicking in the bog of eternal stench!!

Giving me a smooch!

I better get a bone for putting up with this!

Look at that doggy smile!!!

Oh and today he was wearing a santa hat and scrub pants....I didn't get a picture of that!

my amazing son!

2010-08-22T21:17:00.000-07:00

On the hubby's day off we have often times been going swimming at a health facility we are members at. Our house has a pool but meh....we could not afford the money for a new liner and maintenance this year. (or last year when he broke his hip) When we moved in 5 years ago and plunked A~man into the pool by golly he could just automatically swim. Now they did have lessons years before that but more of water safety/getting used to the water as toddlers. The last two years he hasn't had as much interest in swimming. He likes to float and splash but that is about it.

Today he got a wild hair! He swam the length of an olympic size pool 5 times! now he did rest inbetween...I made him! He kept saying "I'm going to do THAT again!" I figured out he had been watching the adults in the lap lanes and was trying to mimick what they were doing. (a crawl type stroke he has never done) That blew me away! He learns so well by watching and doing! I can swim....I normally use the water barbells or do some excercises opposed to swimming. I do not think I could learn a swim stroke by just observing! The fact that he did it 5 times???!!! Ok I AM bragging! Next time I am bringing my camera. I am also going to look into special olympics swimming...he was swimming faster than his sister!!

Back to school...

2010-08-16T20:54:00.000-07:00

or is it back to non school? Anyway today was our day back from a couple months of having a very relaxed schedule. Z~girl has been begging to start back as she is very motivated to learn. She has enjoyed reading her books but she needs MORE. A~man? He would never admit it but he needs more of a schedule than he has been getting. He was less than enthusiastic this morning. I am trying my best to mix in physical activity between tasks. He has to move...honestly even though I am not hyperactive (hahaha wish I had a bit) I need to move after awhile or I get very sleepy and can't pay attention. This is how A~man is.

For curriculum we are continuing to use Handwriting Without Tears (A) and A Reason for Handwriting (Z), Mystery of History, Christian Kids Explore Earth and Space, continuing with Mastering Mathematics, and I am hoping to add on Easy Grammar, and All About Spelling in a couple of weeks. For reading/literature/phonics I use a mix and also wing it as this is my favorite subject. Oh and I picked up an older Switched on Schoolhouse 4th grade math/grammar for Z for a good price today. She isn't ready for the math but the grammar will be perfect for her to do independently. I'm sure I have missed something...oh ART/SEWING/COOKING well that is my favorite thing to do/teach besides literature! Here is Miss Z working on a pioneer bonnet. We are hoping to enter a couple sewing and art projects in the fair next month. A~man did an awesome painting last year that won a blue ribbon in the special needs category.

No sweeter sound

2010-08-12T19:29:00.000-07:00

Today was the finale of A~man's daycamp program at church. I feel a bit guilty as I have not sent him as much as I normally do so he missed out on a lot of events. Well he missed out on church events...as a family we have had many wonderful events.

The presentation just made my heart swell! They demonstrated some of the activities they did during camp. The games they played and what it taught; patience, thinking of others above yourself. It showed the higher functioning campers helping the lower functioning campers which resulted in them benefiting mutually. They sang songs together and then....some had solos! As I was listening to such songs as "Jesus Loves Me" coming from a young lady with severe CP I got goose bumps and tears...infact listening to all of them...their expressions and their genuine love for God caused me to keep goose bumps. The reaction they showed to applause was so fun to watch. They were so proud. The whole time I just knew God was watching with love and adoration of these adults and children. His perfect creation made just how he wanted them to be.

The people in charge of this program at church are so selfless and giving and most are volunteers. Such good examples of how God wants us to be.

two lunches

2010-08-03T21:05:00.000-07:00

Sometimes as a parent of a special needs child you have to let go...even if it is for just a bit. When A~man goes to daycamp (two mornings a week) that is my attempt. As much as I would love to be I am not going to be able to be by his side forever protecting him and stepping in when his judgement is not enough. Today was such a day.

Tonight was hubby's night off and we went to eat at one of our favorite spots. With the conversation between hubby, son, and I we realized ds had TWO LUNCHES at daycamp...at least. I send him a plentiful healthy lunch.Today evidently they had hamburgers/hotdogs/french fries etc. That would have been ok (I would not have been thrilled) but he had that. Plus somehow he ate everything in his lunchbox. Did A~man get in trouble....no. If I was as hungry as he probably gets and had the food I would have eaten it. Anyone would have. BUT he has a person that goes to daycamp one on one with him and somehow this happened. I'm not a happy camper. Where was his helper???Only someone with a child who has PWS could understand this. Now if that happened with my Z~girl I would have been just fine.

Now internally I am fighting myself...knowing he HAS to be away from us at times....but gosh trusting someone with your sn's child is TOUGH!!

am I CRAZY or what??

2010-07-25T20:16:00.000-07:00

*warning..this is just a lot of ramble. My normal posts about PWS, autism, homeschooling, etc etc will return in August...I hope! ;) *

Heather if you read this the book I am reading is Quaker Summer . It is excellent. In fact the main characters name is Heather.

On with the crazy thoughts. I seriously want one more baby. With infertility I wonder if this feeling will ever go away? I always dreamed of having a baby at 40-41...like my mother (ME) and like both of my grandmothers. Now I'm not talking about getting pregnant. (although God surprised me with Z-girl!) I mean becoming mommy for a third time which would have to be through foster care. The foster care system with A-man aged me...but I can go into the next room, kiss his sweet face and know it was worth it and meant to be. Most likely we would have to go through another county as...well...we have a reputation here. (for fighting for what is right...which is not necessarily what DSS wants) Do I have it in me? I feel like my motives are purely selfish. Sure I want to help a child that needs a home...but even more so I want another baby in my arms.

Oh and if you knew how busy my current life currently can be...you would wonder what I was thinking. PWS is a constant journey filled with ups and downs. I told my mom last year briefly awhile back that I wanted another. She said " I hope you do not get one with problems." To give her the benefit of the doubt she is 81 and the language with disabilites is different than what she knows. I have went off on her a couple times (God forgive me ;) for comments. In my heart I think most likely it will be a child with extra needs. Anyway that's enough for tonight.

soul searching...

2010-07-23T20:02:00.000-07:00

So much I could blog about I do not know where to start. I did turn 40 a week ago...lol. So I have been doing a lot of thinking about stuff and just cannot express it all right now. I do have a very fun overnight trip (hubbys bday present to me!) with a couple friends in a couple weeks. Spa and the great outdoors. I can't wait.

I am reading a really good book right now. I do not think it is an accident I picked it up at the library. It's on spirituality, church, serving God...good stuff like that. We haven't attended church much this year. Our son has as he sometimes attends the special needs program they have. The church is HUGE. I won't/can't say anything negative about the church just that I wonder if somewhere smaller would be better. I'm hoping God will lead us somewhere.

I hope to get back blogging and doing artsy stuff soon! Z and I are working on some sewing projects though.

What every mom needs to hear periodically

2010-06-25T21:52:00.000-07:00

"You are doing a good job mom!" from a stranger. I love when this happens. It happens quite often with my kiddos.

Today because A~man got a certain amount of tokens this week ( a token system I started mainly for daycamp but also for reinforcing positive behavior at home) we went "downtown" for a soda and to play in a very cool old time arcade. (I'm dating myself...hubby and I used to play in arcades) When we were leaving the lady that was running the place came up to me and said "you are doing a good job mom!" plus a few other things that made me say thank you with a huge ole sappy grin on my face. : D

It couldn't have come at a better time as I was in tears last night. A~man stole a friends cell phone out of her purse yesterday and the little miss has been very sassy to me...but only at home. *sigh* I do my best but sometimes it gets exasperating. But to have people see that my children DO have good manners, they are not afraid to speak to adults at all...that makes it all worth while.

My two puzzle me though. At home A~man (for the most part) is respectful, helpful, cooperative, and affectionate. Z-girl? at home she can be sassy, disrespectful and ...lol...sassy. She is hardly EVER this way in public...A`man well he has most of his issues outside of the house. Go figure.

I love them so much though....I love being mama!!

appreciating the ups

2010-06-21T20:55:00.000-07:00

Isn't that what life is about? Life would be so boring if we got everything we wanted, when we wanted it, how we wanted it. Fortunately that is NOT how God works. But it is important to sieze the good moments to give you strength during the difficult times.

It's funny...the pic of A`man on the beach examining something...I have a very similiar picture of him at 3....doing the same thing. Mr inquisitive! The last picture reminds me we forgot to take a picture of my little mermaid with a sand tail....we have done this for several years...a good excuse for a trip to Charleston later on!!

Bittersweet holiday...

2010-06-19T17:39:00.000-07:00

I am very thankful I had a hardworking dad that enjoyed spending time with me. It has been 6 years. I wish he could have been able to know my children as big kids but I'm glad he met them as young children. This picture is one of my nieces, great nephew, my dad, Z~girl, and my mom. I need to scan some pictures of my dad and I. The last one is A and Z with their grandma and grandpa E.

Our trip...our adventure!

2010-06-17T21:40:00.000-07:00

Keep in mind...if you have read my blog at all...things hardly ever go as planned. That is just how it is.

We arrived at isle of palms midday on Tuesday. It was hot. I was warned. It was hot. Where I live it was maybe in the 80's. There? it had a heat index of 112. It was like a hot moist oven. Now I remember why we normally go earlier in the year. We ate lunch, watched cartoons (a treat...we do not watch tv) and in the evening we went to a nice restaurant and then went to the pool and beach. Well Z girl went swimming. With prader-willi syndrome their body has a hard time regulating temperature. A~man got really sleepy...he slept a lot.

On Wed morning he was still very sleepy in the morning but it was much cooler...only about 90. ;) The hubby and I took turns taking Z out while A~man stayed inside. My favorite moments of the trip were Z and I riding bikes on the beach...taking breaks ever so often to go in the ocean. It was such special time just her and I. In the afternoon we went to Boone Hall Plantation . We really enjoyed this. I would like to go back when it is cooler so we could spend more time. I especially loved the Gullah presentation. That night? mmmmm crablegs!

Thursday morning we had planned to wake up and go next door for bluecrab omelates..and then go explore downtown Charleston for souviners. .mmmm....but wait what really happened? it was 8ish....the kids were starting to wake up. At 8:30 I heard ds in my suitcase but told him to go back to bed for a little bit. DD starts yelling he has something in his mouth.What? childrens tylenol. I go looking for the wrappers to figure out how many he had (turned out to be the dose for his age) when I find an empty bottle of benedryl in the trash. OH CRAP. I know there was a bit over half so we called poison control...if it would have been half a bottle the recommendation would have been to let him sleep it off. We were not sure so we packed up FAST and went to the ER. Meanwhile he keeps falling asleep. It took a bit to explain about the PWS and the autism as they were asking if A`man said WHY he took it. Everyone was so nice. It took awhile but he drank the charcoal...we had to sit for a couple hours...he was NOT happy as poison control said no food until he was seen by a dr. He is fine. I am fine...I guess. At home we keep meds locked up or out of his reach.I just figured he wouldn't get into the suitcase...or the med. Next time we will get a lock for the suitcase. MOMMY GUILT ugggg.

I do have a lot of nice pictures to share later of the funner moments. :)

Going on an adventure...

2010-06-14T21:40:00.000-07:00

to one of my favorite southern places...well south/east. I am so excited!! Of course I need to wake up in 5 hours and I am still packing. I'm hoping to share some awesome pictures and tales of our adventures!!

Here I am!!

2010-06-04T21:29:00.000-07:00

I am still alive and well in NC!! I survived my BFF from high schools visit. Was my house perfectly clean? no. Heck I am still dealing with the fact that the drain in the master bath (we gave them our bedroom) was more plugged than I ever imagined and the "new" light hubby put in our bedroom (after putting our light bulb in ds's room the night before) was wonky. yada yada yada. Did I enjoy the visit immensely? YES! We went camping and it was so much fun!! This is the second time our girls have met ( my dd is about 1.5yrs older) and they had a blast. Z has declared Miss O in the top 3 of her friends. (she's the only girl in the top 3...A~man is in number 1 position ;) She also has two sons H who is 3...and so funny and cute and J who is 11. J was beyond bored when we were at our house...with no TV...and A-man was getting on his nerves in a big way. But I enjoyed the visit so much! I hope we can meet up with them again soon inbetween our states.(AL/NC)

Next week I am doing our homeschooling tests. CAT tests from seton. In years past we have had a former SN's teacher do Woodcock Johnson but for this year we will do it this way. After that we will take a couple months off. Of course it won't be completely "off". For A~man I will have him work on the reading program we signed up at the library for. Our O/T is not able to work this summer but I will continue with that in "fun" ways-writing letters/postcards to family and games.

For Z~girl I just bought two cookbooks that are recipes, manners, and games from the 19th century (the time period I am a wee bit obsessed with ;) I hope to share some of it here in my blog. Tonight Z and I made chicken soup with homemade noodles. I have made chicken soup before but this time I didn't use any short cuts. (well I guess I did as I didn't pluck the chicken) Z made the noodles and also made us a salad using the lettuce we are growing. It was soooo good. I'm hoping that her and I and maybe A~man will try out a recipe a few times a week. Also I will be teaching Z how to sew with a sewing machine. (she has her own!) I have taught her some handstitches but now on to bigger things!

As far as reading for Z...we signed up for the reading program on Wed and she is already done with the requirements for all the prizes. I wonder what the librarian will say. A~man on the other hand will take the whole two months...and that is perfectly ok.

OH I'm going to add a picture. I found a distant relative on FB that has posted tons of pictures of my grandparents and great grandparents on my dads side. Most came from Dennmark. Seeing the pictures makes me even more interested in the pioneer days!! This is my great grandmother and grandfather in the late 1800's. My great grandma looks so young!

How I became mom to my miracle PWS son part II...

2010-05-19T21:01:00.000-07:00

So we got back from our mini weekend trip...hot springs...massage...relaxin. God was just gearing us up for our next adventure! They kept flip flopping him from the hospital to back with his bio family. He originally (and finally) was taken away from bio family due to medical neglect. When he was born he spent 3 months in the hospital...then he went home with his biomom. She also has limitations...as did the father so they were not capable of taking care of a medically fragile child. There are more details but that would be a novel seriously. He came to us the last weekend in Feb 2000. He came with a SW...her supervisor...a nurse to train us on tube feeding...another person to train us on the apnea monitor and C pap( I think that is what it was called it has been years) machine for when he slept. He was 4.5 months old. He sat there in his car carrier and I remember looking down at him...did he smile at me adoringly? hahahah no he rolled his eyes, turned his head and went to sleep. :)

It was a crash course even though both of us had some training. His crib was in our bedroom and it was like a disco with his feeding machine clicking and his apnea monitor flashing. His care completely took over my (and hubbys) life...I only admit this now but I stayed so busy with his needs, drs appts, DSS visits with the birth mom that I rarily remembered to eat and got REALLY skinny. That is when I realized- in order to take care of a child you must take care of yourself...... more later. (this is a crazy month!) I may even find a bitty picture of him for next time.

How I became mom to my PWS miracle boy part 1

2010-05-17T21:20:00.000-07:00

I have searched my blog and cannot find where I have told the complete story of how we became parents. It may be there though...so excuse me if this is a repeat. ;)

Let me summarize just a bit...the journey to parenthood was a long one. The hubby and I have been married 19 years at the end of this month. I was almost 21 when we got hitched. When I was 23 I had a misscarriage at 8 weeks, that started the infertility battle. About 5 years later I had a laporoscopy and endoscopy that found severe Endometriosis. They lazered it off. It came back and can be very painful. I had/have it in places you cannot imagine.I had a few IUI's that were unsuccessful. I was told I could not become pregnant without invitro which financially was not an option.

So...in 1999 we decided to pursue foster care. We wanted a BABY. We were told that not many babies were ever available. We finished our liscensing in January...we were called the beginning of Feb about a baby boy with special needs. He needed placement immediately. We had overnight plans that we kept...little did we know that would be the last ALONE overnight we spent until ...well the present. But very worthwhile...more tomorrow. :)

two buddies unite!

2010-05-14T20:16:00.000-07:00

Today we were getting in the car to leave the library and I look out my window and see A~mans best buddy from preschool. (what 5-6 years ago?) This little boy C also has PWS. I wish I had a video of their reunion. Before I could stop him he jumped out of the car and yelled "C!!!!) and then C was just as excited! They have seen each other maybe 3-4 times since preschool. They were like huggable magnets drawn together. It is hilarious and endearing all at the same time. They kept hugging each other putting there arm around the other....I told the mom that her/his phone number was still on my fridge. I intend to call it this summer. C is not on growth hormone I found out so I was shocked that he was taller than my tall A~man! He is also a lot heavier than A~man but such a handsome engaging boy that reminds me so much of my son!

I have neglected my blog. This is a crazy month and I still have yet to schedule the required HS testing. Ugggg. This is not normally something I worry about but maybe a few weeks a year. We have to do the Woodcock Johnson (I think that is the name) as A~mans reading isn't up to doing other kinds of testing. I will not stress I will not stress...Next weekend is a play the kids are in...plus a lot of loose ends to tie up this month.

Also two weeks till my BFF from high school comes! I am so excited!! I have been a decluttering fool! We even rented a dumpster to work on the garage....get rid of the old pool liner from our above ground pool...and a couple other larger things. The house is really shaping up and I love the feeling!!

Who's learning? Who's teaching?

TOS Review~KinderBach

~Great Thoughts~

laughing on the inside

Learning about Contractions

Winter photos

Teaching kids to write

the R word- Retarded

Before the snow

Traveling from North Carolina to South Dakota part I

Happy New Year!

Prader-willi syndrome

**~~Merry Christmas~~**

I confess...

I See Cards-Fractazmic review

PIG

gonna HAVE to get in better shape.

TeacherGeek HYDRAULIC ARM review

Accidental Homeschooler?

Spelling Bee time!!

Lego Smart Creativity Contest Results!

visual spatial learning

Lapbooking

Teaching your child to read

BLEH BLEH BLEH!!

Hebrews 11:1

YOU TOO can blog!!

Math anxiety

So Excited!

Super special needs video!

Art and Music

Lego and Robotics Education

I love fall...

Homeschool Crew Review: Always Icecream

Prader-willi syndrome- siblings

Online homeschool curriculum choices

I love fall!

Reasons for homeschooling

I admit...I am nervous

Hig Pig

Busy,busy,busy!

Stealing

The power of the brick....Lego brick that is!!

Tricky words

Big IQKids

Retarded

Thinking of traveling across South Dakota? (Part I)

a dream come true?

Record keeping your homeschool journey

OK I'm gonna post a picture

in a blog funk

Plan of action!

Rough day

Dreams

The good....and the not so good

Oh my goodness I'm 41

oh what a night...

Like the wind

HERE I AM!!

life's lessons sometimes..arent pleasant

Redhead of the Day

I't my blog I can cry if I want to.

Have you ever wondered about the Blue-footed Booby?

AC-CENT-TCHU-ATE THE POSITIVE

I'm losing...

Unconditional Love

Spring has us climbing trees!!!

*giggling*

my dark cloud is gone!!

Here I am!!

Tea Party Tuesday!!!

I'm going to a tea party!!

Gray Hair Number 37...

MMMM CHOCOLATE!

learning by example

Christmas picture

The "P" word

This isn't one of those posts....

Yeah me...that controlling freaky mom...

we could have used an autism card today....

Merry Christmas

giggling