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| Woodjie has made so much progress in his homeschooling. He works so, so hard now and we rarely have any problems. I'm so proud of him. |
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| Allow me to brag about how neat his handwriting has become. It was pretty much unreadable even two months ago. |
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| Funding has arrived! We now have an autism specialist come to our home for a few hours each week until August. By then, I will have learnt lots of things about managing things for Woodjie. Here is our new picture schedule. I've gussied it up with some picture magnets on the side, but you read it top-down. See? First, we homeschool. Then a break. Then we drive Emperor to school. If you're good, at that point you get 20 minutes of video game time. Then we eat lunch, wash up, do a little more schooling and then you get a bigger break to play games. :) |
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| When we go out, I have a very specific and right now, difficult, job to do with Woodjie. I have to help him reach his goals of 1. staying with Mom, and 2. not touching things or people other than his family. We are doing short, successful trips and he is earning little snacks and stuff. |
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| A magic game we play in homeschool. I'll put out ten crayons and an egg carton. One child will put a secret number of crayons in, close the lid, and move the folder. The other child uses the MAGICAL powers of MATH to determine how many crayons are in the carton. All this, without looking inside the carton. Amaaaazing. |
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| We just got back from a chess tournament. We were gone all. day. long. I'm off to eat dinner and watch old episodes of Wife Swap on youtube. Hope you're having a great weekend! |
It is so unbelievable to me, knowing what Ben must have gone through in school. He hated it...but he went every day and learned somehow in a way that didn't come naturally to him. I loved his teachers, and am thankful for all they did, but when we started homeschooling in 9th grade, it was such a relief. I felt like it was payback to BEN for all the years he worked so hard. Schools are starting to get it. One day, it will be the schools fault if the child doesn't learn the way they teach. They will change and not put so much on little shoulders. I really do believe the best and the brightest teachers understand.
ReplyDeleteBlessings to you Mrs. C.
PS...beautiful handwriting!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much! I wish I could be as optimistic as you are about the future of public education. I'm afraid with tenure and whatnot, no one really cares if the children are taught, so much as whether they are warehoused so their parents can work, yk? Although there ARE some best and bright teachers around, it isn't enough for me to feel positive about allocating almost half the state budget towards and so on. Common Core especially makes me freak out because, as you say, it makes many of our kids learn in a way that doesn't come naturally to them.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I'm a little delusional...but teaching was my background, and I did a little, so I try to give them the benefit of the doubt. Teachers are pretty clueless when it comes to our kids, I was as school taught me nothing about autism, but Ben had 2 teachers I will never forget. Mr. B could get ANYTHING out of Ben, he would work his tail off for him... Ben felt totally comfortable in his Resource room. It was a safe place to be. If he needed extra time, if he had trouble in school he went there. Then in 5th grade, Ms. H. She, I'm guessing, was Dyslexic herself. We had homework 10x's that whole year, instead 3-4 hours a nite. GODSEND...she helped me to see how brilliant Ben was, just that he didn't fit the mold. She was good friends with Mr. B, and they "wanted" Ben, instead of feeling like the teacher drew the short stick and had to take him. Others were pretty loving, and tried real hard, but still didn't get it.
DeleteYou don't worry about the time you get in...in a typical school day, how much is busy work, or recess, or eating? Teachers are probably lucky to get 3 hours in of pure teaching. And then it is spread around 20-30 kids. We all love you, Mrs. C, and love the kids, too. That printing gobsmacked me. I can't help but think of Ben and how things could have been different if I hadn't worried so much about making HIM fit the "blessed" mold.
I love your picture schedule. We have done that over the years. It works so well. Sometimes I get lazy though and don't do it like I should. I am thinking of making a picture book for Ian to use this week to get him ready for his new teacher and new classroom next week. We are still working on things like staying with Mom and not touching other things or people. He HAS to touch everything he sees and if he gets really unsettled or excited he has to touch everyone he sees. It's an ongoing lesson.
ReplyDeleteI just wanted to say, I remember how sad you were when Woodjie had such a negative report a few years back and it seemed as if he might never talk or learn or develop. He is doing so well--you must be so pleased! We just continue to pray for all of you and I can't wait to see him continue to grow. :-)
Love ya!
Thank you so much, Bonnie. I am so glad he is doing so well and making so many improvements. It is very hard NOT to get lazy sometimes, but I do try to confine the lazy to the weekends? Just being practical, I am trying to make allowances for the "lazy." I have a feeling you are doing so much more than you know with Ian. :)
DeleteYou are doing such an awesome job!! I am really bad about putting in the effort to make visual schedules for the kids, because I am so not visual at all. You have inspired me, though. I do have a couple of simple ones on the iPad for Nutkin to use for specific things - like a list of things he has to do before getting a turn on the iPad, and the steps up to getting in the shower before calling me for help (he tends to want me to be there for every little thing). Those work really well because they are actual photos of him doing things with my voice telling him what to do.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed seeing how you and the kids are doing - thanks for sharing!
Our schedules are simply dry erase board, and magnets stuck to the back of laminated pictures. Sometimes we use the kindle for Woodjie. I was so happy to see Nutkin's "selfies" by the way. He is just thriving and so very handsome. :)
DeleteYou wee man's writing is better than Griffin's. Woodjie is doing so well.. you are the best homeschool mom ever.
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