So it's been like 12 years since I posted here. M is 1 class and 1 internship away from having his AAS in Music Recording! He should be graduating in Dec '24.
Thursday, June 13, 2024
M almost has his degree
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
I picked up a few books at Barnes and Noble...
Not that I really had the money, but I decided to use a little of our savings to buy some books on Autism Spectrum Disorders. Specifically, I bought books on teaching kids on the Spectrum, which includes dealing with unwanted behaviors (of which my son has plenty!).
The first book I decided to look through is from a really good series of books entitled Topics in Autism. This particular book is called Visual Supports for People with Autism: A Guide for Parents and Professionals.I'm about 40 pages into it, and I have gotten some great ideas on implementing visual supports for things like doing chores, remembering to bring your dirty items down from your room, as well as school-related things like multiplication and labeling parts of a sentence, and using graphic organizers for various things outside of school (like scripting a phone call). It also talks about Video Self Modeling, Social Stories, Thinking Stories and Power Cards; all things that I think could definitely assist my child.
Once I get through the entire book, I will be able to see what will be workable in our school day and what will actually benefit him. I don't want to throw so much at him that I can't tell what's really working and what isn't.
I also got STOP That Seemingly Senseless Behavior! FBA Interventions for People with Autism. This is another in the same series. I've flipped through this one a bit, and I think I need to get the companion book (actually the first of these 2 books), called Functional Behavior Assessment for People with Autism: Making Sense of Seemingly Senseless Behavior. I am actually pretty familiar with Functional Behavior Analysis (or Assessment), but I think it would be an interesting read nonetheless. I may go ahead and purchase the book.
Other books I purchased:
Big Picture Thinking: Using Central Coherence Theory to Support Social Skills, A Book for Students
So I'm starting with the books that I think will help me with school the most. I will update as we get into the school year on what things seem to be working and what things seem to be a waste of time. I'm both looking forward to this and dreading it. On the one hand, if we come across something that works, then YAY! On the other hand, I want to get the most bang for my buck and my time. Gathering all this information is incredibly time consuming, and I haven't even started putting it together with the academic curriculum! I probably should have given myself more than a week....oh well. ADD here too. :P
The first book I decided to look through is from a really good series of books entitled Topics in Autism. This particular book is called Visual Supports for People with Autism: A Guide for Parents and Professionals.I'm about 40 pages into it, and I have gotten some great ideas on implementing visual supports for things like doing chores, remembering to bring your dirty items down from your room, as well as school-related things like multiplication and labeling parts of a sentence, and using graphic organizers for various things outside of school (like scripting a phone call). It also talks about Video Self Modeling, Social Stories, Thinking Stories and Power Cards; all things that I think could definitely assist my child.
Once I get through the entire book, I will be able to see what will be workable in our school day and what will actually benefit him. I don't want to throw so much at him that I can't tell what's really working and what isn't.
I also got STOP That Seemingly Senseless Behavior! FBA Interventions for People with Autism. This is another in the same series. I've flipped through this one a bit, and I think I need to get the companion book (actually the first of these 2 books), called Functional Behavior Assessment for People with Autism: Making Sense of Seemingly Senseless Behavior. I am actually pretty familiar with Functional Behavior Analysis (or Assessment), but I think it would be an interesting read nonetheless. I may go ahead and purchase the book.
Other books I purchased:
Big Picture Thinking: Using Central Coherence Theory to Support Social Skills, A Book for Students
- This looks like a really good book. It goes through things like Feelings and Emotions, Self-Control, Perspective Taking, Communication, Relationships, Interactions, etc
- I haven't gotten a chance to look through this one at length, but the premise seems straight forward. It seems to dovetail with the other books I've gotten
- Another book I'm not sure about, but it looked interesting on the shelf. This one may be a book for later in the school year.
- I chose this book because PRT has science behind it, and this book explains what PRT looks like and examples of how to use it. Specifically, this book was of interest because it explains the principles behind:
- motivating children with natural reinforcers
- reducing disruptive behavior
- encouraging communication and social initiations
- developing a challenging curriculum
- assessing children meaningfully in natural environments
- helping families weave interventions into everyday routines
- ensuring that children generalize skills to other setting
- I chose this book because it looked very kid-friendly. At first glance, it looks like something that M will choose to read on his own...once we tell him about this newest diagnosis (no, we haven't told him yet...). I think it will be valuable for him to have a resource, other than a parent, that he can go to when he has questions and doesn't want to discuss things with us. What's nice about this book is that it has lots of sections on a variety of topics, including but not restricted to social skills. It goes into things like hygiene, sleeping, stims, eating, etc.
So I'm starting with the books that I think will help me with school the most. I will update as we get into the school year on what things seem to be working and what things seem to be a waste of time. I'm both looking forward to this and dreading it. On the one hand, if we come across something that works, then YAY! On the other hand, I want to get the most bang for my buck and my time. Gathering all this information is incredibly time consuming, and I haven't even started putting it together with the academic curriculum! I probably should have given myself more than a week....oh well. ADD here too. :P
Sunday, July 8, 2012
Looking forward to the new school year
Starting tomorrow, I'll be spending much of this coming week figuring out what we'll be studying for at least the first half of 6th grade. I know I want to do unit studies, and I have a list of subjects M is interested in. The challenge will be figuring out ways to use those interests across all subjects.
I also need to figure out how to include religion and science in school this year, as well as some exercises I want him to do, sensory activities and social skills. Some of those things will hinge on what services I can get him through the professionals I've contacted, so I don't want to put too much effort into that until I know who will be doing what. But it all still needs to be considered.
What makes all this more difficult is that I have to figure out ways to keep him engaged in what we are doing, or he won't work. That's the major challenge with him...and I don't know that I like what precedent making everything interesting for him sets. But like any other behavior, I think that slowly showing him that he can do something and then starting to lessen the rewards associated with it can work. I just have to figure out the correct timing.
It's all a challenge...even for people who don't have special needs kids. But I think I'm ready for it.
I also need to figure out how to include religion and science in school this year, as well as some exercises I want him to do, sensory activities and social skills. Some of those things will hinge on what services I can get him through the professionals I've contacted, so I don't want to put too much effort into that until I know who will be doing what. But it all still needs to be considered.
What makes all this more difficult is that I have to figure out ways to keep him engaged in what we are doing, or he won't work. That's the major challenge with him...and I don't know that I like what precedent making everything interesting for him sets. But like any other behavior, I think that slowly showing him that he can do something and then starting to lessen the rewards associated with it can work. I just have to figure out the correct timing.
It's all a challenge...even for people who don't have special needs kids. But I think I'm ready for it.
Friday, June 29, 2012
Interesting New-NEW Diagnosis
Well this threw me for a bit of a loop this morning. Right after my work out session with my trainer, my cell phone rang. I NEVER bring my cell phone into the gym, so that I had it with me was strange to begin with.
Anyboob, it was the lady who had done the psychological testing for M, calling to tell me that the diagnosis was going to be different...not PDD-NOS, but Asperger Syndrome. She said that the rating scale I filled out when we saw her a couple weeks ago pretty much cemented the Aspergers diagnosis, but I guess at the time I talked to her last week and got the PDD-NOS dx, she hadn't factored that in.
I'm not mad that the diagnosis changed, just a little taken off guard. I did a lot of research this past week on PDD-NOS to see what therapies would be correct and also found a disorder that is not in the DSM, but seems to fit M very well. It's called MCDD - Multiple Complex Developmental Disorder. Pubmed and I are now besties...I can't tell you how many articles and abstracts I printed about it and related AS disorders.
So now I feel like I'm back in the same place I was last week...new diagnosis, different therapies (maybe...) and still needing to find a professional who deals with ASD kids.
The other thing is that though she doesn't think M has a thought disorder currently, she told me that we need to watch that as he ages. She thinks many of his elaborate stories that he comes up with are meant to help him deal with his anxiety, so they aren't a thought disorder per se.
I have a few things I want to research:
Never a dull moment, huh? :D
Anyboob, it was the lady who had done the psychological testing for M, calling to tell me that the diagnosis was going to be different...not PDD-NOS, but Asperger Syndrome. She said that the rating scale I filled out when we saw her a couple weeks ago pretty much cemented the Aspergers diagnosis, but I guess at the time I talked to her last week and got the PDD-NOS dx, she hadn't factored that in.
I'm not mad that the diagnosis changed, just a little taken off guard. I did a lot of research this past week on PDD-NOS to see what therapies would be correct and also found a disorder that is not in the DSM, but seems to fit M very well. It's called MCDD - Multiple Complex Developmental Disorder. Pubmed and I are now besties...I can't tell you how many articles and abstracts I printed about it and related AS disorders.
So now I feel like I'm back in the same place I was last week...new diagnosis, different therapies (maybe...) and still needing to find a professional who deals with ASD kids.
The other thing is that though she doesn't think M has a thought disorder currently, she told me that we need to watch that as he ages. She thinks many of his elaborate stories that he comes up with are meant to help him deal with his anxiety, so they aren't a thought disorder per se.
I have a few things I want to research:
- stimming vs tics
- therapies for PDD-NOS vs Aspergers
- look back at M's medical records and determine if he had any language or communication delays (or any other delays, for that matter)
Never a dull moment, huh? :D
Monday, June 25, 2012
It's been months...time for an update
It's been a while since I've updated this blog, so I thought I'd take a few minutes today and tell you what's been going on.
Schooling a child with M's issues is...difficult.
We recently got a new, and not unexpected diagnosis of PDD-NOS (Pervasive Developmental Disorder-Not Otherwise Specified). In layman's terms, this is a sort of catch-all diagnosis that falls under the category in the DSM-IV of Pervasive Developmental Disorders, that includes Autism, Asperger's, Rett Syndrome, Childhood Disintegrative Disorder and...PDD-NOS. My understanding is that a child would receive this diagnosis when he doesn't meet the qualifications for either Autism or Asperger's, but shows significantly impaired social skills, rigid thinking, unexplained anxiety, and other symptoms of classic Autism or Asperger's.
How did we get to this new diagnosis? Well, we've wondered for a number of years why M didn't "look" like other medicated kids with ADHD. Even if you didn't know my kid and had never observed his class before, you'd be able to pick him out as a kid who is different from his peers, even if you didn't know his diagnosis. And this difference has only gotten worse as he's aged. A few weeks ago, we were at the psychiatrist's office for our regularly scheduled ADHD medication checkup, and M mentioned something to me that was way out of the ordinary, and which also clearly and undeniably outlined his level of anxiety in a way we had never seen it. I'm sure he'd mentioned similar things to what he talked about that day at the psychiatrist's office before, but it had never been in such a succinct way...it had never made me stop in my tracks and think "oh holy shit, this isn't good." I'd never gotten that from him before. I'm glad it happened while we were at the psychiatrist's office, because we ended up spending about an hour there, and he was the first to mention PDD-NOS as a possibility for M never looking like other medicated ADHD kids.
We'd had a large battery of psychological and educational testing done the year before, so I called the lady who did that testing and told her what the psychiatrist said. She immediately recognized that it was likely M would fit that diagnosis, even going to far as to tell me that it was not unusual for older kids, like M, to gain this diagnosis; nor was it unusual for it to include a high level of anxiety. A week or so after that conversation we went to see her for 1 additional rating scale and for her to speak with M. I called a week later and she said that he definitely fit the diagnosis for PDD-NOS with anxiety...so here we are.
Before we saw the lady who did the testing, thus still not sure of a diagnosis, I had filled out an application for M to be evaluated over at TEACCH in Chapel Hill. Autism and Autism Spectrum Disorders is their thing, so I figured having him evaluated there would be great...they are experts in the diagnosis of, research on ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorders). I think it takes at least a month to even get a call back, and I just couldn't wait that long, so we went ahead with the additional testing elsewhere. I still want TEACCH to evaluate him, but I'm going to call them and see what the procedure will be since we now have a PDD-NOS diagnosis.
At this point, with 4 days of the school year left and about 3 weeks until the new school year starts, I'm not too concerned with starting any new methods of teaching with him. I am still feeling my way around learning about PDD-NOS and how it actually applies to him, what behaviors are attributable to it and how to deal with them appropriately. I am certain we will be using Carol Gray's Social Stories as part of our curriculum for next year, as well as other methods of instilling in him those skills in which is he deficient (social skills are at the top of that list, but also things like organization, time management, etc). I will also continue to look for interesting and hands on approaches to teaching him, as that is what he likes and responds to with interest. I have a list of things he wants to study, which is wonderful because we will be going back to the Unit Study approach that we started our initial homeschooling year with. We got side-tracked with trying to do character education with him, and I got stuck in a rut with having him do worksheets and things that were not very hands on. It made for a tough time for me as a teacher, but more importantly, for him as a student.
He's going to a YMCA camp for 2 weeks (just during the day) for kids like him, and they will have lots of fun and learn about social skills (this will be his 3rd time doing something based on social skills...maybe this time some of it will stick!). I'm hoping to use that time to get my curriculum mapped out and put together, as well as catching up on making jewelry. I'm also going to be figuring out a reward program for my younger son (going into 3rd grade). It's tough for him because he has homework to do when he gets home and M doesn't, because M does all his schoolwork during school. So our therapist suggested doing something for him to show him that the work he does for school is recognized and just as important as what M does at home for his school. To show him that even though things may seem unequal, in reality they are different.
Ah...there's that word again. d i f f e r e n t
Schooling a child with M's issues is...difficult.
We recently got a new, and not unexpected diagnosis of PDD-NOS (Pervasive Developmental Disorder-Not Otherwise Specified). In layman's terms, this is a sort of catch-all diagnosis that falls under the category in the DSM-IV of Pervasive Developmental Disorders, that includes Autism, Asperger's, Rett Syndrome, Childhood Disintegrative Disorder and...PDD-NOS. My understanding is that a child would receive this diagnosis when he doesn't meet the qualifications for either Autism or Asperger's, but shows significantly impaired social skills, rigid thinking, unexplained anxiety, and other symptoms of classic Autism or Asperger's.
How did we get to this new diagnosis? Well, we've wondered for a number of years why M didn't "look" like other medicated kids with ADHD. Even if you didn't know my kid and had never observed his class before, you'd be able to pick him out as a kid who is different from his peers, even if you didn't know his diagnosis. And this difference has only gotten worse as he's aged. A few weeks ago, we were at the psychiatrist's office for our regularly scheduled ADHD medication checkup, and M mentioned something to me that was way out of the ordinary, and which also clearly and undeniably outlined his level of anxiety in a way we had never seen it. I'm sure he'd mentioned similar things to what he talked about that day at the psychiatrist's office before, but it had never been in such a succinct way...it had never made me stop in my tracks and think "oh holy shit, this isn't good." I'd never gotten that from him before. I'm glad it happened while we were at the psychiatrist's office, because we ended up spending about an hour there, and he was the first to mention PDD-NOS as a possibility for M never looking like other medicated ADHD kids.
We'd had a large battery of psychological and educational testing done the year before, so I called the lady who did that testing and told her what the psychiatrist said. She immediately recognized that it was likely M would fit that diagnosis, even going to far as to tell me that it was not unusual for older kids, like M, to gain this diagnosis; nor was it unusual for it to include a high level of anxiety. A week or so after that conversation we went to see her for 1 additional rating scale and for her to speak with M. I called a week later and she said that he definitely fit the diagnosis for PDD-NOS with anxiety...so here we are.
Before we saw the lady who did the testing, thus still not sure of a diagnosis, I had filled out an application for M to be evaluated over at TEACCH in Chapel Hill. Autism and Autism Spectrum Disorders is their thing, so I figured having him evaluated there would be great...they are experts in the diagnosis of, research on ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorders). I think it takes at least a month to even get a call back, and I just couldn't wait that long, so we went ahead with the additional testing elsewhere. I still want TEACCH to evaluate him, but I'm going to call them and see what the procedure will be since we now have a PDD-NOS diagnosis.
At this point, with 4 days of the school year left and about 3 weeks until the new school year starts, I'm not too concerned with starting any new methods of teaching with him. I am still feeling my way around learning about PDD-NOS and how it actually applies to him, what behaviors are attributable to it and how to deal with them appropriately. I am certain we will be using Carol Gray's Social Stories as part of our curriculum for next year, as well as other methods of instilling in him those skills in which is he deficient (social skills are at the top of that list, but also things like organization, time management, etc). I will also continue to look for interesting and hands on approaches to teaching him, as that is what he likes and responds to with interest. I have a list of things he wants to study, which is wonderful because we will be going back to the Unit Study approach that we started our initial homeschooling year with. We got side-tracked with trying to do character education with him, and I got stuck in a rut with having him do worksheets and things that were not very hands on. It made for a tough time for me as a teacher, but more importantly, for him as a student.
He's going to a YMCA camp for 2 weeks (just during the day) for kids like him, and they will have lots of fun and learn about social skills (this will be his 3rd time doing something based on social skills...maybe this time some of it will stick!). I'm hoping to use that time to get my curriculum mapped out and put together, as well as catching up on making jewelry. I'm also going to be figuring out a reward program for my younger son (going into 3rd grade). It's tough for him because he has homework to do when he gets home and M doesn't, because M does all his schoolwork during school. So our therapist suggested doing something for him to show him that the work he does for school is recognized and just as important as what M does at home for his school. To show him that even though things may seem unequal, in reality they are different.
Ah...there's that word again. d i f f e r e n t
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
First school day of the new year!
...and it hasn't been half bad!
Today I started my "No excuse for abuse" campaign with M. I don't know if I told you all, but a few months ago I ordered The Total Transformation, and that is one of, if not the, main ideas of the program. We talked about what abuse looks like and what it doesn't look like. He wasn't very interested, and at one point got up and half-erased the white board. But after that he started talking a bit more about it.
We've decided so far that abuse is yelling at each other, not being attentive to the other, and walking out of the room without asking or saying where you are going (being rude). What is not abusive is speaking nicely, using nice body language, acknowledging when another person has talked to you, asking to do things.
It's a work in progress.
We also put up the numbers for our timeline. He wrote the numbers on a piece of paper and I hung the pages up around the room. Every time we study something in history, we will make an index card up with details of that something and hang the card under the year. I thought this would be a good way to be more visual with him.
Over the break, I read some of The Out of Sync Child Has Fun again because I wanted to find ways that would work with our school for him to get some of the sensory input that he needs. So today was our day for making paint, glue/glitter bags. Basically, you take a ziploc bag, throw some glue and glitter or paint in it, zip it up and let the kid "paint" with it, squeeze it or whatever he can think to do with it. It's called "no mess painting" and can also be used with kids who don't like to get messy. M is NOT one of those kids. He loves to put glue on his hands, let it dry and pick it off (I like to too, if we are being honest).
For Math today, M had decided to do some worksheets in a workbook. But I cleaned out the hall closet while he was taking a break and found our tangrams. So instead of worksheets, he did hands on geometry. Today was easy stuff...using the pieces to duplicate shapes on the cards that came with the set. Tomorrow it will be something more difficult, like making a house of his own design.
Yesterday we went to Stone's Education Superstore and used our $60 worth of Groupon certificates. That was fun! I got a couple lesson books, a hangy-uppy thing for more visuals for him, glue, paint, glitter and a couple of teachers guides for books. I'm rather excited about those. In fact, right now I'm waiting for a shipment from gohastings.com of a book I ordered called from the mixed up files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. I had gotten a teachers guide a while ago at The Homeschool Gathering Place for that book, and now I can't wait to use it.
Tomorrow I think we will start our Citizenship lesson (which will be about 4 weeks long), teach him how to clean a bathroom (he's become a whiz at doing laundry), do some daily 6 trait writing, and then Math of some sort. I'm pretty lenient on the math right now...we're still doing review work, then we'll start something new probably at the end of this week or beginning of next.
So we didn't do a huge amount of what most would call "school work," but we did enough that I am satisfied. I really need to get out of the mindset of thinking that only written work is school work. As long as he's learning, he's in school. Just because it isn't "school" like most think of school doesn't mean he's not learning. After all, isn't that the reason I decided to homeschool him? To get away from that whole "school" mentality? Conundrum. :)
Today I started my "No excuse for abuse" campaign with M. I don't know if I told you all, but a few months ago I ordered The Total Transformation, and that is one of, if not the, main ideas of the program. We talked about what abuse looks like and what it doesn't look like. He wasn't very interested, and at one point got up and half-erased the white board. But after that he started talking a bit more about it.
We've decided so far that abuse is yelling at each other, not being attentive to the other, and walking out of the room without asking or saying where you are going (being rude). What is not abusive is speaking nicely, using nice body language, acknowledging when another person has talked to you, asking to do things.
It's a work in progress.
We also put up the numbers for our timeline. He wrote the numbers on a piece of paper and I hung the pages up around the room. Every time we study something in history, we will make an index card up with details of that something and hang the card under the year. I thought this would be a good way to be more visual with him.
Over the break, I read some of The Out of Sync Child Has Fun again because I wanted to find ways that would work with our school for him to get some of the sensory input that he needs. So today was our day for making paint, glue/glitter bags. Basically, you take a ziploc bag, throw some glue and glitter or paint in it, zip it up and let the kid "paint" with it, squeeze it or whatever he can think to do with it. It's called "no mess painting" and can also be used with kids who don't like to get messy. M is NOT one of those kids. He loves to put glue on his hands, let it dry and pick it off (I like to too, if we are being honest).
For Math today, M had decided to do some worksheets in a workbook. But I cleaned out the hall closet while he was taking a break and found our tangrams. So instead of worksheets, he did hands on geometry. Today was easy stuff...using the pieces to duplicate shapes on the cards that came with the set. Tomorrow it will be something more difficult, like making a house of his own design.
Yesterday we went to Stone's Education Superstore and used our $60 worth of Groupon certificates. That was fun! I got a couple lesson books, a hangy-uppy thing for more visuals for him, glue, paint, glitter and a couple of teachers guides for books. I'm rather excited about those. In fact, right now I'm waiting for a shipment from gohastings.com of a book I ordered called from the mixed up files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. I had gotten a teachers guide a while ago at The Homeschool Gathering Place for that book, and now I can't wait to use it.
Tomorrow I think we will start our Citizenship lesson (which will be about 4 weeks long), teach him how to clean a bathroom (he's become a whiz at doing laundry), do some daily 6 trait writing, and then Math of some sort. I'm pretty lenient on the math right now...we're still doing review work, then we'll start something new probably at the end of this week or beginning of next.
So we didn't do a huge amount of what most would call "school work," but we did enough that I am satisfied. I really need to get out of the mindset of thinking that only written work is school work. As long as he's learning, he's in school. Just because it isn't "school" like most think of school doesn't mean he's not learning. After all, isn't that the reason I decided to homeschool him? To get away from that whole "school" mentality? Conundrum. :)
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Frustration
I am really frustrated right now. I want to do this...I really really do. But M has to have some stake in this too. Something that makes him want to be homeschooled. The more I think about this, the more I think that I'm being wrong-headed in thinking that he should wantto be homeschooled. I want it, and that's that. He's 10, so is it really his responsibility to want to be schooled? No. He has to go to school, no matter the location. Do kids his age really want to go to school? Likely not.
Ok, so moving right along...
Part of the reason I didn't want to start HSing him until January is because of exactly what's happening. M's little brother is in public school and he's been tracked out for 3 weeks (went back 12/5) and then will be on holiday break on 12/21. So basically 12 school days between the 2 breaks. I don't teach M while J is tracked out or on holiday...it wouldn't work. So these 12 days, now 5 days, have been more about home learning than academic learning. The problem is that I still feel that push...guilt almost...to work on academic stuff. I just attempted to introduce a lesson on social skills and that went nowhere. M was unresponsive or quietly responsive when we were talking about emotions and feelings, and it left me really really frustrated with him and with the situation. I guess this is where I have to remind myself that homeschooling is not always going to fun or interesting to him, but there are things that he HAS to learn whether he wants to or not. And social skills is one of those things.
I feel explosive right now...like *something* must change or my head will explode. I get this way sometimes...when I am frustrated to the point of screaming. This frustration, though, comes a bit from the situation described above, but more so because my child didn't do his chores last week, one of which is keeping the cat litter clean. I told him to clean it and change the cat pad (we have one of those Breeze boxes where the cat pees, but it all goes through these little holes in the box down to a drawer that has an absorbent pad in it). He pulled the drawer out and the whole thing was pull of pee...and it got everywhere. By everywhere, I mean all over my carpet around where the cat litter box is, as well as wherever else he dripped it when moving the drawer into the bathroom to clean it. He DOESN'T PAY ATTENTION. If he had. much of this mess could have been avoided. But that's the nature of his disability, so I can't really be angry AT him. I'm really angry about the situation...and the cat. Actually, if he had done his chores last week, ALL of this could have been avoided. But that's partly my fault. I've gotten into the habit of reminding the kids to do their chores, and sometimes even paying them when they don't do them. :O No more. We are turning over a new leaf of following through. Chores will be done, playroom will be kept clean and they will pick up after themselves (food, dishes, clothes, toys, etc) or no chore money will be given. NONE. I'm tired of it and I feel like a broken record. So perhaps money is the currency to which they will listen. In other words, they may get NONE.
I know that I also feel angry or frustrated when I'm not prepared or organized, or I don't feel good about a lesson I'm going to do. So over the next couple of weeks, I need to take a hard look at what I want to teach and find interesting ways to teach it. I really need to get out of the mindset of him having to learn things in a certain amount of time, and just do what it takes to keep him interested in most of the lessons we do. That may mean more walks outside talking about social studies, more visual things like handouts or writing on the whiteboard (that hubs brought home for us last week!) or even silly stuff like dancing while we work. I know what doesn't work, now I need to find what does work.
And I have to balance all this with keeping my business afloat and items going out the door, as well as finding new business.
I can do it...I just have to figure out how. :)
Ok, so moving right along...
Part of the reason I didn't want to start HSing him until January is because of exactly what's happening. M's little brother is in public school and he's been tracked out for 3 weeks (went back 12/5) and then will be on holiday break on 12/21. So basically 12 school days between the 2 breaks. I don't teach M while J is tracked out or on holiday...it wouldn't work. So these 12 days, now 5 days, have been more about home learning than academic learning. The problem is that I still feel that push...guilt almost...to work on academic stuff. I just attempted to introduce a lesson on social skills and that went nowhere. M was unresponsive or quietly responsive when we were talking about emotions and feelings, and it left me really really frustrated with him and with the situation. I guess this is where I have to remind myself that homeschooling is not always going to fun or interesting to him, but there are things that he HAS to learn whether he wants to or not. And social skills is one of those things.
I feel explosive right now...like *something* must change or my head will explode. I get this way sometimes...when I am frustrated to the point of screaming. This frustration, though, comes a bit from the situation described above, but more so because my child didn't do his chores last week, one of which is keeping the cat litter clean. I told him to clean it and change the cat pad (we have one of those Breeze boxes where the cat pees, but it all goes through these little holes in the box down to a drawer that has an absorbent pad in it). He pulled the drawer out and the whole thing was pull of pee...and it got everywhere. By everywhere, I mean all over my carpet around where the cat litter box is, as well as wherever else he dripped it when moving the drawer into the bathroom to clean it. He DOESN'T PAY ATTENTION. If he had. much of this mess could have been avoided. But that's the nature of his disability, so I can't really be angry AT him. I'm really angry about the situation...and the cat. Actually, if he had done his chores last week, ALL of this could have been avoided. But that's partly my fault. I've gotten into the habit of reminding the kids to do their chores, and sometimes even paying them when they don't do them. :O No more. We are turning over a new leaf of following through. Chores will be done, playroom will be kept clean and they will pick up after themselves (food, dishes, clothes, toys, etc) or no chore money will be given. NONE. I'm tired of it and I feel like a broken record. So perhaps money is the currency to which they will listen. In other words, they may get NONE.
I know that I also feel angry or frustrated when I'm not prepared or organized, or I don't feel good about a lesson I'm going to do. So over the next couple of weeks, I need to take a hard look at what I want to teach and find interesting ways to teach it. I really need to get out of the mindset of him having to learn things in a certain amount of time, and just do what it takes to keep him interested in most of the lessons we do. That may mean more walks outside talking about social studies, more visual things like handouts or writing on the whiteboard (that hubs brought home for us last week!) or even silly stuff like dancing while we work. I know what doesn't work, now I need to find what does work.
And I have to balance all this with keeping my business afloat and items going out the door, as well as finding new business.
I can do it...I just have to figure out how. :)
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