The New School Year

It's here.  Well, it's been here for a while, actually.  We're still homeschooling, and we're still liking it.  I like it more this year than ever.  The kids are having a great time.  I'm seeing progress in lots of areas, and we're staying busy!  So busy in fact that blogging isn't really on my mind much.  But I would like to blog more about homeschooling with a child with special needs.  It's a challenge for sure, and not every day looks productive.  In fact some days I feel like "regress" rather than "progress" is made.

Then my child will amaze me by demonstrating some skill or memory that I had no idea had stuck in that adorable little head.

We're beginning a new journey next week.  I get to meet with someone at a local school to help develop an IEP for Isaiah.  I'm nervous.  I'm excited about the extra resources that will become available to us, but I'm nervous.  I'm praying for wisdom for lots of reasons, but basically it boils down to this:

Father, I want to do what is best for my child.  I don't want to worry about what people will think of me as a mother, a woman, a teacher.  I want to remember that what is best for my child is that setting, that lesson, that interaction that will encourage his heart to love You more and to serve other people.  Amen.

I'd appreciate prayers, friends.  And if you've gone down this road or are walking it now, I'd love your input.

Another Start

So, we're starting school this week.  We kind of did this morning, though I didn't tell the kids.  We played games with our new My Father's World curriculum.  I felt happy when Nadia kept saying, "I want to do this AGAIN!"

So this year we're using Rod and Staff preschool workbooks, My Father's World preschool "curriculum" (it's mostly fun toys, so I use "curriculum" loosely) and the alphabet.  We'll continue to read from our Bibles for Bible time, and we'll get as much outside time as possible while there's still nice weather.

Our second week of school will be full of adventure as grandparents are coming to visit.

This year my goals are simple:  Interact with my littles as much as possible, Encourage Isaiah's communication skills, Try to help Nadia get out as much energy as possible.

You may or may not read periodic updates on what we're doing, so keep your expectations low.  I'm going to go clean the guest room.

As I type this Nadia is "sleeping" and apparently did something she knows isn't allowed because she's saying "Sorry 'bout that, Mommy" over and over.  Maybe I can get the desk cleaned up before she decides there's no way she's staying in bed any longer.  Isaiah's completely content it sounds as he listens to his beloved Piper.

Week in Review - Week 17

We had a busy week getting back into routine with appointments and therapies and everything.  We started Monday School, finally made it back to therapy and had our first dental appointments.

The kids were both thrilled to go to school!  All the way home they chanted, "More school!".  I have to admit that the co-op stretches me, but as long as my children love it, then I'll do everything I can to make it happen for them.

At home I found it difficult to get a groove of school going.  Monday was "shot" with Monday school in the morning and Isaiah's flush in the afternoon, but then, we DID go to Monday School, right?  

Tuesday we had fun with some new Math Squares that a new friend has shared with us and then therapies in the afternoon.  Nadia LOVES these squares.  She stuffs them in her pockets before we go anywhere.  I have to make sure they don't end up in the laundry. 

We haven't employed their intended use yet, but we've used them for lots of other learning like colors, sorting, counting (which I guess is part of their purpose), stacking (fine motor).

Wednesday we finally had Isaiah's birthday party at our local bowling alley!  We all had a blast, including the birthday boy!  

Thursday morning we sang a lot and then went to the dentist.  Friday school time was spent cleaning up a painting fiasco created by Mr. Gadget Arms and his lovely accomplice with the afternoon taken up with usual activities.  We did manage to get in a walk though!

So that left today.  But I think the kids were very much pleased with today's school.  Since they managed to spare some paint from their adventures yesterday, we painted our feet (well, I painted their feet) in honor of our book of the week The Foot Book by none other than Dr. Seuss, appropriate don't you think, in celebration of his birthday.

After the footprints, I let the kids paint what they wanted.  And Isaiah decided his tummy needed a new look.

He did also paint some paper.  Check out that paint brush grip!  His fine motor skills have taken a huge leap in the last couple months.

Isaiah's footprints.  His right foot really is all one piece, but it has an odd shape.

Nadia LOVES to paint.  She repainted her feet, and her hands, and lots of paper.  She also loved the clean up process.  I think she played in the bowl of water almost as long as she painted!

So that was week 17 for us.  A whirlwind, but lots of fun!  Check out ABC Jesus Loves Me for some great ideas for spending learning time with your kids!

Week in Review - Week 16

And sickness struck again in the form of RSV and stomach bug.  So yet again, not a whole of lot concentrated schooling, but we did manage to have a lot of fun once we started to feel better.

Here was the game plan, but we branched out some with a little more child-led learning.
Theme/Lesson:  Jesus Became Man
Bible Story:  Shepherds Worship Jesus
Memory Verse:  God is love.  I John 4:8
Poem:  Five Little Bells
Song:  I'm His Little Lamb
Book of the Week:  Ten Little Fish
Letters:  Q-S
Numbers: 1-5
Color:  Brown, Purple
Shape:  Triangle
Self-care & Manners:  Washing Hands
Information:  Mom's Name
Fine Motor:  Kiss cookies
Gross Motor:  Jump

We were thankful to start the week out last week with some beautiful weather, so we tried to take advantage of every opportunity to get out and enjoy the fresh air and work on those gross motor skills outside!

The circle around our apartments is about 1/3 of a mile, and the kids were so excited to be outside that they each moved with great speed!  Nadia ran and jumped pretty much the whole way, and Isaiah did almost all the pushing, even up the inclines!  We were so ready to be outside, even if only for a couple days!  Nadia's jumping is getting better.  She gets her right foot off the ground and her left heel.  We're thankful to see progress towards her physical therapy goals.  Isaiah jumps by popping wheelies in his chair, and he's an old pro!

Got to be honest, I'm having a hard time at the library finding the kids' books.  I just can't seem to figure out the system and find the books that I need.  Maybe I should look a few weeks ahead and put things on hold for the coming weeks.  But first I'd like for us to stay healthy long enough for me to go to the library!  All that to say, I don't have Ten Little Fish, so we've had fun reading other books.  We did color and paint some fish and pointed out fish in other books we read.

Since we're rather behind on the lesson themes, I've just been reading through the kids' Bible with them.  Right now our sections to read matched up with the theme of the school lesson, so that worked out really well.

Nadia loved our verse this week.  It is now known as "John song".

Our main activities this week were painting with purple and then making kiss cookies, though not at the same time because that would just be really messy.

I was so excited to see Isaiah doing handprints all on his own!  In the past I've had to help him hold his hands open and press them flat on the paper.  He did this all by himself this time!

The kids were a big help when making the kiss cookies!  I had no idea that Isaiah would be so good at unwrapping the kisses, showing me his great fine motor skills improving!  But then, when chocolate motivates!

He snuck a kiss before I even knew he had one open!

The cookies turned out great, of course, and I had some very willing taste testers!

The kids practiced their cutting more this week as well.  They both really enjoy using the scissors, and I managed to find some that are safe and provide just enough "help" for kids with developing hand strength.

We had a great time this week playing outside and following part of the regular lesson plan.

The coming weeks are full with co-op starting and Isaiah's coming surgery and lots of appointments.  

For more fun ideas be sure to check out ABC Jesus Loves Me!

Well...

We were off to such a nice start last week.  I made plans, the kids had fun, we seemed to be getting back on track.  Sigh.

The official plans are put on hold again as we focus on numbers like 102-105, watching Nadia's temperature go up and down.  Thankfully she just has a virus, and she doesn't seem to be sharing.  We've been doing as many fun things as we can while she tries to get better.  It's amazing how much counting you can do when you have no energy!

So, hopefully next week we'll get back into the curriculum again.  But I'm so thankful that I'm not bound to that right now.  We are learning and growing together.  We're able to read lots and talk about things and count and learn colors and, well, just learn as we live and try to get better!

Forgive the rambling of this post.  I'm rather sleep deprived.  I used to get up with her all the time in the night just a year or so ago, but now it's so much harder.  Why is that?

We'll keep plugging along.  Any advice for how to get started again well after so many interruptions?  I can use any great ideas that you have to offer!

Week 15 - Week in Review

Well, well, well.  Here we are again at last.  We had a wonderful Christmas break followed by a great respite retreat with The Elisha Foundation followed by 2 weeks of awful sickness.  So our break ended up being quite a bit longer than I had expected, but now we're back.  We, of course, did lots of learning in the mean time, when we were able to move around and not have fevers and such that is; but it's nice to be back into a routine at last.

Theme/Lesson:  Jesus Became Man

Bible Story:  Jesus is born

Memory Verse:  I John 4:8 God is love.

Poem:  Mary Had a Little Lamb

Song:  Away in a Manger

Book of the Week:  Brown Bear, Brown Bear What do You See?

Letter: Q-S

Number: 1-5

Self-care & Manners:  "Excuse me"

Information:  Mom's name

Color:  Brown

Shape:  Star

Fine Motor:  Squeeze water from sponge

Gross Motor:  Memory obstacle course

We were able to overlap several of the goals this week, which made it more fun for me!  We played with play-doh using star cookie cutters.  Great for shape learning and fine motor skills.

We did lots of counting, even using an abacus, which turned out to be a favorite toy this week.

We counted 5 cotton balls into a brown paper bag.  I had to cut the bags shorter for the kids, so we made brown paper crowns with the tops of the bags.  Isaiah looks quite kingly, don't you think?

I think the very favorite activity was a star hunt.  I made and laminated five small stars.  I hid them around the apartment and the kids hunted for them.  It was a huge hit!  

Nadia tried hiding the stars, too, which ended up being an interesting version of hide and seek with her running off with the stars then jumping out and shouting "Boo!" followed by uncontrollable giggles from her and brother.

We also practiced scooping and counting with the cotton balls.  Thankfully the kids didn't confuse the cotton balls with ice cream in the ice cream bowls!

Unexpectedly we tried out cutting with scissors.  Both the kids did really, really well!  I held the paper for both of them.  Isaiah couldn't quite keep his balance while holding the paper and cutting; I think cutting took so much concentration that he couldn't focus on both.  Nadia just didn't know what she was doing well enough yet.  But I was super excited with how well they both did.

Favorite of the week:

The kids were watching the home movie of our Christmas day when Nadia stood by Isaiah and draped her arm around his shoulders.  These two are quite the pair!

We're really "behind" the plan for ABC Jesus Loves Me in some ways, but we are having fun and making progress.  To see what other people are doing with this and other curriculum from this great site be sure to visit by clicking here!

A Month in Review

We've been busy with school, but life's been too busy to write about school.  Here's a taste of what we've been up to learning, mostly in pictures; there's just so much to share that I figured I'd let the pictures tell the story.

Colors, shapes, fine motor skills, counting, we can do so much with construction paper and glue!

Tearing paper to make a blue and purple kite

Happy to tear paper! (he just doesn't know it's also good for strengthening those hands!)

Gluing the kite together

Stickers are really popular with these two

Both the kids can count to four, sometimes independently, sometimes needing a little assistance.  It's lots of fun to hear their little voices.  

We've been able to add some gross motor, walking with Isaiah!

Isaiah is really into the color yellow lately.  Sometimes his color recognition kind of comes and goes, but it's definitely expanding.  When he's "on" he can get red, blue, green, yellow and even orange!  In this picture you can see the "stop light" that I made for the kids to practice matching, identifying and counting colors.  Nadia really enjoyed it and played with it several times.  Isaiah matched the colors just right!  He can match his colors almost 100% of the time.  

"The Wheels on the Bus" was a book one week, but we have the real thing!  This bus "sings" the fun song

Once, while painting, Nadia fell out of her chair.  (she was fine, don't panic)  She started crying more when I tried to comfort her because she thought I was going to make her stop painting!  As soon as she got back to work, she immediately calmed down.

Painting, painting, painting.  We've been doing lots and lots of projects with painting.

Shh, it's a surprise!

And lots of play-doh!  

We've enjoyed some great play dates with our new friends, too!  We are so thankful for the new friends God has brought into our lives.

There's so much more I could tell you, but that's all for now.  We're officially on break, and I'm looking forward to planning more fun learning for next year.  Maybe I'll even make the time to share our learning, but don't hold your breath.  Just know we're having fun!

Merry Christmas!

Week in Review - Week 8

This was a slower week for schooling, and I can't even tell you why, but we seemed extra busy with life in general.  Anyway, here were our goals:

Theme/Lesson:  Thank You, God, for Making Me

Bible Story:  Creation - Day 6 People

Memory Verse:  Psalm 139:14  You made me in an amazing and wonderful way.

Poem:  Where is Thumbkin?

Song:  Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes

Book of the Week:  Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

Letter: L-P

Number: 1-4

Self-care & Manners:  Undress Self and Name Clothing

Fine Motor:  Pick up things with thumb and index finger

Color:  Purple

Shape:  Triangle

Information:  First, Middle, Last name

Gross Motor:  Crawl and climb over large pillows or cushions

Monday was our last day of Monday School for this term.  Isaiah and Nadia both had a blast at Monday School (and that's an understatement).  The time with the other kids helped Nadia learn how to have fun without Mama having to be there, yet she was always extremely happy to see me again!  Isaiah continued to learn how to interact appropriately with other kids his age.  He LOVES to be with other boys. 

At home we actually almost accomplished all our goals!  I can hardly believe it.

While learning about how God made people, we glued pictures of people from magazines onto purple paper (yes, multitasking).  We get a magazine from Compassion International, and I love how I was able to get pictures of people from all over the world!

Both the kids did well with counting to 4.  Isaiah has been able to string numbers together with a little assistance for a while now, but this week was the first time that he obviously counted objects!  He touched each apple as he counted all 4 of them!  I was so excited!

We found Chicka Chicka Boom Boom at the library, thankfully.  It was a smaller version of the book, which I think worked better for us.  I made palm trees and letter cards that we enjoyed playing with.  I tried to focus on the letters L-P, but we really just looked at all the letters.  I found the letters that I used here, and the tree here.  I love that the ABC Jesus Loves Me curriculum already has all the links for me!  I'm not very good at searching for things online.

We colored lots and lots this week.  I tried to get them to color with purple crayons and markers as much as possible to introduce this new color.  We colored lots of purple triangles, and Nadia identified a triangle at the end of the week!  They both still need prompting on the color purple.

Isaiah and his classmates got to tell all the parents from our co-op about the days of creation.  They did a great job at our Showcase!

At the end of the week, both kids were sick, so I was easy on them as far as school went.  The did get lots of fine motor practice though as they did one of their favorite activities:  Playing with marbles and buttons.  They did this for a LONG time!

We didn't do a whole lot of crawling, but both the kids had their different therapies this week, so we're working on gross motor skills, believe me!

Each week the kids get better at trying to sing our verse with me.  I LOVE it! (have I used caps lock enough yet in this post?)  I can't wait to see how God blesses their efforts in learning His word.

And now a few of my favorite pics from the week:

On our last day of Monday School, I took in a special treat for Isaiah's class.  I love that Isaiah got right down to business:  Why bother taking the time to pick this cookie up when it comes ready made for biting?

These two love each other more every day, I'm convinced of it!

You can tell by her face that Nadia is squeezing her brother will all her might!

Right back at ya, sis!

Review Week (with videos - Grandparents, you're welcome)

playdough, squares, blue, red, clothes to laundry room

This week was a scheduled review week, so I'm not going to list off all the things that we were reviewing because it was a lot!  Basically what I tried to do was get all the fun activities in that we weren't able to do during the other "regular" weeks (as if there is such a thing as a regular week).

We had some nice weather this week, so we enjoyed some outside play time, even if it was confined to the back porch.

We reviewed our animals:

Nadia was very excited about coloring this duck

Isaiah was all about Gonzo and the chickens

 To review colors we played our Candyland "bingo" game.  I've never noticed this, but Isaiah was able to match the colors!  He didn't always name them correctly, but he could match them about 90% of the time.  Hooray!

We worked on shapes and colors with playdough on the back porch.

More animal and circle review and fine motor development with stickers.  These were really hard to get off the sticker paper, so I finally realized I could stick them around the edges of his tray, which worked really well.

And what week would be complete without glue?  We not only played with glue inside the square, but we also glued popsicle sticks together to make squares.  We'll save them for later to paint.  Both the kids really liked this activity.

And if a picture is worth 1000 words, then I thought perhaps some videos would be worth even more.  Or at least the grandparents should enjoy them.

So, here's a video of Isaiah helping with his memory verse:  I Thessalonians 2:13 "Give thanks to God."



Nadia knows her verse, too; though you can see that her attention span is definitely that of a two-year-old.  This makes me laugh.



I realize not everyone can understand two-year-old speak, but I don't have time to make a transcript.  Just take my word for it, she really did say the verse on that very first line.

One of our songs was Jesus Loves Me.  Isaiah's been working on this for a while with his grandpa with a slight variation to the traditional wording.  Besides getting a little distracted by his sister (who can only stay out of the camera for so long), he does a great job!



We've been working on first and last names.  Isaiah knows this really well, but Nadia just can't seem to get past the fact that she's "Sister".  Every once in a while she'll say that sister's name is Nadia, but we can't quite capture the moment.  Anyway, this one has a sweet ending that I can't resist sharing.

Week in Review - Week 7

And we're back to rockin' through our week.  We had so much fun this week, and the kids really learned a lot about animals, which is really fun for mama!  We've got a shorter post this week with fewer pictures because my hands were pretty busy, way too busy to hold a camera.

Theme/Lesson:  God Made the Animals

Bible Story:  Creation - Day 6 (farm animals)

Memory Verse:  Give thanks to God.  - I Thessalonians 2:13

Poem:  Little Bo-Peep

Song:  Jesus Loves Me

Book of the Week:  Old MacDonald Had a Farm

Letter:  H-K

Number: 1-3

Color:  Green, Yellow

Shape:  Circle

Self-care & Manners:  Pick up Toys

Information:  First and Last Name

Fine Motor:  Finger paint

Gross Motor:  Roll ball on the floor

We found all the animals that we have (toys, of course), and played  with them A LOT!  We kept them in a big blue box and did all kinds of games with them.  The kids can now name all these different animals and even make most of the sounds.

Nadia decided she wanted to be closer to the animals

I couldn't find Old MacDonald Had a Farm, but we read lots and lots of other books!  Big Red Barn was our main book, but we also read Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?; Good Night, Gorilla; Moo, Baa, La, La, La; Let's Go the the Zoo!; A Children's Zoo; and Amazing Animals Wild Animals (a Dollar Tree find!)  The kids were excited to read this week, maybe because we "found" all kinds of different places to read, like under tables and buried in animals and such.

In the midst of our homeschool activities, we're always working on skills his different therapists have told me to work on.  Isaiah's lately fairly determined to put things down his shirt.  I've been told this is a "boy thing".  So, naturally, where did the animals often go?

And I finally caught him using both hands at the same time!  This is great to show how his core strength is increasing.

I've pulled out some alphabet cards that we've just been playing with them, and the kids have occasionally identified their letters correctly.  They are both counting to 3, and delight fills me when I hear them counting on their own!

Thankfully both the kids LOVE helping, so picking up toys is lots of fun.  

Perhaps one of the funnest activities of the week was bowling.  Not just any old bowling, however.  The kids had to roll a ball down the hallway to bowl over mama, and they loved it!  Then they took turns sitting in my lap getting bowled over by their sibling.  Definitely have to repeat - lots of laughter, and great for my abs.

At the end of the week we were actually able to have some school outside!  The kids enjoyed painting and coloring.

Finger painting on a whole new level - part of a secret surprise, shhh!

We finished the day with coloring Kermit, and Isaiah was so enthusiastic that he did the best job coloring that I have ever seen!

You can see other great ideas at ABC Jesus Loves Me.

Week in Review - Week 6ish

As life gets back to normal, we're once again getting our school routine back.  Daddy is home, grandparents are gone and life is looking more familiar.  I like routine.  I like doing things differently for a while, but it's comforting to me to have a routine to which we can return.  Routine helps me feel less overwhelmed.

So, we only officially did school (besides Monday school) one day this week, and it was Saturday! (oh, the horror!)  It worked well in our schedule though, and the kids don't really know the difference.  The rain has definitely become the norm in the Pacific Northwest, so we needed some fun indoor Saturday things to do any way.

Here's the lesson plan, in case you're interested.

Theme/Lesson:  God Made the Animals

Bible Story:  Creation - Day 6 (zoo animals)

Memory Verse:  Give thanks to God.  - I Thessalonians 2:13

Poem:  The Itsy, Bitsy Spider

Song:  Praise Him

Book of the Week:  Good Night, Gorilla

Letter:  H-K

Number: 1-3

Color:  Green

Shape:  Square

Self-care & Manners:  Place dirty clothes in laundry

Information:  First and Last Name

Fine Motor:  Play with play dough

Gross Motor:  Jump up to hit balloon

We got a head start on this theme a couple weeks ago with Grandpa and Gran when we enjoyed a trip to the Portland Zoo.  The kids are both getting really good at identifying their animals.  I also found this great book A Children's Zoo by Tana Hoban at the library.  Both the kids really enjoy this book.  We've already renewed it once!  The pictures are fantastic and there are very few words.  The back page is a chart of each animal with more specific information for parents.  This is definitely going on the Christmas wish list.

For our Day 6 craft we continued with the circles, but we were able to "multi-learn" as we used Green circles, introducing our color of the week.  I found some old stickers of different animals, so we took a break from glue and enjoyed some sticker action.

Nadia had to be right beside brother.  Thankfully he tolerated her attentions well for a while.

Showing off their work

Not all the stickers were completely accurate portrayals of what animals look like, but I think the kids got the general idea as they successfully identified each animal.

Next they colored their circles a little bit.  Isaiah has been working really hard in OT.  He seems to genuinely enjoy doing more with his hands in the fine motor skills area.

Isaiah decided he needed some space, and he wanted his own tray

 Nadia decided to color a giraffe instead of her circle.  She was quite intent on coloring his nose.  Giraffes are definitely her favorite animal right now.

Both kids enjoy Good Night, Gorilla, which I am pleased to report I found at one of those mega kid sales for a great deal!  We name the animals as they follow the night guard out of the zoo and then his wife back into the zoo.  Besides the armadillo and the hyena, they both have all the animals down cold. Yeah, armadillo and hyena weren't really on my priority list of animals to learn right away.

While they've both enjoyed me singing our memory verse the past several weeks, this week I'm very proud to say that they are both joining me in singing our new verse!  Nadia can almost sing the whole thing, and they both do a great job adding "God" when I wait for them at the end of the line!  Woohoo!

I'm enjoying teaching the kids the "old" songs (as my mama likes to call them), the songs I learned growing up, like Praise Him.  They're getting the rhythm of it even if they don't sing along, and they request for me to sing it again and again and again, and, well, you get the idea.

Nadia loves to take the laundry to the washing machine for me, and both kids help get the clean clothes out of the dryer.  We've been working on that for a while, so I think we can mark that as "successful".

I'm still not great at introducing so many letters at one time, but I'm getting some ideas.  We have been working on our counting though.  Both the kids did well gluing on their 3 apples to our apple tree number worksheet.

To finish the day yesterday, we made a tent with chairs and a quilt in our living room.  And of course when you're camping you must have marshmallows!  I gave each kid a cup and they could have as many marshmallows as they could count, but I only let them count to 3.  I mean, we still had supper to eat after all.

So that was our week, though mostly in a couple days.  I think we'll go ahead and move on to Week 7, since it's several of the same tasks, and both the kids are doing really well with this material.

Have fun learning, and if you want, find lots of great ideas at ABC Jesus Loves Me!