Home School Day at Old Sturbridge Village

We live near an amazing "living" museum, Old Sturbridge Village.  A few times a year they have "Home School Days", with special session in the education building.

I registered the kids-- Amelia, ShanLin, and Leif-- online.  Oddly, there was no box to check for special needs or disabilities.  There was no spot to put a description of what extra help my children might need.  No opportunity for them to think differently about my kids.

 When we filed in with everyone else to join the appropriate group (Stenciling, for my kids), no one looked at them, then looked at me and said, "You'll be staying with them, right?"  Not one question or quizzical look.   No one asked for any special instructions. They didn't even have to call it inclusion.  They were simply kids in the class.

When they were done, the teacher pulled me aside and said Amelia had been an incredible help to her during the class.

Kimberly did a wonderful job of playing with the doll house, blocks, and puppets while her siblings were making note cards.

Afterwards, we had lunch and walked around a bit.  We are members at "The Village", so they have been there a lot and walk around with confidence.

After lunch we went back to the education building for another class; making and cooking pancakes over a fire.  They enjoyed their session, and Kimberly discovered a wooden cow and had even more independent fun...she has quite an imagination!

I have been trying this year to get the kids out to a lot of learning opportunities in the community...story hour, shopping, gym class at Springfield College, and other special (and affordable) home school events.  It is so nice when places, like Old Sturbridge Village, don't bat an eyelash at the quite obvious fact that 4 of the my kids have Down Syndrome and lower their expectations.

Although, it was a little embarrassing when we had breakfast at Cracker Barrel, and Kimberly finished her food, got down and tried to walk into the kitchen with her empty plate.  After all, they clear their own plates at home...

Feeling Blue

Days have been passing so quickly, and it has been three months since I took the time to post here.

Summer has come and gone, and we are well into our home school year.  Amelia has taken off with her reading skills, and I have switched to using Alpha-Phonics with her.  She has a solid basis of hundreds of sight words, and is taking well to phonics now.  Micah is also using Alpha-Phonics (the exact same book I used with Alexander and Zachary, only slightly falling apart), but he is going slower than Amelia.  It will be some time before ShanLin is able to read, and she may never get past a first grade level.

Dante is still doing amazingly well in his special school.  Unfortunately over the Summer he began displaying some more assertive tendencies (I refuse to use the word aggressive just yet), and we are working to see what is going on.  It seems to be a combination of unmet sensory needs and the excessive energy of puberty coming on.

Leif is still his amazing little self.  The other day he took something from Kimberly that she should not have, and when I thanked him he simply said, "Just doing what I have to do".

And Kimberly.  She might be the baby of the family but she makes sure she is busy and doing what everyone else does!

 The other day she helped herself to some paint.

When she could not reach the paper, she simply painted herself.

And then she cleaned it all off.

She does sit still for a few minutes here and there, with one of our pets.

Back in August while we were on vacation, I noticed her night time sleep was fitful and interrupted by gasping for breath.  After nearly three months of appointments and waiting, she had a sleep study done last night at Boston Children's Hospital.

She studied for the Study.

And Daddy reports that she was an excellent patient.  

In a week or so we will have some results and see her ENT.  In the meantime, we will be keeping just as busy and active as we always are....

God is good.

The School Year That Wasn't

I have barely found time to write here this year, and some times I have avoided it. The avoidance is a result of not wanting to sound like I am unhappy with the privilege of homeschooling my children.  However, this year has been anything but what it should have been.

Like most home school moms, I spent August preparing for the perfect school year.  Curricula purchased, routines outlined, objectives in place.  This year will go according to plan.  I know what each of the triplets needs, and Jamie is taking care of Nikita's senior year.  Leif just gets to have fun, and Kimberly has her slew of Early Intervention therapists to help me keep her on track.

Dante has been our only child in public school, and I always felt guilt about that, but with his complex needs I knew I could not home school both him and the triplets.    However he started the school year without an IEP because we had rejected it back in June as inadequate, and come September we still had not been given a new meeting date.  And he was still gluten/dairy free attending a nut free school.  And then he came home with marks on his neck from his car seat being too tight and  I was told to transport him myself until I fixed the seat to fit him.  And still we had no meeting.

So we pulled Dante out to home school, and they could not say good bye and good luck fast enough.

And so ended the year I could do it all and began the year I could not.

I once jokingly told a friend that I don't home school my kids, but rather I create an educational environment and hope something sticks.  I never knew that is what this year would be.

Bringing Dante home did not change my social life, because I do not have one. I had already stopped doing any co-ops or group activities with the kids...it is hard to be excited to go watch your kids get ostracized and be told one more time "we'd love to have your kids participate, as long as you are right there with them". They still had Special Olympics and Sunday School, plus story hour for Leif and Kimberly, and since Zachary and Nikita were still here to help watch Dante, we did get out for little field trips.

Bringing Dante home from public school did change how my time is spent each day, and despite the various routines  I have tried, the revolving door of therapist in and us going out for therapies...plus specialist appointments and family field trips...makes everything quickly fall apart.

So we have learned to do school work here and there, and often when the kids are unaware they are being taught...well unaware they are learning, since I was often with just one while the others were learning together.

Oddly enough, one of Dante's independent therapists- whom he has been seeing for several years- told me that she knows this year has been very stressful for me, but being pulled has been the best thing that ever happened to Dante (based on the progress he has made with her).

So how can I put him back in school next year?

Yet how can I not?

Alexander is in college, but Zachary and Nikita were still home to help.  Then Zachary entered the Navy in December, but Nikita is still home.

She leaves for the Navy in August.

And I will have 3 year old (in September) Kimberly, a very rambunctious 4 year old (in June) Leif, 8 year old Dante significantly impacted by autism and Down Syndrome, and "the triplets", who also have Down Syndrome.

Sure, God is with us and we can certainly do this...but is it really the way we want to go? Dante simply does not do field trips...at least not with Leif running ahead and Micah lagging behind and Kimberly in a stroller and....

I am already tired all the time...home schooling plus working 5 nights a week waitressing , plus housework, gardening, baking/cooking for the family...

So I am waiting on God's brilliant plan for us.  Perhaps Dante will be in school.  Or he can go once a week to get therapies there and that will be our field trip/doctor appointment day.  Or I can hire a teen to go on field trips with us or to stay here with Dante.  Maybe he will be home,  and walking to the playground or library will have to be enough for us next year.

I do know that the falling apart of this year's plans did not mean my kids did not learn, and spending time at the table is not a mandatory part of education.  Flash cards have worked well for teaching reading, and math is incorporated into snack time and play time.  Spending time outside is always good, and the use of iPads is a perfectly acceptable way to learn.

Whether Dante is here or at public school, next year will be the year of fun learning experiences led by Leif, he really gets the kids trying new things and using their imagination...having fun with him being 4 will be one learning experience after another for the triplets and Kimberly.  And just maybe, Dante too.


God is good, even when I am tired.

Art Class

When "The Original Three" (Jamie's term for our oldest three) were little, I bought the first three Draw Write Now books-- all there were at the time.  I found them recently in a box in the closet and decided to start the triplets using them.

They all loved it, and it required no actual artistic ability on my part!

A Leif Amongst the Leaves

October has been such a busy month!  Schooling the kids while working five nights a week is definitely keeping me busy. 

~ Dante has been gluten free this entire month, and in the last two weeks we have been finally seeing some changes.  He is trying to talk more, and hanging out with the family more, instead of just wanting to watch videos on his iPad.
~ Kimberly has glasses now!  She is so adorable, and looks around her in amazement.  Then pulls them off.
~ Kimberly is also sitting up independently.  This is great for her, but we really want to see her crawl.
~ Leif had his right thumb/hand crushed by Amelia when they were practicing some gymnastics, but thankfully nothing was broken!

Last week the triplets and Leif decided to rake some leaves during lunch break.  Not a lot of progress was made in actual clean up, but they had fun!

Leif, Sunny, and Micah were working hard when  Amelia came over and showed them how much fun they could be having!

In the photo below it looks like Amelia has 4 arms, because Sunny happened to be lined up directly behind her.

After they were done "working", it was time for the tire swing.  Amelia is such an amazing big sister, making sure Leif is right there with them.  It is fun now that he is 2+ and able to participate, instead of toddling along wanting to participate.

It was not until we were just about ready to go in that I realize Amelia is wearing two different sneakers!  I bought her and Sunny slightly different pairs so they could tell them apart. (They are different sizes.)

~~~~~~~~~

God is good!

Our Ultimate Field Trip, Part 2

Monday morning we left Pennsylvania and headed for Maryland; our goal was Antietam Battlefield.  In anticipation of this trip, Nikita spent the first three weeks of September studying the Civil War, and this battle in  particular. 

It was a two hour drive, and once there we viewed the inside exhibit with artifacts, then walked around the field outside.  It is sobering to think about how many men (along with woman and children) died at each other's hands in such a short period of time.  To look out at the fields and know that the photos we had just seen inside were of these same fields exactly 150 years ago really brought it home to us. 

Of course, we were in our second day of driving and also took some time to shake off some of the energy that was building up.

We took a small two lane highway from Maryland to West Virginia where we had lunch at Cracker Barrel.  The hostess was raised here in Massachusetts!

After lunch we were back on Route 81 headed to Luray, Virginia.  The ride was absolutely beautiful.

We went to Luray Caverns, where we did not actually even go into the caverns!  While I would have loved to see the Awesomeness of God's Creation on display, I was not going to pay $24 a person to walk through being told they are millions of years old, when instead we could have the hands on fun of the giant Garden Maze and the Ropes Course.  It was such fun!

 (Leif is in the above photo.)

 After all this fun, we drove another hour or so to Harrsionburg Virginia, where we spent Monday night.Tuesday was all about driving, 6 hours down to Fort Jackson.

  We checked in at Weston Lake Recreation Area, a part of Fort Jackson.  Here we would spend the next two nights.  The cabin was beautiful, and right on the water.  Wednesday morning we would be seeing Alexander for the first time in 2 months and 9 days!  Jamie was unable to join us on this journey, but his Dad flew down and stayed at the cabin with us.

Part 3 will feature our time with Alexander!