A Demonstration is Worth a Thousand Explanations

Often an explanation is enough to teach a person how to do something new.  I can read a recipe and follow it successfully, and illustrations with the directions are usually enough to put together a new purchase.

My triplets do not learn by explanation, they learn by example.  Auditory processing plays a role in this, due in large part to having Down Syndrome, and they really have a hard time visualizing what I am saying.

A demonstration is worth a thousand explanations, though.

When they saw me sit down to play with play dough, it was not long before they were also exploring what they could make. Having difficulty understanding a verbal or written explanation does not mean the cannot learn things.  In fact, given the proper instruction and opportunity for hands on learning and repetition, they learn quite quickly.

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  Amelia told me she was making some train tracks.

ShanLin does not talk, but she was quite focused on her project.  Those little balls of dough certainly had her fine motor skills being improved.

 Micah was able to balance a triangle, and give me an adorable smile.

Kimberly was really working on her hand/eye coordination, helping Micah with his projects.

She even tried to take over Micah's projects.

Leif has taken the lead with their time outdoors, getting Amelia to climb trees with him, and Kimberly to climb up the play set.  She can be a bit playful herself, trapping Leif on the ladder.

While we do handwriting and reading, textbooks do not play much of a role in our home school days.

Instead of time spent explaining, we spend a lot of time doing, a lot of time learning....

And lots of time having fun.

God is good, always.

The World Keeps Turning.

We finished our first month of schooling...and we are looking forward to working our way through month 2.

Kimberly has turned 3 and therefore has stopped all of her therapies.

Dante is fully enrolled in a special needs classroom and loves it.

Sunny has turned 13.

Today is Amelia's 11th Adoption Anniversary.

Nikita bought a puppy that is just adorable and sure to keep her busy.

And the world keeps turning.

I am so thankful for our life, our home, our amazing children.  Alexander in college, Zachary in the Navy, Nikita contemplating her future, the triplets doing so well at home, Dante in school, Leif rocking our world daily, and Kimberly making sure our world revolves around her.

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.

Cabin Fever

It is officially time for Winter to end when Dante brings me the outside parachute and puts my hand on it, indicating he wants to play.  If Dante is going to initiate something you can be darn sure I am going to go with it!!  (Clarify, something not related to his endless attempts to get food!)

It was a tight fit, but they had fun.

God is good, even in the Winter that would not end...

First Month of Home School

    September has been an eventful month for us.  After just two weeks we pulled Dante out of school, for reasons I really do not want to mention here, since if you cannot say something nice, you should not say anything at all. 

    I never thought I could home school Dante AND the triplets, but it is getting done.  In bits and pieces, and I am still trying to work out a routine and a schedule.  It has meant a lot of running for independent therapies for Dante, and I have to decide how much to keep and how much to do myself so I am home more.  One of Dante's therapists, who has seen him for almost two years, commented that he seems to be thriving now that he is home, and is responding much better to therapy.  That was really, really good to hear during a time that I am doing nothing but second guessing every move I make.

   We have also had some nastiness going around-- Nikita had bronchitis, Sunny had "walking pneumonia", and even though I did not take any others to the doctor I know that Micah had an ear infection, Dante and Amelia have nasty colds, and two others probably are recovering from walking pneumonia as well.  Only Kimberly and I have not had anything more than a slight sniffle.  Interestingly, Kimberly and I are the only two that consume either raw goat's milk or yogurt every day.

   Right now the kids are outside for recess, and there were too many photo opportunities not to share!

Micah and Kimberly exploring the leaves in the warm sun

Sherlock, our year old stallion trying to figure out what the kids are doing in the sandbox.  Since he has not been gelded yet, he cannot be in with our mini-mare and is enjoying the yard instead of the paddock.

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 He is also trying to figure out Kimberly!  It is our hope that he will benefit the kids here, and he certainly is friendly and curious.

 Leif absolutely adores "his" Sherlock, and I think the feeling might be mutual.

   One month of the school year done, many many more to go!

"I can do all things through him who gives me strength."  Philippians 4:13

God is good!

Week 1 of School

I have decided this week was "Guinea Pig" week, because it was pretty experimental as far as getting the year going.  It would have been impossible to jump into the week wholeheartedly, because Dante did not have school Monday or Friday, and V was here Wednesday through Friday.  Add in a whole lot of ripe tomatoes that need to become salsa or sauce, and it was school in fits and pieces.

One wonderful thing about this week was that neither Amelia, Sunny, nor Micah asked why they were not going to school with Dante!!  I thought for sure they would be begging to go to the same classroom they had last year.  Not once did they question doing work with me.  Amelia did well with her phonics worksheets, but I they were one thing that did not get done with Sunny or Micah.

We are using Five in a Row as our main curriculum.  The idea is to read the same book each day for 5 days, but learning something new from it each time.  I have a manual with a list of books, and many, many ideas for each day.

Our first book was The Story About Ping. Vocabulary and hand-writing was the first day.  Next Jamie did some science with the kids by experimenting with what floats and sinks.  

Then we talked about family, and counted out how many siblings, aunts, uncles, and cousins they each have. 

To show their work, each child is creating a "Lap book" or "Fold n Learn" to add items to each day.  Since this was an unusual week, we did not get to the sequencing mini-booklet we were going to make and glue in.  (Maybe over the weekend we will add that.)  Today was the final day of reading, so as I read the book I would leave out a word and see if one of the kids would fill it in.  Amelia was on top of that!  I also asked them what was going to happen next when I turned the pages.
 

Some other things we did not get to from the manual are art-- discussing the style of the illustrator, and geography.  I briefly touched on China and the river, paging through a book from the library, but it was not very in depth.  Also I was given a corresponding cookbook and Scriptural book that have ideas for each weeks' book.  For example, we could have eaten rice cakes because they are mentioned in the book, or had a discussion on Bible verses that mention obedience.

However, I have no regrets about how this week went.  Well, maybe one.

I did learn that if Kimberly is on the move, the cutting, pasting, writing, and coloring needs to be done at the table!

Tomorrow is September 1st, so each kid will start keeping a daily calendar.  We will count each day and discuss what came before and what comes after.  We will also start a chart of how many school days we have done.  Next Friday is the first day of co-op.  The kids are signed up for US geography (history), Apologia Land Animals (science), and Ballet (gym).  I will go through their classes with them while Kimberly and Leif are in the co-op nursery.  Should be fun!

Zachary and Nikita are also hard at work already.  I have been giving them a math test each day to see where they need to start, but Jamie is overseeing their Literature and History.  We do need to also start science and Spanish.

God is good!