Our Many Adventures

Color Coding Works for Me

Many Adventures — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 19:40:11 +0000

You may not know this about me but I have an anal, OCD, perfectionist side. It’s kind of what made me a good engineer. But God has used my husband and my children to help me get over most of it. Having 5 kids in 6 years and living with others that have ADHD is just God’s way of helping me get over myself. But, I have to confess that my kids have their own individual colors.

It all started 5 years ago when the Karate Kid was diagnosed with 34 food sensitivities. He was 2.5 at the time and was a toddler garbage disposal. If food was left on a plate unattended he was going to consume it. I had to be able to quickly glance and see if he was eating from another’s plate. When in Wal-Mart one day I spotted plastic colored plates, cups and bowls and the idea was born. The Little Gymnast is red or pink, Karate Kid is blue, Little Bit is purple, Curious Monkey is orange, Sidekick is yellow and we have green for visitors.

Five years later we have expanded from 3 to 5 kids and 3 of them have different food sensitivities. One can’t have peanut butter, one can’t have almond butter or peanut butter, and one can’t have almond butter. When the children come to the table to eat they know which plate is theirs and they don’t accidentally eat from the wrong plate. When they leave the table I know who didn’t clear their place without having to remember who sat where today or listen to blame game.

The color coding has spread beyond the kitchen now. I have found file boxes in 4 of their colors for their schoolwork. My most exciting find was colored laundry baskets in the back to school area last year at Wal-Mart. I’m not the best at folding and putting laundry away right out of the dryer. When laundry comes out of the dryer it gets sorted into their baskets. When I do fold I can work on one child’s clothes at a time folding them and putting them away. And the kids know if they can’t find clothes in their dresser the next stop is their basket in the living room. And now they only have to look through one basket, it’s the one in their color.

Other things that I have found in their colors include lunch sacks, sandwich containers, scissors, sharpie markers, card stock, binders, pencil boxes and pencil pouches. I haven’t gone as far as bath towels but that’s next.

Adventures in Learning Disabilities

Many Adventures — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 17:00:41 +0000

My little gymnast has some pretty severe learning differences. This past summer I brought her to have educational testing to get a clear diagnosis for all the symptoms I’ve observed. I needed the diagnosis to proceed with appropriate educational instruction and appropriate achievement markers. She was diagnosed with a language processing disorder consistent with Auditory Processing Disorder, ADHD, dyslexia and dyscalculia (a difficulty learning math).

She has always struggled to learn and hold on to new information. At the beginning of third grade she was still at a first grade instructional level. At the end of that school year she was reading at about a mid-first grade level. She was reading short vowel words with some fluency and was struggling with vowel-consonant-e words (ex: like, cave). She was having a very difficult time remembering sight words that were meant for first graders to learn. It was taking us months to get through a list of 14 words. In contrast when I started our little Drama Queen on the same lists the first day of first grade she had all eleven lists of 14 words each done in the first week.

Math has also been a real struggle for her. We are now on our third first grade curriculum and we barely got through more than the first 9 weeks mark. I would teach her a concept and after 30 minutes she would vaguely understand and could complete problems. The next day she could not do the same problems and didn’t remember what we talked about the day before. It was taking us 2-3 days to get through a lesson that was meant to take 1 day. Learning was so hard for her. She was still trying to understand the concept of ones, tens and hundreds and still didn’t completely understand how to do addition.

My little student was using so much energy for every subject that we did. She also didn’t have a desire to learn or a curiosity about the world around her. She rarely asked me questions about things and didn’t always understand my answer. After I would explain something to her she would ask me a follow-up question that didn’t follow logically.

The last 4 years have been filled with reading books on APD and dyslexia, researching programs online, trying new program after new program and waiting patiently for her to finally understand.

She was also struggling outside of learning. I noticed around age seven that she would describe common things to me instead of using the word. One day she was trying to tell me about the thing at the park that you climb up the stairs and go down (and she shows me with her hands “like this”). I asked if she was talking about a slide. Her face lit up, “Yes!” We had been to the park every other Friday for 2 years, it seemed odd to me that she didn’t know that word. I noticed it a lot after that. At the age of eight, I was asking her what pictures of some basic shapes were called, (a rectangle, square, circle and triangle). When I pointed to the first one, a rectangle, she had to think very long and hard and finally came up with triangle. When I pointed to the triangle she realized she mixed up the names and corrected herself. When she was 3 and I would ask her what color things were and no matter what I pointed to she would say pink. At the time I thought she was just being stubborn and didn’t want to perform for me. I now realize that she couldn’t recall the names of the colors.

Conversations have always been hard for her as well. There were so many times I would tell her something and she would look at me with a blank stare. When she was a baby she almost always had this blank stare. The sweet old people at the grocery store would do their best to make her laugh and she just sat with a stoic look. Her gymnastic’s coach quickly became aware of the blank stare. I now realize that she really did have no clue what was said. She has revealed to me lately that she didn’t know when she was suppose to respond.

I had her hearing checked last summer and it was excellent. There were so many times she would try to tell me what she thought I had explained and I would have to say, “Well, not quite” and then proceed to explain it another way, and another way and another way. She constantly asked if things I said were true. She did not engage in conversations with the girls at the gym, at Church or at the park. Her conversations were very short, just answering their question the best she could. When we went to the park she would hang around me or only play with her siblings. She was very fearful of talking to the girls and making friends. Last year when she was selling chocoloate bars she made the Drama Queen speak for her. She didn’t have confidence in conversation skills.

One day when we were at the doctor’s office I noticed a flyer for LearningRx. It said that it was cognitive brain training not tutoring. They said they got to the root of the problem with learning differences. I took the flyer home with me along with the half price testing coupon and wanted to think about that. Shortly after that a Speech Pathologist friend, who also has children with learning disabilities, told me the director had come to talk to the parents at her coop about the program. She was really impressed. So I decided it was worth at least getting the testing done to just see where we were. At this point I hadn’t had any testing done at all. It was so expensive everywhere that I called. I had been looking at programs and testing for learning disabilities for 3 years. There wasn’t a program that I felt was right for us.

So I called our local center and one of the owners called me back and talked to me for the longest time. I made an appointment for the testing and was on pins and needles waiting. The testing they perform is from the Woodcock Johnson III Test of Cognitive Abilities, Woodcock Johnson III Tests of Achievement or Gray Oral Reading Test (GORT-4). When we met with the director I was not a bit surprised by the results. In fact it indicated she was struggling in every aspect that I was actually seeing in her everyday life. She was essentially functioning with the cognitive skills of a 6.5 year old. My mind instantly went back in time. If she has been functioning 2.5 years below her age all this time no wonder at the age of 5 (brain age of 2.5) she was struggling to learn her letter sounds. Some of the things they tested for were short term memory, long term memory, working memory, auditory processing speed, visual processing speed, executive processing speed, logic and reasoning and math fluency. She scored from between 6 months behind to 3.5 years behind. She only scored at or above her age for visual processing, spelling of sounds and sound blending. This also didn’t surprise me. She’s a master of puzzles, having completed her first 100 piece puzzle at the age of 3. She learned to swim and do cartwheels at 3 by watching older children. She has always been able to spell words before she could read them. In kindergarten she could spell the word me, but when I asked her to read it back to me (after having just said it), she had no clue and would guess a totally different word, even if I sounded it out for her. It was suggested that she needed 24 weeks of training consisting of their two programs ThinkRx and ReadRx.

Our Adventure with LearningRx

Many Adventures — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 11:00:49 +0000

At the end of last school year I took the Little Gymnast and Karate Boy for cognitive skills testing at LearningRx. The Little Gymnast has always struggled to learn, from learning her colors and shapes, letter sounds and math concepts to name a few. When she was 7, I started researching her symptoms and concluded that she likely had Auditory Processing Disorder, Dyslexia and Dyscalculia. I switched my curriculum to better teach to her and she started making progress. However, progress was slow and painfully slow for both of us. At the end of last school year she was still at a first grade instructional level I, and by age she was to be finishing up third grade. While sitting in the doctor’s waiting room I stumbled on LearningRx material. I was so encouraged by what I read that I called when I got home to get the oldest two tested.

Karate Boy has been diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome, ADHD and Oppositional Defiance Disorder. He was also exhibiting some signs of dyslexia and was struggling to make progress with his reading.

The test results revealed that my Little Gymnast’s brain was functioning 2 – 2.5 years below her age. The test revealed that I wasn’t imagining her difficulties, it confirmed all her daily struggles. Karate Boy’s results were mixed with some areas where he was functioning above and a few areas that were about a year behind. Karate Boy was recommended for their ThinkRx, 12 week program and the Little Gymnast was recommended for ThinkRx and ReadRx, a 24 week program.

We started their partner program about a month later. They would both receive one-on-one training for an hour 3 times per week. I would train them at home 3 days a week for 20 minutes and they would work on a computer program 6 days a week for 30 minutes. It was a lot of hard work but we started seeing improvements in about 2 weeks. The Little Gymnast made the most improvements. I will be following up with another post just on that.

At first the kids were excited about going to the center but after a few weeks they were both tired from the hard work. The Little Gymnast struggled to perform some of the simplest exercises and was becoming frustrated. They both fought me to go. Karate Boy refused to do his home training and his computer program. For every hour of fighting we managed to get in about 5 minutes of training. He was great at the center once he decided to train. The Little Gymnast was more compliant but would often break down at home telling me that it was just too hard.

The kids were perfectly matched to trainers. The trainers had quite opposite personalities but each was able to give the kids just what they needed to succeed. If the trainers had been flipped neither of the kids would have performed so well.

I’ll be posting our results soon.

All About Reading Level 1

Many Adventures — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 18:34:58 +0000

All About Learning Press has released the teacher’s manual and student activity book for All About Reading level 1. I’ve looked over the samples and am so excited about it. My oldest three are reading just past this level but they would have loved to learn to read this way. The student activity book is very interactive and full of cut and paste activities instead of writing exercises. I have two students that struggle to write anything and this approach would have been perfect for them. When my next student who is now only 4 is ready to learn to read we will be using All About Reading Pre-Level 1 followed by All About Reading Level 1.

We own the Level 1 and Level 2 readers and adore them. The illustrations are beautiful and the stories are engaging. My kids have read them over and over.

Marie Rippel creator of All About Learning materials has been very generous with the sample provided for All About Reading Level 1. The teacher’s manual sample includes all the background information about how the program works and 10 complete lessons. The student activity book sample includes the pages for the first 4 lessons and a few others. You could essentially try this program for the first 4 lessons before you decide to buy. And if that isn’t good enough Marie offers a 100% , 1 year guarantee on all her products. You can try it for a year and if you don’t like it return it for a full refund. I don’t know any other company that has a guarantee like that.

From now till December 6, 2011, All About Learning Press is running a special on Level 1 products:

To celebrate, all Reading Level 1 orders containing a Teacher’s Manual will automatically receive our A Taste of Outer Space product (an $8 value) for FREE! Plus, all of our new Reading Level 1 products are 10% off.
Offer good until midnight on December 6, 2011.

Taming the Chaos

Many Adventures — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 03:49:46 +0000

The school days around here have been an absolute circus. My two preschool boys have been playing loudly, fighting over toys and beating each other up all day long. And despite my best planning efforts, my school age children were all demanding my attention at the very same time. It has been hard for me to focus amongst the chaos, and my older kids were finding it distracting and hard to get their work done. During a brainstorming session with my sister this weekend we came up with a solution. I decided that my little boys needed to have separate playtime during the morning, and direction of what to play with instead of a bored free-for-all. So now we have six centers spread throughout the house and the boys were to stay in there spots for at least 20 minutes.

One center is in the boy’s bedroom.

Another center in our extra-wide hallway off our schoolroom.

The living room center.

And two different table activities in the kitchen.

I also had activities in the schoolroom, but neither of the boys made it there.

All of the kids benefited from the new routine. Little Man was so excited to be playing with his toys alone. The older kids were much more focused and enjoyed the quieter atmosphere. There was overall a lot less drama today. After a little alone time everyone played together without fighting.

My Picks for This School Year – 2011/2012

Many Adventures — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 20:06:40 +0000

This year I have three school age students and two preschoolers. I approach each year anew and pray about what our priority should be for each child and what we should use to accomplish this. One year God told me to just read to the kids so that the Little Gymnast would find enjoyment in books. She was never one to sit long enough to hear one page of a book. That year we had so much fun doing Before Five in a Row mixed with Five in a Row. By the end of the year I had accomplished my goal and everyone loved to listen to books.

So what’s in store for this year… Little Gymnast by age is in fourth grade. Due to her learning struggles she is still doing some first grade and second grade work. The beauty of homeschooling is that I can work at each child’s abilities no matter their grade. We can take a day or six months to get through one lesson. And six months is not an exaggeration. The Karate Kid is going into the second grade and Little Bit is first grade. Here’s the plan:

Little Gymnast – Fourth Grade

Phonics, Spelling and Reading – Finish All About Spelling Level 2 with Explode the Code for Reinforcement
Grammar – Daily Grams 3 and Sonlight LA1
Math – Keep going with RightStart B and add Math Mammoth for extra review and practice when needed
Handwriting – Finish A Reason for Handwriting C
Copywork – God’s Wisdom for Little Girls: Virtues and Fun from Proverbs 31
Science – Winterpromise Animals and Their Worlds (a repeat at her request)

Karate Kid – Second Grade

Phonics and Reading – All About Spelling, All About Reading with some Sing, Spell, Read and Write
Grammar – Sonlight LA1
Math – Finish Making Math Meaningful Level 2
Handwriting – Handwriting Without Tears My Printing Book
Copywork - God’s Wisdom for Little Boys: Character-Building Fun from Proverbs
Science – Sonlight Science 1

Little Bit – First Grade

Phonics and Reading – Complete Sing, Spell, Read and Write Raceway Book
Grammar – Sonlight LA1
Math – Math Mammoth Grade 1
Handwriting – Handwriting Without Tears My Printing Book
Copywork - God’s Wisdom for Little Girls: Virtues and Fun from Proverbs 31
Science – Wants to do a little of both

And we will do all together:

Bible/History/Geography/Literature – Sonlight Core B – Introduction to World History

And the preschoolers will be getting read to from Sonlight P3/4, playing together and hopefully staying out of too much trouble.

I have been collecting the Sonlight books over the last couple of months. Karate Kid has gotten so excited seeing all the books that we are going to read. He asked a few weeks ago when we were going to start school so we could read the books about Egypt. So I threw out the date of August 15th. It’s fast approaching.

Why I Homeschool

Many Adventures — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 21:42:11 +0000

I recently had someone who was helping our family suggest that I send my son to school. She was well meaning and this year has been really hard. He has Asperger’s Syndrome with ADHD, Oppositional Defiance Disorder, Sensory Integration Disorder and Dyslexia. He had a lot of outbursts this year that included yelling, name calling, throwing things, lashing out physically and destroying everything in his path to his room. There were a lot of days when just getting him calm was the focus of a our day. I cried a lot. Felt like I was failing him and my other four kids. So I can understand why those around me suggested that I send him to school. The intent was that the structure would help him, I could use the break, and I could focus on my other kids.

I was questioning myself. Why didn’t I just send him to school? Why again do I homeschool? After weeks of praying and turmoil, God gave me wisdom. First, He reminded me that He has called me to this. Second, I am not homeschooling only for academics, it’s a lifestyle for my family. But what does that mean? I want to be the primary influence in my children’s life. I want to spend more time than any other adult in their life. I want to shape who they become. I want to choose what they learn and when they learn it. I want to revel in their accomplishments as they happen. Through homeschooling my children, they have become each other’s best friends. They spend most of their time with each other, not other children or their friends. They experience the same thing all day and can “play” what they’ve experienced. This is essential to my oldest son with Aspergers. It’s not easy for him to relate to other children. If he goes to school and has one experience and all of us have another experience how will he jump right in to the play. Right now we all read the same books and watch the same shows. He knows what the others are talking about and can easily join in. I think he would feel left out if he went to school. He’d have trouble fitting in when he got home.

There is an academic component to why I homeschool as well though. My oldest two children struggle academically. I can tailor their education to meet their needs. Going as slow as they need until they finally absorb it. We can play games, watch videos and live the lessons of life. No teacher is ever going to invest that much in getting my gymnast to read or skip count.

After wrestling with this for months I have peace that God has called me, will equip me and He has the strength for this even though I don’t.

Adventures in Moving

Many Adventures — Tue, 11 May 2010 18:34:27 +0000

The state of the economy has hit our family. My husband was employed by a private firm that has been on unstable ground for over 2 years. Things declined for us slowly over that time. First paid overtime and bonuses were taken away. A year later an across the board pay cut of 20% was made. Thanks to working the Dave Ramsey baby steps we were out of debt and could get by on that income for the time being. After 8 months of being on a pay cut and several rounds of layoffs we decided the pasture was not getting any greener and the likelihood of it was bleak. So he started searching for a new job. He decided that it would suit his work style and our family life if he left the private world and searched for employment by the federal government.

During this time we were in prayer the entire time seeking the Lord’s guidance. Over the last 4 years he had been searching for a public job that would allow us to stay in the area where we had been for 10 years. However, none of the local opportunities were going to work out. It wasn’t until a job came up in Virginia that we felt the Lord’s peace and guidance. We were very blessed that he was able to get hired and start his new job before the private firm was forced to lay him off. And even though we have moved over 15 hours away from both of our families we had a peace from God. A peace that only he can supply. A peace that says step out and I’ll be there every step of the way. I won’t forsake you. All of your needs will be met. Trust me, this is what is right for your family.

So I spent 5 months packing our house while continuing all my other household duties. I would pack for a couple of weeks, then school for a couple of weeks. At the end of February we made the 17 hour drive from my parents house to Virginia. The kids were troopers. When they were awake we stopped every 3 hours or so to stretch our legs and potty. When they slept we were able to get more driving time in.

So, 8 months after the interview we are finally up here, the essentials are unpacked and we are getting into a routine. We are all enjoying our new hometown. It was hard to be away from family for Mother’s Day but we have made several web calls, so the grandparents can see the kids. We’ve found a church home and are excited about getting involved there. Our gymnast is in a great gym, and our other kids are playing tee-ball for the first time. It’s been a blessed spring.

Life Changing Adventures

Many Adventures — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 00:39:37 +0000

I haven’t posted in a really long time. I’ve been a bit preoccupied. Five children under 8 has rocked my world. I use to leave the house with all the children without batting an eye. Until I had number 5. Suddenly the thought of getting all the kids ready, buckled, and then controlled in public is too much. I do get out but it took me awhile before doing it regularly. And it is still quite overwhelming.

This isn’t really what this post was going to be about. I just wanted you to know that life has been turned upside down for me with number 5. “How much trouble can one more be?” That was my thought with every new pregnancy. When the total sum of the one mores equal 5 under 8 it’s more. The only thing I have less of is time and mental capacity.

Our newest adventure that we have embarked on is relocation. My hubby has taken a job in Norfolk, VA. We have to sell our house, have a moving sale, pack our things, find new housing and drive all of us to VA and start anew. I have a mental list in my head of all the things that need to be done from now till we are settled. I’m a list maker and I love to scratch things off. And I don’t mind adding things to my list that I’ve already accomplished that go with the list in order to reward myself. I’ve checked a couple of things off already – get the house ready to show, and list the house. So the ball is rolling and I’m on the right track. I just plan to take it one day at a time and then one box at a time. And we’re praying that only a few people have to see the house before we get an offer. I am so not into keeping it spotless and in “show” quality for months on end. We are looking to be moved by the end of Jan.

I’ll try to update more often on what’s going on.

Find that phonogram

Many Adventures — Fri, 01 May 2009 19:58:57 +0000

As you can tell I have the blogging bug. Blood must be flowing through my brain again. My kids have a new came that they are begging me to play. We call it “find the phonogram.” My children dred reviewing their phonograms everyday. So yesterday I gave it a new twist.

Madison and Eli have been working on learning the last 30 of the 72 phonograms for several weeks. I decided to spread them around the living room floor. I then called one out and they had to find it. Then they had to repeat it to me. They hopped all around sometimes going all around the right one to make their turn longer. When we were done they asked to do the rest of them. I couldn’t believe my ears. They usually moan and groan about phonogram review. So I got the first 42 out and laid them on the floor. By this time Laura Ashley came out to see what fun she was missing in the living room. She is working on learning the first 26 so she joined the game.

They had such a great time they wanted to play again. I had to deny the request a baby needed to be fed and lunch needed to be made. Oh and I want them to want to play on Monday. Can’t wear out the new game in a day. Eli has asked three times today to play.

To continue the fun learning day I decided to not make Madison write her spelling words in her notebook. She got to choose between writing them on the sidewalk with chalk or on my window with a dry erase marker. She chose…

She thought this was great fun. When I told her this choose she looked at me with a smirk as to say, “you mean I could write on your window?”

I got this idea from this article at All About Spelling: Tactile Ways to Practice Spelling. This was just what I needed to read to make spelling more fun for Madison. My friend at Freely Educate is giving away a beautiful reader and a box of chocolates from All About Spelling. You have till tonight at midnight to enter.