Isaac Speaks: Update

Picture taken in Utah at the Inn on the Hill

Sept. 22, 2010:   I had a great day with Isaac today.

I found an unfamiliar bag next to the pile of backpacks in the foyer. I picked it up to find a letter in it saying my child was to present to the class about themselves using this half piece of poster board and this questionnaire. It was due any day this week. It being Wednesday already, I couldn't believe I had missed this assignment coming home. Oh well, I thought, Isaac is not one to tell me about extra stuff he gets assigned.

After all the regular reading homework had been done, I sat down on the couch with Isaac to fill out the questionnaire. It was wonderful. I asked him the questions. He answered them. And I understood him! Many of the answers I never knew, like the fact that his favorite candy is orange Starburst. Like the fact that when he grows up he wants to be Robin (from Teen Titans) because Robin is awesome. His favorite sport is football. And his favorite animal is a mammoth (I would have guessed elephant, so I was close). His favorite ice cream is "chocolate cookie dough." It went on and on, front and back. What fun we had!

Many times throughout the past few years I have been brought to tears by frustration and sadness because I couldn't REALLY talk to Isaac. My sign language wasn't good enough, and therefore neither was his, to give him a range of conversation much beyond the labeling of things. And although he could label a great many things, it just wasn't enough. Then, when he started to talk, there were so many times that I didn't know what he was trying to say. My head would hurt with the effort of trying to understand, but still, it was not enough. I knew I was standing on a beach looking out over the ocean, unable to see the vastness that lay beneath the waves. It hurt.

These past few months, we have started being able to really speak to one another and today was a shining example of all that is left to be explored with him.

I spent a good part of the evening working on the poster board for his presentation. Isaac is still at the scribble phase in his fine motor, but that fact didn't bother me as I looked at his answers and filled the space with his favorite things. I had a great time using my scrapbooking supplies and stickers. At one point, Evan came in and commented that he had the same assignment but it wasn't due this week. He spoke of his plans for the poster board and the bag he needed to fill with things he wanted to share. Huh, I thought, the second and third grade teachers must have come up with the idea together.

Now, here's the kicker: If your brain is working at a quicker pace then mine was, you've probably figured it out already...At 11:00pm Mat came to bed and I woke up to move Josie into her own bed. As I lay down after a few hours of sleep and thought back over the evening, I realized that the letter inside the bag had no defining characteristics like a teacher's name or grade on it and that the bag I had found was Evan's all along! How's that for communication?

I couldn't stop laughing. After I woke Mat up with my "quiet" giggling, I decided I'd get up and write it all out in my blog.

UPDATE:

For those of you wondering what happened with Isaac's project, here it is...

 His teacher, Mrs. Pfohl, was nice enough to give him some time to present it to the class.  He dressed up in his Robin costume, used his musical Kung Fu Panda birthday card for an attention getter, and told the class about himself (with a little help from Mom).

He concluded with a video of his favorite dance from So You Think You Can Dance.  It's called Yellow.  Check it out--  http://youtu.be/rrxOBxlQmho    It is amazing!!!

20 Kisses

Anyone who has ever tried to teach a child to count has probably been frustrated with "The Teens."  My kids always sound something like this....10, 11, 12, 13, 16, 18, 19, 20.  They are fine after that.  The teens are always learned last.

They also need to be taught how to read and write these mysterious numbers!  Grrr...and understand that you say the second number first...9...teen, but write it last.  Why is it so confusing?

Josie and Isaac are in this stage together right now.  Because Isaac is older he's been working on it longer.  Because he has Down syndrome, Josie is pulling ahead.  But, I had to laugh as we put our Halloween decorations up last month because they were trying to help each other count the ghost lights we were assembling in the front yard.  They were proud because they were doing it repeatedly without my help and always coming up with the same answer:  23.  I was amazed at their consistent results!

I was amazed because there are only 12 ghost lights.  They must have been skipping around a lot.

That is when I thought to myself---These kids need more kisses.  One of my favorite strategies to teach counting is a daily dose of 20 kisses.  They help me count (when they aren't giggling).  They get repetition and I get to kiss their faces off.  It's a win-win.

It doesn't help with the reading and writing part, but it's really fun.

Preschool Fun for Halloween

 ONE PUMPKIN

TWO COOKIE JARS

THREE CARVING TOOLS

FOUR GHOSTS

 

FIVE JACK-O-LANTERN LIGHTS

SIX YELLOW LEAVES

 (just go with me on this--they really

wanted leaves)

 

SEVEN HALLOWEEN SONGS

EIGHT LEGS ON A SPIDER

NINE PIECES OF CANDY

TEN HALLOWEEN BOOKS

and

Grandmas may need to get out their

glasses for:

Colorful

Honeymoon-- January 1997

Sometimes laundry, endless mess,
and the continuous needs of my family
seem to turn my "happily ever after"
to a monotonous gray.

But, if I can get a little rest and look
at life from a different perspective,
I see that my family is what makes my life
COLORFUL.

Isaac 2006

Kimball and Evan 2005

Evan 2006

Isaac and Josie 2006

Evan and Josie 2006

Kimball 1998

Kimball 2006

Isaac and Mat 2006

Josie 2008

Evan 2009

Ambra and Mat 2010

Fall = Football

In our house, fall equals football.

It has taken me years to get used to this concept as I tried to fit football into the schedule as if it were a regular activity instead of
THE ACTIVITY.

This year, with both Kimball and Evan playing (and Isaac helping them practice), we have football everyday except on Sunday.

Football practice always runs from 5pm to 7pm. "But, that's dinner time!" you cry? Yes, it is. The past few years I've wrestled with football practice and lost. I tried getting dinner on the table early. I tried eating dinner together after practice. I tried everyone attending practice and enjoying the fresh air. I tried everything I could think of not to miss out on the family time.

This year, Mat informed me that Kimball had practice Mon, Wed, Fri and Evan was on Tues/Thurs. I forfeited the match. Football wins again. But, this time without the struggle. Guess what? It worked!

I don't attend practices. I make dinner and we eat at the regular time. Whoever is at football eats when they get home and everyone is happy. Mat and I split up on Saturday to watch games which are often scheduled at the same time. I found out I like watching football a lot more without hearing Mat's knowledgeable comments and analysis. I like to be blissfully watching my boys and telling myself how well they are doing. I sometimes even cheer for both teams (if the other team is losing badly and I feel sorry for them). These things I can never get away with when Mat is close by.

The top picture in the collage is my favorite. It is Kimball and Mat running the chains for Evan's game. It is my reminder that, maybe, we're not missing out on family time after all.

Now, if only I could get used to March Madness...

Homeschooling Josie

(My genius friend, Angie, had an adorable slide show on her blog which

lead me to discover a website called Picnik. I LOVE it! Making collages
is so much fun.)

My sister, Cama, always teases me that I like to play "The Glad Game." For those of you who have never seen the movie Pollyanna, I'll explain. All you need to do to play The Glad Game is look on the bright side of EVERYTHING. Pollyanna says there usually is a bright side no matter how bad things get.

Well, I found the bright side to Josie's broken leg. I get to homeschool her this year. And, we are having so much fun.

She was all set to attend Bright Beginnings Preschool with Miss Karen like she did last year, but her trampoline accident and immediate surgery squashed those plans. She has a metal plate and five screws in her left tibia(shin bone), and just a good old fashion break in her fibula(the little bone next to the tibia). So, she has been through three casts these past 6 weeks and has more to come as the year marches on.

It's nice to have her home with me. I homeschooled Kimball for preschool and kindergarten until we moved to Loveland in March of 2004. But, both Evan and Isaac attended preschool. Evan, who's currently in third grade, still talks about the "glory days" of preschool.

"That was the best! You worked a little and then played. You sang and then played some more," he reminisces.

I put her in preschool because she wants so much to be big and go to school like her brothers. I also thought she might find some little girls to play with, but the two children she chose as her best friends were both boys. Oh well, I can't deny that boys are fun. I had considered keeping her home this year to spend more time with her, but I didn't want to disappoint her. So, I guess the broken leg wasn't the worst thing that could have happened. Let's just all pray it heals as completely as the doctor assures me it will.

Until then, I'll try to soak up the extra time with her and enjoy it. The pictures above show a few things we've done. We have played games and learned to say "Good game" to each other whether we win or lose. We learned all about mixing colors to make new ones. We built a cardboard doll house that she is still coloring on. And, I made two charts to remind us both to keep track of all she's learning. She earns stickers for a Treasure Box prize for doing her handwriting and math work. She gets to put an "X" in a box on her Book Count for each book we read. When the Book Count chart is full, she gets to pick out a book at Barnes and Noble. Also, I get to use the calendar and weather chart I made when Kimball was little.

How can I not be enjoying this opportunity that life handed me to homeschool Josie?

It's Cake

One of the reasons I like to scrapbook and blog is because, when I look back on the pictures, I look for the good stuff. I skip over the ones that reveal the messy house behind the kid.

I can look at the smiles and completely forget that I stayed up until one in the morning making those paper reindeer for the top of Isaac's cake.

I can grin to myself knowing that the reason I put the water for the seal right in the middle of Josie's Pet Shop cake was because the cake had a big dent in it.

I can remember how Evan loves to watch me decorate and hovers asking me to squirt frosting on his finger.

I can remember that Kimball wasn't always too old for a character cake.

I can forget the fact that Mat would rather have pie. Forget all the work behind the birthday party and feel for a few small moments that this thing called life isn't all that hard. It's cake.