Homeschooling Week 06

Homeschooling Week 06
Originally uploaded by sandiesry

We have made a red light, a star map, cycles of the moon bookmark, aaaaa, and a telescope that works! Next week we will go out and do some star gazing.

We are finishing the Lemony Snicket Unfortunate Events series next week too, I hope.

The geography book we are using is too difficult (grade 3-4), so I've ordered a new geography book.

Homeschooling Week 05

Homeschooling Week 05 Art
Originally uploaded by sandiesry
More of Ben's Work

The week went by fast this week. Tuesday we went to Buckner Elementary and Ben got a tour of the Special Ed room. He was very impressed with the smart board and said that he would like to go to school in that room. The speech teacher did some screenings and I should hear from Valerie in about a week. Then she will come to our house to observe Ben doing his school work here and then write up her evaluation and set up whatever therapy is needed.

Thursday Ben had his bi-weekly behavioral therapy with Brandi, but Rick was freaked out that Brandi's office is now at a new location and made us leave 30 minutes early even though I told him that I knew where it was approximately. So we sat and waited for 35 minutes before Ben got to go back for his appointment. Waiting and Ben are not good combinations. New office and Ben just made it worse. He was rude and told Brandy that he wanted to go home and refused to talk to her. So that was a wasted appointment and trip.

Ben has been complaining about stomach and leg pain since we put him on the Prozac and the complaints are daily since we put him on the Abilify. He's also complaining of head aches, blurred vision, and I've noticed that his hands twitch in his sleep a lot.

We are still getting school work done. Ben still says he hates it. With all of the new symptoms he thinks that he may be allergic to school work. He says that moving objects do not blur the way letters do so he can play his computer games.

This week he is reading "My Dog Ate My Homework! 160 Laugh Out Loud Poems" by Bruce Lansky and he really seems to be liking it. He doesn't give me any hassle about reading it for 15 -20 minutes per day. We are listening to the audio recording of Lemony Snicket's "The Penultimate Peril" and he really likes that. He puts together Legos for an hour while he listens to the story. We both love audio books with actors portraying the different characters and music added to the story. There are so may classics that are on audio cds that it is easier and more enjoyable for us to get those from the library instead of me straining my voice an hour or more every day reading to him. It adds a lot to his vocabulary. I am not doing vocabulary lessons other than "Word Girl" and "Martha Speaks." Both are wonderful PBS shows that stress vocabulary. Ben picks up vocabulary in the reading of classics and in all of his other subjects lessons.

We didn't get a copy of Kenneth Branagh's "Much Ado About Nothing" until today so we are watching that to finish up our study of Shakespear from last week. We are finally moving on past just copy work in our Language lessons and are studying the mechanics of poetry. Our copy work was actually dividing up the poem "To Market" by A.A. Milane into stanzas for us to see.

We were amazed to find that the Mid-Continent Library has no children's books about Octopuses that have diagrams of their bodies. We need that to finish our research report on Octopuses for his Writing lessons. I've got to do some digging for that this weekend.

Ben reads his Bible for 15 minutes daily and I'm using Karen Henley's Day by Day Children's Bible and her Sword Fighting Devotions together. Each week we study Bible stories about a character quality. This week it was about believing in ourselves and in God. Another week it was about truthfulness and it goes on with a new trait every week. We are also studying Karen Hill's Bible Journal that teaches how to pray and how to keep track of our requests in a Bible Journal.

Ben says he hates school work, but once he starts doing it he seems to learn and enjoy what he is learning so I think we are doing great so far. Soon we'll be adding Occupational Therapy, some type of small group therapy, and I don't know what, if anything, else at the school. I feel good about how things are going. I'm just worried about the side affects Ben is suffering from with the medication. So many side affects with so little improvement to the frequency and duration of his melt downs. We go to see Ben's psychiatrist at the end of this month.

Homeschooling Week 04

Homeschooling Week 04 Art
Originally uploaded by sandiesry

The art project this week was for me to give Ben the paper with the black lines already there and he was to use colored markers to show me what he saw in the lines. A house; a monster mouth; a rainbow; and a street. I thought he was very creative especially since he resists taking time on any art project that is not his idea. Like Angry Birds!

We studied Shakespeare this week. Ben read a lot of books like Shakespear Can Be Fun for Kids; Fun With Roman Numerals; Maps and Globes; and The Moon Book. He doesn't seem to like Shakespear much. We read Hamlet, Twelfth Night; Romeo and Juliet; and we watched Much Ado About Nothing. He liked Much Ado better than the rest, but because he could watch it, I think.

We are continuing with our study of astronomy and finished vol 2 of Story of the World. We ended with the end of the sixteenth century and will start vol. 3 next week.

It was a rough week. Ben is always thrown out of sync when we have a four day week or less. But he did some great work this week and I'm looking forward to next week.

Dear God,

Sometimes between the pain in my hip, back, knees, and feet and the worries about Ben there seems to be never enough hours in the day and night to include sleep. You have given this special child to Rick and I to care for and educate ... and like an idiot, I want to question your judgement more often than not.

Please guide my mind and my hands. Give to us the wisdom we need to make decisions for Ben. My poor sweet Ben. He will not let us take him to a barber and his hair looks it. He is gaining weight from the medications he takes and his sensitivity to so many foods in his diet. Getting him to go outside and exercise gets more difficult every year. I'm not a good example for him and I am the most important person to him in his young life.

I need you, Lord. We all need you so much! Please fill me with your Holy Spirit. Let your Spirit intercede for us through me. Let me not forget how much I need to depend on you every minute of every day.

In Jesus' name I ask ...

Amen

Crime and Punishment

Daddy has been blaming Ben for the torn up blinds. The culprit was finally caught on film.

Homeschooling Week 03

Homeschooling Week 03 Spelling
Originally uploaded by sandiesry

More photoes

Ben was also diagnosed with Dysgraphia in November 2009. It is not Dyslexia, but sometimes he does write letters and numbers backwards. He doesn't see them backwards, it is more that his mind cannot retain the information of how to write them from one time to another. Everything I've read about it tells me that his fine motor skills are lagging and it is painful for him to write. I've noticed that the smaller the details the more it hurts. We tried to start a typing program twice over the summer and he complained that his fingers hurt and couldn't reach the keys. He does fine as long as he is using only his fore finger and thumb. Space bar and arrow keys in games. He does very well with picking out words with the stylist pen on his Nintendo DS playing Super Scribblenauts. It looks like I'm going to have to buy an I PAD for him to write with. I'm trying to wait for the IEP to be sure that is what Special Education thinks too. Ben goes for some testing Friday morning then Fort Osage Special Ed will schedule the evaluations and finally the IEP.

Ben's behavioral therapist is stressing that he HAS to have more social contact. I've enrolled him in Liberty Mid Continent Library's Home Schooled Children's Program. He'll study about Germany in October, November, and December. Once per week for an hour or so. This is the best I could do. Blue Springs has cancelled all of their daytime home school programs.

We read about Sir Walter Raleigh and about the Lost Colony on Roanoke Island this week. We are also reading a book called "Cosmic" by Frank Cottrell Boyce. Ben loves history and mysteries laced with humor. Math was about geometric shapes and more practice with addition and subtraction. Spelling was about one and two sylable words. Angry birds and lines for Art. In Writing we are putting together brainstorming, outlining, etc. to put together a report. Finally, we are studying self confidence in our Bible readings and devotions. Ben reads outloud to me once per week and I test him then. He is doing great. The rest of the time he reads his choice (Monsters right now) and his Bible silently daily.