Sadie's Stories - a time of discoveries

This is a difficult post for me to write and also an important one. There are sometimes confusing moments in our parenting journey. We wonder how we got where we are. We have to face hard truths. And when we do, we discover rare beauties that we were missing.

As you will remember from a previous post, I purposed to take the time to read stories to Sadie all by herself for school. We have been enjoying our reading time tremendously.  So far we have read:

• The Poky Little Puppy
• Scuffy the Tugboat
• Little Bear
• Frog and Toad Together
• The Tawny Scrawny Lion
• The Animals of Farmer Jones

Most of these stories can be found in A Treasury of Little Golden Books.

Our reading time has done a very important thing for Sadie. She has been brought to the forefront of my life. Previously, she was child #4, with many mannerisms and habits I didn't understand, sometimes lost in the shuffle. I love her so much, but I'll admit that sometimes she was a source of frustration as well. She screamed over the tiniest things, used animal noises instead of words, and flung her arms around in a very odd way. As a mother, something didn't seem right to me. But I was unable to put my finger on anything specific. She didn't even crawl until about a year old, and at 4, even I couldn't understand everything she was saying. I couldn't understand the grunts and moans either.

YHVH has been gently tugging me for the last few weeks, about the time that we have been reading stories together. He has been encouraging me to do some research, to find out if maybe there is something I need to know about Sadie. He led me to a very unexpected place, but the more I read the more it seemed to fit. It looked like perhaps Sadie was struggling with asperger's syndrome or PDD. When I found out that my cousin had been diagnosed with PDD many years before, the pieces started coming together. We discovered that his treatment involving a special school among other things, had left him frustrated and ill equipped for life. The "professionals" can offer no cure, no medication.

After prayer, we feel the best help we can give Sadie is not a diagnosis, but a strong supportive family that will meet her where she is, whether she "officially" has asperger's or not. At the very least, we have a framework with which to understand her. When she crawls up in my lap and starts barking at me, I try to encourage her to use words to tell me what she needs. I try to give her a little extra love when she starts grunting and flailing her arms in frustration. We try to show a little more patience when she screams about the things that seem little to us. We have also begun a journey to change our diet. (Thank you Lusi, for the link.)

Suddenly, that time of reading and cuddling with Sadie has become a lifeline for us both. She gets so excited to point out farmer Jones in the picture. She tells me how the poky little puppy is going to dig under the fence again! We laugh together and snuggle and for a few moments, there is peace and calm and safety for her. We pray that with purposeful loving parenting, her days will be easier and she will learn to tell us all the amazing things that are going on in her head.

"Your child was made just right. Your child is beautiful. Your child does
not have defects and “problems.” Look at your child as being fearfully and
wonderfully made. Why am I saying this? Because sometimes we get
frustrated with our children. Sometimes we ask ourselves, “What is wrong
with them?” We need a fresh perspective. We need to be reminded that
YHVH made our child just right. Yes, they need work and training, but look
into their eyes and see what YHVH sees. Look at what they can become.
They are a diamond in the rough. Show them that they are just as valuable
as a diamond to you."

 

from The Children's Ketubbah Project

Our daughter is beautiful and wonderful, an excellent dancer. She loves to trace and color, and play with her little toy animals. She has a great smile and loves to help me with little jobs around the house. YHVH made her just right. She just needs a bit of extra help along the way.

Homeschool 2011-2012 Week 1

Isn't that an awful title? I'll try to be more creative next time.

So we had our first week of school this week. I could say it went well, or I could say it didn't go so well. I think mostly it was about learning to work with life in the middle of school.

I wrote out a very detailed lesson plan for the week, and used a timer to keep us moving. In the past, my gentle learning was a little too gentle. So I decided to push a little harder this year. It worked very well for a few reasons.
1. We didn't lollygag around. Isaac tried to play around during his reading time, but I told him if he didn't finish his reading lesson in the twenty minutes, he would do the whole lesson again the next day. He never had to do that.
2. I wrote down the time we took for each lesson right on the lesson plan. At the end of the day, I was able to input everything into homeschool tracker for a permanent record with time spent. We are not required to report anything in Michigan, but I want to be prepared if that changes.
3. If we did get interrupted by life, I knew exactly where to start when we returned. For example, an important phone call came in. I let the machine pick it up, and as soon as we were done the current subject, I returned the call, and gave the kids a short recess. This worked much better than expecting them to keep working. They just aren't ready to work independently like that.

Here is what our daily schedule looks like:

40 min. Torah School (includes reading part of the Torah portion, copywork, reading related stories, activities, etc.)
20 min. Hebrew Life and Times(read chapter on Monday, do related activities on following days)
15 min. Hebrew (vocabulary, copywork)
5 min. ABC and 123 ( recite sounds of alphabet and count forward and backward)
80 min. Reading (20 min. for each child, Naomi- Learn to Read Bible, McGuffey 1st Reader, Holly and Isaac- Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons, Sadie's Stories- The Poky Little Puppy (A Little Golden Book Classic))
30 min. Math (Matrix Math timed addition and subtraction worksheets)
30 min. Physical Education/ Recess
30 min. History and Science (Read alouds and activities on alternating days)
30-60 min. Home economics (Deep cleaning of assigned rooms, with us working as a team, and teaching kitchen skills like bread, peeling potatoes, etc.)

Now for the highlights!

Torah School!
We studied Ki Tetse (Deut. 21:10-25:19)
We did a copywork page, read a story, listened to a great teaching on Shabbat, and looked for things in our house that are unsafe.

Naomi practiced until she could read a book about frogs by herself!

We drew pictures of shepherds in the Bible.

We learned about important rivers in the Middle East and India.

We spent 45 minutes scrubbing the kid's bathroom, and boy, did it look good!

Naomi and Holly both moved up a worksheet in Math.

The girls learned how to knead and bake bread. Daddy likes their bread better than mine lol. I think I've been replaced. :)

We slaughtered a sheep, and learned about various organs. When I pointed out the lungs and explained that they were for breathing, Isaac responded with, "Man, that is so disgusting!"

We learned how to process sheep casings to use for making homemade hot dogs and meat sticks. This picture is of the casings soaking in salt water.

What did I learn this week?

• My children are capable of more than I thought.
• A lot of learning goes on in everyday life, and I might as well write it down.
• It is hard to read a history chapter out loud over a toddler pretending to be a puppy.
• Every day is precious and should be used wisely.
• High speed internet would be so nice. :)

Shabbat Shalom to everyone!

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