Unique kids and the journey

So, obviously I have not been very active on this blog lately. We decided to take a break for the summer. I have next years curriculum planned out (I will post about that later). But I have some things on my mind and I decided to air them out here. When I first became aware that my son had learning disabilities and dyspraxia I was on a mission to fix him! I had a diagnosis and recommendations and I was going to get him into OT and extra classes and tutoring and whatever else I could! We got an IEP and got into SPED in public school, we started OT and by golly things were going to get rolling.

 Then it started to become evident that my daughter had some problems as well, next came the diagnosis of developmental coordination disorder and sensory processing disorder, so now, with spd and dcd we needed another IEP along with ST and OT.

 I bought tons of books, all the best ones, and ran myself ragged taking both kids to multiple therapy appointments weekly. I joined all of the online support groups for all of these diagnoses and read and typed and read some more.......
And you know what conclusion I have come to? My kids are unique, they have their quirks and they struggle in certain areas, but this is not a race. This is not something that I can take them to multiple appointments to fix! It is who they are!

Luckily along this journey we decided to homeschool, so I can look at each one individually and tailor a program to focus on fine motor and gross motor, core strength and visual processing. I can work daily with my daughter on being over sensitive and finding coping mechanisms. But this is a life long journey, not a race with a finish line like I had originally thought. I can incorporate these needed skills into daily activities and lessons. We can participate in extra curricular sports and classes for my son, and smaller more individualized activities for my daughter who struggles with the sensory part of big groups. But it doesn't always have to be medicalized! (not sure that is a word).

I just get frustrated when I go on these boards lately and see so many parents obsessed with the labels, is it ADHD or maybe OCD? We have this diagnosis, maybe I should go back to the doctor and get a different one because that one doesn't fit. I absolutely believe that these are all very valid conditions and diagnoses, but even with a valid diagnosis no two kids will have the exact same behaviors or issues or even respond to the same treatment or therapy. I just want to encourage all of us to look at our kids individually! Whether they have a condition or diagnosis or are just a little quirky! Just help them where they need help! Don't focus so much on the label and the recommended treatment for that label that we forget they are individuals and are on a life long journey...........

Not sure any of that made sense. But I am done now. =) Here is a great picture I found on facebook that I wanted to share, this kind of sums it up very well!

A great homeschool idea!

Post by A Mighty Girl.

Another adventure and MORE unit study material!

So, today we decided to go to a local forested area to explore. I just love being in the middle of a forest, there is something so peaceful!
So, this particular area is known for it's trails and a lot of mountain bikers go through here. Someone has done a great job of building these little wooden bridges and paths all through the area, over creeks, in between trees etc. The kids LOVED running through the trails and bridges and it was so good for their balance and gross motor skills.
While we were exploring I looked down into a creek bed and saw an odd shaped rock! I picked it up and it looks like it may be a native american nutting stone or grinding stone! I was so excited!
So, now, second on my list for unit studies after the caterpillar, is the native american culture and history in our area! Take a look below!

 

 

God given lessons....

I just love it when the homeschool lessons find us! So, Monday we decided to go to a local campground/park near the river just to go on a walk, be in nature. Well, as we were walking through the park I looked down at my shirt and shrieked! There was this furry thing crawling on my shirt right on my belly! It was a caterpillar!
So, I showed the kids, got my son to pick it up off of me and we sat down at a near by picnic table to talk about it. Well, of course the kids begged me to let them keep it, why not I thought?

The beautiful park!

My daughter showing off her daisy bracelet!

My son, with the cup we put the caterpillar in!

So, we took the caterpillar home and put it in a jar. This morning, I added some caterpillar research to my sons homeschool lesson. I had him use google images to find the type of caterpillar we had, and then I had him do some internet research on how to create a home for him. One that would give us a chance of being able to witness his inevitable transformation!
So, now, we have a beautiful caterpillar home and days of potential unit study lessons on the metamorphosis!
(Of course I will share those and add them to our lynx made lessons page) =)

Here are some more photos of our new friend~!

Energy Unit study Day #5

Energy Unit study!

Visit this site: AE kids it will help you see how many ways we use electricity in our home.

After you visit the site, walk around our house and see how many other ways we use electricity! Write down  3 more ways on a piece of paper.

Next, visit this site: Save energy  it will give you ideas about ways YOU can help save energy.

Then, write down 5 ways YOU are going to start saving energy on the same piece of paper then show it to mom!

THEN, visit this link to see if you can crack a secret code! Be a sleuth!

Some great Ideas I have found recently!

Post by FamilyFun.

Post by JohnandJulie Gorge Vanb.

Post by JohnandJulie Gorge Vanb.

Post by National Center for Learning Disabilities.

Organizing assignments.

So, since homeschooling my 10 year old we have found that he really likes to do things independently if possible. One way I do this, is I created a blog just for him. I put his assignment into a blog post with a date on it every day. He goes to his website, reads his assignments and gets started.

We are using Allinonehomeschool.com which utilizes a lot of online resources.  The section we are on right now has my son read a poem, answer a few questions about that poem, and then go to a website to write a poem. At first I had him writing his answers in a notebook, but we are trying to encourage him to type so instead I found a way to have him type right into the blog post using google forms!

You simply go to google drive, click on "create" and select "form". Then you create your form by inputting the questions, choosing whether you want the child to type in an answer or choose from multiple choice etc., get the embed code and post it into your blog!

Another super cool feature of this, is that google automatically populates the answers into a separate spread sheet! So you can review it later! And they automatically create this spreadsheet for you when the form is created.

Here is a screen shot of what the form looks like!

And here is what the spread sheet with the responses looks like!

You can use this method for creating your own studies/question answer forms also!

Happy Homeschooling!

Cinco De Mayo

http://latinamericanhistory.about.com/od/thehistoryofmexico/a/Cinco-De-Mayo-For-Kids.htm

Fruit nachos and mexican jumping bean painting

Energy Unit study day 4

• How much does electricity Cost? Look at our Electric bill 
• Just how much electricity does it take? : http://www.affordable-solar.com/Learning-Center/Solar-Tools/Off-Grid-Load-Estimator 

Today we will discuss how much energy we use in our home by looking at our electric bill for the month and the total KWH used in a month. 

Then we will discuss what takes up all of those KW, what are we doing to make that total?

We will look at a load estimator to find out how much electricity each appliance, light etc. uses

Then we will discuss how we can decrease that usage.

This one is from http://www.mitchellinstrument.com/outlet-kwh-meter.html?source=froogle-mitchell&gclid=CK6bkO_Ijb4CFQlafgodu1MAJw 

Energy Unit study Day 3

• Where does our electricity come from? 
• http://kids.saveonenergy.ca/en/what-is-electricity/how-electricity-gets-to-your-home.html 
• Magic School Bus Season 4 episode 9

We will start by learning how the electricity gets to our home. The link above shows us how it gets from the power source to our house!

Then we will watch Magic School Bus, this episode does a great job showing us how electricity travels into and through our home.

Energy Unit study day 2!

• We will discuss the History of electricity 
• Visit this site:  http://kids.saveonenergy.ca/en/what-is-electricity/history_andremarie_ampere.html 
• And watch: Magic School Bus Season 3 episode 5

We will start by talking about electricity and how it has a past! We will visit the link above to learn a little about some of the people who had a hand in creating it and where the terms we use come from.

Then we will watch Magic School bus on energy.

Also, as part of our unit study my 10 year old has been working on building a solar robot. We purchased a kit that is capable of making 14 different robots all run by solar energy.

So, we have been working hard and here is the first robot he built! We had a sunny day today so we were able to really see it go! Now we will start working on creating the other robots in the kit as we continue to learn about energy and specifically solar!

Earth day!

So, today is Earth day and I must admit with Easter just being 2 days ago I had not put together a plan for today. Luckily, I have the internet to help me out!

So, we started out with this link to explain Earth Day- What is Earth Day

Next we did a little scavenger hunt that I found here- Scavenger Hunt

After that, we cleaned up the yard, talking about how happy it would make the earth to be nice and clean.

During lunch we watched a great video from Schoolhouse Rock on Earth Day, I found it on Netflix!

In the afternoon, we created a collage from magazines based on what we could do to help the earth.

So, that is it! My quickly thrown together Earth Day homeschool plan.......=)

Energy unit study day one!

So, today we began our energy unit study.  http://lynxacademy.blogspot.com/2014/04/energy-unit-study.html

This is what we covered today!

What is electricity 

http://www.enwin.com/kids/electricity/energy_electricity.cfm 

Magic school bus-Season 2 episode 10

Static electricity experiment

Our experiment today was bending water with static electricity. It was so easy and I got I from this page! http://www.sciencebob.com/experiments/bendwater.php

I found that it worked best when putting the comb next to the middle of the stream!

Energy unit study

We are going to be learning about energy! What it is, where it comes from and how we use it. 
During this study, we will create a solar robot and a tin can robot, we will also make a solar oven.
And once we have completed this study, we will begin to design an off grid energy design for a small cabin!

• What is electricity 
• http://www.enwin.com/kids/electricity/energy_electricity.cfm 
• Magic school bus-Season 2 episode 10
• Static electricity experiment

• History of electricity 
• http://kids.saveonenergy.ca/en/what-is-electricity/history_andremarie_ampere.html 
• Season 3 episode 5

• Where does our electricity come from? 
• http://kids.saveonenergy.ca/en/what-is-electricity/how-electricity-gets-to-your-home.html 
• Season 4 episode 9

• Cost? Electric bill 
• Ways to save 
• http://kids.saveonenergy.ca/en/what-is-electricity/electricity-saving-tips-page-1.html 

• Alternative sources of energy 
• http://kids.saveonenergy.ca/en/what-is-electricity/the-in-and-outs-of-making-electricity.html 
• http://solarforward.com/solarkids/ 
• http://www.propanekids.com/ 

• Our Future house 

• What will we need power for? 

• How much power will we need? 
• http://www.affordable-solar.com/Learning-Center/Solar-Tools/Off-Grid-Load-Estimator 

• Where can we get it from 

• What is the best cost option? 

Field Trip: 

http://www.nwp.usace.army.mil/Locations/ColumbiaRiver/Bonneville.aspx

Easter activities!

http://beautyandbedlam.com/resurrection-rolls-easter-recipe/

http://www.freehomeschooldeals.com/free-easter-lapbook-from-currclick/

  

http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/600x/36/43/da/3643da5f60418d9c82528923fcd880a1.jpg

Lessons on lunar eclipse

This is a little study I put together for my son on the recent "blood moon" or lunar eclipse.

From: http://kids.discovery.com/tell-me/space/what-is-a-lunar-eclipse

As you know, the Earth goes around the sun and the moon goes around the Earth. Now imagine what happens when you have the sun, the Earth, and the moon all lined up in a row. The Earth will end up blocking the rays of the sun from reaching the moon. The Earth has two shadows, one inside the other. The inner shadow is called the umbra, and it's the darker shadow. The penumbra is a wider shadow, stretching out more to the sides, but it's not as dark as the umbra. 

When the moon is in the penumbra shadow of the Earth, we barely notice that the moon is darkened. When the moon is partly in the umbra shadow of the Earth, it's called a partial lunar eclipse. When the moon is all the way in the umbra shadow, it is a total lunar eclipse. Total lunar eclipses last around 20 minutes to an hour and 40 minutes.

Wath this video- lunar eclipse video

Watch the Blood moon eclipse! watch the eclipse

http://www.neok12.com/Eclipse.htm

http://www.neok12.com/video/Eclipse/zX45704e56606151726a0377.htm

Draw a picture of what a lunar eclipse is....the sun, moon and earth aligned and the shadows.

Here is an example

Here is my sons diagram of the eclipse.....

Oobleck!

We are learning about molecules and sound as well as different states of matter.

Blessings

                                                                  

Inspiration!

Hello, I read an inspiring article this morning that I wanted to share......my children both have dyspraxia, which is a neuro-developmental disorder that effects motor planning and the way the brain processes information coming in and going out. One of the ways it manifests in my son is horrible, laborious handwriting and spelling. When he was in public school, we had to make it a point on his iep that he was not graded on handwriting but content only! He would often get marked wrong in spelling tests even if he spelled the words correctly as the teacher couldn't read what he wrote! Thank God we are home schooling! =) Anyway, read the article below, it shows how that handwriting has nothing to do with the intelligence or potential of the person.

Bright teenager gains highest English A-level in the country despite predictions she would fail after doctors diagnosed her with dyspraxia

Frederica Drewer, 18, of Bristol, had been expecting to get a D in her exam, until she was allowed to use her laptop because she had been diagnosed with the neurological disorder.

Full Story:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2328391/Bright-teenager-gains-highest-English-A-level-country-despite-predictions-fail-doctors-diagnosed-dyspraxia.html

19 February 2014
http://www.dailymail.co.uk

Presidents day links and ideas

History Channel on Presidents Day

Print outs from DLTK

Liberty's kids on George Washington

George Washington from Liberty's Kids

Lincoln from Liberty's Kids

Adventures from the book of virtues, Lincoln

Photos from our week!

Every week, we go to occupational therapy. Here are a few photos from this weeks visit. I take turns with the kids. So while my daughter is in therapy, my son and I go to the snack bar and walk around, and while my son is in therapy, my daughter and I go exploring.......

For Valentines day, I gave them a few gifts in the morning with some chocolate and then I took the kids out to lunch. They were soooooo good! I splurged and let them get milk shakes. They were a great lunch date. =)

One week down.....

Well, we made it through our first week of homeschool. Other than the sprained foot, it went pretty well! We took it really slow, I didn't want to overwhelm my son the first week, so we took one days worth of curriculum and broke it up over the week. Next week, we will be doing  half days and then the following week we will doing the whole curriculum as scheduled.

I have to say I am a bit amazed at the change I see in my son. Before we were homeschooling, him and his sister were always at each others throat. They were always arguing. He wanted to be out playing with his friends most of the time and it was as if he felt like he couldn't relate to his little sister. He also expressed a lot of anger here at home. He would have angry outbursts daily and was very moody. The moment he passed his last day of school he became a different child. He is happy, carefree even! He is doing what I ask willingly without argument. He is just a happy child.

What is behind this transformation? At first I thought it would  last maybe a day or so. But no, this new, happy child is still here, a week later! I think we underestimated the stress and anxiety he was going through at school. Also, he is connecting with us much more. He is sitting down and talking with us all the time now! He is being kind to his sister and telling us how much he appreciates us! It is amazing. My son has dyspraxia. And I think that he was having a level of stress and anxiety at school that we really did not even begin to understand. He acts like a weight has been lifted! It makes me feel bad for the stress he must have been feeling all this time at school.

So, this has been a good week! I am so thankful and even more certain that we made the right decision.

Uh oh!

Well, day two of homeschool was yesterday and didn't turn out so well. I decided to create an indoor obstacle course so the kids could get some energy out. We have a ton of slushy melting snow outside so going out wasn't really an option. 

Here is my son running down the stairs, getting ready to jump off the last few......

And here he is at the ER waiting to be seen for a strained foot!

Yup, right after he jumped he had a lot of pain in his foot and couldn't walk on it at all! I don't normally rush him to the er for a sore foot, but I thought the fact that he wouldn't put even a little weight on it was worriesome. So we got an xray!

Of course, no fracture was seen, but they said he should stay off it for awhile and if it is still painful after a week, we should go see his doctor. What a day! :)