Taciturn Tuesday: Neurodiversity

image via:  http://www.thinkgeek.com/product/ed34/

Tranquil Thursday: Lake Superior Michigan

image via: http://www.totalwallpapers.com/wallpapers.asp?number_id=1499

Taciturn Tuesday: Spanish Peaks, MT

image via:  http://goskiing.wordpress.com/tag/beehive-basin/

Speech Therapy- The Lastest Recommended apps for Categories

Our Ms. Speech recommended several apps for SensiGirl to work on her categories and sorting, generalization and abstract thinking. She praised Kindergarten.com and Grasshopper apps for having really good basic apps. She said that just to look at the names they seem really boring, but they do their jobs very well.

image via:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/clean-up-category-sorting/id404057271?mt=8 

Clean Up: Category Sorting - Free, play a clean up game while sorting catigories.
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/clean-up-category-sorting

image via:  http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/things-that-go-together/id490647359?l=es&mt=8 

Things That Go Together: Free, a match up game.
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/things-that-go-together

image via:  http://techinspecialed.com/appy/app_details.php?id=506997421 

Comparative Adjectives: Free, compare bigger, heavier, youngest. These are tricky when you first learn the language.
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/comparative-adjectives

image via:  http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/aba-problem-solving-game-which/id357097338?mt=8 

What Does Not Belong: Free, pick the odd one out.
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/what-does-not-belong



Here are several My First Apps. They are free for the first two boards,  then you pay 99 cents for the next bunch of boards (up to 12). Some have up to three levels of the same type of app, so there is Families 1 and Families 2, etc.

image via:  http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/sort-it-out-2/id501952788?mt=8 

Sort It Out 1: Free for first two boards, a My First App. This is a favorite once we got all the boards.
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/sort-it-out-1

image via:  http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/whats-diff-1/id500644706?mt=8 

What's Diff 1: Take the odd one out of the line up. Different levels are available.
http://itunes.apple.com/app/whats-diff-1

image via:  http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/match-it-up-3/id421842311?mt=8 

Match It Up 3, put the two images that match together.
http://itunes.apple.com/app/match-it-up-3

image via:  http://techinspecialed.com/appy/app_details.php?id=428839475 

Families 1: Put the one that belongs with the group in the box.
http://itunes.apple.com/app/families-1

These are our latest bunch we have been exploring. Please share if you have other apps that are helpful for your kids.

Tranquil Thursday: Savasana Yoga

Image via:  http://www.now-zen.com/blog/2010/10/set-your-meditation-timer/ 

Taciturn Tuesday: Lego Train Bridge, Germany

by Megx
image via:  http://www.designboom.com/weblog/cat/8/view/22231/megx-lego-bridge-in-germany.html 

by Megx
image via:  http://www.geekologie.com/2012/07/lego-train-bridge-erected-read-painted-i.php 

Tranquil Thursday: Mandala Coloring

image via:  http://www.hellokids.com/c_19815/coloring 

The Tide Is Out: Summertime

I have both kids home being home schooled instead of summer school. I am having some trouble getting the routine established with SensiGirl as she is not being cooperative about school type activities. She has also taken up these irritating vocalizations she picked up from somewhere. It is a high pitched fake baby crying/cooing sound, "Whahahaha, whahahaha, woohoohoo, oow, ooooh, ooh.

image via:  http://www.parents.com/web/parents/flash/milestones/loader.swf 

I usually can ignore these kinds of things because I know if I ignore it that it will eventually go away. The baby sounds bother me because it is as if she wants to act like a baby again, after all the progress we made this year. It makes me irritated and want to cry all at the same time.

image via:  http://www.sitecheat.com/unlock-ipad-passcode/ 

Random Guy has been using SensiGirl's iPad to surf the net in his room upstairs. I haven't liked this situation, but I had to deal with it last night after turning on Safari and finding a weird fetish site cued up.  My husband and I erased the history so it wouldn't be easy to return there, but Random Guy knows how to use Google.  I am pretty sure at his age; he made a mistake typing in the address of one of his Lego brick sites and got the weirdo site. It was bothering me, enough that I couldn't sleep last night, so I changed the pass code for the restrictions so he couldn't use the internet without me knowing. I told Random Guy not to take the iPad this morning since I changed the code. I didn't want him trying passwords and locking it up. That is exactly what happened this morning. I had forgotten that I added using the pass code to just open up the iPad not only for changing restrictions. I am still waiting to use the new pass code to open up the iPad.

image via:  http://yogacalm.org/store.asp

When Random Guy then refused to go to his new yoga class, I lost my patience. I turned into that crabby yelling mom I hate. I give myself props for explaining why I am mad and for coming up with appropriate consequences for not going and decent rewards for going and being able to follow through.
I then took Random Guy to yoga. He wanted me to stay for the whole class and I had SensiGirl with me. Ms. Katie asked if Sensi and I would like to stay, we did, Ms. Katie and the other girls in class were great. Random Guy gave his class 7 out of 10 and said he would go again if his sister didn't have to come. I can totally understand him wanting something for his own. I am glad that Ms. Katie gets both Random Guy and SensiGirl.

photo by Tom Oliver
image via:  http://www.flickriver.com/places/India/Kerala/Kanjikkuzhi/ 

I still am feeling like a crab though, I gave up today and the kids are watching PBSkids and I am writing my blog rather than having a school session as planned. I gave up that idea as soon as we got home and the lunch I bought them as the reward wasn't eaten. Rather than harp about it I made grilled cheese for us. I am so tired that I left the pan on the lit burner for the whole time we were were eating out sandwiches. I have said before that if I don't get enough sleep the tide is out for me and I can only see the crap that surrounds me. I warned the kids this afternoon that I was going to be off the clock and not helping anyone with anything after nine o'clock. Smart kids...they agreed.

Taciturn Tuesday: Street Art, Stockholm

Street art by Mogul  
image via: http://www.sweden.se/eng/Home/Lifestyle/Art-architecture/Reading/Street-art-in-all-corners/ 

Home Schooling: Summer, Part Two

Since SensiGirl was losing skills at her ESY class, we decided to pull her to arrest any more regression of her skills. Her occupational therapists agree she has a distinctive lack of focus and needs lots more of large sensory input in the form of crashing and running around in circles. She hasn't been talking as much, this is such a change that her speech teacher was visibly upset last week. Both of her occupational therapists agreed that she was not able to focus as readily and was losing ground.

 Arresting Regression
 image via:  http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/dec/20/belarus-election-violence-lukashenko-eu 

I talked with the ESY director and he didn't have any acceptable solutions. Such as it is, pulling her is hopefully the right way to go. Friday was her last day of ESY and I contacted the school and told the bus driver and aides that  Friday was her last day. If I had any reservations about pulling her from school, her performance that morning was enough to convince me that things couldn't go on as they were. She wouldn't get out of bed, wouldn't get dressed, didn't use the toilet and refused her breakfast. I got her out the door with literally two minutes to spare.

image via:  https://www.stpaul.gov/index.aspx?NID=2883

I contacted a couple of the moms of her friends from her Kindergarten class and asked for some play time in the park with them. I also contacted the music therapist that both her speech therapist and her OTs suggested. I am hoping that we can fill some of the time with those things. I am going to check out swimming lessons for both SensiGirl and Random Guy soon.

I put together a summer school schedule for Random Guy two weeks ago, and we have been making progress on his math and reading. Geography, grammar and keyboarding are coming along as well.  My dilemma is how to school BOTH kids for the rest of the summer.  I worked yesterday on a complementary schedule for SensiGirl so that we won't interfere with the progress Random Guy has made and will bring Sensi's skills back up to acceptable levels.

image via:  http://www.betterworldbooks.com/comprehensive-curriculum-of-basic-skills-grade-1-id-160996330X.aspx 

We have three weeks until her intensive listening therapy starts, and it runs for two weeks. This may or may not cause some old behaviors to re-emerge from what I am told. Since that has already happened from two weeks of ESY, I am not terribly concerned.  I will continue to do school sessions during that time to keep things as normal as possible. I am going to take a little vacation towards the end of August. This wasn't originally planned that way, but it is turning out to be very motivating for me to know I will be getting a break from the kids for a few days during the summer.

image via:  http://article.wn.com/view/2011/08/06/Growing_Flood_Potential_Brainerd_Lakes
Area_severe_risk_late/ 

I never thought I would be schooling my children at home or that I wouldn't have them in summer school. Circumstances being what they are, we are being more typical than I thought we could be.

Tranquil Thursday: Sunrise Bridge

image via:   http://www.capadiadesign.com/2011/04/easter-celebrations.html 

Taciturn Tuesday: Decisions

image via:  http://fineartamerica.com/featured/3-figurine-between-two-tracks-leading-into-different-directions-symbolic-image-for-making-decisions-bernard-jaubert.html

SensiGirl's Extended School Year

image via:  http://www.johnhaydon.com/2011/01/if-dont-know-do-do-opposite/ 

My SensiGirl goes to what is called Extended School Year. She has been attending for the last two weeks. She gets an extra 5 weeks of school over the summer to try to maintain progress she has made during the school year.  She attends school in the same building as her regular school year, for half days. In theory this is a good thing. In practice, I find that this year, not so much.
Her WunderTeacher worked to try to set up SensiGirl with the summer school special ed. teacher so she would know some of SensiGirl's quirks. She worked with them for over a week and checked in on them to answer any questions. I updated the getting to know you letter and WunderTeacher proofed it and added some things I omitted. I know that I wrote she is afraid of atriums and echo producing places. I checked that the teachers and paras read it. I even gave them a copy of her IEP. Still we missed some things.

The atrium in the school building. Fuzzy resolution, but you get the idea.
image via:   http://museum.spps.org/ 

This week they took my SPD child to a drumming show in the atrium of the building. Just hearing about it made me cover MY ears. I explained that SensiGirl was nervous about atriums because she had to participate in a parade with music and drums in the atrium two years ago. She has very sensitive hearing and is nervous about big echoing spaces. We made wonderful progress this past year on this issue, now I am not so sure where we stand.

image via:  http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/features/life/article2737899.ece 

I had told them after the drum show not to take her into the atrium for any other loud activities. The sound echoes and hurts her ears. I explained it would be best to keep her schedule as routine as possible. Still, today they wrote a note: "Climb Theater will have a music presentation in gym. Do you want her to go?"
The teachers told me there were other activities coming up: a visit from Ronald McDonald, (false faced creepy clowns, anyone?), a theater performance and field day.

image via:  http://www.porteracademy.org/Sensory%20Processing%20Disorder.html 

The problem is the new summer school teachers haven't worked with SensiGirl before. They also don't seem to understand sensory processing disorder very well. Kindergarten was a hard transition but with WunderTeacher and the crew we got through the fall without too much progress being lost from her time at preschool. By the end of the year, great strides had been made by small incremental steps throughout the year.

My girl, who wouldn't go near a gymnasium without a food reward waiting was participating in adaptive gym every day, (sometimes they threw in a balloon reward for good measure.) Heck, she participated (again, with assistance,) in the Lion King play that the Autism Program put on. They had drumming for the scene changes, but she only covered her ears once, because of the off key singing. They had play practice every day for two months. That is how she was so successful.

image via:  http://mixedmeters.com/2009/06/vinyl-one.html 

Now she is crying about going to school, she is becoming markedly upset at the merest mention of a gym and I don't know how to make it better for her.  I could take her out of school, but then she wouldn't have any time with the other kids who understand her and accept her. She is spending time with another girl who is actively trying to make friends with SensiGirl. I have to weigh everyday if I should keep her going to ESY. All I can do is show up every day for a debrief of her day, offer suggestions and answer any questions they may ask.