Stick To The Schedule!

Photo credit: collegemagazine.com

Time to go back to a schedule.  Children, including special needs children, NEED a schedule!  I have been home full-time for about a month and it does not feel like it!  Wit the children's birthday and Christmas in there we have been seriously busy! I have been cleaning out the house and reorganizing the playroom into more of a classroom. I also made a schedule I thought we could live with that would cover all the homeschool subject we need/want to cover.

Today we did history.  We read the first chapter of The Story of the World by Susan Wise Bauer. Then we discussed what we had learned like what is a historian. What is an archaeologist   ? How can we figure out what happened long ago?  It was pretty fun!

Then we studied geography.  I decided we should start with the United States.  We got a list of the 50 states in alphabetical order and we will cover one state a week. I had them read through the list of states in order to get the names pronounced right. Today we started our study with Alabama.  This was great since the children were born there! I found a site, Ducksters.com, that cover a nice amount of general information about the state.  We read over that and we will use the time for the rest of the week to look up famous people that lived there, the state animal, and other facts.  The kids enjoyed learning about the state. Now we will spend a bit working on educational apps Cleaver Dragons and Always Icecream and call homeschooling done for today.

Yesterday James and Margaret spent the day in their room without electronics for the outrageous behavior. I also had James make a video apology to the care giver who was here that night.  Today his behavior is much better.  John and I discussed his behavior and decided he flipped out due to high anxiety that we were not coming home.  I will need to look for a book or curriculum on how to help him deal with his emotional anxiety in a more appropriate way. Any suggestions?

Things you are not told about Autism and ADHD

Photo credit: Lemonlimeadventures.com

Last night my husband and I went to marriage therapy.  I was all ready in a bad mood after leaving marriage therapy and then I get a phone call while we were still out from the sitter watching the children.  Though she is new sitter I was not prepared for what she had to tell me when I got home!

James got aggressive with her when she had told him to go to sleep and quit playing around with his brother. When she said she was going to text me he flipped out on her. I am sure it was because he know he was going to get in trouble but his behavior with her was outrageous!

The caregiver told us she texted us and then James grabbed for her phone.  She placed her phone in her bra to keep it away from him and he went to grab it anyways,  He was cussing at her and kept grabbing her.  Eventually he knocked her down and she fell into a toy bin and hurt herself.  James did at let immediately apologized for that.  The poor lady had hurt her wrist!  Thankfully she said she would be okay but his behavior was out of control!

With James having Autism and ADD he does not relate well to people on an emotional level.  He has not problem crossing personal boundaries like sticking his hands down that poor woman's shirt to try and get her phone. He knows he should not cuss but he did anyways to try and threaten her.  He pushed her down in desperation to get the phone with no thought of her personally.  All of this is basically due to lack of personal understanding of emotion, self control, and impulsivity.

We came home and James was immediately screaming and crying.  We hadn't even heard what he had done in detail yet but he did know he was in BIG trouble. He was blubbering and saying he was sorry.  Somewhere along the line James has come to the conclusion that saying sorry erases whatever he did wrong; no matter how egregious his behavior was at the time!

Today he is grounded to his room to think about his behavior.  He has some toys and books in his room and he comes out to do chores but it idea for today is for him to reflect on his behavior and hopefully not doing it again just to stay out of his room, if for not other reason!

Impulsivity and executive functioning is SO important!  We are obviously going to have to continue working on these skills!

Changes for the Coming 2016

I am so excited about the changes coming for 2016.  My husband and I have struggled in our marriage for the last six months.  We are now starting to turn the corner and are celebrating our 16th wedding anniversary today (Yep, I got married January 1, 2000).

I have stopped work and I am now a Stay-At-Home-Mom (SAHM) again.  I have been trying to get the house in shape and get everything organized.  This has been a lot harder than I want to admit.  I mean the kids are messing things up quicker than I get things cleaned.  LOL  

Christmas was nice.  We got a new computer and some Kindle Fire tablets for the children.  We have been needing some new technology for a LONG time! Our last computer was running Windows 95 and has a SUPER slow processor (I think it was a 388  LOL).  Anyways James is happy because he can play Minecraft.  Margaret and Joseph are thrilled they have tablets of their own.  I am happy because a lot of the fighting is gone!

I have been able to get the children into physical therapy. I am thankful I was able to get back to back appointments.  It makes things easier.

John is happy to be at work again teaching.  That is truly where he should be since it is one of his callings.  With the "normal" order of things restored (John working and I am home full-time) I think we are both a lot happier.  What more can one want to start the New Year?

Little Pig, Little Pig, Let Me In!

DYI Piggy Bank for Margaret and Joseph

I have been busy trying to clean up my house and reorganize the playroom to turn it more into a classroom.  While we were cleaning it was brought to my attention that Joseph no longer had a piggy bank.  I used to have a small ceramic piggy bank for each of the children but over the years and through various moves I the piggy banks have gotten broken.





We go through a TON of pickles in our house.  Everyone likes to eat them as a snack and eat them with popcorn. So I have several pickle jars sitting around.  I made Margaret's piggy bank first.  I took the clear jar and lid and sealed the lid back onto the jar.  I took the largest flat head screwdriver I could find and punched a hole in the lid for the money to slide through. You can see on the picture on the right where I created the opening for Joseph's piggy bank.







Next I went started to wrap the duct tape around the jar (image on left).  As I took the tape around I overlapped the edge a bit and then cut off the tape,  I went up just enough where the tpae edges just overlapped and completed one more row. I took scraps and put some of the take on the inside of the lid over the sharp metal edge.  It was not too sharp but can't be too careful when little fingers are around! See picture on the right.

Finally I covered the lid.  I laid down the tape in one direction and pushed it into all the crevaces of the lids and cut the excess tape off with sharp scissors. Then I put the final two pieces across the lid in another direction and repeated what I did earlier. This seems to have covered the lid well.  I left a bit of the glass open so the kids could see into the bank without having to open the lid.  The kids couldn't be more thrilled with the results and mom is happy too.  Why?  Well, I do need to start paying them for some chores so that's the bad news but to get their piggy banks completed that was cheap and easy!  Next we will make a tithing bank and a savings bank.  It will be a good lesson for the children.

Happy New Years!

Thankful For Change

For the last two months I have been dealing with personal and work struggles making it hard for me to find time to write.  I am hopeful that I will be able to write more now that issues with life, work, and marriage have settled down.

Lately I have been focused on several things....

Types of ADD.  After years of fighting in my marriage, with the help of some marriage counseling, we have come to the conclusion John and I suffer from ADD.  I explains why we have many of our fights.  I have learned to overcome several of the issues I have with my ADD.  John still suffers from the effects of his ADD.  As we both work on our issues and identify things early it will be easier for us to curb the fighting.

Work. After a crappy last few months my job performance greatly suffered.  I had a performance review.  It was VERY unflattering but in the last few months it is understandable.  I am thankful that at least my management understands my difficulties and is not holding it against me.  Work continues on.  I am thankful to have a job!

Life.  The kids have been doing well.  We have been going to church since James got really involved with the bible and the idea of a God.  He has been so full of questions it worked best to take the children to church and bible class.  I am happy they are getting to go.  We have refrained taking the children because Joseph was so behind physically and prone to serious health problems over common illnesses that it was not worth the risk.  Even though Joseph still suffers from health problem when cold/flu/RSV season is over we risk mixing with others.  For the last month the kids have been attending church and have not been ill.  Thank God for that!

Today is Memorial Day.  We spent a quiet day at home and enjoyed our day.  I am thankful to the men and women that serve and served this country to keep us free.  Today has been a good day to reflect and be thankful!

Mr. Puzzle Piece

I was a great day when Mr. Puzzle Piece arrived.  The children had no idea what I was up to!  Feelings had been tense in the house.  I thought the children and I needed to get out and do something just for us. I wanted to create some memories with them.  I took the children and Puzzle Piece to the Butterfly Wonderland.  We had a nice time there!  Puzzle Piece got to see several things including butterflies emerging from their chrysalises.

It's A Making Bread Kind of Day

Today I made some more of the Amish White bread from Allrecipies.com.  This is the second time I have made this and I have to say I really like this recipe!  It seems to be very forgiving and have made both batches with a few variations on the original recipe.  I am writing down my steps from my first batch.  I liked it a bit better than this batch.




Here is the basic recipe.  See the link above to go to Allrecipes.com site to see all the information including comments.  There are always a lot of good ideas and advice submitted in the comments.

INGREDIENTS:

2 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
2/3 cup white sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons active dry yeast
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/4 cup olive oil
6 cups bread flour (reserve the last cup of flour)

DIRECTIONS:

1. In a large bowl, dissolve the sugar in warm water, and then stir in yeast. Allow to proof until yeast resembles a creamy foam.
2. Mix salt and oil into the yeast. Mix in flour one cup at a time. Knead dough on a lightly floured surface until smooth. Place in a well oiled bowl, and turn dough to coat. Cover with a damp cloth. Allow to rise until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.
3. Punch dough down. Knead for a few minutes, and divide in half. Shape into loaves, and place into two well oiled 9x5 inch loaf pans. Allow to rise for 30 minutes, or until dough has risen 1 inch above pans.
4. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 30 minutes.