Ready to Home School!

We have always done our schooling at the kitchen table (or on the couch or a table by the fireplace on rare occasions).  With the addition of children it became more necessary to stay at the table...and after having 5 at the table last school year I decided that was not working anymore.  I wish I had a school room but I do not, given that all of the rooms are inhabited by children:)  So, during my "thinking time" this summer while I was recovering from surgery I had time to step back and think about how we are doing life rather than just plunging ahead day to day.  I came to the conclusion that if my priority was going to be parenting and home schooling that I would have to sacrifice yet another "fun" part of my life.  Yes...my scrapbooking table.  As you can see here it is not like my scrapbooking table was useful any more - for other than collecting those odds and ends that "someday" would be put into some one's album.

I went through every piece on that table and organized it or threw it away.  I stored my scrap booking items away in a cupboard thinking that maybe, when the grand kids come, I will have time for these kinds of projects.  But for now I need to focus on educating the kids.

Here is the old space...

 Here is the new space...

I am very pleased with this area and hope that it will be as functional as I want it to be!  For the first time in 8 years I have all of my supplies and things in one area!  I was shocked by the number of duplicates that I have.  I won't have to buy supplies for a very long time lol!  I left a space that you cannot see well for us to do a long visual timeline of history to help my more visual learning children.  Beautiful was given her own personal, private, and quiet school area in another room that we hope will help her to be less distracted and thus able to focus on her studies uninterrupted by little ones (and the other things that she finds to distract herself!)

This year we have continued to use My Father's World.  I have tweaked some of the subjects using Shurley English for Language Arts and ALEKS Math for the older two.  I am totally loving ALEKS math.  It is an online program that teaches them at their own pace, gives and corrects all of their assessments, and will not let them progress until they prove mastery in a subject.  The best part is that I don't have to do ANYTHING!  Perfect!  They can complain to the computer about having to do math and I don't have to hear it lol! 

I have the schedules made, the lessons plans written, the dry run done, and now we are just waiting for 8/27:)  But for our family the nuts and bolts of the books and space are the least of my preparation needs.

When we got the 3 Middles I was excited that I would be able to teach "1" lesson, 1 time as if to 1 student.  God was really laughing about that one!  He blessed us with 3 very, very unique kids who learn totally differently with very different learning "abilities."  Last year kindergarten was really an experimental year for me to try to figure out how this was going to work.  I have not talked about these things much as I am still so overwhelmed with their various levels that I don't really know what to say about it.

Each of my kids struggle in a different way to learn information.  I have to constantly keep the Main Thing the Main Thing and not be focused on the expectations I have contrived in my own mind or the World has placed on me/them.  I am so thankful for many of my fellow adoptive and/or home schooling mom friends who help keep me focused when I fall into discouragement and frustration.

I have to keep in my the kid's Love Languages - each child has a different angle on how to be motivated to work diligently when it is hard to learn.  Most of the time I feel more like a cheerleader than a teacher.   I used to read about home school students who were "independent" where you could hand them their lesson plan and they would hand it in completed at the end of the day, week, or even month!  Ha!  I am blessed with with "hand holders" who need me to be within eye or arms reach to be sure due diligence is pursued;)

I am choosing to share here about some specific issues that we deal with, not to embarrass any of my children but to give hope to anyone else who is struggling with these issues out there that they are not alone!  I have been so blessed by the vulnerability of others who share their struggles on their blogs and want to be a blessing to others if possible. Let me say though that while you are not alone...I do not profess to know all (or any!) of the answers:)

Superman has difficulty with processing auditory information.  He is fully capable of hearing - he just has a very, very, very difficult time processing what all of that verbal stuff means.  I used to be convinced he had dyslexia.  However, he is making strides that suggest to me that he does not.  This summer we worked on math all summer.  I discovered this summer if I work with him in a room totally quiet (yes...any time you can stop laughing here) with no other people in the room but us, and we first do his Brain Integration exercises along with deep breathing, that I could get successful work out of him that he actually retained!  This was a HUGE breakthrough for us after 4 years of him struggling with not learning the information, then if he actually did learn it he would not retain it.  This boosted his confidence and made me more confident going into this school year.  He is a very visual learner.  When we read him stories he "thinks" in "pictures."  Thus he will get the general understanding of something (retained as a picture) but he will not remember specifics.  That, obviously, can be problematic.

The primary enigma with Superman is how much is Auditory Processing and how much is Post Traumatic Stress Disorder?  Children who have suffered trauma tend to be extremely hypervigilant and watchful of their surroundings.  This means that they are also attending to insignificant details (worried that they are dangerous) and thus are not focusing on actual relevant stimuli (e.g. teaching) at hand. So, for example when we go to the zoo we are convinced that Superman never even sees an animal because he is so fearful of all of the people around him and watching to be sure that Faith is safe and near him.  These kids will also answer questions based on what they "perceive" (based on facial expressions, voice inflections, etc) what they think is the "right" answer for the situation rather than actually learning that there is a "right" answer that is always "right" if that makes any sense.  Thus, they don't retain information over the long haul as they believe that all things change depending on other people's mood.  This is quite adaptive for a kid who is growing up in abuse to keep physically safe...but obviously maladaptive when they are placed in situations where things stay the same and are not dependent on people's mood.  It is all quite mind boggling.  If you are interested in more of this you can check out Jim Wilder and his brain research.  I have one of his videos that has been so helpful in my understanding brain trauma.  It is called Joy Bonds.

As for teaching an ADHD child...realistic expectations, short lessons given at the "peak" time of medication, lots of activity, etc.  We have decided to schedule our day around Grace.  We will keep her schedule flowing and moving one on one as long as we have her attention and will flex the other two around her work with more independent work (loving the IPad, Math Shark, and computer!) until we have her subjects completed.  Then we will set her up with a lot of teachable game options to keep her in one spot while we work with the others:) 

Faith is doing great in school.  Our biggest problem with her is keeping up with her!  Again I am thankful for the IPad apps with math and spelling that can self-correct her and keep moving at her pace.

Dysgraphia is a problem that I never knew existed until I heard Dianne Craft speak about it at a conference.  Wow!  I just thought it was laziness.  We have been pleased with the results of her Brain Integration materials and are so thankful for computers with spell check! 

Two of our kids are having PT and OT evaluations done this week with one of those children also having a full academic assessment done this month.

We just keep moving along, doing what we can within our power and leaving the rest to God:)