School begins!

Today is our first day of school. I cannot begin to tell y'all how nice this change of focus is for all the kids and me. I won't do this every day, but just to give you a glimpse of how things have changed, I'll give a quick run down of my day so far:

• Did the morning chores, including feeding and walking the dog.
• Mowed one fifth of the lawn.
• Took care of various sundries around the house.
• Made sure Rachel and Sarah did their Morning Routine (this is part of their IEPs).
  
• Read "Where the Wild Things Are" (language arts and social skills).
• Printed out the math and language arts worksheets for the day (Sarah and Becky's language arts is a journal entry and will be done in the late afternoon).
• Started cooking lunch.
• Had Sarah and Becky's math lesson while lunch cooked, modified from the way Saxon does their lessons.

This afternoon I'm going to do a little bit of academics with Rachel and the next daughter in line for school (let's call her Deb for the sake of my fingers) which means some work on the alphabet and really basic math, then a little speech therapy followed by the Afternoon Routine and some finger knitting (fine motor skills).

In the past, I would have been very upset by this point because we would probably still be having math right now. Why? Because I would be "having school". I'm learning that the most important thing I can teach these kids is how everything they're learning in school applies to the rest of the world. Now, not every curriculum is going to be like that and I really don't think it should be like that. For example, math is always going to have a linear chronology and this is very good for that particular subject. Saxon also does a great job of building incrementally and uses a lot of manipulatives (the majority of which are found around the home) that build a really great foundation for the more abstract ideas later. But that doesn't mean I have to use the intense amount of drill all the time that Saxon uses or that I have to devote one and a half hours (which was our average last year) when I can break it up into smaller portions throughout the day.

And that's math... the other subjects are even easier to integrate into the day, either by reading to the kids for a few minutes at a time, or using every day objects/events to the teach the concept. Because of this, I feel less rushed and when I feel less rushed the kids get more involved and interested. As you can see from the list earlier, we read Sendak's classic book. Because I wasn't feeling rushed, each of the kids got a chance to hear the story and then look at the book themselves while I worked on other things. Becky read it to Deb, and Sarah read it to herself.

And later in the day, when we do our language arts lesson, writing in their journals are going to not only fill the language arts requirement but also social skills and get Sarah used to the idea of going back over the events of the day... strengthening the concept of The Past (time is a very difficult concept for kids in the spectrum to understand).

Lastly, I'm very glad this is how things are working out for therapy. Integrating their therapy into the rest of the day with a brief "session" is working out much, much, much better than I had ever hoped. We're doing therapy more often and we're accomplishing more.

I'm hoping the rest of the school year goes just as happily as today has so far.

(I've edited this to take out some stuff about a person who would probably rather remain anonymous.)

got the curriculum

Well, another school year is almost upon us. I'm phasing in school gradually so that we don't have a sudden change in schedule. I'm using the leftover math lessons (i.e. the ones we didn't get to finish because of various reasons... there aren't that many so it's a good review) and the science reader. I'm also going to start reading aloud at least once a day since the kids seem to really like that (visiting the library is about to become an every other week possibly even weekly event).

Rachel's focus this fall semester in her IEP is going to be on social and domestic skills for several reasons, a few of which I'll describe here. On domestics, first, no matter what else she does in life or how far she progresses, she will always have a body and a room to take care of. If she gets into a routine now, her life will be much easier. Second, this gives me opportunities to do informal speech therapy as well as work on social skills, though that will be focused on more intensely during the weekly playroom sessions we're going to have during the weekend. And third, the more she knows about cooking, cleaning and basic home care, the more likely she'll lead an independent life. And the more independence I can give her, the happier I'll be as well as the community at large.

As for social skills, that's pretty obvious. Right now, she's going through a phase where she talks back and puts her foot down, but I can't really get angry or worried about it. The only thing that worries me is that she'll completely refuse to work with me on any of this. But if nothing else there's always food as a motivator (she absolutely loves snacks) so if worse comes to worse we'll end up using ABA techniques to teach her what she needs to know.

I don't want to do that. I mean I really don't. I want her to be motivated to do this for the sake of doing it. But maybe that's too much to ask.

Anyway, as for Sarah, her IEP is pretty much the same except with a greater focus on academics. She's in Saxon Math 2 this year, and I'm introducing a real language arts course since she's doing so well reading and has started writing her own stories and letters. Add in a civics course I purchased (I Love America, pt. 1) and we've completely covered, with lovely materials, the entire required course load the state of Texas demands (math, reading, spelling, and good citizenship).

And just in case any of you are wondering, Rachel's covers all that as well, but at a preschool/kingergarten level. Social skills encompass character and character is the basis of good citizenship. Not only that, but I'll be involving her in the I Love America course where appropriate. We will go over the alphabet (spelling) as well as phonics (reading) and I'll be using the Saxon Math K curriculum for math. According to the book put out by NATTHAN, Christian Homes and Special Kids, she's not at a point where she's ready to learn to read, so our formal reading curriculum is going to have to wait.

Add in a really nice science curriculum (we're using Christian Liberty Nature Reader, books 1 and 2 as well as Sharing Nature with Children by Joseph Cornell), a fall garden for the more hands on stuff, a health curriculum especially designed for kids with autism (Taking Care of Myself by Mary Wrobel which covers basic care all the way up through puberty), singing and piano for music and assorted art supplies for arts and crafts and the therapy stuff already mentioned in previous posts and I think we'll have a very busy school year on our hands.

I'm so glad I've been getting back into FLYing. :)