Root Canals Done on Two Teeth!

Samuel fell in our house last summer and had large chips knocked out of his two front teeth. The fall also knocked them out of place a bit as well. They never discolored or anything like that, but a visit to the dentist revealed that abscesses had formed because there had been nerve damage. The dentist recommended that root canals be done. Because Samuel cannot even sit for a complete exam, it was decided he should have the procedure done under general anesthesia.

We went to the hospital for this on Friday. I was worried about how Samuel would react to everything and was especially worried about making the trip home with him in the car. The hospital where we had this done was an hour and fifteen minute drive from where we live. After hearing about this, my Mom was generous enough to make the three hour driving trip from where she lives to help us out.

On Thursday we went to Samuel's pediatrician for a pre-surgery physical. Samuel allowed his blood pressure to be taken! We were able to do this by telling him the cuff wrapped around his arm would give his arm "a big squeeze hug." He protested and it took a couple tries, but it finally worked! This was the first time he ever allowed his blood pressure to be taken. We were also able to get his temperature taken with the probe held under his arm. I restrained him in my arms to get this done. He wasn't happy but he didn't fight too hard. He wouldn't let the doctor check his ears at all. The doctor skipped that part. As far as checking his throat, we had to hold him down on the exam table for that. Strange, because in the past it has not been so difficult. Maybe the combination of things, or the order they were done, was a part of his lack of cooperation.

I wrote a social story about our day at the hospital the night before we went. While my Mom drove in the next morning (we left at 4:30am for the long drive to the hospital!), I read the story to him. My Mom had a cool CD playing with animal sounds from Alaska blended in with music. I didn't know if Samuel would like this, but he seemed to enjoy it very much. We listened to it both ways of our drive.

We arrived at the hospital at 6am. It was still dark outside. The hospital building was lovely while it was still dark and all lit up. It was a relatively new building, and the furnishings, layout, lighting, and colors were very pleasing. It felt more like we were arriving at a nice hotel rather than a hospital! Samuel did fantastic while I left him with my Mom and I took care of registration. He seemed to view the experience as a sort of adventure and seemed to anticipate each step with curiosity.

We were placed in a private room within minutes. It had a television and Samuel could change the channels. This helped keep Samuel occupied while we waited for our nurse to get things ready. We had to go through the whole series of taking vitals again like we had done at the pediatricians office. We weren't able to get his temperature because the nurse had a thermometer that measured temp. by placing the probe in his ear.

One of the things I was most apprehensive about for the whole day was the administering of anesthesia. He was supposed to get a sedative first. There were two options: a liquid form or being given a shot. We tried the liquid but I was not very hopeful it would work. It didn't. So, he had to be given a shot in the leg. He was heartbreakingly upset at this, but he dozed off within a few minutes. He was then put on the bed and wheeled into the operating room. I followed, dressed in "scrubs." I was allowed to remain there until he was given the anesthesia (a mask over the face...). Even though he appeared to be asleep, he was crying and struggling as they gave it to him. Wow, that was hard to watch.

An endodontist took care of the root canals and then the pediatric dentist took x-rays so that he could carefully look at the condition of Samuel's teeth. He has never had a very thorough exam of his mouth. The dentist found two small cavities and filled them. He also capped Samuel's front teeth. That was a pleasant surprise. I had not realized they were going to do this during the surgery. His teeth look so much better now!

The surgery was scheduled for 7:30 to 9:30am. It took a bit longer, and I didn't get to see Samuel until after 11am. My Mom and I had plenty of time to visit with each other in our room! We haven't gotten to talk to each other like in person in a long time! (There are always lots of children intervening!)

Samuel woke up just fine and did just fine on the car ride home. He was quite energetic the next day, yesterday. Today he is moving a little slower, but he doesn't appear to be in any pain. He says that he is not in any pain when we ask him. Fortunately, I have been able to convince him to take some chewable Tylenol. I gave some to him when we got home, but haven't had to since then.

We had a great experience at the hospital. The nursing staff was terrific, the pediatric anesthetist was great, and the two doctors who operated on Samuel were wonderful as well! I am so grateful that we had all the good help, and I am especially grateful to my Mom for helping to make the day much easier for me!

The Fun of Twisting Things Around

Samuel likes to take things he is familiar with and put funny twists on them. He has been doing this lately by considering how different shows/other TV events would be if they were on the "Noggin" channel (a channel that broadcasts shows for pre-schoolers from 6am-6pm, then becomes "The N", which I will NEVER let my children watch, programming for teens from 6pm-6am). He asks other family members about it. Here's an example:

"Mom, what would happen if Nascar was on 'Noggin'?"

"It would be animated," was my first reply. Then I decided to take it a bit further.. I told him" It would be called 'Nascar Babies'" (Thinking back to how the Muppets had their "Muppet Babies" show and the Disney Characters had "Disney Babies.")

Then I took things even further.. I made up a commercial about the show.. "Coming up next on Noggin, it's 'Nascar Babies!' See Jeff Gordon, Rusty Wallace and Michael Waltrip back when they wore diapers and raced their push toys around the track!" (Never mind that they were all probably babies at different times!)

Samuel thinks this is hilarious and asks me to repeat it throughout the day.

Some other things he has asked about are "What would happen if 'Anderson Cooper 360' was on Noggin?" "Would would happen if 'Dream Car Garage' was on Noggin?" So far we've just told him they would be animated and then he adds "And they'd be babies?"

Thank you, fellow bloggers!

I'm taking some time this morning to forget about housework (which I should forget about on Sunday, a day of rest, anyways!), schoolwork, and other pending things I have so that I can catch up with my fellow bloggers. I haven't had much time to "visit" with everyone that I like to catch up with. Besides the other blogs I have listed there are lots of others I like to look at too!

Anyways, I think back to how alone I felt before I started blogging compared to how much support, comraderie, knowledge, and even entertainment I experience by blogging and "visiting" other bloggers. I am so glad to have this at a time when I'm less able to get out and about outside of my home!

Some Bumps in the Road and a Difficult Transition For Me

Since last Thursday, things have gotten a bit more difficult with teaching Samuel at home. Last Friday and Monday we did five different periods of working at the kitchen table (FIVE different periods EACH DAY, that is). I think it was Monday that he finally lost his patience. He was starting to complain each time he had to sit at the table. He would not comply, so I started "waiting him out" . When I do this, I stop prompting him to pay attention except to occasionally say "I am waiting, are you ready to work?" Or I might say "You let me know when you are ready to work." Other times I just ignore him and then he will eventually say "Okay, I'm ready." This can be hard to do if I have something else that needs to be done and I end up waiting for many minutes at a time. In this case, we had a few 30 minute sessions at the table and one that was 45 minutes (15 minutes is the target). One of our sessions got moved up to his bedroom when he started throwing things and clearing the table. He had been scripting heavily and would not focus on his work.

Yesterday I decided to reduce the amount of work and I gave him easier tasks. There were no meltdowns so I was happy about that. I suppose I should make changes to Samuel's schedule a little more gradually. Not only did I increase the volume of work significantly, but we have new material we are covering as well. We've went from working at the table one time per day to repeated times working at the table. Why should I be surprised that he's having a hard time with that?!

As far as the material we are covering, I am finding that I still need to alter the way I present material to him. I had thought the first grade level workbooks I bought him were formatted in such a way (larger type, nice pictures, etc) that I wouldn't need to alter them. However, he still seems to be distracted by (or somehow unable to process) what he sees in the textbook. All part of the trial and error process I'm going through to come up with what is best for him!

Samuel has been very moody this past week. He has burst into tears a few times. One time was while he was watching "The Backyardigans". My other two sons were watching it as well. We tried asking Samuel why he was upset but his answers didn't make any sense. All we could figure was that it was a new episode of the show that he had not seen yet, or perhaps the music in the show contributed. He did not leave the room, which is what he usually does when he doesn't like what is on television.

It's not easy keeping up with all three boys and their schoolwork! I'm trying to grade and file away their work each day. I also write out a list of the next day's work. At the end of the day I review it, write in a score for their work, if appropriate. I have been teaching one child at home for the past 6 six years; now I have three children to teach! My little girl wants to be in on the action at the table too, so there has to be activity ready for her as well.

Our in-home helpers have been helpful by keeping Samuel occupied while he is not at the table doing his schoolwork. They help during his work time by being seated strategically at the table so he cannot run away!

I'm attempting to meet with the in-home service providers we used to have to arrange for some private consultation regarding Samuel's behavior. This isn't an easy time of year to meet with them, with school just beginning. They are very busy.

Three Days Under Our Belt

After three days of teaching two of my sons at home (actually, the first two days I also did some lessons for my oldest son too), I am quite wiped out! Every day has felt like a marathon race! The first day was the craziest. I had mapped out a schedule for the day that included times. Whenever I do something like that I get very frustrated. While it's good to make a plan, I need to remember that it may not necessarily reflect reality. It took me until the morning of the second day to remember that my plan was a starting point, from which changes can be made.

In spite of how tired I feel, everything is going well so far. Samuel seems to like the books I got for him. He is using a reader that is styled like a Dick and Jane book. He has never really cared for them, but he seems interested in this book. He looks very carefully at the illustrations and I make sure to refer to them as we read the story. I am re-typing one of his religion books on "Writing With Symbols". So far what we are reading is a review, but he is very interested in it. I'll elaborate more on other subjects later.

My kindergartner is my most challenging student! Every time I call him for a lesson he protests! This lasts for a minute or so and then I somehow convince him to cooperate and then he's fine after that.

I have been sticking to my plan of approximately 15 minute lessons for each child at a time. The last two days I have been able to do 4 sessions of work with Samuel. In addition to that he is being read to several times per day, both by me and by our in-home helper. While this might not sound like much time, this is a big increase from the amount of time we spent on work over the summer each day, AND HE IS ACCEPTING THE INCREASE AND IS COOPERATING! During each work session we cover two or three subjects. One thing I can do immediately to improve is to be better prepared early in the morning so that I'm not spending my day planning the next session of work. As time goes on I will either increase the number of work sessions we do or will make each session longer. Perhaps I'll do a combination of these two things.

My kindergartner started soccer today. He was not very eager to participate but hopefully his attitude will improve by next week. His oldest brother will play starting next week.

On the Eve of a New School Year

Samuel and his younger brother are starting their new school year tomorrow. My oldest son is busy with some auto racing things with my husband this week so he'll start his new school year next week.

My oldest is going into 5th grade. I am putting Samuel back into first grade work, which is the level of work he did in Math and Reading last year. My youngest son will be starting Kindergarten.

In the past I have used a curriculum and have "enrolled" my oldest with the place I bought my curriculum and materials from. I'm going to deviate from that a bit this year. I am going to use some workbooks and textbooks - the Traditional approach. However, I want to get more into some Unschooling (letting the course of study be determined by my child's interest), and some Charlotte Mason method where you "spread a feast" before your child and let him "digest" what they are ready to learn. (Info about the different methods is from the "Simply Charlotte Mason" website) It will be fun to see what all we come up with to study this year. The hard part will be keeping track of it all and making up tests of knowledge from that material.

I'm planning to teach them individually in 15 minute sessions. That will be enough to get my oldest a quick lesson and then get him started on an assignment. I can probably cover 2 subjects with Samuel in 15 minutes, and then our in-home helpers can supplement that with some kind of activity or assignment during the next child's session, then he can get a break and then be ready for another lesson session the next hour. My youngest boy can probably get in one or two subjects during that time frame also.

Well, it's late and I still need to get some things together so I better run!

Science Test - Good results in more ways than one!

For Science this summer we read two books: the first one was "Whales, The Gentle Giants." We started this one in May, when he was still in school. Between finishing the school year and going on vacation in June, it was slow going with the reading. We did not finish it until the end of July.




We reviewed and did the test in early August. I was a bit disappointed with the results. I didn't even score it. Was I disappointed only because of the "score?" No, it was more than that, I don't think I did a very good job of picking out the 5 basic relevant facts of the book that Samuel could connect with. Maybe there weren't that many relevant facts, maybe there were only two or three! In making up this test I used a combination of things that were used in his tests at school this past year: multiple choice, selection, and fill in the blank. Maybe it was just overkill staying with this one book two months. I thought I did a good job of doing minimal reading each day to keep Samuel from melting down as we worked. Maybe he was only just so interested in the book, and not that much at that.

Shortly after we finished this book we started on the next book: "What Makes Day and Night" This is a subject that has been of great interest to Samuel this summer. He has been interested in sunsets, and his interest in "planet Earth" goes back to a Blue's Clues episode about the planets (ever heard "The Planet Song"? ) Anyways, this book was much easier reading, of much greater interest to Samuel, and we finished it in a few weeks, rather than a few months. As we read it each day it was easier for me to pick out the five relevant facts that I wanted him to know. In fact, I even added an extra fact because it was so easy to pick out.





I typed up a study sheet and went over it with Samuel. He answered questions orally and then the next day he took his test. It went very well! He answered all the questions orally and then I had him write a few of the answers himself. He wrote "day" and the number "24" without any spelling assistance!

I suppose there are lots of ways to look at these two events and analyze them, but in my amateur opinion I'd say we both were more successful with the second book!