Back to School

Samuel returned to public school last October. For the next four months he was both a public school student and a homeschooled student. He started out attending just 2 hours per day and during that time had Life Skills and Science. I continued Math and Language Arts work with him at home.

In November the length of his school day was increased to include all but the first class of the day, English. I did Language Arts work with him at home. In March he started attending all day. I have enjoyed working with his teacher to get things in place. She has been so flexible. There are wonderful teaching assistants who help him, and he also has "Day Treatment Behavior Services."

Samuel seems to like being at school but boy does he complain at home about having to go! His behavior at school is just fine, but has become rather challenging at home. I am back to making sure that schedules are in place for him to refer to most of the day.

I am relieved to have the help with Samuel, but I miss his presence here at home during the day. Ironically, in the few months before I enrolled him things really had gone well with his school work at home. However, I just couldn't provide the right kind of social environment for him. He seems to be very happy to be part of a routine at school.  He is already talking to me about the routine he wants to have in place here at home when he is out of school this summer!

Although he is not very cooperative in answering questions I ask him about what he does at school, he has started sharing things with me as he gets ready in the morning (after he's done complaining about waking up!). "Hurray, today is 'Reading Wednesday.' I'm going to read that American History Book." "Today is Books and Barks! I don't care about the dogs, but I like the books!" It's so much fun to hear him say these things! He didn't communicate quite like this when he last attended school 3 years ago.

 

Exploring Emotions and Actions

In the last year we have noticed that Samuel likes to "explore" various emotional feelings. During Easter last year he was focused on death and dying, and it seemed natural that he would explore this through the crucifixion and death of Jesus. Later in the year he explored this through Walt Disney. I do not know exactly how this came to be, but he would ask me and one of his helpers in particular about what would have happened when Walt Disney got old and died.

I am not quite sure what to make about the feeling that he is exploring now. It might be "things forbidden" or it could just be that he is curious about things that ultimately lead to him getting in trouble. I don't know. I do know that if he does something that gets him in trouble he wants us to narrate the story back to him.

One recent event occurred one morning while he was playing Wii. This was a "break" time for Samuel so his helper was organizing some things in the kitchen while Samuel was playing in the family room. I was working in the kitchen. All of a sudden Samuel screamed, started crying, and ran upstairs to hide. I went over to the television screen and the Wii system was asking questions like, "what language do you want?..." I realized that Samuel had been exploring the menus, had come across some kind of "clear system" button and had selected it. SAMUEL HAD DELETED ALL THE CHARACTERS, ALL THE INFORMATION, ALL THE SCORES WE HAD OBTAINED over the 40 days since we received it at Christmas. This included all the games and levels that had been unlocked due to our hard work. I felt really bad for my two other sons, who had done lots of hard work on Wii Fit, Wii Sports, and a crossbow shooting game. Samuel's helper took care of setting up the system so that a password would be needed in the future to do such a thing. I wish we had thought of that earlier! Live and learn.. Now, Samuel wants me to repeat the story of this. I won't. I tell him that what he did was wrong and that we have now fixed the game so that it cannot be done again. He apologized to all of us without me even asking for him to do so.

Samuel also likes for me to repeat a story that I had told all the children one time.. about how I had broken apart one of my baby brother's toys (a toy hour glass) so that I could get to the plastic pellets inside of it. I will not repeat this story for him anymore either. I talk about it in terms of how it was wrong, that I should have respected my brother's property.

The strange thing in all of this is that he seems truly remorseful and sorry for doing things that hurt others, yet he likes to get others to talk about it and I'm sure that he will "explore" other such actions in the future. We're trying to pay attention to what he talks about and what he is watching on the computer. His big brother says he got the idea about clearing out Wii from a video he watched on the computer.. YouTube or something like that.

He's going over the Ten Commandments one by one in Religion and I am glad that he seems to be able to relate to the idea that there are rules of proper behavior that should be followed. I have a few books that are great for bringing the rules of the commandments to his level. (For example.. "Thou shalt not kill," besides meaning that we really shouldn't "kill," also means that we should treat our siblings and friends nicely....)We are reading them; now I have my job as his Mom to help him apply them in everyday life.

"History of the Years"

Samuel has a funny new way of showing his interest in history. He keeps asking us what happened in a particular year. My husband was watching a show on the History Channel last night about World War II. Samuel came in the room and asked, "What year is this?" My oldest son left a book he is reading about the War of 1812 in their bedrom; Samuel asked me, "What happened in 1812?" He also keeps asking me, "What happened in 1944?" and while he was getting a bath the other night he asked me, "What happened in the year 1?"

I'm sure if I asked him, he could tell me what year every video game was introduced. That seems to be where this interest in years came to the forefront for him. He has been watching a YouTube video that covers the history of video games and has been scripting it for the past few weeks. One time he told me, "I'm going to watch, 'The History of the Years.'" I asked him what that was about and he explained it was about the video games. Not long after this is when he started to ask all the questions about years.

I need to capitalize on this interest Samuel has for teaching him some history! Does anyone know about any good books or other resources for timelines?

"Come on, let's play!"

I'm hearing Samuel say this frequently these days and it's kind of nice! When it is time for him to go to the playroom in our basement he will summon any or all of his siblings to join him, depending on who is around. I'm not quite sure if he is actually playing WITH them. It could be that he is only trying to avoid being alone downstairs. His siblings will be able to fill me in. In the meantime, I'm liking the direction he is going with this!

Happy Thanksgiving! Letter to Santa

I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving! We had two guests and enjoyed our traditional dinner: steak! One of our guests loves to help prepare food. He has been a guest for holidays with our family for years. As the day went on we kept crossing off things from our menu! I gave up on making pumpkin soup, he gave up making a Bernaise sauce to go with the steak and he also gave up making some bread pudding. Just as well, we had plenty of food otherwise.

Samuel does not care for beef so he had his old standard entree, chicken nuggets! He has not been as cooperative with trying new food as he was about a year ago. I need to strategize a bit. Last year a taste of soda in a cup was enough of a "reinforcer" to get him to try sampling new food. That is not the case anymore.

This is the first year that Samuel will be writing a letter to Santa with a specific request that is his own. He has been wanting an X-Box 360 for a while. We told him, "Maybe you can ask Santa for one at Christmas." Now he goes around saying, "I can't wait to get my X-Box 360 for Christmas!" Here's the problem, we are a Playstation Family! We have a PS2, a PSP, and quite a selection of games to go along. While I am thrilled that Samuel has requested something on his own, I just don't see how "Santa" could bring something that is a whole new system to deal with! We are trying to steer his request for a Wii game instead. He has been using one at occupational therapy and his brothers have tried one at a friend's house. Yes, Wii is a new system, but one that the entire family could get some use out of. (I'd love to try Wii Fit!)

"N is for ...." A Phonics Lesson with Samuel

We're chugging right along with Samuel's school work, which included the 2 day break we had this week because of his EEG. I often sneak in a bit of school work on Saturdays on weeks like this. This afternoon we did a lesson about the letter N and the sound it makes. My job was to ask Samuel to tell me a few words that begin with the "n" sound. Just in case he couldn't focus enough to answer my question I printed out some pictures from "Writing with Symbols," nice little concrete things like "nest", "nickel", "night." Well, we never had to refer to it because Samuel had no problem thinking of words! His answers? "Noggin!" " Nick Jr." "Nick" "Nextel!" Gosh, I wonder what was on his mind today?!

"Three Things, Great Job Mom!"

Each time Samuel approaches his visual schedule and sees "Work Time" (the schedule piece I use when it is time for him to do his school work) I catch him peeking over to the table where I have a mini-schedule of the tasks he is to do that session. He used to do something like this when he entered his classroom at school; he would look over to the table where his teacher made his daily schedule to see what was on the agenda for the day. In earlier grades his schedule was posted on the wall so he would look to that as soon as he entered the room.

Last week one day he took a look at the mini-schedule and said "Three things, great job Mom!" Today when he looked at it he said, "Wow! Three things!" He seems genuinely happy!

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?"

Maine Vacation, The First Few Days

We left for our vacation early on a Thursday evening. We drove for about 5 hours up Interstate 81 through Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania and then we stayed overnight in Port Jervis, just over the border into New York. We didn't stop until we got there! We were able to do this thanks to bringing along sandwiches to eat for dinner, a box full of little toys to keep the kids entertained, and the availability of oldies music on the radio, which my kids love. I think the time of day we were travelling helped as well; I suspect this long of a drive would not have worked had we tried it first thing in the morning.

The only source of frustration for Samuel on this leg of the trip was that he had great difficulty in trying to see the sun set. We were driving through mountains so by the time he thought of looking at it, it was below the horizon of the mountain tops. When we left the mountainous area we had tall trees to contend with. The setting sun was a gorgeous orange ball that evening, but you could only see it when a quick opening came up between the trees. Samuel started crying and said "I want to leave tree land!"

We stayed that evening at a Comfort Inn right along the interstate. Samuel was quite happy, he loves staying at these kinds of places. He talked about it the rest of our trip. I asked him today what his favorite part of our vacation was and he answered "Staying at the Comfront (how he pronounces it!) Inn."

The next morning our family of six invaded the breakfast room at the motel and then got on the road for a roughly six hour drive to Freeport, Maine. We traditionally stop at the roadside liquor store in the narrow stretch of New Hampshire that we drive through (New Hampshire either has a low sales tax, or maybe even no sales tax, on liquor). While we were here Samuel said hello to several people that we saw. He did this quite frequently on our trip and would then ask "Where are you from?" On this occasion the woman he spoke to told him she was from Cambodia! People are surprised to get a "Hi" from him, but everyone he talked to was very friendly.

We ate a late lunch/early dinner at The Jameson Tavern, a place we have frequented just about every trip to Freeport. Samuel got a case of "the sillies" while we were here. This was to be another frequent occurance on our vacation. He started laughing and giggling very loudly. I'm sure this was just a reaction to being cooped up in the car all day. Each time he did this I took him outside for a few minutes (or somehow removed him from what was going on at the time). This time I took him out to the parking lot and had him jump around. I also gave him some "big squeeze" hugs and I had him hold my hands and spun him around a little. We got a few funny looks from passers by, but I'm sure I'd take a look if I saw something like that too.

We stayed that evening at The Harraseeket Inn, a family tradition. My husband and I stayed there on our honeymoon and we have stayed there three other times now. It's quite an adventure each time we go with more children, but it is a very family-friendly place. Samuel remembers his stays here and always looks forward to going back.


While at The Harraseeket we went on a walk along Freeport's main street that has lots of outlet stores. We always stop at the L.L. Bean outlet store. We browsed there a bit and my husband returned solo the next morning to do some clothes shopping. We went in the pool at the Inn several times. Samuel has been afraid of the water on past trips but this time he loved it. It was our baby girl's first experience in the water and she loved it as well.

I neglected to take any pictures while I was on my trip but still want to share some of the images from our trip. I am able to do so thanks to Flickr.com and the following photographers: First two photos: Port Jervis, NY , from Click Click Photography;New Hampshire Liquor Store photos: Red Building from The Cod 72, Road Sign from autumnsan ;Jameson Tavern from kara.brown ;L.L. Bean outlet store from kmf164;Harraseeket Inn photos from marcomazzei and j_dian

First Full Week of Vacation

I'm still very happy to have Samuel at home after a week of him being out of school, but I will admit that I'm quite exhausted and a bit frustrated. Samuel's mission the past couple days has been to spend as much time as possible on something electronic. He has a choice between Playstation and two different computers. Samuel's two brothers are doing the same thing. It's not so bad on weekdays. It is easier to ration out time on the computers and Playstation because there is a bit more structure to our days. Now I need to get a routine for the weekend going. I also need to figure out how to make our computers accessible only by password.



My parents visited earlier this week. They live about a 3 hour drive from here so we only see them a few times each year. We all had a nice time together and Samuel seemed to enjoy their visit as well. He became agitated one time when we tried playing a game with him. He scattered the game pieces. I know that it is going against most of our natures to take a situation like that and deal with it only by speaking to the perpetrator in a monotone voice. Samuel's helper was here when it happened. She removed him from the room for a break. We finished the game without Samuel and then put it away. As soon as she returned with him I realized "Uh oh, he needs to 'finish' his game!" We quickly pulled the game out again and played another with no further incident. We put several things on his schedule for him to interact with my parents.. things like playing a game and having a conversation. All of these things went by very quickly, but he followed his schedule quite well! Best of all, Samuel didn't try hitting them! We had a problem with that a few visits ago.



I'll be busy in the coming week getting ready for our vacation up to Maine. It will be good to get out of town for a few days!


I don't think I've mentioned Samuel's current favorites in a while. Samuel is still very intrigued by retail locations that have gone out of business. In addition to the restaurant he likes to ask about he now asks about a motorcycle shop that closed. It is next to the place we get doughnuts after church on Sunday. On the days that just he and I go we take a walk over to the closed motorcycle shop and read the sign posted:"___________ will close effective ___________ 16, 2006. We are sorry for any inconvenience..." Samuel also likes Noggin, the TV station with kid's shows between 6am and 6pm. Samuel likes to ask me when the kids shows start and when they end. He, of course, knows all of this but for some reason likes to have me repeat the info. He also likes Nick Jr. He looks the schedule up on the computer and will tell me when the shows he likes are on. So far he cannot change channels on the TV, but that day will come soon.

Tonight when we were all playing outside I asked him what he was playing. He told me that he was planning to open a restaurant, a "Crusty Crab" (from Sponge Bob Square Pants) in an empty house that is behind a house we used to live in. When it came time to try to engage Samuel in play outside, rather than force him to play catch, the other boys and I joined his game and held a "board meeting" at our picnic table to discuss the opening of the new restaurant. Samuel thought this was great fun and played right along with it. The only trouble came from his 5 year old brother who did not want to wait his turn to talk!

Wondering About Heaven

The pastor of my church gives wonderful homilies (the Catholic version of sermons), and this past Sunday one of the topics discussed was heaven! This has been a subject of great interest to Samuel lately. Now that he can sit through almost half of mass in the church I have been wondering how I could get him to pay more attention. The timing of this homily was perfect! He wants to know if our bodies go to heaven when we die. He has become upset when I tell him that they do not. Our pastor's homily clarified that eventually, our bodies and souls will be reunited in heaven. Samuel also asks about what a soul is. I better brush up on my knowledge of theology and be ready for more questions and answers!

Our rite of spring and other things

The arrival of spring is affecting the members of our family in various ways. My husband is suffering from seasonal allergies now more than in the twelve years I have known him. I'm suffering a bit as well. The worst is still probably a few weeks away. It usually gets to the point that I cannot wear eye makeup for several weeks, which will occur some time around Memorial Day Weekend (the end of May). Not a big deal in the grand scheme of things, but it does make me a bit groggy.

Samuel has become much more withdrawn the past few weeks. This is probably due to a variety of things, only one of which is the change in season. I'm still carefully monitoring his computer activity, both for quantity and quality. His latest obsession is to use Writing With Symbols to type in words. After doing this he uses the speech function on the software and listens to the words being spoken. One evening I caught him typing words off the collection of videos he was carrying around that day. He also types in character names from favorite TV shows, and tonight he asked me to type in "Klasky Csupo" (the producers of Nickelodeon shows like Rugrats). I was amazed that the software speech pronounced it correctly! I probably shouldn't encourage this activity too much, but I like to let him have a little bit of fun in his day, even if it is quirky.

I have re-started Samuel's religion lessons at home. The children his age are going to be making their First Communion next weekend. I had thought at the beginning of the school year that he would join them, but our lessons at home became a bit sporadic when I started focusing on school academics over the winter. I also decided to have Samuel wait because of his behavior in church. I am hopeful that it will improve the next few years. Samuel is interested in God and in religion, so I am very grateful for that. He thinks about heaven alot and asks me questions about it:

"Mom, where is Grandma?" "She is in heaven, Samuel." "Can she come back?" "No, she cannot come back" "I don't want to go to heaven!" "We all want to go there someday Samuel. You probably won't go there for a while yet."

He has decided that the dreamy scenes in a Disney vacation-planning DVD we received are heaven. He asks "Mom, can you come back from heaven to go to Disney World?"

Another favorite topic of late for Samuel is area businesses. A restaurant we frequented years ago went out of business (well, I'm assuming it went out of business) and was replaced by another restaurant a few months later. When we drive by it the questions start.."Mom, why did the G__________ go out of business?" "It might have gone out of business because they didn't sell enough food." "I want to go to the G_______________!" "We can't, it is no longer there. Now it is The S_________________". As we drive into town on Sunday mornings for church he asks us to notify him whether businesses are open or closed.

I e-mailed the school principal over the weekend asking about the portable question. She tried calling me back while I was out this morning, so now we're playing phone tag.

Scripting, Next Chapter

To fill the void I have created in Samuel's life by temporarily removing The Upside Down Show, he is now watching his Bob the Builder DVD. When the DVD player isn't available he is putting it into our Playstation II (this is during time when he has reached "Your Choice" on his schedule). He likes looking up Bob the Builder when he is on the internet and likes to listen to the starting theme song in different languages.

I tried watching Samuel play on the computer tonight and he got very upset "Okay Mom, now you can go!" I'll have to take some time to get him used to having me around, I'm hoping that we can play games together on the computer.

It's starting to get complicated when the boys have free time and they compete over electronic devices to play with! There's enough to go around, it only gets to be a problem when two of them want the same thing.

Snow Day? Eventually it was!

Our weather forecast for last night called for several inches of snow. I woke up at 5:30am to find no snow. "Oh, Samuel will be so disappointed," I thought. I turned on the local news and was surprised to see surrounding counties and cities had closed their schools. Our county was not in the listing. I then tuned into The Weather Channel to see what the radar was showing, no precipitation in our area, it was all southeast or north of us. Darn, that would have been an excuse for keeping Samuel home, knowing snow was on the way. I proceeded to shuffle through making coffee, empty the dishwasher and then sat down about 15 minutes later in front of the TV again, our county's schools were now closed! Hurray, everyone can sleep in!

Samuel enjoyed staying home, as always! We read out of his textbook, did a worksheet on that, then we looked up Helen Keller on-line. We talked about her childhood. This is the second time we've talked about her and every time Samuel says, "She can't talk?" Then he wrote down her name. Later in the day we did a worksheet on contractions.

We didn't have any snow until about 1:30pm and we ended up getting about 2 inches. The snow days have added up enough for the school board to justify adding another week onto the end of the school year. This might have been a waste of a snow day, but it sure was nice to not have to leave home!

Dr. Seuss's Birthday Celebration at School

I received notice from Samuel's inclusion teacher earlier this past week that his class would be celebrating Dr. Seuss's birthday on Friday with a reading activity. They would be allowed to bring in a pillow, a snack, a drink, and a few books to look at. They would be taking time out from class to have some relaxed reading time. I found out the night before that they would also be reading to a kindergarten class.

As I was gathering the necessary things for Samuel to take Thursday evening I asked him a few questions about the snack he wanted to take and he joined right on in getting everything together! It was such fun seeing him interested in an upcoming event at school. When I asked him about the snack he told me he wanted peanuts and apple juice. We decided that he would take his bean bag chair and he asked to bring a blanket as well. I talked him out of bringing the comforter for his bed and he accepted taking an oversized flannel baby blanket. He also wanted to take a stuffed animal, so we found a nice squishy one. They were told to bring "a book or two," he wanted to take 5 and ended up taking six, all Dr. Seuss books! He proudly carried in his things to school yesterday morning.

We heard a "Hi Samuel!" as we were walking in. A boy walked in from the parking lot and joined us in the hallway. Samuel, with a smile on his face, said "go away". He gets excited when something unexpected like that happens, I need to review his social stories about greetings and how to respond! I finally got Samuel to return the hello and then I talked to him. He told me his name, which sounded familiar from a few school years ago. "Were you Samuel's computer buddy in kindergarten a few years ago?" He indeed was and he is in Samuel's class this year. He said that he likes to help Samuel. I thanked him for that and told him that Samuel has two brothers who help him also. He said "I know, I saw you in the grocery store last year when I was with my Mom." (Then I remembered him saying hello there also)

Samuel does seem to be pretty well-liked by his classmates. His teachers have told me that other students pitch in to help him. Samuel does not usually respond to them very much, though I think he does respond much more now than he did a few years ago. I have thought about asking the teachers what they tell the other students about Samuel and the other autistic boy in their class. One time I mentioned (in an e-mail) a book to share with the other children about an autistic classmate and the teacher never responded to being interested in it. Something I'm going to have to inquire about.

Our dialogue when I picked Samuel up yesterday afternoon was something like this:

Me- How was your reading day?

Samuel - Good. I took my socks off!

Did you have your snack?

Yes. I ate all my peanuts.

Did you read to the kindergarten class?

Yes. I read Hop on Pop and _________________.
(Can't remember the other title )

It was great to have Samuel in a good mood after school!

Afternoon Grumpies!

Our in-home services staff wasn't able to come today, her car broke down. I discovered it 15 minutes after she was due to arrive (she had left a phone message before we got home) and was in the middle of trying to keep Samuel calm. Quick change in expectations for the afternoon!

Every day when Samuel gets home he has 4 or 5 things to complete on his visual schedule, all related to putting his coat, backpack away, using the toilet, and then getting to have a snack. On days that our in-home person is here, he then has 3 more hours of activities (including a good bit of unwind time!). On days they are not here, I usually let Samuel play for about 2 hours and then I try to squeeze in a bit of homework before dinner time.

There was a time when Samuel rushed through these first few tasks, eager to get his snack. That hasn't been the case lately. He tries to hide in my husband's home office and looks at his videos. Today I had put the videos away, and he was angry that we hadn't picked up any new videos at the library (we went while he was at school). I spent the first hour we were home today helping him take several breaks. I had really hoped to clean up a bit around here, but I wanted Samuel to know that I wasn't going to put up with him being so cranky so I helped him take several breaks in a row, in which he got explanations from me about how he needed use a calm voice and have "calm hands and feet" to be able to stay downstairs. He finally settled down early in the evening.

Samuel has been asking us to repeat sentences. I used the promise of repeating a sentence as an incentive for him during his homework today! He says "Can you say 'You can't watch Cyberchase on TV because you get too upset? ' " After I do repeat him he says "I don't get too upset when I watch it on DVD"

Tattoo Curiousity

(Samuel)Mom, does Popeye have a tattoo?
(My reply)Yes Samuel, he has a tattoo on his arm. What is it?
It is an anchor.

Do tattoos hurt?
I think it hurts a little bit if you get a real tattoo. A "toy" tattoo doesn't hurt
I don't want a tattoo!
That's okay! Remember, toy tattoos don't hurt.
Does a tattoo wash off?
A toy tattoo does. A real one doesn't .
I get a "stamp tattoo" at speech!

A Favorite Line of Conversation

It has been a while since we heard this, but Samuel went through it as he was getting dressed this morning:

Mommy, what does WETA spell?

(My reply) It doesn't spell anything. It doesn't stand for
anything.

What WGBH spells?

WGBH doesn't spell anything, it doesn't stand for anything. They
are call letters that identify a TV station.

What does TLC spell?

TLC doesn't spell anything, it stands for "The Learning Channel"

What does TBS stand for?

TBS stands for "Turner Broadcasting System"

They show movies?

They show some movies.. Oh, maybe you are thinking of TCM "Turner Classic Movies"

Then he went on to talk about what company made Cyberchase, his current love/hate/overload the senses completely TV show.

Mom's Marathon

From the time I made my post yesterday morning I was not able to pause until about 3:00. I had the luxury of a short nap because my baby's nap coincided with my being able to take a break. Then, after about 45 minutes it was another mad dash until 10pm. Probably nothing out of the ordinary for having 4 children, I guess it's maddening in that we are out of our normal routine. We are fortunate in that we can depend on Samuel to play on his own for short periods of time without having to worry about his safety. I know some families that cannot do that, their children get into trouble or are self-injurious. I'm sure we'll face some spells where he will be up to some mischief and will keep us on our toes, but things are pretty calm with him right now.

I was able to work with Samuel two different times: the first at about 1pm (which I had hoped to do at about 10:30!). He was not very cooperative, but I waited him out a bit, used the token board with some mini-marshmallows, and we got through some Reading and a Math exercise. It took us 20 minutes. Then he got to play Playstation.

Our second "Work Time" was just before dinner, 6pm. He was much more cooperative this time and it only took us 13 minutes to work on some Social Studies, Science, and Religion. Then he got to play on the computer until it was dinner time.

Did I ever get to do anything fun with the boys yesterday? Not like I had hoped to. However, while his brothers were out playing in the snow with a neighbor, I spent some time "playing" with Samuel in the play room. We tortuously worked a farm jigsaw puzzle (he had to go jump on the mini-tramp after setting down just about every piece, which I had to show him) and then we sang "Old McDonald" He joined in quite nicely! My oldest son seemed happy that I read to him before bedtime last night. We just started a new novel, from a series about boys at a boarding school written by a priest in the late 19th century. The language is very different, but the stories are so appealling to my 9 year old!

As I was getting his baby sister to sleep last night Samuel came and found me in her room and asked "Mom, can I do more school work at home tomorrow?" I'm sure this question stems from not wanting to go to school, but I wonder if it means he is actually starting to enjoy our "Work Times"? Samuel will get his wish today, school is closed again! I just finished typing lessons for all the same subjects that we did yesterday.

Samuel just came in and said "Mommy, there's snow today. No school today!" He has the biggest smile on his face and has gone prancing out of the room!

It's shower time!

More snow days, Auntie had to leave early

We have received a few inches of snow and even a bit of sleet/freezing rain. My sister-in-law left a day early (Monday) since the bad weather was expected and did arrive on Tuesday.

I typed up lessons for Samuel yesterday morning and am about to do so again for today. Last night Samuel asked me "Can I do school work at home tomorrow?" He also told me "The roads are going to be slippery tomorrow!" I then asked him "What does that mean?" His reply, "No school!" He loves staying home, and I like the fact that he's starting to realize that he can still do some academic work even though he's not at school. I should try to schedule in something fun today, our days can be a little short on that since I tend to be so focused on "school."

Have to run, the boys are waking up and I have lots to prepare and hopefully can fit in a shower before the madness starts!