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!

More "School" Work

I typed a few Religion lessons for Samuel on my Writing Without Symbols software. I use this for many lessons in all subjects. It really is a useful tool for teaching him!

I have also been using it to type a few short sentences each day about the saint whose feast is on that date.

Making money counting worksheets on "Writing Without Symbols" is very helpful. Samuel had to try twice to count 35 cents correctly. Then he went on to count 36 cents correctly too, by himself! He wasn't counting quarters at the beginning of the summer, at least not at home.

As we read our book about "Balto" I have Samuel fill in missing words in sentences. I have been trying to have him independently spell Balto's name correctly. He is doing so much more frequently now, after several days of repeating this exercise he is getting it now! Even though we are reading the whole book, I just want him to remember 5 or 6 facts from it.

Samuel's Visit to a Different Dentist

We took Samuel to a new dentist yesterday. He fell in our house about a year ago and broke two of his front teeth. (There were tooth marks in the grout on our tile floor where he fell!) Our local dentist tried to get x-rays but Samuel was not very cooperative. We monitored the condition of his teeth the next few weeks and he seemed to be healing okay. We knew at some point that we wanted to get to a pediatric dentist for another attempt at x-rays. That's what our visit yesterday was for.

I had talked to Samuel for the previous few days about what to expect at the dentist. I knew he would probably have to be held down and, sure enough, he had to be so that the dentist could get a good look and take x-rays. Samuel protested quite loudly, at one point he yelled "I'm sad!"

The x-rays showed that there is some nerve damage so Samuel will eventually need a root canal, after his teeth finish growing. In the meantime, the dentist plans to inject some calcium hydroxide to the root area to clear up some abscesses that he has. This will get done in the next month or so while Samuel is under general anesthesia.

Sitting in Church

Yesterday was a great day in church. For the first time in two and a half years Samuel sat in church for the entire duration of mass! I cannot believe this happened, I had no plans to try it when we entered church yesterday morning.



It was seven months ago now that we stopped sitting in the cry room at church. Since then we've had good weeks and bad weeks there. Most weeks we stayed in the church for a little over half of mass, then Samuel would be too restless so we would go to the vestibule area, where other restless children and latecomers would sit or stand. In the last month Samuel has been a bit more restless in church. In fact, just a few weeks ago he screamed and we almost left. He had not screamed in many months, maybe since early spring.

Yesterday, Samuel was very quiet in church. I didn't even start to give him Skittles (his reinforcer to keep quiet) until we were in the there almost 10 minutes. I'm sure another reason he kept quiet was that he was very tired. I put in lots of verbal reinforcing praises and hugs and pats on the back between the times I gave him a Skittle. It really takes a long time to reduce a negative behavior by praising him for the times he shows good behavior!

I was so happy when we left at the end of mass and made sure I told him so. We followed by doing one of Samuel's favorite things, eating a donut at the "HandyMart" and taking a walk over to the bankrupt motorcycle shop to read their closing sign.

School this Fall for Samuel

My husband and I have given much thought to this matter. We have decided to withdraw Samuel from school and teach him at home this year. There are several reasons we want to do this, let's see if I can explain it concisely:


1) Homeschooling is my first choice in how I would like my children to be educated. I want to raise my own children and teach them to live their lives according to our Catholic faith. This can't be taught to them in a school run by the government where they can't even talk about God.

2) I am concerned about Samuel's behavior and I am afraid it will get worse by having him in school. In my opinion there are too many limits in the school setting that prevent the flexibility that is needed to deal with Samuel's outbursts. I met with Samuel's teacher several times last year to talk about his behavior. After several meetings they made a few changes, but not to the degree that I wanted. I just don't have the time to keep meeting and begging and pleading with the school to do what I think is best for my child. The input needed is way too high in proportion to the output that I get. For right now I'm better off using my energy directly on Samuel. I can also better monitor his progress when he is home with me.

3) I want Samuel to be with his family. He noticed last year that he was sent off while the others stayed home and he didn't like it. Samuel is part of our family. Our family's life includes him and all that goes along with it. I am fortunate that I have a good starting point from which to teach him.

I met with Samuel's special education teacher and the principal of his school today. I requested the meeting because I wanted to be sure they understood how much I appreciated their help over the past few years. I am glad that I sent Samuel to public school the years that I did. I told the teacher that there were complaints I had and that I would write to the school and the Director of Special Education to let them know, but I wasn't there today to talk to them about that. It was hard going in to talk to them about this, but I am glad I did it. They told me a bit about an upcoming autism program in the schools that sounds like it will incorporate more parent involvement. I hope it will be successful. While some parents are happy with how school is going for their children, most feel unhappy with it. I also got to see the new special education classroom; it's about 3 times the size of the room they had last year. I am going to take Samuel in next week to say goodbye to his teachers and his aid. That will be heartbreaking, his aid is so nice and I know she really liked working with Samuel.

In other news, I have been able to get 30 hours per week of in-home help with Samuel through a medicaid waiver. I am hoping to eventually get 2 to 3 dependable helpers. As of today I have one who has been able to help consistently and it has been wonderful. It is such a relief to be able to have hours and hours where Samuel is being guided appropriately in his activities and I am free to get some things done around the house. I am able to take Samuel and his siblings out for errands and other outings more easily, and I have been able to leave Samuel at home with the helper, which makes it easier when I take the other children with me on errands.

A Sampling of Academic Work this Summer

Samuel has had in-home help for three hours per morning five days per week this summer. These sessions are a weaving together of preferred activities and non-preferred activities. Some academic work done has been telling time worksheets, counting money (real coins and worksheets), phonics worksheets, addition worksheets, looking at the calendar. Samuel gets a break after his helper leaves, but then mid-afternoon I have him do some "worktime" for me. We finished reading "Whales." Now we are reading "What Makes Day and Night," which goes nicely with his interest this summer in sunsets. At bedtime I have read biographies about George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson. The boys have enjoyed hearing Virginia mentioned so frequently as I have read the Washington and Jefferson books.

These pictures show the basic facts that I pulled out of the Benjamin Franklin biography for Samuel to review. I read the biography out loud to all the boys at bedtime over several weeks. Each day I would type up a short sentence or two on our "Writing With Symbols" software about the previous night's reading. These five pages were what I kept as the five things to remember once we finished the book. We have a video from the Nest company about Benjamin Franklin's experiments with electricity. Samuel really likes this video so I kept the "facts to remember" from the biography related to that and how he came to live in Philadelphia after being born in Boston. Some other time I'll have to focus on his role in the American Revolution.