I found the shapes puzzle I wanted - Dollar General, two bucks. They have awesome preschool puzzles there, or at least they do at the Spfld ones. We're going back next payday to replace all the puzzles that are missing pieces. This particular shapes puzzle includes heart, crescent, and star.
Today's task is a schedule - not so much for him as for me. I love, love, love the idea of unschooling, but wouldn't trust myself to recognize every possible learning opportunity. From Kittyboy's perspective, this will be half-hour chunks of semi-structured play - I, the scheduling and time-tabling freak, will know that "hey, we hit *these* subjects today, we're good!" Therapy comes in hour-long chunks, so half an hour shouldn't be unpleasant, and if it is, we'll shorten it further. And of course drop the activity if it ceases to be fun for him. That's also where having a whole drawer per subject will be great, because if matching color flashcards gets frustrating, we have a book to read, and he loves being read to regardless. I'm going to add bead-stringing to that drawer - there's a bead stringing kit I'm going to order from Discovery Toys. So if one way of working on a topic gets to be more work than it's worth, we can drop it and do something else.
Speech therapy is sooo going by the wayside next IFSP - this morning he greeted me before I said anything, with "HI, Mommy!" Ooooo so cute!
Monday, August 31, 2009
Friday, August 28, 2009
Preparing to Homeschool
Despite the number of days that I wish I could send Kittyboy somewhere ELSE, I'm still stuck on this homeschool "thang". And it is possible that conflict would be more easily avoided if our days had more structure.
So. September 1st, next Tuesdsay, is the first day of the new church year. That's going to be our first day of "school", and the plan is to go year-round, with breaks of course. I haven't found all the puzzles I want, but I'm getting there, and I've got the weekend to hit up all the dollar stores. Last week, Ginny had some really neat, simple, basic puzzles for colors, shapes and numbers, that she said she'd gotten at one of the dollar stores here in town, so I have to go shopping.
And since joining an Orthodox Homeschool group on Yahoo, and reading more blogs about homeschooling, I keep running into more and more reasons to do so. I think it was Conservative Scalawag who posted a video from Leno's show where three high school graduates had no idea on what date the Declaration of Independence was signed, or who FDR was. Jasmine at Joyfully Home shares posts from her father's blog from time to time, one of which asked (my paraphrase), "If our children are gifts from God, why do we render them unto Caeser?" They're our responsibility, not the State's. And there was a wonderful thread on the Orthodox Homeschool group, discussing how we can answer the inevitable question, "But how do your children get socialized?" One mom pointed out there's a difference between socialized and sociable - one who is sociable is polite and courteous and able to carry on a conversation with people of varied ages and backgrounds. One who is socialized has learned social mimicry and to follow the strongest personality in the room. We would prefer our children be sociable than socialized. Another said her answer was, "Oh, we homeschool FOR social reasons." Another, "Oh, by socialized, you mean assimilated?" My own answer, from the end of my first post on why I'm doing this - "Gradeschool children learning social interaction from each other is like fifteen-year-olds teaching Driver's Ed."
Kittyboy gets regular social interaction with Puppygirl, age 8, and Squee, age 11, as well as children ages 1-14 at church during coffee hour. He is absolutely "color blind", and has never been anxious or frightened of anyone because of accent, skin color, or appearance - one of the distinct advantages of being the only Orthodox church in town, so he has seen every shade and hears many different accents each week (Greeks, Russians, Egyptians, Ethiopians, everyone comes to St. Anthony's). He will lift up his arms to any friendly looking stranger (which is worrisome for other reasons...) and interacts happily with everyone. He is even learning (shock shock) not to take things out of other toddlers' hands just because he wants them. And he's not learning that from the other toddlers, but from the older children who tell him no. (Meanwhile, he is helping his best buds, the alterboys, exercise their paternal instincts as they follow him around the church basement. But more on the Kittyboy Roadies in another post.) Social skills are best learned from interaction with a variety of age levels, not only from others the same age.
I've seen a t-shirt that says "Warning! Unsocialized Homeschooler!" He needs one.
So I've got six little plastic drawers in the living room with construction paper, homemade flash cards for colors and shapes, matching games, and the most wonderful books, the Britannica Discovery Library (thanks, Freecycle!). "The Me Book" and "The Me and You Book" are in the drawer with all his "church" stuff, because it seems to me that the next step from how we relate to ourselves and each other is how we relate to God. There's a book on colors, a book on shapes, a book on numbers, one for sounds, people and places, outdoors, animals, words, and time (both the telling of, and progression of, with calendars), and they're all full of beautiful, bright illustrations. His godfather is getting him the Guardian Angel Prayer Book, to be added to the church education drawer.
Four days to go...
So. September 1st, next Tuesdsay, is the first day of the new church year. That's going to be our first day of "school", and the plan is to go year-round, with breaks of course. I haven't found all the puzzles I want, but I'm getting there, and I've got the weekend to hit up all the dollar stores. Last week, Ginny had some really neat, simple, basic puzzles for colors, shapes and numbers, that she said she'd gotten at one of the dollar stores here in town, so I have to go shopping.
And since joining an Orthodox Homeschool group on Yahoo, and reading more blogs about homeschooling, I keep running into more and more reasons to do so. I think it was Conservative Scalawag who posted a video from Leno's show where three high school graduates had no idea on what date the Declaration of Independence was signed, or who FDR was. Jasmine at Joyfully Home shares posts from her father's blog from time to time, one of which asked (my paraphrase), "If our children are gifts from God, why do we render them unto Caeser?" They're our responsibility, not the State's. And there was a wonderful thread on the Orthodox Homeschool group, discussing how we can answer the inevitable question, "But how do your children get socialized?" One mom pointed out there's a difference between socialized and sociable - one who is sociable is polite and courteous and able to carry on a conversation with people of varied ages and backgrounds. One who is socialized has learned social mimicry and to follow the strongest personality in the room. We would prefer our children be sociable than socialized. Another said her answer was, "Oh, we homeschool FOR social reasons." Another, "Oh, by socialized, you mean assimilated?" My own answer, from the end of my first post on why I'm doing this - "Gradeschool children learning social interaction from each other is like fifteen-year-olds teaching Driver's Ed."
Kittyboy gets regular social interaction with Puppygirl, age 8, and Squee, age 11, as well as children ages 1-14 at church during coffee hour. He is absolutely "color blind", and has never been anxious or frightened of anyone because of accent, skin color, or appearance - one of the distinct advantages of being the only Orthodox church in town, so he has seen every shade and hears many different accents each week (Greeks, Russians, Egyptians, Ethiopians, everyone comes to St. Anthony's). He will lift up his arms to any friendly looking stranger (which is worrisome for other reasons...) and interacts happily with everyone. He is even learning (shock shock) not to take things out of other toddlers' hands just because he wants them. And he's not learning that from the other toddlers, but from the older children who tell him no. (Meanwhile, he is helping his best buds, the alterboys, exercise their paternal instincts as they follow him around the church basement. But more on the Kittyboy Roadies in another post.) Social skills are best learned from interaction with a variety of age levels, not only from others the same age.
I've seen a t-shirt that says "Warning! Unsocialized Homeschooler!" He needs one.
So I've got six little plastic drawers in the living room with construction paper, homemade flash cards for colors and shapes, matching games, and the most wonderful books, the Britannica Discovery Library (thanks, Freecycle!). "The Me Book" and "The Me and You Book" are in the drawer with all his "church" stuff, because it seems to me that the next step from how we relate to ourselves and each other is how we relate to God. There's a book on colors, a book on shapes, a book on numbers, one for sounds, people and places, outdoors, animals, words, and time (both the telling of, and progression of, with calendars), and they're all full of beautiful, bright illustrations. His godfather is getting him the Guardian Angel Prayer Book, to be added to the church education drawer.
Four days to go...
Monday, August 24, 2009
I can't say I wasn't warned
My grandparents visited yesterday and my grandmother left a book of all my Kittyboy e-mails - from his exciting birth onward - that she had printed off the computer. I was enjoying flipping through and reading them all again, and I found one that I thought everyone would appreciate. I wrote this on Feb 22 '06, he was still in NICU and still "negative-1 months" in age.
"[Kittyboy] is trying to wean himself off his oxygen, which we're all in agreement is a good thing. He'll get the canula out, or partially out, and do fine for more than a few minutes without it, so it's agreed that when we see it out, we let it stay that way as long as his O2 is good. Anyhow, I was holding him tonight and his canula was out and his thumb was hooked through it, and he WAS doing fine for a good ten minutes or so, and then his O2 slowly dipped into the 80s and wasn't going back up, and when it got down to 80 I figured I'd better get the canula back in before [the monitor] went from yellow dinging to RED dinging, which it does below 80. I tried putting it back in, but because of his thumb being through it, he just pulled it out again and held it away from his face. Set him down so I'd have both hands, tried to slide his thumb out, and he curled it around the tube so I couldn't. By the time I got his thumb out, he was MAD and waving his arms and wailing. I'd get the canula back in, but he'd wave his arms and pull at it and twist around so it'd come out completely and get pulled to the side. So I caught both of his arms with one hand, held them down away from his face, and was trying to fix (and tighten) the tubes with my free hand. After all, his oxygen wasn't coming back up, so the tubes really had to go back in somehow. "Now you listen here, young man..." At the same time though, his heartrate and breathing were going up and up and up, because of course he was moving around and angry and fighting me with all his might. Finally I figured if he didn't calm down, he'd have a tachycardia episode and it'd be a bigger deal than just low oxygen, so I let go and stepped back and told him if he wanted them out that badly, he had to bring his oxygen up, end of discussion. And would you believe, after he stopped yelling and rolling around, his O2 level went right back up into the 90s. And stayed there. Maybe it has to do with the deep breathing you do when you've worn yourself out, because I'm sure he was exhausted. Or maybe he'd decided to do whatever it took to make Mommy leave the tubes out. Either way, we both won - the tubes stayed out and the O2 came up to where it was supposed to be.
The toddler years should be INTERESTING..." (emphasis added)
GEE, YA THINK???
It's just so fascinating to me how a baby's personality is all right there even before birth. I remember my grandma telling me, way back when I was still pregnant, that the personality in the womb is the personality out of it, that my mother was content to sit in one spot and kick in one spot for nine long months, and then as a child she was perfectly happy to sit in one place and play with one toy for long lengths of time as well. I laughed and told her that the baby then known as "Popcorn" was happily bopping all around my innards exactly as if I had popping popcorn in my tummy, so what was I in for? Grandma's advice was practical and to the point - "Fence your yard."
Many a time have I wished for a fenced yard - complete with gated driveway.
A month before he was supposed to be due, we were fighting over oxygen tubes and I blithely, naively wrote that "the toddler years should be interesting." Interesting IS one word for it. And his temper and will were already there at -1 months.
"[Kittyboy] is trying to wean himself off his oxygen, which we're all in agreement is a good thing. He'll get the canula out, or partially out, and do fine for more than a few minutes without it, so it's agreed that when we see it out, we let it stay that way as long as his O2 is good. Anyhow, I was holding him tonight and his canula was out and his thumb was hooked through it, and he WAS doing fine for a good ten minutes or so, and then his O2 slowly dipped into the 80s and wasn't going back up, and when it got down to 80 I figured I'd better get the canula back in before [the monitor] went from yellow dinging to RED dinging, which it does below 80. I tried putting it back in, but because of his thumb being through it, he just pulled it out again and held it away from his face. Set him down so I'd have both hands, tried to slide his thumb out, and he curled it around the tube so I couldn't. By the time I got his thumb out, he was MAD and waving his arms and wailing. I'd get the canula back in, but he'd wave his arms and pull at it and twist around so it'd come out completely and get pulled to the side. So I caught both of his arms with one hand, held them down away from his face, and was trying to fix (and tighten) the tubes with my free hand. After all, his oxygen wasn't coming back up, so the tubes really had to go back in somehow. "Now you listen here, young man..." At the same time though, his heartrate and breathing were going up and up and up, because of course he was moving around and angry and fighting me with all his might. Finally I figured if he didn't calm down, he'd have a tachycardia episode and it'd be a bigger deal than just low oxygen, so I let go and stepped back and told him if he wanted them out that badly, he had to bring his oxygen up, end of discussion. And would you believe, after he stopped yelling and rolling around, his O2 level went right back up into the 90s. And stayed there. Maybe it has to do with the deep breathing you do when you've worn yourself out, because I'm sure he was exhausted. Or maybe he'd decided to do whatever it took to make Mommy leave the tubes out. Either way, we both won - the tubes stayed out and the O2 came up to where it was supposed to be.
The toddler years should be INTERESTING..." (emphasis added)
GEE, YA THINK???
It's just so fascinating to me how a baby's personality is all right there even before birth. I remember my grandma telling me, way back when I was still pregnant, that the personality in the womb is the personality out of it, that my mother was content to sit in one spot and kick in one spot for nine long months, and then as a child she was perfectly happy to sit in one place and play with one toy for long lengths of time as well. I laughed and told her that the baby then known as "Popcorn" was happily bopping all around my innards exactly as if I had popping popcorn in my tummy, so what was I in for? Grandma's advice was practical and to the point - "Fence your yard."
Many a time have I wished for a fenced yard - complete with gated driveway.
A month before he was supposed to be due, we were fighting over oxygen tubes and I blithely, naively wrote that "the toddler years should be interesting." Interesting IS one word for it. And his temper and will were already there at -1 months.
"For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother's womb."
you knit me together in my mother's womb."
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
"Our State Fair is a Great State Fair..."
Today, Kittyboy...
1. petted goats, pigs, and a donkey
2. walked on a leash for the first time ever
3. stayed up three hours past his naptime (we weren't wearing watches)
4. got a straw cowboy hat
5. rode a horse - not a pony, this was a full-size horse!
6. saw monkeys
7. danced a polka with mommy
8. got a farmer's burn - forearms and face
and 9. milked a cow!
We went to the Illinois State Fair today with his Auntie Sten, my little sister. She's been with us since Sunday, working on some room decor (of which I will post a picture when it's all done). All pictures are from my cell phone, as the REAL camera was not cooperating.
Word to the wise, if your child is young enough that horsies are cool, the pony ride is the best three bucks you can spend at the fair. It's not one circuit of the little tent, it's several laps around, and at a decent pace. Three out of four of the equines were ponies, but the one on which they sat Kittyboy was a full-sized horse, I'm sure. Kittyboy's got good balance, so long as he's focusing, but when he's not focusing, it's anybody's guess in what direction he'll fall, so I jogged alongside just in case. I really didn't have to, though - he rides like a seasoned horseman. He was focused in and paying attention and aware and it was just awesome. I was amazed! He didn't slump or lean at all. Next spring, we are going to try and get him riding lessons, because that would be great for toning his trunk, further improving his balance, maybe get him to pay more attention in general to where his body is and where it's going even when he's NOT five feet off the ground on the back of an animal. (Come to think of it, that is one of the purposes of hippotherapy!)
The petting zoo's free, we went in twice, and he found out that animals aren't ticklish. He tried, very earnestly, to tickle the goats, and they just didn't respond. Neither did the pigs or the donkey. Darn. So he just petted them all, a LOT, and every time another child came in, he ran around with them "showing" them all the animals and how you pet nicely.
We went and milked a very patient cow, and he was very excited to see where milk comes from, and he loved seeing many horses walk past pulling carts, with their fancy harnesses jangling and their manes all in ribbons. We danced a polka after lunch, in the Ethnic Village where a polka band was playing. Polka-ing with thirty pounds in your arms is quite the workout!
Pictures of my little cowboy, and of him with the goats!
Oh, and he saw a show with baboons - he loved the "muckys", and it wasn't one of those "it's a chimp wearing clothing and holding a telephone, isn't that hilarious?" shows, the handler was having the baboon demonstrate "tricks" that baboons do in the wild, and explaining why they have those behaviors, which was really cool.
1. petted goats, pigs, and a donkey
2. walked on a leash for the first time ever
3. stayed up three hours past his naptime (we weren't wearing watches)
4. got a straw cowboy hat
5. rode a horse - not a pony, this was a full-size horse!
6. saw monkeys
7. danced a polka with mommy
8. got a farmer's burn - forearms and face
and 9. milked a cow!
We went to the Illinois State Fair today with his Auntie Sten, my little sister. She's been with us since Sunday, working on some room decor (of which I will post a picture when it's all done). All pictures are from my cell phone, as the REAL camera was not cooperating.
Word to the wise, if your child is young enough that horsies are cool, the pony ride is the best three bucks you can spend at the fair. It's not one circuit of the little tent, it's several laps around, and at a decent pace. Three out of four of the equines were ponies, but the one on which they sat Kittyboy was a full-sized horse, I'm sure. Kittyboy's got good balance, so long as he's focusing, but when he's not focusing, it's anybody's guess in what direction he'll fall, so I jogged alongside just in case. I really didn't have to, though - he rides like a seasoned horseman. He was focused in and paying attention and aware and it was just awesome. I was amazed! He didn't slump or lean at all. Next spring, we are going to try and get him riding lessons, because that would be great for toning his trunk, further improving his balance, maybe get him to pay more attention in general to where his body is and where it's going even when he's NOT five feet off the ground on the back of an animal. (Come to think of it, that is one of the purposes of hippotherapy!)
The petting zoo's free, we went in twice, and he found out that animals aren't ticklish. He tried, very earnestly, to tickle the goats, and they just didn't respond. Neither did the pigs or the donkey. Darn. So he just petted them all, a LOT, and every time another child came in, he ran around with them "showing" them all the animals and how you pet nicely.
We went and milked a very patient cow, and he was very excited to see where milk comes from, and he loved seeing many horses walk past pulling carts, with their fancy harnesses jangling and their manes all in ribbons. We danced a polka after lunch, in the Ethnic Village where a polka band was playing. Polka-ing with thirty pounds in your arms is quite the workout!
Pictures of my little cowboy, and of him with the goats!
Oh, and he saw a show with baboons - he loved the "muckys", and it wasn't one of those "it's a chimp wearing clothing and holding a telephone, isn't that hilarious?" shows, the handler was having the baboon demonstrate "tricks" that baboons do in the wild, and explaining why they have those behaviors, which was really cool.
Saturday, August 15, 2009
A Bouquet for the Theotokos
Last night, I was pouting that NOTHING in my flower garden was blooming. It's all perennials, too, but the bulbs are all long gone and the mums are still tightly buds. No flowering weeds, even. Well, this morning I went out looking for anything and everything with a flower. Lo and behold, we apparently still have more sunflowers coming up! I had thought they were all into the big, ugly, seed-producing stage, but there was a second crop in amongst their stems. Rose of Sharon is also blooming - I resisted the temptation to pick from the Baptist church's bushes, but some bird helpfully planted one lonely Rose of Sharon on our side of the drive. For greenery, I put in some wild grape leaves and a chunk of Spanish needles - a loathsome, horrid plant, but quite pretty and ferny before it sprouts "needles". Think, poor man's wild-growing floral filler.Next year, I'll plan on having sunflowers that are still small and pretty in August - I'll do a planting once a month, starting as soon as it's warm enough, and I should have a variety from which to choose. And I'll get a tall, slender vase instead of a short, squat one, so as to show them off better.
I hope everyone is having a blessed Feast of the Dormition!
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Pigs are flying...
And the next Winter Olympics could be held on the frozen ponds of Perdition... Hillary Rodham Clinton once said something with which I agree.
"I'm sick and tired of people who say that if you debate and disagree with this administration, somehow you're not patriotic. We need to stand up and say we're Americans, and we have the right to debate and disagree with any administration."
— Hillary Clinton
HAAAhahahahahahaha..... found that on http://mojosteve.blogspot.com/, verified it at http://womenshistory.about.com/cs/quotes/a/qu_h_clinton.htm.
The evidence would suggest the Democrats can't take their own medicine.
But we already knew that.
"I'm sick and tired of people who say that if you debate and disagree with this administration, somehow you're not patriotic. We need to stand up and say we're Americans, and we have the right to debate and disagree with any administration."
— Hillary Clinton
HAAAhahahahahahaha..... found that on http://mojosteve.blogspot.com/, verified it at http://womenshistory.about.com/cs/quotes/a/qu_h_clinton.htm.
The evidence would suggest the Democrats can't take their own medicine.
But we already knew that.
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Meeting a Myth
This post is a while in coming, since we met the relative in question Sunday, but I've been busy - among other things, sewing the outfit I want to wear for my tenth high school reunion Saturday.
My Uncle T is my dad's baby brother, and you could call him the family eccentric. He fell off the face of the earth many years back, I hadn't seen him since I was seven, but in college I somehow got his e-mail address. He changed it often, along with his job and location - and by location, I don't mean changing states, I mean changing coasts and countries. San Francisco - Miami - San Francisco - Brazil - you get the picture. But we exchanged e-mails now and then, which was kind of like having an imaginary pen pal. Then I got a call from my Grandpa Ron (Grandma Sandy's husband) wishing me a happy birthday, and mentioning that Uncle T was with him in Missouri going through Grandma's things for him. And I got to talk to him!!! Which was extremely surreal, as you can imagine. And then he said he was flying to Chicago, and wanted to get together with the family!!
The whole drive to Chicago Sunday, I was nervous. When someone's just words on a screen, or even just a voice on the phone, it's like they're not real in a way, and I kept thinking, what if I don't like him when I actually meet him in person? When you've barely ever met someone, you can kind of build them up in your mind to larger than life, and what if the human being they actually are turns out to be a disappointment?
Turns out, Uncle T is cool. I told him it was like meeting the Loch Ness Monster, and he laughed. And we've gone from having only an e-mail address that might change at any moment, to having multiple Brazillian phone numbers and a physical mailing address. (Resisting the temptation to call Brazil, of course!).
Kittyboy enjoyed meeting his Great-Uncle, as well as playing with his camera, and Uncle T loved meeting him as well. A grand and glorious time was had by all, and Uncle T swears it will NOT have been 21 years the next time he sees us!
My mythical uncle is very real now, and it is AWESOME.
My Uncle T is my dad's baby brother, and you could call him the family eccentric. He fell off the face of the earth many years back, I hadn't seen him since I was seven, but in college I somehow got his e-mail address. He changed it often, along with his job and location - and by location, I don't mean changing states, I mean changing coasts and countries. San Francisco - Miami - San Francisco - Brazil - you get the picture. But we exchanged e-mails now and then, which was kind of like having an imaginary pen pal. Then I got a call from my Grandpa Ron (Grandma Sandy's husband) wishing me a happy birthday, and mentioning that Uncle T was with him in Missouri going through Grandma's things for him. And I got to talk to him!!! Which was extremely surreal, as you can imagine. And then he said he was flying to Chicago, and wanted to get together with the family!!
The whole drive to Chicago Sunday, I was nervous. When someone's just words on a screen, or even just a voice on the phone, it's like they're not real in a way, and I kept thinking, what if I don't like him when I actually meet him in person? When you've barely ever met someone, you can kind of build them up in your mind to larger than life, and what if the human being they actually are turns out to be a disappointment?
Turns out, Uncle T is cool. I told him it was like meeting the Loch Ness Monster, and he laughed. And we've gone from having only an e-mail address that might change at any moment, to having multiple Brazillian phone numbers and a physical mailing address. (Resisting the temptation to call Brazil, of course!).
Kittyboy enjoyed meeting his Great-Uncle, as well as playing with his camera, and Uncle T loved meeting him as well. A grand and glorious time was had by all, and Uncle T swears it will NOT have been 21 years the next time he sees us!
My mythical uncle is very real now, and it is AWESOME.
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