Update for the week of 1/21/13

Last week I posted that we had had 2 rough weeks, well this week was a complete turn around.  This week went really well.  So many things seemed to come together for N. this week.

Science went much better now that the scale is built and he is doing experiments with it.  He is in the Chemistry unit of the science and he hasn't done much of that in the past so he is excited.  He even was able to separate hydrogen and oxygen molecules from water using a battery and paper clips.  I was helping him with this one so no pictures.

His history project was to make a sign like the one used in stage coaches.  I modified this a bit for him.  He was supposed to write out the rules on his paper that he had made to look old.  I knew this would be way too challenging for him so I found an old west font that he could use and he typed out the rules instead and then glued them to the paper.

For Draw and Write through History he drew a stage coach.  He was so careful drawing this one.  He used a ruler when needed and found circular objects to trace around.  He took him awhile,but he was really happy with how it turned out.

Last week in the Exciting World of Creative Writing he was supposed to write a 200 word descriptive paragraph and he really struggled.  I had him do one of the suggested topics which was springtime at the zoo.  This week he had the same assignment and I told him to describe the animal shelter where we volunteer each week.  He sat down and typed out 350 words without a problem.  This showed me that it isn't the descriptive writing that is the problem it is more due to again his memory of details.  He can't recall details from the zoo, but he sure can from the shelter.  He loved doing this assignment also.

The other huge accomplishment this week was with his written narration.  He did his voice notes on his Ipad as he read again.  I could hear what he was recording and then I was able to hear how much he really listened to it as he wrote.  He actually listened to it very little.  He said he found he didn't need to that just the act of stopping every now and then and reflecting on what he read and vocalizing it made a huge difference.  He then sat down and wrote his longest narration ever.  It was on a reading from The Story of the Great Republic which is the type of book that usually causes huge struggles when it comes to written narration.  He didn't struggle at all this time.  He couldn't wait to show it to me and then kept asking me that night if I had shown it to his dad yet.

Teaching Textbooks Prealgebra continues to go well.  It does add probably 15 minutes to our day, but it is worth it to have a math he enjoys and gives him the spiral review that he needs.

We finished up Seaman as our storytime book and are reading "Only the Names Remain".  It is a different type of storytime book in that is non-fiction genre more than historical fiction.  This is a new topic for him and I like how it presents the Cherokee Indians and what happened to them.

Update for the week of 1/14/13

I haven't posted since we started back after Christmas because we have had sickness going through the house and some rough days.  I want to be real on this blog and I will say the past 2 weeks have been rough.  N. has seemed to have difficulty getting back in the grove and I have been frustrated with his lack of progress in things like written and oral narration this year.  I have had to take a step back and spend some time in prayer and try not to let him see my frustration.  I haven't always succeeded at that.

He is back to drawing with Draw and Write and that he continues to love.  He drew Sacajawea since he has been learning about Lewis and Clark.

His history project last week was making a drawing of a bird he would find in our area and he modeled it after the examples of Lewis and Clark journals that he saw.  He picked the Chickadee to draw since right now we have many of them at our bird feeders.

This week's history project was a Mola.  I am not sure that he did it right, but he was pleased with the end result.

In storytime we are almost at the end of the book about Seaman the dog that traveled with Lewis and Clark.  The readings in this are very long and at times he had trouble oral narrating due to his memory issues,  but overall he did ok, just not as much detail as I would like to see.

In Science things have been tough this week.  I usually  help him quite a bit when he has to build a new project.  His hand tremors just won't allow him to use a glue gun safely or to place very small objects on things.  This week he was to build a scale and it was very frustrating.  Many things went wrong and after tears of frustration on my part we ended up letting Dad figure out a different way to do things when he got home.  The next day we had similar frustrations, but finally were able to get the scale built.  This has been the only thing in the science that has caused a problem, so don't think I don't like the science because we do, but again I want to stay real with this blog.

As I mentioned his written narrations seem to have hit a plateau this year.  I look at examples of other dc's narrations and they are light years ahead of his.  I know I shouldn't compare, but it is tough at times to realize he isn't up to where he should be.  I have tried various things and this week we may have found the winner.  I am letting him use his Ipod to record audio notes as he reads.  He stops every so often and records what stood out to him of what he has read so far.  The idea is that he can then listen back and it will refresh his memory as to what he has read. This also helps because he has to stop every so often and think about what he just read it seems to help his comprehension and attention to detail.  The other thing we both realized is that just the act of him verbalizing what he has read seems to cement it in his brain.  He told me with his science narration that he really didn't need to listen back to the recording much at all.  He remembered it all. As I told my dh this we both realized that we both are like this. If I want to remember something I have to say it out loud.  My dh either does this or he takes notes after every few paragraphs or he says there is no way he can remember it.

I often feel pretty alone in this journey with ds since he doesn't fit into any learning challenges category and even the doctors don't know what to tell me.  Thankfully I have a God who knows my ds inside out so I just keep asking Him to guide me as I educate him.